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Notes -
What is the Zionist model of antisemitism*?
Matt Yglesias posted what turned out to be a surprisingly hot take that the downturn in public opinion of Israel is a result of Israeli actions, and that the best way for Israel to fix its public relations problem is to change its actions vis-a-vis the Palestinian issue and foreign policy.
I was surprised at the pushback. This seems straightforwardly true. There was a great chart I saw a few days ago, which I am unfortunately unable to find, which showed that public opinion of Israel has been approximately this low before. It was in 1982 with the invasion of Lebanon and the notoriously brutal siege of Beirut.
Most of the alternative theories fell into two camps.
It’s hard to tell how religious the people in 2. are, but my general impression is, “quite a bit”. Many of them seem to speak of antisemitism as if it were a spiritual fault, another manifestation of the platonic ideal of pure evil. Seen as a spiritual problem, the correct response is to become even more aggressively Jewish. This has the rather large problem of being counterproductive when, e.g. smashing idols goes wrong.
*By “antisemitism” in this post I almost exclusively mean “antizionism”. I use the term to maintain consistency with the pro-Israel literature I am engaging with, not as an endorsement that antizionism = antisemitism.
I think that both Yglesias but also Peter Savodnik are correct: the current wave of antizionism/antisemitism or however you call it is at the same time caused by behaviour of Israel but also independent of it.
I actually saw this argument from Nick Fuentes couple of months ago, when I watched couple of interviews with him around the time he was on Piers Morgan, just to see what he is about. He described himself as being such pro-American nationalists, as Zionists (including US Zionists) are pro Israel. Israel defines itself as literal Jewish state in its declaration of independence, where you have automatic citizenship as soon as prove your Jewish origin - so an ethnostate if you consider Jews as an ethnicity. It also has explicitly religious underpinnings observing sabbath in public places or outsourcings significant parts of the public life to religious sphere such as marriages (e.g. it is impossible to be gay married inside Israel, you have to travel abroad). It is also unapologetically colonial state in nature, although they use the word "pioneer" or reclamation of land lost thousands of years ago in their form of Manifest Destiny - the reclamation of the Promised Land. It is a state where you have public discussions around immigration, national security, threat of fertility of non-Jewish population toward the primary function of the state as safe haven for Jews to prevent potentiality of another Holocaust and all that.
I think there was an inevitable clash between Israel and current predominant leftist culture. Any other western adjacent nation with similar policies is immediately labeled as ultranationalist or fascist state. Was it also caused by Israel through their behavior since basically 19th century? Of course - but only tangentially. The same critique would be leveled against Israel no matter what. Heck even countries like Ireland or Finland can be blamed for colonialism or be target of such a rhetoric, so there is no defense against that.
I think Fuentes is onto something when he says that the power of Holocaust as a story is weakening, it no longer serves as a shield for a free pass. Israel is viewed as a western democracy, Jews are white colonizers and they are oppressors and not oppressed. I can use hilarious example of Whoopi Goldberg who usually claims that everybody is racist - of course except Hitler, who only engaged in white-on-white conflict of Germans against Jews. And she said it whole year before October 7 and Gaza War. This was at least unspoken ethos and pathos inside significant part of the left, it only strengthened after Gaza war.
People are pissed off because they are having seriously doubt about whether their elites (even the "American first" ones) are more beholden to a small minority group and a different country their own population. Both democrats and republicans (and their counterparts in Europe) are willing to throw away every value they claim to uphold, and humiliate themselves to an extreme degree in defence of this one country.
Which other group than zionist will have republicans talking about safe spaces on campus? Which other group than zionist will make democrats eager to collaborate with Donald Trumps ICE to have students homes raided on campus? Which other country than Israel will have such undying loyalty that the US ambassador (and their european labdogs) pull out of a Nagasaki peace ceremony to commemoratate the nuclear bombs on Japan, because said country was disinvited?
These are not normal behaviors. And I think its undercommunicated how much this servility towards Israel from both sides of the political spectrum is pushing people towards both antizionism and antisemittism.
Oh yes, this is the Fuentes critique I was talking about. It is unironically impressive how successful "Israel First" policy is. Their politicians were able to wrap foreign dignitaries around their fingers and train them like dogs to implement their policies. The point being that people like Fuentes admire this chutzpah, they want USA to become the same. Everybody will bow to US supremacy under cross or some such. People in UN should be in awe and they should persecute antiamericanism and christophobia with the same if not greater zeal as antisemitism even as Americans bomb their adversaries to stone age. All media from NYT and WSJ and Fox or whatever will be united in this righteous messaging, EU diplomats and their regional media will parrot it in the same way they lap the current propaganda. It will be amazing.
I was commenting on leftists. For them Israel is yet another white supremacist western colonizer, they do not admire Israel at all. In a sense Gaza war does not matter, the moral standard is "historical oppression" and history is unchanged - Palestinians were and always will be historically colonized and oppressed even if they clear Palestine from the river to the sea. This is what Yglesias vs Savodnik discussion is about.
This is imo a strawman version of the leftist position that seems entirely derived from zionist interpretation (not saying you are a zionist, but most of your sources for this probably are). Yglesias used to openly advocate for the full ethnic cleansing of palestinians from Gaza. He is by all accounts a jewish supremacist, and frequently strawmans both the left and right anti-Israel position. But he is seeing the writings on the wall and trying to stake a position on Israel that is less repugnant for the average non jewish supremacists.
I am active in my local pro-Palestinian community. There are all walks of life here (including quite a few formerly zionist christians), but leftist dominate. The wider leftist position is quickly becoming the normie position because it is actually very defensible: "dont send money and weapons to a country full of religious nuts who believe they are justified in getting revenge on a defenceless population full of children". You honestly dont need to have any positive ideas about Palestine to reach this conclusion at all.
Most people are just horrified by Israels relentless violence towards the women and children of Palestine, and even more horrified by all the supposedly good people who are defending it. I dont think I have heard the word "historical oppression" once, and no one pretends that Palestinians are saints who can do no wrong. Nearly all advocacy is aimed at the innocent children in Gaza and excludes anyone who could possibly be a militant. Leftist have many terrible positions, but this is not one of them.
I don’t believe it’s a strawman. Yes you want to say it’s a strawman because it improves your arguments and makes it more prestigious.
But Jews are just “rich white people” is the only thing that connects all the issues the left has promoted recently. Third Worlders versus successful white people. DEI, BLM, etc common thread is that they attack richer, better, smarter white people who win. Brown people without a white enemy to attack never matter to the left.
When you only promote issues where they hurt white men then it seems apparent you just want to hurt white men.
Now I will admit there are always some with pure intentions. Some black people in blm. In this issue you have some pure Islamists who want to do river to the sea Jews will be gone because they rightfully view Israel as historically Muslim land and want to reconquista which is their right. And are using American leftists white man haters for their Muslim goals.
Support for Israel has taken a nose dive in every group except republicans over 50. If you think this is all due to Third Worlders I dont know what to tell you. People are increasingly seing the behavior of Israel and being put off by it.
The right doesn’t have pro-Palestinians. The left does. The right just wants Israel out of American politics or as allies.
People like Theo Von and Marjorie Taylor Greene absolutely come off as sympathetic to Palestinians, definitively more than most democrat politicians. Even Tucker seems supportive of the pro-Palestinian struggle.
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