Pumpkin Person writes:
You could be right. Traditionally WASPs had all the power in America so perhaps that’s why there are so many right wing anti-Semites. Also, WASPs represented tradition & Jews caused a lot of social change so that’s another reason antisemites might lean conservative
But I have heard there are a lot of antisemites on the left, particularly among anti war types & the occupy Wall Street crowd.
Antisemites are not really anti-power structure. They are more like, “We Whites used to have all the power until these Jewish bastards stole it all, and we want it back.” And a lot of antisemitic conservatives think Jews are behind the moral ruin in the country.
As far as the notion that there are a lot of antisemites on the Left, that is a great big fat lie pushed by the pro-Israel crowd and US rightwingers. The truth is there are almost no antisemites on the Left other than some Muslims or Arabs, if they would even consider themselves on the Left at all.
There are almost no non-Arab, non-Muslim antisemites on the Left among the antiwar crowd and the Occupy Wall Street folks. The reason is that antisemitism is absolutely not tolerated on the Mainstream Left. It’s seen as poison, and if you start talking that way, they come down on you very hard. If you don’t shut up, soon you are ostracized and thrown out of the Left or out of whatever movement you were with. Most of your Left friends take off.
What you see instead of antisemites are anti-Zionists or the anti-Israel crowd, but generally on the Left, you have to say, “I don’t hate Jews, I just hate Israel or Zionists,” something like that.
It’s uncertain whether anti-Zionism is a form of anti-Semitism at all. The Jews say it is, but so what? Jews say everything is anti-Semitism. Jews probably even think some animals and plants are anti-Semitic. They literally see it everywhere and are always looking under the bed for more.
There are a lot of Israel-haters who differentiate well and refuse to hate Jews per se, but it sort of a tightrope act. And for sure there are a lot of Jew-haters who are wrapping their antisemitism up in anti-Zionism and hatred of Israel. Yes, they hate Zionism, and they very much hate Israel, but they also hate Jews, probably because Jews were behind the former. A lot of Arabs are like that.
