Check the mask

[aadler]

I don’t like the word ‘anti-Semitism’. For me, it’s too clean. Too abstract. Too cerebral. Too … antiseptic.

Call the thing what it is: Jew-hate. Which is the term I’ll be using henceforth.

I will agree that opposition to the state of Israel — or to specific actions and/or policies of Israel — isn’t the exact same thing as Jew-hate. You can disagree with Israel without that necessarily being rooted in hatred of Jews.

At the same time … opposing Israel makes a really good mask for Jew-hate. It’s a position from which it can be done openly, argued for, given a semblance of respectability. And, when you get enough people to agree with you — or believe you have — you can begin the process of going directly for the real thing.

Criticize Israel? I’ll listen. I’ll watch to see what arguments you provide. I might even agree with a few of them. (But probably not, because worldwide Jew-hate dictates that anything Israel does is automatically evil, and that poisons honest thought even among people who don’t themselves hate Jews.)

I’ll listen. But I’ll always be aware that, in the aggregate, it serves as a mask.

And, lately, a whole bunch of people aren’t even bothering with that much.