I wrote this several years ago for the CT. More relavent now than ever.
Several explanations have been offered to account for the anti-Semitism that plagues sections of the Labour Party. More than one of them might be valid. For example, there is within the Labour Party an element characterized by a visceral rejection of all things Western and capitalist. Since Israel is both of these to some extent, they reject what it stands for, and equate pro-Jewish as pro-Israel.
Similarly, support for the aims of the Palestinian peoples is seen as supporting the underdog against the might of an oppressive capitalist predator bent on conquest and oppression. Both elements explain some, but not all, of anti-Semitism within Labour’s ranks. But there is a much larger element, one people find it difficult to discuss. It is the elephant in the room that people pretend is not there, and the name of that elephant is Islam.
In a significant number of parliamentary seats in the UK, a Labour majority depends on a Moslem vote that breaks heavily in its favour. Labour candidates can bid for that vote by expressing anti-Israeli and, by association, anti-Jewish sentiments and prejudices. Jeremy Corbyn and his allies know that a future Labour government can only be achieved with Muslim support, and from this derives their reluctance to condemn the virulent anti-Semitic groups and their spokespersons.
Of course, educated and cultured Muslims are no more prone to bigoted prejudice than their educated and cultured Christian counterparts, but in neither groups do these constitute a majority. Fanaticism is there to be bid for, and so long as Labour bids for it, it will be plagued by anti-Semitism. The elephant is still there, even if everyone agrees not to look at it or to name it.
’twas brillig and the slithy toves
did gyre and gimbal in the wabe…
Richard
Tis the cause in Oz as well.
“Of course, educated and cultured Muslims are no more prone to bigoted prejudice than their educated and cultured Christian counterparts, but in neither groups do these constitute a majority. ”
Bollocks. Point me to the part of the Christian community that goes around blowing people up in the name of Christ. Or throwing gays and blasphemers off tall buildings.
Equating Christianity and Islam as both having ‘cultured minorities’ is libel in the extreme on the Christians. There is no equivalent in Christianity today of Islam is, a violent backward ideology that divides the world into believers and sub human nonbelievers and if it wasn’t espoused by brown people and purport to come from a sky fairy would be banned as a hate crime.
I was told in the late 1980s that Israel would become the new South Africa.
Much of this hatred came about because Israel committed the heresy of a ) not voting socialist b) defending itself offensively ( eg in Lebanon )
As you rightly say, it is the taking on of the victim’s mantle that causes extremists on the left to throw the baby out with bathwater and go full anti Semitic.
Islam was a civilised ideology 1000 years ago, but only because they had conquered and absorbed more civilised societies such as the Persians or the outer Byzantine territories.
The Aunty Semitism elephant is frequently acknowledged, there’s been a lot of media reports about it in the UK of late. Personally, I love Jews but they’re their own worst enemies always, and I couldn’t eat a whole one.
Rarely acknowledged is the Anti-Goyish elephant, which is hiding behind the curtains in embarrassment. Europe, the United States and Canada are lousy with Jewish organisations facilitating open borders and massive brown immigration flows for white nations only. This is not a friendly or sane thing to do. We need allies like Stephen Miller, but I’d guess about 80% of Jews agree with Jonathan “Refugees Welcome Here” Sacks.
Now the consequences of several decades of Jewish political preferences have come round to bite them. It’s not boys called Gaston and Gregory attacking synagogues and beheading priests in the former France, but the Diversity most Jews passionately wanted and still want.
If someone sticks their dick in a cheesegrater on purpose, and then cries about the painful antisemitism, what should we do? Get your dick out of the cheesegrater, Moshe.
Steve, I’m not sure it’s 80% of Jews but it’s certainly a substantial proportion. Hermer is a poster-boy for this shit. What causes this psychosis? For that is what it is. It’s a great mystery: people culturally equipped and with the history to know better being ineffably foolish.
Reading Sowell’s potted biography of Marx it appears to involve a deep-seated loathing of traditional Jewish culture its stereotype, but why must the reaction be so self-harming, and catastrophic for the rest of us?
Thousands of English girls raped and tortured by Muslims in England every year for decades:
” Won’t somebody think of the Jews!”
Norman – What causes this psychosis?
Hatred of white Christians and the civilisation they created.
Here’s the handsome Jewish actress who used to play Blossom casually admitting to insane ethnic paranoia:
Last week, I needed some stickers for my son’s 8th birthday party favors, so I walked into this store. I wasn’t 10 feet into the store when I was distracted by the music playing from the speakers. A woman with a beautiful voice sang, “Lord, you are the answer. Jesus Christ you are the answer…” or something roughly like that. I absolutely know that “Jesus Christ” was in the lyrics, because if I just heard the word “Lord” I might have intellectually understood that the artist probably meant Jesus since musicians writing about the “Lord” in songs with a country/gospel twang typically mean Jesus. But emotionally, I had a different reaction. More on that later.
I was dumbfounded. I wandered aimlessly about for a second, not knowing what to do, and I finally found my way to the front counter where I asked for the manager. Through what must have looked like an unstable woman’s smile/grimace, I asked her why they were playing Christian music. She said to me, in the most unfortunate and uncomfortable misunderstanding of my week, “Why aren’t we playing Christian music?”
I laughed with tremendous awkwardness and said, “No – you are playing Christian music. This song playing right now is about Jesus Christ; she’s singing about Jesus Christ.” She didn’t look at all pleased and said, “This is our playlist. This is what we play at our stores.” I was shocked. I couldn’t stop my mouth from saying the words, “I don’t want to shop here,” and I stumbled out the door.
There was much more kvetching and dishonest oy-veying in this vein, but you get the idea. Imagine having a Hebraic meltdown at hearing the name of Our Lord Jesus on the radio. And then writing about that meltdown with zero self awareness. It would be like me running out of Marks and Spencer’s Food Hall in tears because they played “Money, Money, Money” by ABBA
Emily Maitlis calls Rupert Lowe a ‘racist’ for talking about Muslim rape gangs:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8d3IRCIAWDQ
I wonder what her reaction would have been if they’d been playing Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan? More to the point, why is this idiotic woman so insecure that she feels threatened by some loudspeakers in a store blaring a woman singing about Jesus? Fucking hell, get some perspective, woman. No wonder we blokes think you a bunch of irrational hysterics. You prove yourselves such every day.
Emily Maitlis. Another Hermeresque Jewess. Same psychosis. Mind you, back in the day, I would have…
Norman
When she used to do the local BBC London news she was pretty hot especially in her short skirts. I used to make a point of watching. But that was 30 years ago.
She seems to have turned into Maureen Lipman’s Beattie
Being liberal and assimilated didn’t save the Jews of Vienna and it won’t save the likes of Hermet or Mandy when the caliphate comes.
There’s a weak joke about why Ukraine has never produced a Nobel winner in the sciences. Because they did a better job of any of exterminating their Jews.
Almost works for Slovakia, the odd one out Lennart being a nazi party man.
But there’s no way to win with Jews. Persecute them and they retreat into capital that is portable under persecution, jewellery and especially education, team work culture and bullying parenting, so wherever they show up in the world they earn more than the natives. And that makes for jealousy and resentment even.
Don’t persecute them and they’ll gradually lose the culture that makes them rich over the centuries but who wants to wait that long.
Blimey! Some equal opportunities racism and misanthropy on here today.
philip – Some equal opportunities racism and misanthropy on here today.
And rightly so. I hate it when people are discriminatory in their racism. Our racism should be open, generous and inclusive of *all* smelly, stupid foreigners, from Avars to Zulus.
Norman – Rachel Riley is also a cutie. Obviously mental, but so was Carol.
Two from the top please.
The problem with people like Maitlis is that they’re never going to live near rape gangs, none of their friends live near rape gangs. It’s why all these people didn’t care to even do the tiniest bit of digging when it started.
It’s like how people talk about Dresden now from decades later in a safe, comfortable country. I doubt you could find more than a handful of people in Britain in 1945 who opposed it. Or why they think Israel is being so unreasonable about Gaza. I don’t. I think Israel is being very restrained, and frankly, nice about it. The population of Gaza all support killing and raping of Jews. What do you do with such people? Do you want them living next door, supporting that?
Naah, philip, I’m just curious how it is that Jews, who as a race have been and are so outstandingly beneficial to mankind, also espouse in alarmingly large numbers one of the worst, if not the very worst, ideologies mankind has ever invented.
Actually, I can answer my own question. Marxist and Progressive Jews have high religiosity, but having rejected formal, religious Judaism and traditional Jewish culture, express it in those secular religions instead. Chesterton was right.
It is always fun when you mention the existence of anti-gentile racism and inevitably get accused of being racist* tho.
Pavlov has really earned his crust with some people.
*NTTAWWT
Mark Steyn excoriates Simon Schama for laughing at the idea of Muslim rape gangs:
https://youtu.be/-zHoDANH-R8?t=261
Socialism has always been anti-semitic, even the jewish socialists.
It stems from Karl Marx.
https://nicktimothy.com/help-me-to-defeat-labours-rigged-islamophobia-consultation/
I’d wholeheartedly agree with some of the comments here. And I speak from the perspective of someone who grew up in a very Jewish part of London. A third of the kids in my class at school were Jewish. I’m not but Judaism is as much part of my culture as is it is there’s. I speak a fair smattering of Yiddish & can easily pass as a Jew amongst Jews And have done when it suits me.
I think what’s been said is very true about secular Jews. Yes they have cleaved towards the socialist end of the political spectrum. Part of the reason, no doubt, because of the historic antisemitism prevalent amongst what were the British upper- middle, ruling/landed classes. The “Not in the golf club Old Chap” constituancy. So they’ve tended to feel discriminated against & have espoused anti-discrimination movements. But, on the other hand, they display discrimination against non Jews. The disapproval of dating out, let alone marrying out. The favoritism towards fellow Jews in employment, commerce etc. The religion is actually set up to keep them separate. The proscription against “work” on the sabbath. “Work” including using any sort of vehicle or carrying something. So the necessity to live within walking distance of the synagogue & thus ghettoisation. Kosher which requires patronising only Jewish shops has the same effect And that’s without the black hat ultra-frummer mob in places like London’s Stamford Hill. Who want absolutely nothing do with anyone but their own community & are actively hostile to outsiders.
So Jews have always tended to try & ride two horses. To be actively anti-discriminatory in their own interests whilst discriminating in favour of their own & against non-Jews.
And a personal theory. Jews have long been over represented in areas like the liberal arts, literature, the law, politics etc because they take to them like a duck to water. Unlike Christianity & Islam, their “Book” is not regarded as the uncontested Word of God!. They have no Steves. The words are regarded as the work of men & open to interpretation. Endless interpretation. Hence as two Jews about anything & you’re likely to get at least three opinions. They’re brought up doing this shit. I was reading the press on the ignoble Lord Hermer today. Yeah, I’ve no doubt he can craft any meaning he cares to out of “International” & other law. Read his Wiki entry. He’s followed the usual well worn track.
The historic antisemitism prevalent amongst what were the British upper- middle, ruling/landed classes was not antisemitism, it was anti-*classism*. Can’t have DeVere in the golf club, old man, he’s a *GROCER*! Have you met Solly, he’s in consultant osteopathy, I’m proposing him at the board meeting next week, Patel’s seconding him.
Historic? When you talking about, jgh? Last week?
Also I don’t think your really understand the English class system. Maybe you’re not English? There’d be no impediment to a grocer joining the golf club. Might even be on the committee if he had the time for it. It’s about are you one of us? And for the purposes of the golf club he could be one of them. Established business they depend on. They probably know him, personally. Although he might not be one of them for his son marrying their daughter. But neither Solly or Patel are one of them. They don’t go to the village church, they’re not the same culture. It was never about money. And it worked the same lower on the social ladder. The working (not shirking) class knew who they were. People like them with a common culture. And again not about money. You could become rich but that didn’t necessarily mean that you left or were ejected from it.
Why does everyone suddenly think golf clubs are ‘posh’? They’re full of the most tedious social climbing Hyacinth Bucket types possible. The sort that think because they can afford detached house in a ‘posh’ area and a Jag or a Merc on the drive they’re something special. The actual upper/ruling/landed classes wouldn’t be seen dead in a golf club.