The ancient hatred of Jews is back.
Anti-Semitism continues to rise in America, as it has throughout the Western world, throughout Europe, and elsewhere around the world. It has been growing for several decades.
This infectious disease with no known cure, (according to Ruth Wisse, Professor Emeritus of Yiddish literature and comparative literature at Harvard University and a Senior Fellow of the Tikvah Fund, and author of "Jews and Power") has once more morphed, this time into two divergent forms: the old religious/racial form used by the Christian West for centuries, which has never entirely receded, and is a powerful hatred; and the latest form contains religious hostility but is actually politically based with emphasis on the State of Israel, its closest allies, and Jewish groups that advocate on behalf of the State of Israel.
The feminist movement in America, and the postmodern Marxists or progressive leftists in particular, have co-opted this ancient hatred and joined it with Arab and Muslim world ideology, using Zionism (the national liberation movement of the Jewish people) as the contemporary form of Jew-hatred, demonizing, boycotting, and propagandizing about the State of Israel. These forms of Jew-hatred, whether far-right Nazi-based Jew hatred, religious hatred, or leftist/Islamist Israel bashing are dangerous.
The hostility currently plaguing the American polity and the Jewish community have given credence to a view that anti-Semitism is a singular problem that "exists on the other side of the aisle." This results in cognitive dissonance and is shortsighted.
All forms of this deadly disease—far-right Nazi-based, religious-based and leftist anti-Israel-based—are responsible for deadly attacks against Jews worldwide, having escalated during the past 25 years.
In 1967, when the Arabs were roundly defeated by Israel in the "Six Day War," the Khartoum Resolution was passed. It consisted of three NO's: no peace, no recognition, no negotiations, as a means of heightening the historic and deep hatred exhibited against Jews and Israel. The present Islamist terrorists openly call for the annihilation of the state of Israel and have, successfully, propagandized the UN (which no longer is a "peacekeeping" agency), and infiltrated the universities.
Right-wing anti-Semitism is mainly associated with Nazi sympathizers. Conservatives who often are in actual opposition to the liberal social agenda of Jewish advocacy groups, e.g., AIPAC, which includes minority rights, church-state separation, and multiculturalism/pluralism in its platform are being accused of anti-Semitism.
The postmodern Marxists spread anti-Semitism through BDS (Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions), Gender and Ethnic Studies, and Middle Eastern Studies (all identified through proven research by AMCHA Initiative), and echoed by Islam scholar Daniel Pipes, who says there no longer exists any scholarship in Middle Eastern Studies, strictly ideology only.
Israel gets singled out for boycotts, threats and intimidation, and hatred of the "other," which happens when society doesn't leave room for difference.
The left-right divide is not new to Jewish communal politics. In fact, at a Tikvah conference in N.Y. in December 2017, Professor Ruth Wisse challenged Jews to examine why they continue to be part of a destructive and murderous movement (communist/socialist) in whose name tens of millions of people have been oppressed and murdered (under Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot to name just a few). Now they must add an examination of anti-Israel hatred to the mix.
The "progressive" left continues to think that social justice is vital, making coalitions with other minority groups, including Muslims. Social justice has been conflated with Judaism (Tikkun Olam). The actual long-term gains from these coalitions appear to be negligible. A case in point is Black Lives Matter (BLM), a group linked to the left and BDS, which has taken up the pro-Palestinian cause while not helping its own black community. It is clear that this group, BLM, has lost all moral authority.
The old anti-Semitism is thriving in Europe, in Greece through the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn, the anti-Semitic Jobbik Party in Hungary, and worldwide intolerance and violence perpetrated by a murderous Islamic fundamentalism that has turned 7th-century barbarism into a new phenomenon of terrorism.
The left has accepted the outright lies told by the Islamists as a means of undermining political opponents. This is the old tactic of scapegoating/blaming the Jews/Israel for the ills of the world, again failing to take responsibility for their own behavior.
The postmodern Marxists have successfully inverted the meaning of anti-Semitism. It is no longer hatred of Jews. It is acceptable (normative) to attack pro-Israel Jews for their Jewish identity (part of their program of identity politics and intersectionality.)
Linda Sarsour, women's movement activist and representative of the terrorist organization Hamas in America, recently redefined anti-Semitism at the New School in N.Y. She reformulated the age-old hatred of Jews so that progressive left activists could continue to be anti-Zionist or anti-Israel.
Hating Jews is not the definition of anti-Semitism under this new language formulation.
Criticizing progressive left activists for being anti-Israel is the new definition of anti-Semitism. Thus, this is a corruption of language and evidence of compelled speech, the very kind that Dr. Jordan Peterson of the University of Toronto refused to use in Canada.
This redefinition by a Muslim who represents a terrorist organization in America is a ploy and a shield to protect its own anti-Israel activities. It is benefiting the leftists to the detriment of the Jews and of Israel.
The American Jewish community needs to have the necessary discussion about its safety and security. The time to educate is now so that the community has the tools to take collective action on its behalf.