Anti-Semitism at US Universities and elsewhere

[Land's End]

1 hour ago, Channel4s-JonSnow said:

Here in the UK, from what I can gather, much of the outright Anti-Semitism comes mainly from the Muslim portion of the population, as well as possibly some very left wing radicals. There is a tendency to just dismiss that behaviour because 'oh well those guys are just like that'


 

In the UK much outright antisemitism comes from BDS and the Labour Party. For some reason the UK left is under the impression criticizing colonialism means criticizing Israel and not it's own history of oppression and colonization.

But have fun with your scape goat.

(Not saying there is nothing to criticize about Israel. Netanjahu as well as settlements are despicable. But the extreme focus on Israel in world policy is insane. Everybody has an opinion on Israel. The world seems to care so much about Palestinians yet somehow only Palestinians killed by Jews truly matter.)

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I find these discussions very uncomfortable, and they seem to be happening more and more often. Many of my Jewish friends claim that Anti-semitism is on the rise and while I have very little reason to doubt them, I know that none of them have personally experienced it.

You just know that?

The current situation in the UK even scares me and I'm Austrian.

[Channel4s-JonSnow]

3 minutes ago, Land's End said:

But have fun with your scape goat.

 

https://wikiislam.net/wiki/Muslim_Statistics_-_Antisemitism

"Most violent attacks in Western Europe came from people of Arab or Muslim heritage, the report found."

"“Asian” and “Arab” attackers accounted for fully 54% of incidents, although the Muslim community numbers just 4% of the general population.^[2]"

 

 

5 minutes ago, Land's End said:

 

You just know that?

The current situation in the UK even scares me and I'm Austrian.

Yes, they are my friends. I asked them. 

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

24 minutes ago, Channel4s-JonSnow said:

What I'm trying to get across is that the confusion is due to the very blurred line between Israel and Judaism. On one hand there is an attempt to separate the two when anti-semitism occurs, but at the same time most Jewish people feel very passionately about Israel and are on the whole defenders of its actions (from my personal experience). 

I guess what I'm getting at here is that the confusion and blurring isn't just external ignorance (although that is certainly part of it) , but is in part caused because most Jewish people themselves feel very personally affected by events in Israel and also blur the lines between a country and a religion.

So?  Does that mean that anti-Jewish actions are justified if they are labeled as "anti-Israel"?  That anti-Jewish bigotry is okay because it is dressed up as opposition to Israel?  It is Jews fault that people get confused and hurl vitriol at Jews because the people doing the hurling are angry about Israeli actions?

[Channel4s-JonSnow]

Just now, Ser Scot A Ellison said:

So?  Does that mean that anti-Jewish actions are justified if they are labeled as "anti-Israel"?  That anti-Jewish bigotry is okay because it is dressed up as opposition to Israel?  It is Jews fault that people get confused and hurl vitrio at Jews because they are angry about Israeli actions?

No I'm not excusing it. And I also don't think it is 'dressed up' as opposition to Israel. In many cases it IS about is Israel. That there is a very blurred line between Jewish people and Israel as a state is why there is a blurred line in the outpouring of rage at Israels actions.

[Land's End]

24 minutes ago, Channel4s-JonSnow said:

https://wikiislam.net/wiki/Muslim_Statistics_-_Antisemitism

"Most violent attacks in Western Europe came from people of Arab or Muslim heritage, the report found."

"“Asian” and “Arab” attackers accounted for fully 54% of incidents, although the Muslim community numbers just 4% of the general population.^[2]"

 

 

Yes, they are my friends. I asked them. 

Sure more muslims than white guys attacked Jews during Operation Cast Lead. You didn't quote that part which is pretty important because the numbers spiked during a conflict between Jews and Muslims.

The Wikipedia-Page conveniently left out other parts of the original article ( http://www.jpost.com/Jewish-World/Jewish-News/Anti-Semitic-violence-doubled-in-2009 ):

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This trend of a growing baseline of “white” perpetrators alongside occasional spikes by attackers stemming from the Muslim community is borne out most clearly in the UK.
In 2008, “when there was no trigger event in the Middle East,” the Jewish community’s Community Security Trust counted 63% of perpetrators of anti-Jewish violence being described by victims and witnesses as “white,” while descriptions of “Asian” or “Arab” – suggesting members of the Muslim community – counted for just 31%.

„Growing baseline of white perpetrators“ plus occasional spikes of muslim anti-jewish violence is the main finding of the study - not: Brits: good, Muslims: Bad.

Muslim anti-semitism is a problem but it’s not an excuse to avoid dealing with good old christian anti-semitism as well as islamophobia.

The „growing baseline of white perpetrators“ is what’s more important. Compared to Russia Germany was a rather peaceful place for Jews in the 1920s. The threat of antisemitism lies in its latency and sudden agitation potential.

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

3 hours ago, Channel4s-JonSnow said:

No I'm not excusing it. And I also don't think it is 'dressed up' as opposition to Israel. In many cases it IS about is Israel. That there is a very blurred line between Jewish people and Israel as a state is why there is a blurred line in the outpouring of rage at Israels actions.

Yet things like Prof. Karega meme, clearly anti-Jewish, are dismissed and excused because the speaker is anti-Israel.

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

TAT,

This article contains Prof. Karega's response to her critics:

http://forward.com/opinion/335007/inside-the-twisted-anti-semitic-mind-of-oberlin-professor-joy-karega/

From the article:

Karega’s recent response on Facebook to the multiple letters, tweets, phone calls and messages she has received offer further insight into her beliefs. Karega views letters like Sherrel’s and others as fodder for her theories: “My Oberlin email, my Facebook message inbox, my office phone voicemail, and my Twitter account are the gifts that keep on giving. Honestly, I’ve been having these moments (very brief moments, haha) where I want to say to those of you who are emailing, calling, and surveilling my social media accounts for malicious, intimidation, and/or silencing purposes: ‘Folks, you all are making my work too easy; handing my research right to me.’”

What research is that? “My second book project, which I have made significant progress on in terms of research, planning, and the drafting of chapter templates, is entitled Conspiratorial Political Literacies: Rhetorical Practice, Contested Knowledge, and Subversive Politics… It’s downright lazy, uncritical, apolitical, homogenizing, and reductionist to frame conspiracy theories — and the rhetors, writers, and theorists who espouse such theories — in the way that much of the general public, governments, and the academy do. (I won’t lay out that argument here. But it’ll be CLEARLY articulated in one of the chapters of the book).”

In his book “The Open Society and Its Enemies,” Karl Popper famously argued that “conspiracy theories” draw on imaginary plots driven by paranoid scenarios predicated on tribalism, chauvinism or racism. In Karega’s upside down world, anyone who presents evidence that a “conspiracy theory” is a “conspiracy theory” as Popper defined it is merely asserting his or her power in service of the conspiracy. In other words, those who demand evidence for the conspiracy theory are the racists.

 

Karega continues: “(1) How has the term “conspiracy theory” been used (is being used) to control the parameters of inquiry and research in the academy?; (2) How has the uncomplicated tying of conspiracy theories to accusations of anti-Semitism been used (is being used) to control the parameters of inquiry and research in the academy?; (3) What are we dealing with when we’re witnessing accusations of anti-Semitism being directed at scholars and researchers who explore, espouse, and even defend conspiracy theories? Rhetorically, are we looking at silencing techniques, intimidation tactics, etc.?”

The disturbing argument at work behind all the impressive academic verbiage is that a conspiracy theory, and more specifically an anti-Semitic conspiracy theory, is a legitimate social discourse that should not be silenced or controlled by “relations of power” that authorize accusations of anti-Semitism. In other words, Karega wants to study how Jews silence anti-Semites.

[Shryke]

On 2016-10-05 at 10:32 AM, Ser Scot A Ellison said:

TKG,

Racism is racism regardless of the rational offered for it.  Anti-Jewish sentiment is anti-Jewish sentiment regardless of the rational offered for it.  

That said you can be anti-Zionist without being anti-Jewish.  Prof. Karega went well over the line.  Blaming Israel for the rise of anti-Jewish actions is also over the line in my opinion.

I don't see why. Israeli policy is definitely responsible for some measure of anti-jewish sentiment around the world. Certainly within the middle east if nowhere else.

That doesn't mean said sentiment is justified of course, but it's still there.

[Shryke]

On 10/5/2016 at 10:53 AM, Ser Scot A Ellison said:

I'm saying that blaming the rise in anti-Jewish sentiment and action upon Israel is equivalent to blaming BLM for racism.  That does not mean any all criticism of Israel is a priori anti-Jewish.

Is there a documented rise?

EDIT: I intended to ask specifically about at US Universities but I guess some numbers for the general case would be welcome as well since it wasn't clear anyway initially.

[Hereward]

I'm still trying to come to terms with an Austrian criticising the UK for anti-semitism. Anti-semitic attacks in Austria doubled in 2015, with one in every every 30 Jews being attacked. Now admittedly, there are only 15,000 Jews in Austria, but we know why that is, don't we. In fact, there were more anti-semitic attacks in Austria in 2015 than there were in Britain, despite Britain having 8 times the population and 20 times as many Jews. When we have elected a neo-nazi party, or a fascist and war criminal as president, you get to criticise.

[BloodRider]

Sigh.  Trump is making the formerly hidden manifest.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/14/us/politics/trump-comments-linked-to-antisemitism.html?_r=0

Quote

In West Palm Beach on Thursday, reporters covering Mr. Trump returned to a table reserved for the press to find a sign bearing a swastika and the word “MEDIA” scrawled on it, Jim Acosta, a senior CNN White House correspondent, reported.

And then there is this:

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In 1931, for example, the author A. N. Field described the creation of the American Federal Reserve as the moment the “German-Jew engine of control” enslaved the United States, according to the Anti-Defamation League. That conspiracy theory has survived the ensuing decades and, even today, such anti-Semitic beliefs remain prevalent around the world,according to A.D.L. polling.

I never knew that the Goldbugs were riffing on the old "Jews control the banks" racist trope.

I admit it.  I really honestly thought we were at least past this shit.  At least in the US.  I guess I have been a little blinkered.  Sorry.

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

I'm sorry to say I'm not surprised.

[Channel4s-JonSnow]

56 minutes ago, BloodRider said:

Sigh.  Trump is making the formerly hidden manifest.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/14/us/politics/trump-comments-linked-to-antisemitism.html?_r=0

 

Sorry this is a bizarre criticism to make. Yes Trump is making some odd accusations that sound like standard internet conspiracy theory.. but I'm not sure you can start hurling anti-semitism at him for making comments that sounded 'a bit like' something someone who was anti-semitic might say. 

[Inigima]

I don't think Trump is antisemitic; I don't think he really gives a shit one way or the other. I think he is exploiting neo-Nazis and white supremacists, who are, for electoral gain.

[DanteGabriel]

20 minutes ago, Inigima said:

I don't think Trump is antisemitic; I don't think he really gives a shit one way or the other. I think he is exploiting neo-Nazis and white supremacists, who are, for electoral gain.

We know he loves The Jews, since he expressed a preference to have Jews counting his money.