Mairav Zonszein at +972Mag, criticizes a Tel Aviv speech by Elan Carr, the State Department’s special envoy for monitoring and combating anti-Semitism.
Elan Carr, the State Department’s special envoy for monitoring and combating anti-Semitism, told a group of Israelis and Americans Tuesday night that in order to combat anti-Semitism, teaching the Holocaust is not enough. The U.S., he believes, needs to “educate on philo-Semitism.”
This is too much for Zonszein, who then articulates a still new concept of the Left that loving Jews is antisemitic:
Philo-Semitism, which is sometimes referred to as “positive anti-Semitism,” is an inverse form of anti-Semitism that views Jewish stereotypes — including that Jews are smart, rich, and cunning — with admiration. While on its face, philo-Semitism appears to cast Jews in a positive light, it effectively affirms the beliefs of anti-Semites while tokenizing and exceptionalizing Jews, often conflating them with the State of Israel. In its essence, philo-Semitism, like anti-Semitism, sets the Jews apart as a group distinct from society at large, which is precisely what makes it so dangerous.
So, according to the geniuses of the far Left, it is just as bad for people to go to Jewish doctors or lawyers as it is to boycott them. People who want Jewish neighbors are just as bad as those who try to keep them out of their neighborhoods.
In fact, people who love Jews for their perceived scholarship, charity and morality are dangerous, just as bad as those who hate Jews for their perceived greed or ambition.
(There was once an All in the Family episode where bigot Archie Bunker insisted on getting a Jewish lawyer. That kind of “philosemitism” may exist but it is very rare, and even where it exists, it is far better than antisemitism – a true antisemite would refuse to deal with any Jew.)
Zonszein alludes to those who admire Israel as a bastion of success, morality and strength in an ocean of bigotry and hate. And this seems to be the real reason that Leftists hate philosemitism – because loving Israel is inseparable from philosemitism. And loving Israel is the cardinal sin of the far-Left, so it must be redefined into a form of bigotry, the worst insult possible.
The most ridiculous, and telling, criticism of philosemitism is that it “sets the Jews apart as a group distinct from society at large.”
Judaism itself sets Jews apart from the rest of the world!
Jewish law and tradition itself ensures that while Jewish survival depends on a separateness – hence Jewish dietary laws, the prohibition of intermarriage, and countless other examples. It doesn’t mean that Jews cannot exist in the larger non-Jewish world or must live in ghettos; Jews have always been part of the larger society. As a minority, it is important for preservation of the religion and the peoplehood of the Jews to establish some separation.
According to the leftist anti-philosemitism doctrine, Jewish law and tradition is antisemitic.
It gets more absurd. Its says explicitly in the Jewish scripture (Deuteronomy 14:2): “Thou art a holy people unto the LORD thy God, and the LORD hath chosen thee to be His own treasure out of all peoples that are upon the face of the earth.”
God Himself is antisemitic.
(Extending things a little more, the NAACP is racist.)
Obviously, these leftist arguments are ridiculous. Yet is also ironically proves that the Jewish Left is eminently unqualified to speak about antisemitism.
Because, you see, if they are against any sort of Jewish distinction from any other person, that means that they cannot speak as Jews on any topic. They have abrogated their own Jewishness, since their fervent hope is to be indistinguishable from non-Jews. Eating bagels and lox on Sunday mornings is distinction and therefore antisemitic. Synagogues that cater to Jews are antisemitic. Hillels on campus are antisemitic. Being proud of being Jewish is antisemitic.
They want Judaism to disappear so that there is no longer any distinction between Jews and non-Jews. They do not want to consider themselves Jewish at the risk of distinguishing themselves and contributing to antisemitism, in their twisted worldview.
Therefore, since they are against a separate Jewish existence, they have abrogated the right to use the “As A Jew” argument – since the very words “As A Jew” makes them different from non-Jews. The phrase itself is antisemitic according to them. They only use it cynically to bolster their arguments against Judaism and a Jewish nation.
In short, the Jewish Left argument that philosemitism is as dangerous as antisemitism is, by definition, antisemitic.
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