On what is concealed by the "anti-semitism" accusation

Most assertions of anti-semitism in the modern world have been badly formed responses to oppression. There are two possible ways of responding in turn:

1) "All they are doing is attacking us"; thus, they have no complaint that is worthy of being recognized. That must be the case, given that the world is sufficiently just and happy the way it is.

2) The "socialism of fools" is a social phenomenon under which may lie real complaints. The real object of those complaints and supposed counter-attacks is not a group of people (such as the Jews) but a system.

3) Understanding this problem, of course, excuses nothing.

4) The Jewish (and Christian and Muslim) idea that there is a single humanity ruled by a single God (or some modern and more credible, philosophical or scientific, form of that claim) implies necessarily that people who commit acts of injustice are not wrong in their essence (as in some evil will, a gnostic idea) but in their mistaken interpretation of their situation. All thought is interpretation of situations (such as by modeling them in certain ways, telling us what they consist of and mean). Anti-semites, among others, understand their own desires inaccurately.

5) Even those supposedly oppressed people who hate the Jews may still in fact be oppressed. Their desires could be interpreted better. That could be a route to a real peace, which would address what people need or rightly want.

6) Anyone who speaks of the current situation in Gaza as essentially an expression of anti-semitism is guilty of perpetrating a lie. Anti-semitism is not the fundamental problem here. Evidence of that is that only some, not all, opponents of the status quo dislike Jews.

7) This position is Jewish in a way that today's "Zionism" is not. It uses divine names in vain, and worships an idol that represents little more than their own power and success. And that at least tacitly maintains that the care of "God" is particular and exclusive rather than universal. That notion is incoherent.

Sometimes I wonder if philosophers could help political actors think more clearly. As the media are propagandistic, that would be quite an uphill battle. The larger problem is that propaganda, and the empirical discourse of facts that is wielded by it, involves the concealing of motives to justify crimes.

William HeidbrederComment