Surge in antisemitism amid Israel-Hamas war marks ‘frightening time’ for Jews in US and globally

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• TheFriar@lemm.ee ⁨2⁩ ⁨years⁩ ago

  Yes, antisemitism is a big problem. It’s been tied to fascistic tendencies throughout history. Antisemitism is wrong. But it’s no surprise given how politics and social issues are discussed these days. There’s no nuance. There’s no room for gray areas and intricacies when anything close to few paragraphs is seen as a “wall of text.” People that want to be seen as liberal are aware that Palestinians are being subjected to apartheid at the hands of the Israeli state, so therefore Israel = evil, Israel = Jewish, and performative yelling or anger = being right. That’s the simple course that leads to people being antisemitic. That’s very much happening. And then, of course, that ignorance and shallow thinking gets lumped into the right-wing brand of antisemitism, “Jews will not replace us” bullshit or the watered-down version of “Jewish oligarchs are controlling the media,” etc. Again, this is all true and both of these instances of arriving at antisemitism (whether technically by accident or through antisemitic indoctrination, respectively) are happening and are two different kinds of problems that speak to deeper issues of understanding and information literacy.

  HOWEVER…

  There is also the “antisemitic”-label-as-a-cudgel-and-a-shield issue. The state of israel and its allies are using “antisemitism” to protect themselves against criticism and accomplish their geopolitical goals. We are seeing a holocaust in its most base form. We are seeing a genocide. And the state of Israel is perpetrating it. Have you seen the rhetoric coming from official Israeli channels? It would be right at home coming from ANY STATE PERPETRATING A GENOCIDE. But because Jewish people were the victims of the most famous genocide of all time (and it wasn’t that long ago at all), pointing that out IS admittedly a touchy issue— it just feels inherently wrong to accuse the state that represents still-surviving victims of THE holocaust of perpetrating a modern day holocaust. BUT THAT FEELING ID BEING WEAPONIZED BY A BRUTAL STATE. So it is our job as human beings to swallow that discomfort and try to make clear that, while this is a nuanced issue, it is still an issue that needs to be acknowledged.

  There are a lot of stupid people. And between the format of modern news, the stupid interconnectivity of the modern internet, and the fact that screenshotting a few sentences of a tweet can suddenly be seen by hundreds of millions of people and become a topic of discussion and show up ON cable news or in written articles and then be shared in a second wave…we are in a tough spot to have this discussion.

  But it needs to be had. Doesn’t mean we’re exactly set up for understanding and success, but we have no other option.

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