- Joined
- Jan 13, 2010
- Messages
- 5,418
- Reaction score
- 1,903
- Location
- Canada
- Gender
- Male
- Political Leaning
- Undisclosed
European anti-Semites increasingly playing victim in classic 'perpetrator inversion,' says expert | The Times of Israel
The author of the underlying study reviewed over 15k pieces of correspodnence that were addressed to Israeli embassies and Jewish groups, finding unsurprisingly that much of these "criticisms" of Israel reflect classic anti-semetic prejudices against Jews.
Lots to draw from this, but for our purposes this appears to be the most relevant:
[FONT="]Most of the examples that you mention involve anti-Semitic demonizations of the State of Israel…[/FONT]
[FONT="]There is a global Israelization of anti-Semitic discourse. The articulation of traditional anti-Semitic stereotypes by projecting them onto Israel is by now the most dominant manifestation of modern Jew hatred.[/FONT]
[FONT="]But isn’t it difficult to distinguish such Israel-focused anti-Semitism without being liable to declaring all criticism of Israel per se to be anti-Semitic?[/FONT]
[FONT="]Not at all! Scientifically we can draw a very clear distinction between criticism of Israel and anti-Semitism. We give many examples for both types in our book. Those who claim that criticism of Israel and anti-Semitism cannot be distinguished do so in order to excuse or marginalize anti-Semitic views.
A lot of people express concerns that they would not be allowed to criticize Israel without being labeled as anti-Semites…
Yes. And remarkably, in the material that we reviewed, this concern is expressed exclusively by authors of letters that are actually anti-Semitic. None of the authors of the letters that criticized Israel without being anti-Semitic voiced any concerns that they could falsely be accused of Jew-hatred. It is the anti-Semites who actually commit the kind of false accusation which they claim to be a victim of, in order to deny their hatred of Jews. This implies a victim-perpetrator-inversion, which is a historically deep-rooted pattern in the standard repertoire of anti-Semitic constructions. Already in the 19th century anti-Semites accused Jews to use their alleged control over the media to censor and delegitimize anti-Jewish criticism.[/FONT]
[FONT="]
[/FONT]
The author of the underlying study reviewed over 15k pieces of correspodnence that were addressed to Israeli embassies and Jewish groups, finding unsurprisingly that much of these "criticisms" of Israel reflect classic anti-semetic prejudices against Jews.
Lots to draw from this, but for our purposes this appears to be the most relevant:
[FONT="]Most of the examples that you mention involve anti-Semitic demonizations of the State of Israel…[/FONT]
[FONT="]There is a global Israelization of anti-Semitic discourse. The articulation of traditional anti-Semitic stereotypes by projecting them onto Israel is by now the most dominant manifestation of modern Jew hatred.[/FONT]
[FONT="]But isn’t it difficult to distinguish such Israel-focused anti-Semitism without being liable to declaring all criticism of Israel per se to be anti-Semitic?[/FONT]
[FONT="]Not at all! Scientifically we can draw a very clear distinction between criticism of Israel and anti-Semitism. We give many examples for both types in our book. Those who claim that criticism of Israel and anti-Semitism cannot be distinguished do so in order to excuse or marginalize anti-Semitic views.
A lot of people express concerns that they would not be allowed to criticize Israel without being labeled as anti-Semites…
Yes. And remarkably, in the material that we reviewed, this concern is expressed exclusively by authors of letters that are actually anti-Semitic. None of the authors of the letters that criticized Israel without being anti-Semitic voiced any concerns that they could falsely be accused of Jew-hatred. It is the anti-Semites who actually commit the kind of false accusation which they claim to be a victim of, in order to deny their hatred of Jews. This implies a victim-perpetrator-inversion, which is a historically deep-rooted pattern in the standard repertoire of anti-Semitic constructions. Already in the 19th century anti-Semites accused Jews to use their alleged control over the media to censor and delegitimize anti-Jewish criticism.[/FONT]
[FONT="]
[/FONT]