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This is a new book that could be of significance because the author is not the typical right-winger warning about anti-Semitism. She is an editorial page editor for the NYT, and a fully confirmed progressive. However, she is also a self-described 'Zionist.'
The book is very beautifully written. The NYT should replace one of their current garbage columnists with Weiss. In my lifetime I have watched as engaging writing has disappeared from the op-ed pages.
The heart of the book is three chapters entitled "The right," "The left," and "Islam." Each in turn is examined as a source of anti-Semitism.
Her take on "The right," is fraught with TDS. The President has a Jewish daughter, Jewish and grandchildren. He moved our embassy to Jerusalem. That was promised by many, but executed only by Trump. He has a 70% approval rating in Israel. Weiss brushes all that aside. She writes:
Quote:
To many, he [Trump] appeared to be a philo-Semite, though as Deborah Lipstadt has sharply pointed out, a philo-Semite is merely "an anti-Semite" who likes Jews." (As in: I got a new accountant. He's Jewish, so you know he'll get me a good deal.)
Seriously? That is a bizarre comparison. That is some imaginative TDS. Weiss also repeats the debunked Charlottesville lie in the book. She does make some reasonable points about anti-Semitism in conservatism in the 1950s-70s era. She also makes the common error of conflating 'right' with fascism. The fascists were collectivists. The 'right' as we know it today is a much different kettle of fish.
The chapter on "The left" is much more clear-eyed. Though a progressive, Weiss is fully aware of the undercurrent of anti-Semitism on the left. She writes:
Quote:
In order to be welcomed as a Jew in a growing number of progressive groups, you have to disavow a list of things that grows longer every day...
This bargain, which is really an ultimatum, explains so much.
She goes on to cite five examples of anti-Semitism coming from the left, such as the case of "Manny's," a San Francisco café. The owner, a gay, progressive Jew was denounced as a Zionist, and hounded by protesters.
She ends with a chapter with her ideas of 'how to fight,' which to me as a non-Jew seem very thoughtful. This is a well written book of about 200 pages. But the pages are small so it's a pretty quick read. But for me it is one that I plan to reread at least a couple more times.
Thank you for posting this, Travis. Antisemitism is no doubt on the upswing, including the undercurrent on the left, and I will take any tips I can get on how to fight it.
And I would love to see the NYT install her as a regular columnist. Simply based on your description of her, she seems to be able to take a balanced and fair view of situations.
Writer Bari Weiss has an interesting take on Rep. Ilhan Omar (D,MN). After going through some of her tweets and tropes, and her statement before Hamas-affiliated CAIR that on 9/11 "some people did something."
Weiss writes:
Quote:
Every party has fringe figures. Generally, such figures are either marginalized or ignored. But here it seemed that something had shifted. It wasn't enough to ignore or censure Omar...She had to be vociferously defended, and her comments had to be contextualized or otherwise explained away.
The fact that the most powerful figures in the Democratic party and their allies in the press have decided that Omar is worth defending...should wake everyone up to where the party could be heading.
There's this sentiment especially on this forum that anti-semitism is mainly a liberal/democratic construct, but clearly that is not true.
You have conservatives/republicans out there that openly support people that have made light of the Holocaust or have ties to Holocaust denial/extreme rightist organizations, and give the cop out excuse that they don't necessarily agree with everything they say.
It all goes down to the enemy of my enemy is my friend. While you do have white nationalist/white separatist forum members on here, you also have others that don't necessarily believe in all of that (Christian Identity for example), but still feel that these groups speak best for the interests of their race (dwindling numbers, multicultural failure, etc.). So they tolerate some of the more odious aspects of those groups including Holocaust deniers and intense dislike of non-white people.
There's this sentiment especially on this forum that anti-semitism is mainly a liberal/democratic construct, but clearly that is not true.
You have conservatives/republicans out there that openly support people that have made light of the Holocaust or have ties to Holocaust denial/extreme rightist organizations, and give the cop out excuse that they don't necessarily agree with everything they say.
It all goes down to the enemy of my enemy is my friend. While you do have white nationalist/white separatist forum members on here, you also have others that don't necessarily believe in all of that (Christian Identity for example), but still feel that these groups speak best for the interests of their race (dwindling numbers, multicultural failure, etc.). So they tolerate some of the more odious aspects of those groups including Holocaust deniers and intense dislike of non-white people.
Example of someone who posted such a thing (bolded) on CD? It should be easy enough since you say that there are 'members' (plural) who feel this way?
I presume that means then Jewish Person A is a Ashkenazi Jew while Jewish Person B is a Sepharadic Jew?
I don't want to imagine the potential name-game of Ashkenazi with other words due to the last 2 syllabes....
Don't be ridiculous. No, what he means is that a liberal Jew can accuse of conservative Jew of being a Nazi because the conservative Jew supports Israel. Not actually anti-Semitic; it's just hatred for anyone not liberal.
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