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User:TreveX/NAS

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At the time of writing, New anti-Semitism, does not reflect properly the different interpretations of "new anti-semitism" and also arguments against the validity of the concept.

The term new anti-Semitism refers to the contemporary international resurgence of anti-Jewish incidents and attacks on Jewish symbols, as well as the acceptance of anti-Semitic beliefs and their expression in public discourse.
The term, which first came into general use in the early 1970s, [1] is used to distinguish a form of anti-Semitism regarded as differing in its rhetoric, its professed purpose, and its place on the political spectrum from the old anti-Semitism, which is associated with the Right and is motivated by racial theory, religion, or nationalism.
Proponents of the new anti-Semitism maintain that the recent rise in anti-Semitism is associated with the Left and its opposition to Zionism and to the existence of the state of Israel as a Jewish homeland. [2] [3] [4] [5] Critics of the concept contend that surging hostility towards Zonism and the State of Israel does not necessarily translate into hostility towards the Jews.[6]

Take, for example, Critics of the concept contend that surging hostility towards Zonism and the State of Israel does not necessarily translate into hostility towards the Jews. This is predicated in the assumption that there is a "surging hostility towards Zonism and the State of Israel" and does the arguments a deliberate injustice.


Contentions edit

There are a number of points argued on the talk page and supported by reliable sources. It has not been possible to include these due to persistent disagreement and edit warring by both sides.



NAS is a relatively controversial idea, whose validity is challenged edit

Commonly challenged on the basis that either:

  • It is not new, but merely an extension, resurgence or continuation of historical anti-semitism.
  • It is a disengenuous ploy to silence debate on Israel by tainting critics as anti-semites.

EUROPEAN MONITORING CENTRE ON RACISM AND XENOPHOBIA: A third set of questions relate to whether a "new anti-semitism" has emerged in recent years and whether anti-Zionism and/or an unbalanced criticism or Israel and/or the equation of Israel and Jews represents per se a form of anti-semitism or not.

What should not be considered anti-semitic and therefore does not have to be monitored under the heading of 'anti-semitism' is hostility to Israel as 'Israel', i.e. as a country that is criticised for its concrete policies.[1]

The left wing and anti-Zionism isn't the only perspective on NAS edit

There are various perspectives on new anti-Semitism, the representation of which has been opposed by various editors.

EUROPEAN MONITORING CENTRE ON RACISM AND XENOPHOBIA: In section "The Perpetrators of Antisemitic Acts", the vast majority of incidents noted are perpetrated by either muslims or the right, although the left is mentioned ina couple of places.

[...]

Is there a new antisemitism? From an analytical perspective we can distinguish between two possible aspects of change from an "old" to "new" antisemitism:

(a) changes concerning the nature of antisemitism, thorugh redefining 'the Jew' (for example by adding new characteristics to the imaginary 'Jew').
(b) changes concerning the manifestation of antisemitism in politics, media and everyday life, or concerning new ways of disseminating antisemitism, new groups (active) antisemites, or a new quality or quantity of antisemitic acts.[2]



Right to left edit

This is the only interpretation of NAS in the current article.

Christian to Muslim edit

DANIEL PIPES: Christians developed the abiding tropes of anti-Semitism (such as greediness and ambitions to world domination) and historically Christians killed most Jews. Therefore, Jews regularly fled Christendom for Islamdom. In 1945, this pattern abruptly changed. Christians newly came to terms with Jews, while Muslims adopted both the old Christian themes and murderousness. Today, institutional anti-Semitism is overwhelmingly a Muslim affair. One result has been the steady reverse exodus, with Jews now fleeing Islamdom for Christendom.[3]


EUROPEAN MONITORING CENTRE ON RACISM AND XENOPHOBIA: In the course of the rise in antisemitic incidents over the last few years, there has been a shift in public perception of the 'typical' antisemitic offender from an 'extreme right' skinhead to a disaffected young muslim. [..] However the NFP reports suggest a more complex picture than that.[4]



Religious to secular edit

What began as a rejection of the Jewish religion evolved over the centuries to a bias against the supposed Jewish race (thus, our continued use of the nonsensical term, anti-Semitism ) and lately has evolved into anti-Zionism, or hatred of the Jewish state. An astonishing 2003 poll in which Europeans found Israel to be the leading threat to world peace indicates the depth of this new sentiment.[5]



Resurgence of old-style anti semitism/influence of old on new/mutations edit

Some published sources have identified the "old" motivations for anti-Semitism as contributing to the current increase in international anti-Semitic activity. A recent European Union report (cited in the Jerusalem Post article) is a prominent example, and I believe it to be a sufficient example for our purposes. If the "old" motivations of anti-Semitism are contributing to the current increase in anti-Semitic activities, then it is not correct to identify the "new anti-Semitism" as bearing sole responsibility for this increase.



Old anti-semitism influence over new edit

ROBERT WISTRICH: Modern anti-semitism draws on older anti-semitism for imagery: The new anti-Semitism eagerly scavenges this arsenal of older images which, since the onset of modernity, have stereotyped the Jews as a dangerously mobile, rootless, abstract and transnational mafia uniquely tuned to exploit capitalise economy and culture.[6]

Resurgence or continuation of old-style anti-semitism edit

EUROPEAN MONITORING CENTRE ON RACISM AND XENOPHOBIA: Whilst articles with antisemitic content are rare in the Swedish media, there can be found traditional antisemitic propaganda by extreme right and nationalist groups, and the internet sites of both extreme right and radical left groups have contained antisemitic material with reagard to the middle east conflict.

[The Greek Orthodox Church] continues to include in the liturgy ritual on Good Friday anti-Jewish references [...] [In Italy] the NFP refers in its reports to three instances of (Christian) anti-semitism in the media [...] One unusual practice in Denmark is the public funding of a Nazi radio station. In portugal there were [...] some antisemitic statements on Nazi sites.[7]



Modern anti-semitism is not new or it is a "mutation" edit

ARIEL SHARON: "What we are facing in Europe is an anti-Semitism that has always existed and it really is not a new phenomenon." [8]

JONATHAN SACKS: Q. Is contemporary European anti-Semitism a new strain or old wine in a new bottle? A. It is a new mutation. We are entirely wrong to see anti-Semitism as an ideology. It is rather a series of contradictions. Any mutation of this virus of anti-Semitism is a major event in world history. By my calculation there have only been three mutations in 2,000 years. [...] We are now living through the fourth mutation. Today’s anti-Semitism has three components: The first is anti-Zionism, the notion that Jews alone have no right to a nation of their own, a place in which to govern themselves. No. 2—all Jews are Zionists and therefore legitimate targets like Wall Street Journal journalist Daniel Pearl. No. 3, Israel and the Jewish people are responsible for all the troubles in the world, from AIDS to globalization. Put those three propositions together and you have the new anti-Semitism. [9]

Critics claim NAS is used to silence debate on Israel and Zionsim edit

MEARSHEIMER: No discussion of the Lobby would be complete without an examination of one of its most powerful weapons: the charge of anti-semitism. Anyone who criticises Israel’s actions or argues that pro-Israel groups have significant influence over US Middle Eastern policy – an influence AIPAC celebrates – stands a good chance of being labelled an anti-semite

The Lobby’s campaign to quash debate about Israel is unhealthy for democracy. Silencing sceptics by organising blacklists and boycotts – or by suggesting that critics are anti-semites – violates the principle of open debate on which democracy depends.[10]

KLUG: Foxman insists that he is not opposed to criticism of Israel. "In every public forum," he says, "I'm always careful to say that criticism of the state of Israel is not necessarily anti-Semitic." But "is not necessarily" implies "is possibly," and what this really means is "it's usually so." In his view, "most of the current attacks on Israel and Zionism are not, at bottom, about the policies and conduct of a particular nation-state. They are about Jews." This is conventional wisdom in the "new anti-Semitism" literature.[11]

TARIQ ALI: The campaign against the supposed new 'anti-semitism' in Europe today is basicly a cynical ploy on the part of the Israeli Government to seal off the Zionist state from any criticism of its regular and consistent brutality against the Palestinians.[12]

MERREL CLUB:"To say that criticism of Israel's treatment of Palestinians in the West Bank is the same as anti-Semitism is not only ridiculous but much the same as saying that criticism of the white regime's treatment of blacks and coloreds in apartheid South Africa was anti-white, or that criticism of 16th-century Spanish and British attacks on indigenous Indians in the Americas was anti-Spanish and anti-British, or that criticism of American destruction of Indian villages and killing of women and children as pioneers moved westward and settled Indian land was anti-American."[13]

PETER BEAUMONT:"What they are talking about is the criticism in the media and political classes of Europe of the policies of Sharon. Israel's brutal response to the often equally reprehensible anti-Israeli Palestinian violence of the intifada has produced one of the most vigorous media critiques of Israel's policies in the European media in a generation. The reply to this criticism, say those most vocal in reporting the existence of the new anti-Semitism, particularly in the Israeli press, is devastating in its simplicity: criticise Israel, and you are an anti-Semite just as surely as if you were throwing paint at a synagogue in Paris.

It is at this point that the charges of the broad scope of the new anti-Semitism should be rejected for what they are: an attempt to deflect criticism from the actions of an Israeli government by declaring criticism of Israel out of bounds and invoking Europe's last great taboo - the fear of being declared an anti-Semite. For while the phenomenon of anti-Jewish sentiment and attacks in some quarters of the Islamic community in Europe is to be deplored, so too must be the effort to co-opt it as an alibi for Israel's behaviour and to use it to silence opposition to its policies."[14]

Sources edit

This is a list of sources scanned from the article's talk page. These can be inserted and used above to support various arguments...

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