Hating America, Hating Israel

DailyPundit's William Quick recently engaged in a quick blog exchange around the issue of anti-semitism. Which in turn led to a back-channel exchange of letters between us on the subject.

Here's the gist of what I wrote to him, expanded somewhat for the blog:

...As to why the left hates Israel, I'm pretty convinced that it's tied to hating America. It's just that Israel is an easier target. Note that the incidence and volume ramped up post-9/11, when hating the USA became a lot less acceptable. This was so even before Israel's military incursion into the West Bank.

Looks like America-hating has found another outlet.

This isn't a snap assessment, or something I read in the Weekly Standard (though their "Bourgeoisphobes" article was outstanding and relevant). No, this one has been building for a while. More than once over the past couple of years, I've listened to fellow Canadians talk about Americans and become angry because I saw it, essentially, as an expression of bigotry rather than any reasonable disagreement.

You know, before the meal the bigot sneers that the Jews will never tip his waiter friend, and when they leave a huge tip afterward it's "whaddaya expect, they've got all the money."

As soon as you hear that, you know the specific complaints aren't really relevant. They're just vehicles for something deeper, and far uglier.

"...whaddaya expect, they've got all the money."

The 'anti-globalization' protesters are certainly working hard these days to make my case for me (See Lileks' "WWIII" sub-section for that day). Dr. Frank's masterful dissection of leftist British anti-semitism also explains much. But if you want the very best article on "The New Anti-Semitism" I've seen over the last year, read this one.

All clear? OK, here's my follow-up punch... it's the same deal for Americans these days. The criticism changes, the target doesn't - and the bottom line is the same: don't defend yourselves. On September 11th, over 3,000 people die and the skyline of one of your great cities is changed forever. After much deliberation, the response begins in Afghanistan. So does the criticism. First, America is being too unilateral. Then, when allies are on the ground with them in Afghanistan, America is contributing to starvation. When starvation doesn't happen and is in fact averted by U.S. actions, it's all about civilian casualty figures. Which are proven to be bogus, but are still repeated. The focus also shifts to military tribunals (and will return there, once any are held).

And at every step, spoken in soft undertones with occasional slips into open voice, comes the real subtext: America asked for it. Defending yourselves is criminal. The real solution is for you to go away.

The differences, such as they are, are twofold:

1. America isn't going to vanish in the near term, and everybody acknowledges that reality. At this stage, therefore, the haters' rhetoric advocates only a "Gulliver strategy" of tying US foreign policy down and either reducing its role in the world or giving others control of America's foreign policies. That's annoying and debilitating, but easy enough to shrug off. In Israel's case, however, "going away" means the destruction of the state and most of its people. Like Hitler before them, the people who say these things really do mean them. Our temptation not to believe our own ears notwithstanding.

2. Hating America is a relatively recent phenomenon, with no concrete historical roots. Its size and polyglot makeup also means that there's also no identifiable group to give that hatred focus, and so it falls almost entirely on the political state. Hatred of Israel, on the other hand, taps into a far deeper historical well that targets a very specific, identifiable group: the Jews. Yes, there are black Jews and Indian Jews, Arab Jews and European Jews. The common denominator is clear, however, and this specificity allows those attacks to concentrate and pick up an energy and virulence that extends beyond even Bin Laden's hatred of America. As hysterical as anti-American condemnations get, you can see the difference in the examples linked from this very posting.

Which brings me to my bottom line. It's easy enough to see anti-Semitism these days, and to contemplate the dark reality of its course. What's less easy to see is that America is up against the same sort of thing, and that Israel and the Jews really are your "canary in the coal mine."

Right now, the bird is starting to gasp.

UPDATES:

• Why Idiotarianism? Why Now? looks at the common thread that brings the far left and Islamofascism together in more detail. Short version: their idols were broken, and they're united by the desire to shoot the same messenger.

• Anti-Globalization, Anti-Semetic, Anti-American. Adds some chilling examples highlighting the reality of the sharing going on between Islamist theocrats, neo-Nazis, and neo-Marxists. The Democratic Party's Fred Siegel has noticed, and so has Michael Totten as he reads his AdBusters.

• Simong Sebag Montefiore hasn't lost his sense of humour, but his article's topic is serious: A Dangerous Time to Be a Jew [in Europe]. Alternately funny and frightening, he notes that what is happening in Europe is not trivial, he says; it is serious, it is pathological, it is connected to Anti-Americanism - and it is becoming more and more widespread. With echoes in America, too.

• James C. Bennett, UPI (April 12/03) - Anglosphere: why do they hate us? "it is worth considering the possibility that the root source of anti-Americanism in the world lies in the deep-rooted anti-modern tradition of Continental Europe...." Also discusses the historic role of Jews in continental European culture, their status as a bellweather, and the effects of their current absence.

• Activism's Onanist Fantasy Ideology. Committed leftists critique the current strain of "activism as ritual worship," disengaged from any connection to actual results. It's part of the cocktail, and the ritual worship parallels strengthen the "why Idiotarianism..." thesis.

• The Origins and Meaning of "Idiotarian" How did that word get started, anyway - and what does it really mean? Winds has answers.