Antisemitism? Blame the Jews!

There are always “good reasons” to hate Jews. Today’s reason is Israel.

illustration by Future of Jewish

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This is a guest essay written by Pat Johnson of Pat’s Substack.

You can also listen to the podcast version of this essay on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and Spotify.

Share this essay using the link: https://www.futureofjewish.com/p/antisemitism-blame-the-jews

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Statistics, anecdotal evidence, and every measure imaginable say that antisemitism is at unprecedented levels in Canada, the United States, Europe, Australia, and elsewhere.

Well-intentioned people will respond with the hopeful idea that, when things settle down in the Middle East, antisemitism will recede worldwide.

Less well-intentioned people will celebrate, ignore, or dismiss the phenomenon.

All these people — well-intentioned and ill-intentioned — will probably conclude (with a variation of conscious and unconscious bias) that there are reasons for this surge in antisemitism.

“The war.”

“A regrettable but inevitable acting out by bad people against Jews here because of a conflict involving Jews there.”

“The permission (again, regrettable but perhaps inevitable) granted antisemites to condemn Jewish people under cover of a larger movement that is condemning the Jewish state.”

Whether a product of ingrained antisemitism or a more benign resignation to the inevitability of antisemitism every time conflict flares up in the Middle East, these reactions are premised on a common theme: Jews bring it on themselves. Or, at the very least, that there are reasons for anti-Jewish racism and when those “reasons” recede, so will antisemitism.

Blaming the victim is common in many forms of bias and racism. Nowhere, I suspect, is it more inherent than in antisemitism. Put simply, antisemitism rests on a few main tropes, among them: “If Jews weren’t so (fill in the blank), people wouldn’t hate them.” And: “If a hatred has lasted millennia, there must be something to it.”

Of course, when we name this phenomenon, people will insist they do not consciously think these things. But that is the point. It is not conscious.

The idea that Israel is the cause of antisemitism dovetails with the reality that people have always found seemingly justifiable reasons to hate Jews. Early (and some later) Christians accused Jews of killing Jesus. Medieval Europeans blamed Jews for the Black Plague. Communists identified Jews among the capitalist class and condemned all Jews as capitalists. Capitalists saw Jews among leftist agitators and accused all Jews of being communists.

Jews have been condemned for “refusing” to assimilate into the majority, whether the majority is constituted by religion, race, nationality, or ideology.

It is a strange trait of antisemitism that others will project onto Jews whatever characteristics they hate, fear, or otherwise obsess over. One of the problems is there might be a grain of truth. It has often been possible (in history and today) to identify Jewish capitalists and Jewish communists.

The double irony here should be obvious: If Jews are represented among both capitalists and communists (and every other variation of ideology and identity), how do reasonable people conclude that “all Jews are XYZ”?

More specifically: The very formulation “All [any group] is [XYZ]” is the very definition of prejudice.

The point is this: Antisemites throughout history have always had “good reasons” to hate and attack Jews. Antisemitism has rarely been as instinctual as dogs charging cats. There is always a “logical” explanation.

So to suggest that today’s antisemitism is a (perhaps unfortunate) consequence of the conflict in the Middle East is just a 21st-century version of a very old trend. If we do not know that history, we do not recognize how we fit into that pattern.

There are always “good reasons” to hate Jews. Today’s reason is Israel.

Yet plenty of people in Europe, North America, and elsewhere are absolutely certain: Though the court of popular opinion has been wrong about Jews in the past, this time it is right. Jews, in the form of Israel now, are unequivocally guilty.

Consider: After 2,000 years of condemnation, hatred, and demonization, the Jewish People finally fulfill their ancient dream of renewed self-determination. Then, within a couple of decades, that nation becomes the most condemned, hated, and demonized entity on Earth.

What are the chances that is based on rational premises?

The “rational” suggestion that antisemitism will end when Israel accedes to Palestinian demands bears startling resemblance to the contention that, if Jews would stop killing deities, spreading plague, and eating gentile babies, we will stop hating them.

Even if it was true that Israel is an “oppressor” that bears primary (or all) responsibility for the violence and death in this conflict, we are not off the hook. We are part of a movement that has created a toxic hatred of Israel that, even if it were valid, redirects itself (whether we intend it to or not) and harms Jews around the world. 

Even if we do not care about maimed or dead Israelis — or let’s say that we are not sociopaths but still believe that Israelis are maimed or killed primarily because of Israeli policies or actions — we contribute to a pitch and tenor that has now led to the harming and murder of Jews around the world.

Worse still: When warned of the toxic effects of this violent rhetoric, our response is the most reactionary possible. Told that our Jewish neighbors are justifiably fearing for their safety in part because of the ferocity of our assaults against Israel, the response is usually a refutation: “No, our Jewish neighbors are not actually feeling attacked and threatened; they are lying about it to stop us from criticizing Israel.”

Jewish people and organizations have been explaining this for at least 25 years. And it is not so much that activists have not heard the Jewish community, but that we refuse to listen.

As violence has spiked year on year for two decades now, liberal churches, unions with social justice agendas, social service agencies, “progressive” elected officials, activist groups, and justice-seeking individuals should have been busting down the doors of Jewish organizations to offer support and commiseration.

But I can assure you from working in Jewish organizations, covering this beat for newspapers, and witnessing these “progressive” movements, there have been surprisingly few friends in need.

What has become painfully evident in the past two decades — never more so than with the Women’s March but less blatantly across other “progressive” movements — is that Jewish activists show up for everyone, but hardly anyone shows up for the Jewish People.

Among the Jews who are active on the Left, many are expected to leave their complex identities at the door. In this time of explicitly celebrating intersectionality, this is a demand made of no other group. Just Jews.

We may think that our approach is based on reasoning and not sullied by prejudice, but unless we look deeply into our motives and suppressed biases, we may be fooling ourselves. But introspection is something most activists have obstinately refused to consider when it comes to Israel and Jews.

And why is that? 

Is it antisemitism?

At this point, what difference does it make what we call it?

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