For centuries and in almost every country, there has thrived the idea that Jewish conspirators are behind all the ills of the world. In the 14th century, for instance, the black death produced pogroms (anti-Jewish violence) as communities blamed Jews for the disease. The idea was remarkably tenacious. One study showed that, in German towns and villages where 14th-century pogroms had taken place, the Nazis did best in local elections in the 1920s.
The themes of the Protocols — the Jew as secret plotter, puppet master, subverter of nations, rootless cosmopolitan — were also found in the antisemitism of the Nazis and the paranoia of Stalin.
So when right-wing populist governments in Hungary and Poland select as their public enemy George Soros, a Jewish financial speculator, and accuse him of being the puppeteer behind a conspiracy to undermine their democracy, is it surprising that Jews are nervous about what is unfolding? Or that Jews should be concerned about any hint that such a campaign could be exported to Britain from countries where antisemitism has been historically so strong?
And on the left, of course, the same conspiracy theory thrives, just in a different guise. The international Jewish super-state is Israel and the elders of Zion are the plotters. Instead of being a tiny country the size of Wales, Israel is the seat of a Rothschild-Zionist plan for world occupation, having first secured the obedience of the United States by deploying Jewish money to organise a powerful lobby to which America is in thrall.
(Just to be clear, I have always believed that it is not antisemitic to criticise the government or history of Israel, but it is antisemitic to propagate the idea of a powerful global Zionist conspiracy).
There is even, on the left, a neat trick in which the Jews are either, as Zionist collaborators, blamed for the Nazis or have in fact become the Nazis, thus adding to the list of woes laid at the feet of the Jews the one thing you’d have thought we couldn’t possibly be accused of.
A common theme in these conspiracy theories is that Jews aren’t really citizens of anywhere, they are wandering Jews, forever working on their super-state. To be made exiles, as was the Hungarian-born George Soros and as were my parents, and then to be accused of rootlessness is surely the ultimate irony.
Tag: antisemitism
After Holocaust law, Poland moves to ban kosher slaughter
“Not antisemitic” my ass
Banning kosher and halal slaughter is not a welfare issue. There is basically no difference in the amount of distress caused (at least in British slaughter houses). If you’re concerned about animal welfare and distress in Kosher and Halal slaughter practices then you should be banning all animal slaughter.
This isn’t about protecting animals, it’s about making religious lifestyles illegal. If you cannot legally practice a key element of your faith then your religion has been made illegal.
I just saw the weirdest ad on YouTube. I thought it was for a new WWII video game, but it didn’t seem to be selling anything – it looked like some kind of weird pro-Poland propaganda and just said “Poland did a lot to save the Jews” and then ended with a hashtag about Germany.
What… what did I just watch, and why was it on a YouTube video about sea slugs in America?
as far as I can tell, poland has made it illegal (!) to accuse them of being complicit in any nazi activity which occurred on polish soil, most sensible people objected to this, and the polish government are now putting weird propaganda ads on american youtube for unclear reasons
Hey… Poland? What the fuck?
Yeah they’re basically pulling all the propaganda out that they can saying that they weren’t AT ALL complicit in the murder of Jews and Roma along with the Nazis.
This is a part of Poland’s massive push to erase their own complicity in the Holocaust, and in post-Holocaust antisemitic violence. It is part of Poland’s rising antisemitism. It’s not just American youtube, however. It’s also Israeli youtube. So essentially, Poland is targeting the two countries in the world which have the largest Jewish populations today with this propaganda campaign.
There are multiple advertisements doing this.
I have yet to see one, but I will report any if they show up while I’m watching youtube.
Basically, here is a quick timeline of current related events which make this propaganda campaign terrifying:
- 60,000 far-right nationalists march on Poland’s independence day, Novermber 2017. chanting “Pure Poland! White Poland!” [Whoops, guess they forgot Nazi Germany saw them as Slavs and therefore lesser? Oh right, re-writing national myth is a part of fascism.] Demonstrators were highly antisemitic, one claimed he was marching against “Jewry.” Despite this, or perhaps because of it, the Polish government seemed to praise the event: “It was a beautiful sight,” the interior minister, Mariusz Błaszczak, said. “We are proud that so many Poles have decided to take part in a celebration connected to the Independence Day holiday.”
- Late Jan 2018: Poland’s senate passes on a bill proposing a ban on phrases like “Polish death camps,” – and proposes jail time for the use of such language. The law also seems to ban “people from accusing Poland of Holocaust atrocities committed by the Nazis,” even when complicity in atrocities is historical fact.
The text is as follows:“Whoever publicly and contrary to the facts attributes to the Polish Nation or to the Polish State responsibility or co-responsibility for the Nazi crimes committed by the German Third Reich… or for any other offenses constituting crimes against peace, humanity or war crimes, or otherwise grossly diminishes the responsibility of the actual perpetrators of these crimes, shall be liable to a fine or deprivation of liberty for up to three years.”
Discussion of ANY Polish complicity in the Holocaust is therefore also part of the proposed ban. Punishment can be jail time, fine, or “restriction of liberty.” Supporters of Polish President Andrzej Duda urge him to sign the bill regardless of strong objections from both the United States, Israel, and the academic community/Holocaust scholars. The measure passed through Parliament on the eve of Holocaust Remembrance Day, Jan 27th 2018. This causes Israel to postpone diplomatic meetings with Polish representatives, and both Israel and the USA voice objections to the measure.
- Immediately after this, Feb. 2nd 2018: ISRAEL’S EMBASSY IN POLAND RECEIVES WAVE OF ANTISEMITIC MESSAGES AFTER HOLOCAUST BILL
- The Polish President signs said bill into law, provoking another objection from Israel, and U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson releases a critical statement on the law.
- February 6th, 2018: an article which asks an important question – Poland wants to outlaw blaming Poles for Nazi atrocities. But what about the Jedwabne massacre? To cut to the chase, in an occupied town of Poland in 1941, the Polish residents rounded up the town’s Jewish population, and then willingly (and freely) slaughtered an estimated 400-1,400 of their Jewish neighbors [numbers are estimates as the site was not fully excavated, but rather exhumed in a controlled section], as German forces looked on. The Germans had even refused to let them use firearms, and so the gentile Polish residents of Jedwabne used farm tools as their method of execution.
- Following the end of the Holocaust is another example people are worried is banned from discussion. In 1946, after the defeat of Nazi Germany, Polish gentiles in Kielce held a pogrom against Holocaust survivors returning home. They murdered 42 Jewish Holocaust survivors.
- Then, as of this Shabbat (Saturday, Feb. 10th 2018), jumblr users begin to post warnings about Americans seeing these Pro-revisionism Polish videos on youtube. Others confirm Israelis have been inundated with these videos as well. Although I don’t know if it began earlier, I have noticed that people started first seeing these ads introduced on the Jewish weekly holy day/day of rest, and I do wonder if slipping them in when many Jewish people wouldn’t have noticed was intentional, which feels especially sinister.
- Today, Feb 12th 2018, Jerusalem Post asks: WHY IS THE POLISH GOVERNMENT TARGETING ISRAELI WEB USERS? The only other article I’ve found that is also about this new propaganda campaign is on a site I am unfamiliar with called Sputnik International News: Poland Rolls Out Social Media Campaign to Justify New Holocaust Bill.
- Oh and to TOP IT ALL OFF, this is all now followed by Poland attempting to further restrict/ban Kosher (and by extension, Halal) slaughter. Because the fast way to criminalize being Jewish or Muslim is to criminalize how we eat.
I had no clue Oscar Wilde was anti semetic! I read up on it a bit and I assume you have evidence from the Picture Of Dorian Gray, which I hadn’t read. I saw someone saying that the character in it is a parody and at most Wilde was insensitive since some of his closest friends and supporters were a jewish couple, but I’d really like to hear your input on that matter
Some quotes:
From
The Picture of Dorian Gray:
- A hideous Jew, in the most amazing waistcoat I ever beheld in my life, was standing at the entrance, smoking a vile cigar. He had greasy ringlets, and an enormous diamond blazed in the centre of a soiled shirt…
- For some reason or other, the house was crowded that night, and the fat Jew manager who met them at the door was beaming from ear to ear with an oily, tremulous smile. He escorted them to their box with a sort of pompous humility, waving his fat jeweled hands, and talking at the top of his voice. Dorian Grey loathed him more than ever.
- This is a recurring character who is shown to bow and scrape before anyone who he thinks might be able to give him some advantage, and who tries to emulate English nobility but gets it wrong because he is ‘the wrong sort.’
- Harry, the Jewish theatre owner, is also shown to be taking financial advantage of a young actress’s debts to keep her ‘bound to him.’ Harry’s insistence that he wants to ‘introduce’ her to Dorian is a clear implication that this theatre owner is also a pimp.
- It is a ‘Jewish doctor’ who is responsible for infusing the blood of others into a man to make him totally evil.
Some people have argued that he was parodying George Eliot here, and that since ‘he had a Jewish friend,’ specifically a novelist who he called ‘The Sphinx,’ gosh, he couldn’t be antisemitic (I know, I groaned out loud too), but read on, friends! It only gets worse from here!
It should be noted that Wilde was hardly unique in his anti-Semitism. It’s actually fairly difficult to find literature from this era that DOESN’T make use of rabidly anti-Jewish tropes (in all honesty, this brand of anti-Semitism remained common within Anglo-Irish literature until the outbreak of WWII, take a flying guess why).
I don’t mean this as a defence of Wilde in any way, I just want to point out that this hatred of Jews was positively endemic.
Oh, I know, I absolutely know. I’m just personally really fucking sick of seeing all of these queer/LGBTQ-positive posts holding up Wilde specifically as some sort of like, cinnamon roll of sweet-yet-sour-acerbic-gayness, some sort of Harmless Sassy Granddaddy Gay, and just never acknowledging that – among other things – he was a really terrible antisemite. The same sort of ignore-dem-flaws idolizing of him happens in the communist/socialist communities, which is doubly ironic considering, you know, how many of the same people praising Wilde will breathlessly talk about the book Revolutionary Yiddishland and how important it is, etc. etc.
As an English Education major, especially, this sort of blind celebration of Wilde annoys the absolute piss out of me. Wilde was a horrible, horrible antisemite who went out of his way to include these sorts of themes in literally everything he fucking wrote. Not talking about this, like, ever, unless someone Jewish brings it up, is not only frustrating and hurtful to people who hear ‘oh it’s okay if you’re an antisemite if you’re queer, we’ll give you a pass,’ but it’s really bad scholarship. If we’re gonna talk about what Wilde wrote and why, his antisemitism is a big part of that. Heck, he even blamed his gayness and his suffering for his gayness on ‘THE JEWS,’ you can’t separate anything he wrote from his hate of us.
(None of the above is really aimed at what you said, @tikkunolamorgtfo, so please don’t take this as me ranting at you or yelling at you, just sort of – near you – because I just … have a Big Feeling about the way Wilde is talked about. He was a pretty horrible human being who gets a pass in the gay community and it makes me wanna yell a lot.)
No worries, I totally get it!
y’all, he has some funny quotes and that’s whatever. But at the end of the day, he was just another rich white gay dude who didn’t GAF about poor people until he after he was released from prison. And even then, his opinions stem more from his own experience than actual empathy.
this reactionary running for congress is literally tweeting lists of jewish enemies what the fuck!!
a couple notes about this specimen:
- He’s running in the Republican primary for Wisconsin’s 1st congressional district against Paul Ryan.
- This is his second race. He ran against Ryan in 2016 and got trounced by something like 70 to 80 points (and if you think that still sounds like he did better than he had any right to, remember that was a GOP primary in the Year of Trump we’re talking about).
- While there’s no indication he’d do any better against Ryan this time around, rumors that Paul Ryan won’t seek reelection have been quietly swirling for the last few months, in which case there is a not at all implausible chance this crypto-Nazi could wind up being the next Republican nominee WI-1.
Wisconsin politics is a mess, even by the standards of the United States in 2018.
this reactionary running for congress is literally tweeting lists of jewish enemies what the fuck!!
this dude’s campaign page has a ‘stand up to hate’ page in which he basically complains about people calling him a nazi (gee i wonder why?), labeling his campaign a #NoCuckZone
he’s not even an independent, he’s an actual republican candidate
‘fucked’ would be too weak of a word to describe american politics right now
Let’s Talk About Zionism
off the back of a discussion that happened on facebook I wanted to compile some examples of different Jewish perspectives I knew on how they relate to ‘zionism’. Mainly to highlight that 1. this is a Jewish word the precludes any aspect of the modern state of Israel. 2. Jews are not monolith, and thus just because you know one accepted way a Jew relates to it, doesn’t mean you have the whole picture. & 3. (probably the most important one) that there is a systematic cross purposes happening when you have groups of activists who have only come across the word ‘zionism’ or ‘zionist’ inside the strict paradigm of acceptable I/P conflict discourse. (By which I mean, where pro-Palestine western discourse has dominated the definition of this word by unilaterally equating it with complicity, support & tolerance of violence against Palestinians).
“I’m a Zionist..” what it could mean when a Jewish person says this:
1. I’m saying this because I support the state of Israel, including its policy and sanctions against the Palestinians, and believe that the modern state of Israel should expand and control all territories.
2. I’m saying this because even though I do not support the modern state of Israel, and I abhor what is happening to the Palestinians, I believe that the Jews who currently live there should not be forced to leave.
3. I believe in the Jewish right for self determination, that is my end goal but I truly wish it could be established in a way that brings solace to both the Palestinians and the Jews who currently live there. I am open to a one state or two state solution as long as the end goal is a homeland for the Jewish people and the end of mistreatment against Palestinians.
4. I’m saying this because my family were forced out of Egypt/Yemen/another mena country, and to suggest that we have to go back to the people who mistreated us is violent, and thus the treatment of Palestinians can only get better when mena countries end their own antisemitism.
5. I don’t support the modern state of Israel, or the politics, however I’m a religious Jew who believes in the commandment of not ‘insulting’ Israel, and using the term zionism best encapsulates that for me.
6. This word represents revolutionary unity between Jews in the face of antisemitism as codified by Herzl (& others), even though I reject most ways in which it is used now by the modern state of Israel, it is an important and historic word to my people in a political manner and I refuse to give it up.
7. I am very critical of the Israeli government, and I wish (although I don’t always know how) for peace and better living standards for Palestinians, simultaneously however Israel is the epicentre of the Jewish world (even if I’ve never been there) and I don’t think modern politics can detract from that.
8. I never use to use the word zionist but ever since the UN ruled antisemitic and ahistorical statements denying the Jewish history in Israel I realised that anti-zionism is in fact often antisemitic, for me it is only by working with other zionists that we can change the future of Israel to a more peaceful one.
9. I plan to make aliyah one day, this doesn’t mean I agree with everything the government is doing or that it is fair that the Palestinians have had to suffer. I still plan to join the Jewish nation and be able to live religiously near our ancient sites.
10. There are pogroms/riots against Jews/”anti-Israel” demonstrations that chant things like “gas the Jews” where I live right now. I never planned to go to Israel but I am now. It is sad that me & my community are giving up our diaspora community, I am glad Israel exist for us to flee to.
11. Since the diaspora community in [x] (for example, Yemen) has been completely obliterated in the face of violence and forced conversion to Islam, even though I don’t live in Israel I believe it’d be wrong to not support it as that is the only place where my family’s culture still exists through no fault of their own. To me the Jews didn’t create Israel, they were forced there & thus it’s insulting that we are treated as the ‘one true oppressors’ in this discourse.
12. I have family in Israel, to not be a zionist would be saying I want them to be harmed/that if they were murdered that would be just.
13. Because so many Jews were forced to flee their countries into Israel, to not be a zionist would be saying I think they deserve to be made into refugees/sent back to countries that seek to enact violence on them. That doesn’t mean I support the government of Israel however.
14. I am a convert and part of my conversion meant joining a community that sees Israel as their ancestral homeland. Calling myself a zionist helps me feel close to me (new) identity and is my personal tie to this history.
15. I am Israeli, no matter what I believe politically this inherently makes me a zionist because I live here & do not wish to be murdered here.
“I’m Not a Zionist…” this could mean any of the following:
1. I do not support the state of Israel, although I of course don’t want the Jews living there to be ethnically cleansed, the most important thing is to focus on the plight of Palestinians right now.
2. I love Israel, and I fully support the state of Israel including its sanctions against the Palestinians because I believe that’s the only way to keep hamas at bay – who themselves enact violence against Palestinians – I’m not a zionist though as I never plan to make aliyah.
3. I have visited Israel/plan to visit Israel & I see it as a Jewish historical place, I don’t feel like I know enough about politics to have an informed opinion on it though, and I am sympathetic to the Palestinian cause. For this reason I just tend to say I’m not a zionist.
4. I used to call myself an anti-zionist but have since realised that anti-zionism is a movement entrenched in antisemitism and after being systematically abused and belittled for merely being a Jew – even when I openly said I’m anti-zionist – I have given up the title & now say non-zionist.
5. I believe in the Jewish homeland, and that it should be Israel. One part because it is our ancestral home, another part because that’s where Jews live now. I don’t support the actions of the government however, so I choose not to call myself a zionist in light of that.
6. I am really tired of being dragged into the I/P debate just because I’m a Jew, so I say this to try and get goyim to leave me alone.
7. I think the time of the usefulness of the word ‘zionism’ is over, and instead we should be looking at the viability of a bi-national state.
8. I support the right for Jewish self determination, and that Israel is our ancestral homeland, furthermore I think that modern pro-Palestinian activism is often antisemitic and ignores the fact that destabilising Israel will lead to a genocide of the Jewish people who live there. However, many people who use the term zionist are racist/believe things I don’t believe in, so I don’t associate with that word.
9. I’m frum* and to me zionism is a secular word and movement that I don’t associate with, this doesn’t really tell you anything about my politics however. (**note to goyim: frum means ‘religious’ in yiddish, but is better translated as part of a community that strictly observes religious law.)
10. I am Israeli, I don’t need to be zionist as I just have political opinions about my country. Zionism is more for people in diaspora.
“I’m anti-Zionist…” this could mean:
1. I do not support the modern state of Israel, I don’t support people who do, I actively fight the political movement of zionism & would be happy to see “Israel” dismantled and Palestine returned.
2. I believe in the Jewish history and ties to Israel, and I also understand why it was created, but for me Zionism stands for enacting violence on Palestinians and thus I will actively fight against it.
3. Although I am not wholly comfortable with the term, I use anti-Zionist as goyishe activists would probably throw me out of left wing movements if I don’t constantly prove that I’m not a zionist.
4. I am Israeli, thus when I say I’m anti-Zionist I obviously am not saying I want Israel to be dismantled, or for Israelis to be harmed, I am instead saying something about the political rights of Palestinians.
5. I think Zionism has come to dominate too much of the Jewish identity, for that sake I distance myself from it. This doesn’t say very much about my political opinions.
6. I don’t want Israel to be destroyed, and I fear for the lives of Jews who live in diaspora and may not be able to flee there if Israel were to change, I am also fearful for the lives of Israelis as Israel’s neighbours have often promised death upon them and hamas’ charter has been one of wishing genocide upon Jews. However, I don’t ever want to go to Israel myself, I don’t agree with the government, and in any way I can I support the pro-Palestinian activism.
7. Everything about Israel makes me really embarrassed and angry, I wish Israel would stop its violent actions as in the long run it is Jews like me in diaspora that face the brunt of it.
8. It makes me really angry that right wing politicians and bigots can be antisemitic and even enact/incite violence against Jews, but just because they ‘support Israel’ Jewish safety is ignored by the left, and many Jewish institutions will ignore them in hopes of not rocking the boat.
9. To me it is a simple binary: do you accept what the modern state of Israel is doing now? If yes: you’re a zionist. If no, you’re an anti-zionist. I fall on the latter, but that doesn’t actually tell you about the other layers of opinion I may have.
To write this I genuinely just ran through all my Jewish friends and tried to summarise their position and sort it into the three headings. As you can see, from just one British Jew in London, I rub shoulders with a multitude of opinions, feelings & perspectives on Israel. And none of these are even supposed to adequately sum up even one Jew’s feelings on the place Israel or the word zionism.
Hopefully those reading will see why I get so frustrated when they assume that Jews are either sharing the same opinion on the word zionism, or that they are talking about the same thing Jews are when we use it.
Finally I will say: zionism is a Jewish word, for my own sake I have a complicated and not particularly happy relationship with it. However, I don’t believe any non-Jew have the right to take away the Jewish control over its definitions. This is especially the case as ‘zionist’ is more easily used as a placeholder for Jew, to the extent that the stormfront created ‘zio’ was in fact common place in ‘anti-zionist’ spaces for a long time & used even by ‘woke’ leftists. Asking goyim to stop using zionism as a catch all term to rile against in regards to Israel doesn’t detract anything from pro-Palestinian activism, the activism itself is still there unless your support for Palestinians was just preformative, to show off your ‘wokeness’ or worse: because you’re explicitly or latently antisemitic and don’t want to give up the ‘acceptable’ means of manifesting that.
@vaspider I don’t know if you’ve seen this yet
a jewish kid was murdered by a nazi last week in california and almost none of the articles about it are mentioning that he was jewish or that his murderer was a nazi
he was taken into the woods by someone he thought was a friend and killed. hits pretty close to home bc multiple relatives of mine, including my great-great-grandfather, were taken into the woods by their own neighbors and killed during the holocaust
Jewish and openly gay. This article is the most frank about it that i’ve seen.
Man we really fucked over Native Americans. Imagine if Germany did TEN Holocausts and then hundreds of years later the Jews were STILL living in the work camps the Germans shuttled them to, with no money and a food shortage. Fucked up.
don’t make this comparison. jews are not a rhetorical tool. we are real people who really died.
the genocides of Indigenous people have been egregiously ignored. this is not the way to fix that.
Looks like Alex Jones is finally going old school Anti-semitic. How shocking/s.
It is alarming to me how large (and how many young people are included) and dedicated this man’s audience is.
Like he is moving from dog whistles to a bull horn. That with the “chain migration” scare tactics the Trump Administration just put out that is shared by overtly racist groups like NumbersUSA, how can anyone deny these people are outright fascists?
Urocyon's Jaunts 2.0 
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