Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Roundup of Antisemitism Bibliogaphy

Edward Rothstein has been reading all the main new books about antisemitism: Robert Wistrich, Anthony Julius, and Jeffrey Herf. You may not want to take these books to the beach this summer, but they should be on lots of peoples' reading lists.

But even if we leave aside such manifestations, it is clear enough that anti-Semitism requires much deeper understanding than it usually gets. Last week, for example, Hannah Rosenthal, the United States’ special envoy to monitor and combat anti-Semitism, spoke in Kazakhstan, asserting the similarity of anti-Semitism and Islamophobia.

This is not an uncommon assertion (and cases of unwarranted discrimination are always similar) but Islamophobia is a concept developed within the last two decades by those who wish to elevate Islam’s reputation in the West; anti-Semitism was a concept eagerly embraced and expanded by haters of Jews. One was constructed by a group’s supporters, the other by a group’s enemies.

Moreover, much of what is characterized as Islamophobia today arises out of taking seriously the impassioned claims of doctrinal allegiance made by Islamic terrorist groups and their supporters. Anti-Semitism, though, has nothing to do with any claims at all.

(h/t: David)

6 comments:

NormanF said...

The hatred of the Jews is irrational. But anti-Semites are far from sick. They know perfectly well why they hate the Jews and they lose no sleep over it.

One wonders why Israelis keep bending over backwards to be nice to those who hate them. Jewish "niceness" has never changed any anti-Semite's views about the Jews. And it won't happen in the future. Its time for Israel to recognize its at war and to fight back.

4infidels said...

I agree 100%. By the way, the Obama administration picked Rosenthal because of her association with J-Street, after leaving the post open for most of his Presidency. Just another signal about where his priorities lie.

Could you imagine one of Obama's Muslim outreach appointees giving a speech about anti-Semitism that wasn't anything other than a cynical move to somehow tie the historic hatred and persecution of Jews to the situation confronting Muslims in the West today?

Well, they don't have to because the Jewish appointee is doing it for them!

4infidels said...

It should be noted that most of the talk of Islamophobia in the United States comes from Muslim Brotherhood backed groups like CAIR, ISNA and MSU. Those groups raise the issue of Islamophobia in relation to searches of Muslims at airports, investigations and prosecution of terrorists and any refusal to accede to Muslim demands for special treatment in everyday situations. These are hardly the type of issues that made the situation faced by Jews in Europe and the Arab world so intolerable.

Sérgio said...

I would include in the list the book "Antisemitism and Modernity", by Hyam Maccoby. Also, there's a new book by Taguieff in French ("La nouvelle propagande anti-juive").

Anonymous said...

I've read this NYT-piece with an eye on the money
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/06/world/middleeast/06settle.html?ref=global-home
Tax-Exempt Funds Aid Settlements in West Bank

We are talking about 40 American groups collecting $ 200 million over a decade, which makes it 20 million per year while according to NGO-monitor NIF alone distributed that sum in 2008. Given that they also function as an umbrella for the German Greens Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung and presumably other meddlers they should be able to influence a lot more.

The NYT-piece then says that " The money goes mostly to schools, synagogues, recreation centers and the like, legitimate expenditures under the tax law."
and then goes on with lots of paltry facts insinuating a lot. It is so vacuous that it makes me wonder who rewards the 3 authors (Jim Ruttenber, Mike McIntire and Ethan Bronner) and the NYT for this piece straight from the mindset of W&M for it. I searched the NYT nothing equivalent on the NIF seems to be there.

Page 9 of this shows NIF's finances and has a lot more impressive figures on it which, due to lack of knowledge, I can't make sense of
http://www.nif.org/about/financial-information/NIF2009-mid-year-report.pdf

The rest of the sums seem equally paltry given that I am always told how world-dominating powerful these evangelical groups are. If that is all they have, then it is just slandering, probably successful because it is written in this "aren't they wily and disregarding of the law" style

Silke

Gabriel Wilensky said...

If I may be so bold, I would suggest my own book on the Christian origins of antisemitism and the role that played in the Holocaust in addition to the two Mr Rothstein reviewed. The book, also recently released, is titled "Six Million Crucifixions: How Christian Teachings About Jews Paved the Road to the Holocaust". You can read more about it on the book's web site (link below).

Thanks!


Gabriel Wilensky

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