Is this anti-semitism?

http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2014/05/14/is-china-anti-semitic-one-jews-reflections/

It seems, yeah, largely based in ignorance, and not overt hatred. But there's still a number that believes the worst of the worst, like "18% thought they were “responsible for most of the world’s wars.”"

This one, from 2009, points out the curious, complicated lack of a religious basis in Asia for Jewish conspiracies:

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2009/feb/06/judaism-race

(I didn't google their authors, so apologies if they were penned by more right wing politicians I don't know.)

So my mistake.

No problem. The pinning of European anti-Semitism on its Muslim populations just makes me very queasy. I don't know how aware Americans of the line peddled by guys like Wilders and, before him, Pim Fortuyn and now very common amongst Islamophobes about Muslims representing a threat to liberal values - you know, all those hard won freedoms that the precursors to Wilders fought tooth and nail against.

The problem with this "survey of anti-Semitic attitudes" business is that it's without context. If you ask Chinese people a list of targeted questions about attitudes toward Jews, you might get some negative answers, but if you're talking about what preoccupies people, it's going to be low on the list. I think a lot of people with "anti-Jewish" attitudes would probably fall into the category of this commenter:

Teacup

09 February 2009 10:15am

29

Is this from first hand experience? I can't speak for other countries, but Indians spend little time worrying about Jews per se and certainly don't go around spouting anti-Jewish stuff. Anti-Muslim, yes, anti-Jewish, no.. A great many are annoyed with the actions of the state of Israel, but that is like assuming that people were annoyed with the Bush administration because it was Christian.

However, the presence of the self-styled "Jewish state" and its actions, don't make good advertising.

Lets not confuse religion and politics.

Also the kind of questions that are asked often lead the responder to an "attitude."

"Do Jews have too much power?"
"Well, there do seem to be a lot of Jews in power now that you mention it, sure I guess so, why should one group have so much power?"

commenter otm

(a post I never thought I would make about anything lol)

Oh, there are all sorts of ways one can get those results. But the 2009 thing I linked to gets into more detail, and more interesting detail, imo.

Pim Fortuyn

This dude I've heard of.

I don't think I pinned European anti-Semitism on its Muslim population, just saying that it preceded it, as well as Israel, so obviously stems from other stuff as well as the most obvious stuff. Which includes some Muslim anti-Semitism, but I don't think anyone can quantify exactly how much and where it comes from, at least not as easily as one can source Islamophobia, given the number of people in powerful, public positions who are pretty blatant about it.

i own some ellen willis collections but i've never read this piece before - i think it's very good:
http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-news-and-politics/181449/willis-anti-anti-zionist

http://www.theguardian.com/business/2014/aug/17/sainsburys-removes-kosher-food-anti-israel-protesters

That's my local Sainsburys. The Kosher food was there when I went in 30 minutes ago.

bc they put it back or what?

It said in the article they were putting it back. I think somebody screwed up and they knew they screwed up so they fixed it.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/21/opinion/deborah-e-lipstadt-on-the-rising-anti-semitism-in-europe.html

http://forward.com/articles/204493/jewish-student-at-temple-university-punched-at-pro/
http://forward.com/articles/204487/australian-jewish-school-evacuated-by-bomb-scare/

fuck this shit already

If they don't want to be targeted for being Jewish, maybe they should just stop being Jewish.

temple U! this is my fucking backyard.

I have Jewish family in Philly AND Australia.

that Philly thing doesn't read like a straight-up hate crime to me, a pro-palestinian group confronted by a dude from a right-wing pro-israeli group and the fists/insults flew...? not exactly shocking.

idk how reliable this is. the kid who got punched is a friend of a friend:
http://www.truthrevolt.org/news/temple-univ-jewish-student-punched-face-and-called-kike-anti-semitic-attack

def an objective account there lol

tbc nobody should be resorting to fists/insults. kids are stupid.

He is a member of the Jewish fraternity Alpha Epsilon Pi and a fellow with CAMERA, a right-wing pro-Israel media watchdog.

those guys are the fucking worst, i'm willing to bet that guy provoked his assailant.

of course, it takes two etc.

if he really wanted to provoke a response he should have just kidnapped one of them and set them on fire amirite

hey a link to ben shapiro's website, that's great

ugh Breitbart

http://www.jta.org/2014/08/22/news-opinion/world/vandals-target-jewish-school-in-denmark

Given that the guy was a "CAMERA on Campus fellow" I have to wonder if he was provoking them at least a bit on purpose.

Here's the *thing-I-just-can't-process-of-the-day*

http://972mag.com/nstt_feeditem/israelis-on-facebook-wish-death-for-holocaust-survivors-against-protective-edge/

Is this some kind of Sephardic-ashkenazic thing? Like do Jews from Arab countries more loudly profess their hate for Arabs and do they also have some kind of weird complex about not being of the group who went through the holocaust?

ime, as a stereotype, sephardic jews hate arabs more than ashkenazi jews do

where does that come from? bad relations with their neighbors prior to emigrating? Just a less politically correct/humanistic culture in general?

idk, any explanation i gave would be speculation + it's likely overdetermined but i'm sure it has a lot to do w/ being forced to live as second class citizens in arab countries before immigration + the ultimate expulsion of sephardic jews from middle east countries

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2014/08/27/343666058/fashion-retailer-zara-pulls-kids-shirt-resembling-concentration-camp-uniform

http://media.npr.org/assets/img/2014/08/27/83b5a826-d7c5-45d4-86d3-24b300cf0665-460x276_custom-8d1b0c0aaf953bfe8116f9fbf1d61285bacaaefb-s40-c85.png

Update 1pm IDT: Zara parent company Inditex told +972 the shirt was inspired by Classical Western films and that it is no longer available. The Israeli chapter of the company apologized more profusely, adding that it was decided to remove the offensive product from the shelves – and “exterminate” it.

idk that looks like a Sherriff's badge to me

why it's on a striped shirt that is clearly not classically western in design is not clear

http://jpupdates.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/Jewish-Children-with-Yellow-Star.jpg

http://web.educastur.princast.es/cp/fresneda/colegio/biblioteca/investigamos/TEREZIN/JEWISH%20CHILDREN%20LIBERATED.jpg

fuck

The company has a whole history of troubling shirt designs I see in that npr link

i don't like everything here but i think he makes some clever points:
http://dsadevil.blogspot.co.il/2014/08/respectability-politics-and-causes-of.html

http://engageonline.wordpress.com/2014/07/07/civility-in-contemporary-debates-about-antisemitism-david-hirsh/

that post about Respectability Politics is good.

also - http://engageonline.wordpress.com/2014/03/21/robert-fine-debates-the-boycotters-in-leeds

my problem with the BDS thing is it really doesn't counter AIPAC in any meaningful way. if Americans want to divest from Israel, then we need to get our gov't to stop funneling money/weapons to Israel (something I totally support) and that means undermining AIPAC. which is about as easy as undermining the NRA (another key goal of mine)

i think robert fine makes some serious ideological challenges to BDS in that piece - not just practical/pragmatic ones

i think AIPAC's influence might already been shrinking a bit?

my problem w/ BDS has always been that it seems more like grandstanding than an effective form of protest. which is kind of offensive from two angles.

and as a jew i admit i'm kind of guarded and wary about some of the more heated rhetoric employed by proponents of BDS; that respectability-politics blog above (which I liked a lot) gets at some of the reasons why.

huh there seem to be a bunch of articles from March about AIPAC's waning influence in light of Iran brouhaha but I kinda wonder if that reversed itself with the recent Gaza incursion. I didn't see any members of Congress bucking the AIPAC party line.

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