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Title: Why the Jews?
Author: Wayne Price
Date: May 07, 2019
Language: en
Topics: Jewish anarchism, antisemitism
Source: http://anarkismo.net/article/31413

Wayne Price

Why the Jews?

A Jewish joke from World War II: A Nazi officer stopped an old Jewish

man and demanded that he answer, “Who started the war?!” Knowing what

was good for him, the old man answered, “The Jews!” The Nazi nodded, but

the old Jew continued, “…and the bicycle riders.” Puzzled, the officer

asked, “Why the bicycle riders?” The Jew shrugged. “Why the Jews?”

There has recently been an increase in anti-semitic actions in the U.S.,

as well as in other Western countries. From 2017 to 2018, according to

the Anti-Defamation League, attacks on Jews more than doubled, to 39.

All “anti-semitic acts” in this period totaled 1,879. (While recognizing

that Arabs may also be called “semites,” I use “anti-semitic” to mean

“anti-Jewish.”)

On April 27th, 2019, a shooter opened fire on a synagogue during a

passover service, in San Diego County, California. He shot four people,

killing one. Previously he had posted an online statement about how he

wanted to kill Jews. This followed the earlier shoot-up of the Tree of

Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, which killed 11 Jewish

worshippers. And the 2017 torch-lit march of U.S. Nazis and Klanspeople

in Charlotte, Virginia, chanting, “Jews will not replace us!”—which

resulted in one murder and several injured. (NY Times, 5/1/19; p. A22)

This has been surprising to many. In the aftermath of the Nazi genocide

of about 6 million Jews, Jews have done well in U.S. society. Most have

made it into the “middle class,” which is to say have mainly become

upper working class (“white collar” workers and “professionals”) or

small businesspeople. Some have made it into the highest levels of

corporate wealth and power, as well as political power. Through

intermarriage and cultural assimilation, Jews have been dissolving into

white America—much to the dismay of Jewish religious leaders. (I am

myself a humanistic, secular, Jew, married to someone who is only partly

Jewish, and our nonreligious son married a non-Jew.) The U.S.

establishment right (Republican party, evangelical churches, etc.)

speaks of “America’s Judeo-Christian heritage.” Evangelical Christians

are among the strongest supporters of Israel.

This is why it was so astonishing when the President of the United

States, Donald J. Trump, would not denounce the U.S. Nazis for their

Charlotte manifestation. (Instead, he said there were “good people on

both sides”—fascists and anti-fascists—as well as “bad people on both

sides.”) In horrified reaction, the Nazis were denounced by leading

right wing politicians, religious leaders, the biggest of the corporate

rich, and top military officers. As a whole, the U.S. ruling class was

not prepared to endorse anti-semitic fascism—at this time anyway.

The rise in anti-semitism is connected to the general rise in racism,

nativism, homophobia, misogyny, and overall hate-filled political

“tribalism,” of which Trump is both a symptom and an encourager. U.S.

(and world) society has been roiled by economic crises, long-term

stagnation, spreading areas of poverty, environmental crises, the

looming threat of climate catastrophe, wars around the world, and a

massive increase in the migration of people from nation to nation. These

tensions have increased political stalemate in the governments of the

U.S. and other states. (Why these problems have arisen and increased in

this period is another question. See Price 2012.) There is massive

discontent in all sectors of U.S. society. There has been a political

polarization, with Nazis marching on one hand, while alternately there

has been an increase in acceptance of various minorities (sexual,

religious, cultural, etc.), opposition to racism and nativism, the

MeToo movement, and the growth of an openly “socialist” movement. The

“middle” falls away and extremism grows on the Right and the Left

(speaking as an extremist of the anarchist Left).

The man who assaulted the San Diego synagogue claimed that he had set a

fire at a neighboring mosque. He was inspired, he wrote, by the gunman

who attacked two New Zealand mosques in March. The murderer who attacked

the Tree of Life Synagogue wrote that he was enraged because a Jewish

agency helped Latinx asylum seekers. “White nationalists” do not limit

their mad hatred to Jews. (President Trump, who would not denounce the

Nazis at Charlotte, has focused his racist hostility on Muslims and on

Latinx people.)

But why do they include Jews at all? Jews are a tiny part of the

population (1.5%) and are almost all white. The increase in racist,

nativist, etc. tensions has not caused a return to bigotry against

Catholics, who were once oppressed and discriminated against. The Klan

used to be virulently anti-Catholic. We might expect anti-immigrant

fanatics to notice that the Catholic Church has generally been

pro-immigrant and that Latinx asylum-seekers are mostly Catholic.

Despite this, there has been no rise in anti-Catholicism. Similarly,

there is still a good deal of anti-Mormon feeling in the U.S. (which

surfaced during Romney’s presidential run). Yet no one has marched,

chanting, “Mormons won’t replace us.”

Nor does fascism absolutely have to be anti-semitic. The original

Italian fascism of Mussolini was not (until their German allies insisted

on it). Even in the U.S., there has been non-anti-semitic fascism. For

example, Randall Terry of the anti-choice Operation Rescue, advocated

the overthrow of bourgeois democracy and its replacement with a

theocratic dictatorship—with him and his friends to speak for God, of

course. This may imply anti-semitism—the theocracy would have been

“Christian”after all—but was not explicit about it.

So, then, why the Jews?

“Traditional” Anti-Semitism

The causes of anti-semitism may be divided into two groups. One is the

traditional causes, applied to today’s tensions. The other is affected

by a new factor, namely the state of Israel. Let me start with the first

group of motives. (Of course, it is not anti-semitic for Christians,

Muslims, or atheists simply to disagree with the Jewish religion or even

to try to convert Jews to their views.)

Nationalists seek a mythical homogeneous nation, a single people, the

same clear through. Such an imagined unity serves to disguise the real

divisions in the country between capitalists and workers, among other

divisions. This search for homogeneity may seem ridiculous in the U.S.,

where everyone is descended from immigrants except Native Americans. But

one thing almost everyone had in common for generations was that they

were Christians. Except for the Jews, who not only were not Christians

of any type but who had “rejected” Christianity. For all the talk of a

“Judeo-Christian civilization,” the Jews do not quite fit into a

homogeneous America. Those seeking such a mystical national unity are

likely to react to this. (This is also a reason for fascists to reject

Muslims, despite talk of there being three “Abrahamic religions.”)

An essential part of fascist ideology is the existence of a secret cabal

which rules from behind the scenes, seeking total control and world

domination. In fact there is a powerful minority which rules from behind

the scenes, namely the capitalist class (despite its divisions and

factions). This is not, however, a conspiracy. It is a social system.

The fascist belief in an evil elite conspiracy both includes elements of

reality (since there is elite minority power) and fantasy (which directs

attention away from the actual rulers, the corporate rich).

Who could be projected as a secret but powerful elite? White

nationalists see African-Americans as the enemy. But their stereotypical

fantasy about African-Americans is of stupid and lazy people. Using this

absurd lie, the racists cannot then portray Black people as a powerful,

smart, wily, elite who rule great institutions. The same goes for their

prejudiced images of Latinx, Arabs, and most People of Color. (Asians

might be another matter).

But the historical stereotypes about Jews fit what the fascists need for

their ideology. The Jews are supposed to be smart, sly, tricky, selfish,

sticking-together, greedy, great at business, rich, and so on. There are

centuries of prejudiced imagery about them, from the original Christian

religious hostility, to crackpot racial theories developed in the 20th

century.

There have been attempts to invent others to fit the image of the secret

cabal. Jerry Falwell of the Moral Majority movement tried to talk up the

“secular humanists” who were out to take over the U.S. But this never

caught on. There are other imagined conspiracies such as the

“Illuminati.” But the Jews are already here and are “available” to be

portrayed as the evil conspiracy—distracting the working population from

the real ruling elite, the bourgeoisie and their agents.

Therefore, when this society starts to go into crisis, it should not be

surprising that the far right should raise the Jews as the terrible

conspiracy which is out to “replace us.”

Anti-Zionism and Anti-Semitism

After World War II, a new factor arose to effect anti-semitism. This was

the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948, fulfilling the Zionist

program. Previously, many people hated the Jews (as a people and as

individuals) for no justifiable reason—that was anti-semitism. Now many

people hated the state of Israel for good and justifiable

reasons—anti-Zionism. These two conceptions interacted in various ways.

Israel was established mostly by Europeans immigrating into a poor,

colonized, “Third World,” country. The colonizers took over the country,

taking the land, driving out most of the native population and

dominating the rest. They established their own state, defined as the

state of “the Jewish people” and not of all those who lived in the

country. They set up a capitalist economy and became part of the world

market. Economically, militarily, and politically, the Israeli state

became closely tied to U.S. imperialism. It served as the U.S.’s agent

in the region, when needed.

One of its chief justifications has been the Holocaust, the murder of

millions of Jews by the Nazis. However, Israel was not built on German

land nor did it expel local Germans. It was built on land on which

Palestinian Arabs lived, who had had nothing to do with the German

state’s genocide of Jews.

Establishing a “Jewish state” has not done what the Zionists had hoped

for. It has not become a “safe haven” for persecuted Jews. In fact, Jews

are more in danger in Israel than in many other countries—certainly than

in the U.S., despite the upswing in anti-semitic acts. It has not served

as a magnet to draw all the Jews of the world into “their” country. Most

Jews in the U.S. or Europe have no intention of leaving their countries

to migrate there. On the contrary, many Israelis are migrating out.

Finally, Israel was to make the Jews safe by no longer having to rely on

the non-Jewish states. But the Israeli state depends completely on the

support of Western capitalist (non-Jewish) states. If the U.S. were ever

to cut its financial and military support of Israel, it would be the end

of the Zionist institution.

The Palestinians, and other Arabs as well as Muslims, have opposed the

Israeli state from the beginning. They objected to being disposed from

their land and their country. They have been right to struggle as a

people (most of which is peasants and workers, as well as small

merchants). It is only just that anarchists, radicals, and progressive

people everywhere have also opposed the Israeli state and generally been

in solidarity with the Palestinian people. (Being in solidarity with an

oppressed people does not necessarily mean agreeing with the political

and strategic programs of the leaders of various factions. In

particular, anarchists do not agree with nationalism as a program,

either for the Jews or for the Palestinians.)

Not surprisingly, many (not all) Palestinians and their supporters think

in nationalistic, bloc, terms. Just as the Zionists saw all Germans as

“Nazis,” and all Palestinians as supposed “terrorists,” so many

Palestinians and others see Zionists as “the Jews.” It is true that the

Israeli state is overwhelming supported by its Jewish citizens. And

Jewish people in the U.S. and Europe also give large-scale support to

Israel. Official Jewish institutions, religious and political, are

strongly in support of Israel. The pro-Israel lobby is a powerful

influence on the U.S. government.

Still, it is a terrible mistake to see all Jews as Zionists and to see

the Jewish people as the same as the Zionist state. This overlooks the

many Jews who have supported the Palestinian cause. It overlooks the

young Jews who have less of an attachment to Israel. It ignores the many

Jews who support the Boycott, Divest, and Sanctions movement against

Israel. It ignores the fact that most Jews in the U.S. and Europe,

whatever their views, have no control over the actions of the Israeli

state and gain no benefits from its existence.

Some supporters of the Palestinians are definitely also anti-semites.

But there are many supporters of the Palestinians who may sometimes make

anti-semitic mistakes. But anti-semitism is not central to their

anti-Zionism or important to these people.

It is different with the overt Jew haters, such as U.S. Nazis. It goes

without saying that they have no genuine sympathy for the Palestinians.

White nationalists despise Arabs and Muslims. They use anti-Zionism as a

cover for their anti-semitism. They exaggerate the power that Israel has

in the world, in order to make the Jews seem more frightening. They

portray Israel as controlling U.S. foreign (and domestic) policy. While

the Left condemns Israel as an agent of U.S. imperialism in the Middle

East, the Right condemns Israel as a major world power which dominates

the U.S.

Despite occasional differences between the U.S. and Israel, U.S

politicians support the Israeli state because they think that this is in

the interests of U.S. imperialism.

There are activists and theorists on the U.S. Left whose anti-Zionism

goes over into anti-semitism. There are even self-styled “anarchists”

(calling themselves “National Anarchists”) who are anti-semites and

fascists. Keith Preston’s website, “Attack the System,” includes ads for

their literature and reports on their conferences (see Price 2017). But

they are a tiny current and much less important than the overtly

right-wing fascists.

Zionists try to equate anti-semitism on the left with that on the right.

They seek to make all opposition to Israel seem the same as

anti-semitism. For example, Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan

Greenblatt said, “Neither side of the political spectrum is exempt from

intolerance. The idea that this is a problem with only one side is

wrong,” However, the ADL’s own statistics found that of the 1,879

anti-semitic acts committed in the U.S. in 2018, 71 % were done by

rightists. No such acts (0 %) were committed by left-wing individuals.

Four were committed by “Islamist” individuals. (Adkins 2019) The danger

to U.S. Jews is primarily from the right.

Political Conclusions

The danger of an anti-semitic, racist, fascism arises during a period of

decline, chaos, and increased popular suffering. From below, people look

for answers, and some (perhaps many) are attracted to the right,

including the far-right. Meanwhile, from above, sections of the

capitalist class must conclude that the (relatively) “democratic” system

is not working to their advantage, that there is a threat from leftists,

workers, People of Color, women, and others—a threat which must be

repressed. Then the capitalists become willing to “hire” the fascists to

take over the state.

We are not at that stage. There is a large turn to the right, as

expressed in the approximately 40 % of the population which supports

Trump no matter what, as they closely follow Fox News. These people are

mostly not fascists. They do not want to overthrow the capitalist

representative democracy. But they are supportive of authoritarianism in

various ways, and motivated by nativism and racism. Meanwhile big

business circles are certainly not prepared to overturn capitalist

democracy. But they have supported Trump and put up with his vile

racism.

If the future brings prosperity, social peace, and stability, then the

danger of fascism—and the concomitant upsurge of anti-semitism—will die

down. But if the next period holds social decay, economic decline and

crises, environmental catastrophes, increasing wars, and further

instability—as I believe it does—then we can expect further political

discontent and polarization. This will mean a political decline of the

conventional “middle.” There would be an increase of an authoritarian

right (including fascists) and a socialist left (both a

libertarian/radically-democratic Left and an authoritarian-statist

Left). Anti-semitism can be expected to grow on the right.

Therefore opposition to anti-semitism should mean opposition to fascism

and the political right. More, opposition to anti-semitism means

opposition to capitalism and the struggle for a better social system of

cooperation, production for use, participatory democracy, and ecological

balance.

Anti-semitism must be an integral part of all progressive struggles. It

must be fought as part of the decaying capitalist political culture,

along with white nationalism, nativism, sexism, homophobia, class

privilege, Islamaphobia, and all forms of prejudice and irrational

hatred. The real enemy is the capitalist ruling class, its state, and

all forms of oppression.

Anti-Zionism is not in itself anti-semitism. Solidarity with the

Palestinian people and opposition to the Israeli state should be part of

an internationalist program of liberation. But anti-Zionism must not be

allowed to be used as a cover for a real program of hatred for Jews.

Anti-semitism cannot be treated as a problem in itself, distinct from

the other tensions of a crisis-ridden capitalist society. It will only

be ended when all forms of exploitation and oppression are ended.

References

Adkins, Laura E. (2019). “Right-Wing Responsible For 71% Of

Anti-Semitic, Extremist Incidents: ADL”

https://forward.com/fast-forward/423538/right-wing-responsible-fo...-adl/

Price, Wayne (2012). “Living through the Decline of Capitalism.”

https://www.anarkismo.net/article/24227

Price, Wayne (2017). “A Conference of the ‘National Anarchists.’ “

https://www.anarkismo.net/article/30386