Germany’s Antisemitism Allies: Dr. Manfred Gerstenfeld, BESA, Aug. 24, 2020
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After One Year of Reporting on anti-Semitism, This Is What We Found
Combat Anti—Semitism Movement
JNS, Sept. 3, 2020In the twenty-first century, anti-Semitism manifests itself in multiple ways and from several different sources across the ideological spectrum. Principally, we see anti-Semitism proliferating on the far right, the radical left and within political Islam. Age-old anti-Semitic tropes and conspiracies are being recycled and applied to varying themes in the modern era. CAM is committed to reporting on all forms of anti-Semitism, from all sources. One of the key takeaways from our analysis is that anti-Semitism is manifesting in drastically different ways, and the primary culprits change from country to country. However, there is one constant – anti-Semitism is accelerating at an alarming rate.
This is what we found.
In total, CAM’s newsletter reported on 2,858 unique stories and pieces about anti-Semitism in the first 52-week period. Broken down, 1,621 stories reported on unique anti-Semitic incidents, with the remaining items covering different categories including studies, government policy, analyses and opinion, follow-up pieces and “humanity” stories that highlight those who are courageously combating anti-Semitism around the world.
Reporting by geography, we covered 669 unique stories in the United States, 311 in the United Kingdom, 134 in Germany, 155 across the Middle East and 352 stories in other countries across the globe. We categorized the incidents by their type and their source in order to formulate internal insights to best inform our work.
Globally, our reporting included 1,070 stories involving hateful conduct or speech towards Jews (66%), 400 incidents of anti-Semitic vandalism (25%), and 151 incidents of physical misconduct or violence directed at Jews (9%). Worldwide, we attributed 38% of our reported incidents to the right, 21% to the left, 19% to political Islam. About 22% of the incidents were from unattributed sources.
One of the most significant trends in our reporting data is that the leading source of anti-Semitism changes over varying geographies, demonstrating that all three primary sources of anti-Semitism are a threat to the well-being of Jewish people and society as a hole. For example, in the United States, our reporting shows the largest number of incidents emanate from a right-wing ideology (46%), however, nearly a third (28%) of the incidents we covered originated from the left and from within political Islam (the remainder could not be easily attributed).
Across the Atlantic however, this trend shifts completely in the United Kingdom, where anti-Semitic incidents covered in our newsletter were primarily from sources on the left. Of the 311 incidents, we covered in the UK, 162 incidents or 52% represented conduct from individuals or groups affiliated with the left-wing, as British politics was rocked with a constant stream of scandalous anti-Semitism stories, mostly associated with the Labour Party. CAM’s reporting data also shows, however, that anti-Semitism emanating from the right (21%) and from political Islam (9%), remain significant challenges for British society. … [To read the full article, click the following LINK – Ed.]
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Alexander H. Joffe on Anti-Zionism and Antisemitism After George Floyd
Marilyn Stern
Middle East Forum Webinar, Aug. 15, 2020
Archaeologist and historian Alexander H. Joffe, a Ginsburg-Milstein Writing Fellow at the Middle East Forum, spoke to participants in a June 19 Middle East Forum webinar (video) about the “dramatic upswing” in anti-Zionist and antisemitic rhetoric in the US following the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
“What we’ve seen … is a classic example of the red green synthesis in action,” said Joffe, referring to the alliance between Islamists in the West and the far left that has spearheaded anti-Israel activism over the past few decades. Its goal is to “racialize and marginalize Jews, particularly American Jews, as white people, as enemies of people of color.”
The unrest in major American cities that followed Floyd’s killing has been exploited by three sectors to advance their anti-Zionist/antisemitic narratives: the Black Lives Matter movement (“the conceptual heir to the Black Panthers”), the Antifa movement (“explicitly anti-capitalist and anti-Israel”), and the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood network (American Muslims for Palestine, the umbrella group for Students for Justice in Palestine, and the Muslim Students Association, all “using the rubric of human rights” to push their anti-Israel agenda). Joining this anti-Israel trio are progressive/far-left Jewish front groups, notably Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP).
These groups have formulated what Joffe called a “grand unified theory” of oppression that fuses “the Great Satan in the U.S.” and “the little Satan, Israeli ‘settler colonialism'” together with capitalism, white supremacy, and other evils real and imagined.
Israel – and Jews who support it – are charged with “uphold[ing] a system of anti-black racism in the U.S.” and, in particular, of being “the root cause” of police violence in America. As evidence the accusers cite the fact that the Jewish Institute for National Security of America (JINSA) and other Jewish groups have sponsored counter-terrorism training programs for U.S. police officers in Israel in the years following 9/11. These trips have nothing to do with domestic police issues or tactics.
In 2018 the Durham, North Carolina city council repudiated its police force’s relationship with Israel as a result of aspersions cast by the JVP on U.S.-Israeli law enforcement ties. In 2019, an Israel program attended by Tufts University police officers was alleged to be the source of police violence on campus.
According to Joffe, these conspiracy theories are intended to transform burgeoning African-American resentments against police into hostility toward the Jewish community. They have been widely propagated within the black community by the so-called Black Hebrews who claim to be the “real Jews” (and that Ashkenazi Jews of European descent are “fake”) and Louis Farrakhan’s antisemitic Nation of Islam, which has strongly influenced the Black Lives Matter movement and the Women’s March organization. … [To read the full article, click the following LINK – Ed.]
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Black Americans Sacrifice their Moral Credibility by Indulging In anti-Semitism
Bruce D. Haynes
The Undefeated, Aug. 19, 2020
A recent controversy consuming the sports world of late — stoked by social media posts from Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver DeSean Jackson — reveals less about a new undercurrent of Black anti-Semitism in sports than about the enduring allure of anti-Semitic tropes for the marginalized and uninformed.
The transformation of Jews from racial others to sometimes racial insiders can only be understood as part of a larger historical process. Between 1870 and 1920, some 2 million Eastern European Jews immigrated to the United States just as the color line was solidifying. Jews had fled the pogroms and persecution of Eastern Europe to remake themselves in America. At the same time, more than 1 million Black folks were fleeing the inequities and mob violence of the South in the hopes of bettering their lives in the industrial North and Midwest.
Yet Jews who had been viewed as racially distinct in Europe were soon able to reframe themselves as hyphenated ethnics (Jewish Americans) and claim membership as white people within an emerging Black and white binary that determined all civic, social, political, educational, residential, labor and cultural boundaries and opportunities.
This ability of Jews to cross the color line and wield economic and political power like other white folks have long stoked resentment from Black people. James Baldwin articulated the offense in his 1967 essay, Negroes Are Anti-Semitic Because They’re Anti-White:
In the American context, the most ironical thing about Negro anti-Semitism is that the Negro is really condemning the Jew for having become an American white man – for having become, in effect, a Christian. The Jew profits from his status in America, and he must expect Negroes to distrust him for it. The Jew does not realize that the credential he offers, the fact that he has been despised and slaughtered, does not increase the Negro’s understanding. It increases the Negro’s rage.
Tensions between Black people and Jews over the decades might be explained through a particular set of economic relationships: as tenants of Jewish landlords, domestics in Jewish households, employees in Jewish businesses and customers in Jewish stores. This dynamic can be seen as early as the 1930s, when Harlemites picketed outside the Jewish-owned Blumstein’s Department Store to protest discriminatory hiring practices, although the “Don’t Shop Where You Can’t Work” boycott was part of a larger initiative that targeted white-owned businesses. And it can shed light on other flashpoints of racial conflict, such as the 1968 New York City teachers’ strike, which pitted the heavily Jewish teachers union against Black (and Puerto Rican) parents over control of the public schools. … [To read the full article, click the following LINK – Ed.]
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Germany’s Antisemitism Allies
Dr. Manfred Gerstenfeld
BESA, Aug. 24, 2020
Part of the challenge of the antisemitism debate is its sheer multiplicity of aspects. One cannot simply rate a specific act according to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism to determine whether it is or is not antisemitic. The IHRA definition, which required the agreement of more than 30 western countries and was accepted by the IHRA Board in 2016, was a major achievement—but it covers only some of the many manifestations of antisemitism.
The previous chairman of the British Labour party, Jeremy Corbyn, called the genocidal antisemitic organizations Hamas and Hezbollah his “brothers” and “friends.” While these statements were expressions of extreme antisemitism, they are not covered by the IHRA definition. Many other antisemitic acts do not fall under the definition. The IHRA text had to be short, with a limited number of examples. Its creators likely did not envision that a leading western politician would openly identify with genocidal antisemites.
Many people who are not themselves antisemites are nevertheless their allies. This can be seen most readily in Germany. Antisemitism problems that were already present have greatly increased since the 2015 welcome policy for immigrants, as many of those who arrived in Germany from the Muslim world are antisemites.
Chancellor Angela Merkel is the leading importer of antisemites into Western Europe. An indirect result of her open-door immigrant policy was the growth of the right-wing party AfD, which has an extreme wing containing many problematic figures.
The allies of antisemitism in Germany come under a variety of headings. A major subset are those who whitewash antisemites, antisemitic acts, or both. One case earlier this year was the Achille Mbembe affair. This Cameroon-born philosopher teaches at Witwatersrand University in Johannesburg. He had been invited to be the keynote speaker at the Ruhr Triennale, a major music and culture festival that was to have taken place this summer (it was canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic).
It became known after his invitation that Mbembe was an extreme anti-Israel inciter and antisemite. German journalist Alan Posener would later prove that Mbembe is an anti-enlightenment supporter, democracy minimizer, and nihilist. More information emerged about Mbembe’s antisemitic positions and behavior even after the cancelation of the event to which he had been invited.
Many intellectuals in Germany and abroad, including in Israel and Africa, whitewashed Mbembe’s antisemitism. Among the signatories to one of the open letters written in Mbembe’s defense was Wolfgang Benz, who was director for the Center for Research on Antisemitism at Berlin Technical University between 1990 and 2011. … [To read the full article, click the following LINK – Ed.]
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For Further Reference:
Leading UK Jewish Group Blasts Major Muslim Charity After Second Antisemitism Scandal This Year: Benjamin Kerstein, Algemeiner, Aug. 23, 2020 — The president of the leading Jewish group in the UK sharply criticized a major Muslim organization after its leadership was forced to resign en masse due to an antisemitism scandal.
Op-Ed: Elan Carr and Brian Hook Reveal the Iranian Regime’s Antisemitism: Elan Carr and Brian Hook, US Virtual Embassy Iran — Even as the pandemic has taken a major hit on Iran, Tehran refuses to let up on its virulent hatred of Jews and targeting of Israel. Which is why the Trump administration’s pushback remains as vital as ever.
DeSean Jackson’s anti-Semitic Posts Continue Long History of Tension Over Farrakhan: Michael A. Fletcher, The Undefeated, July 15, 2020 — America’s current reckoning over race has made this much clear: People are calling out bigotry wherever they find it, whether in the Manhattan, New York, offices of a glossy magazine or the grimy corridors of a Midwestern police department. And when they do, they are not mincing words, but naming things for what they are.
Negroes Are Anti-Semitic Because They’re Anti-White: James Baldwin, NYTimes, Apr. 9, 1967 — When we were growing up in Harlem our demoralizing series of landlords were Jewish, and we hated them.
