Dems Need to Speak Out Against Anti-Semitism at Occupy Protests

[Odysseus]

Dems Need to Speak Out Against Anti-Semitism at Occupy Protests

Jonathan Neumann | @NeumannJ 10.28.2011 - 1:50 PM
http://www.commentarymagazine.com/20...cupy-protests/







A British MP, John Mann, has tabled an early day motion in Parliament blasting “the anti-Semitic nature” of the Occupy protests in London, noting that signs referring to “Hitler’s Bankers” and “Google Jewish Billionaires” – which also are at Occupy Wall Street (see here and here) – “are offensive and have no place at such protests.”

Furthermore, the motion notes, “the verbal or physical abuse of Jews by demonstrators is unacceptable,” also a feature of Occupy Wall Street.

Granted, John Mann, as the leader of the All-Parliamentary Group Against Anti-Semitism and the recipient of the AJC’s 2009 Jan Karski award, keeps a closer eye than most on anti-Semitism in Britain and elsewhere. But he is also a Labour Party politician and a trade union man, and therefore a more likely sympathizer with the protests. If he is able, politics aside, to speak out against anti-Semitism at the Occupy protests, then why not Democratic leaders here, too?

[Gina]

Granted, John Mann, as the leader of the All-Parliamentary Group Against Anti-Semitism and the recipient of the AJC’s 2009 Jan Karski award, keeps a closer eye than most on anti-Semitism in Britain and elsewhere. But he is also a Labour Party politician and a trade union man, and therefore a more likely sympathizer with the protests. If he is able, politics aside, to speak out against anti-Semitism at the Occupy protests, then why not Democratic leaders here, too?

It seems to be all about bread and butter in the US.

[Zathras]

They're there because the Occutards are all for the anti-Jewish rhetoric, as well as the rioting that's going on by the anarchists. If they were against this behavior then they would come out and condemn the actions of these people and try to distance themselves from them. However, with the dead silence of the Occutard leadership on this subject, the only conclusion one can come to is that they not only condone these activities but also welcome the people doing it with open arms as brothers and sisters in their struggle against "The Man".

[Odysseus]

They're there because the Occutards are all for the anti-Jewish rhetoric, as well as the rioting that's going on by the anarchists. If they were against this behavior then they would come out and condemn the actions of these people and try to distance themselves from them. However, with the dead silence of the Occutard leadership on this subject, the only conclusion one can come to is that they not only condone these activities but also welcome the people doing it with open arms as brothers and sisters in their struggle against "The Man".

There is a long history of antisemitism on the left. Prior to WWII, the western European left was uniformly pacifist, and opposed any preparation for a possible war with Germany. When Jewish refugees from Germany warned of Hitler's rearmament and rhetoric, the response among the intelligentsia in France (where many refugees settled) was that Jews were trying to stir up war with Germany for financial gain. After WWII, antisemitism was no longer in vogue, so the left dropped it and pretended that it had never been, or ever would be, antisemitic. The association of the Nazis with the right was a deliberate ploy by the left, which began under orders from Stalin during the 1930s, by calling the Nazis "Fascists" (after Mussolini's Fascisti Party), and never writing out the full name of the Nazi Party, so as to minimize their socialist, and therefore leftist, credentials. This is how the left framed antisemitism as a rightist attitude. Today, the most vociferous and strident critics of Israel and Jews are Muslims, who have been embraced by the left as "authentic" opponents to western hegemony, despite their utter lack of solidarity with proclaimed leftist goals regarding racism, sexism or religious freedom. The left has come full circle.

[noonwitch]

I have never understood anti-semitism, other than to guess it has to be based on some type of jealousy. I've never met a jewish person that I didn't like and respect. We would not have a symphony in Detroit if it wasn't for the jewish people who financially support it or the one jewish guy (Max Fisher) who paid for Orchestra Hall to be restored before his death (and for the attached DPS School for the Performing Arts).


Max Fisher (a republican whom the DU mocked at his death) did all this for a city that probably at this point in time has fewer than 100 jewish residents. He did it because he had the money and saw the need.

[Odysseus]

I have never understood anti-semitism, other than to guess it has to be based on some type of jealousy. I've never met a jewish person that I didn't like and respect. We would not have a symphony in Detroit if it wasn't for the jewish people who financially support it or the one jewish guy (Max Fisher) who paid for Orchestra Hall to be restored before his death (and for the attached DPS School for the Performing Arts).


Max Fisher (a republican whom the DU mocked at his death) did all this for a city that probably at this point in time has fewer than 100 jewish residents. He did it because he had the money and saw the need.

Antisemitism used to be based on religious hatred and was often whipped up by the church. However, since the end of WWII, almost every mainstream church has recanted prior doctrines which encouraged antisemitism. The only major religion today that preaches antisemitic doctrine is Islam.

Political antisemitism comes from the association of Judaism with western civilization and capitalism. You can generally tell if a movement is virulently anti-western by how it discusses Jews.