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The left must stand up to anti-Semitism
by Scott Gilbreath ~ February 20th, 2009
Philip J Spencer, an academic who specialises in Holocaust and genocide studies, calls on leftists to stop ignoring and minimising contemporary anti-Semitism.
There are a number of ways in which much of the left now refuses to engage seriously with anti-Semitism but rather helps to legitimate it. The first takes the form of explaining anti-Semitism in a way that effectively justifies it. This occurs when, for example, suicide bombing (that is, the deliberate killing of Jewish civilians) is explained in a pseudo-materialist mode as simply a product of desperation. That many people have found themselves desperate without resorting to such actions and such hatred is ignored, as is the obvious fact that they are planned by people who are certainly anti-Semitic but not by any stretch of the imagination hopeless or without considerable material resources.
Mr Spencer points out that this attitude is not new, citing examples of German social democrats and communists in the late 1930s and early 1940s (!) who downplayed Nazi anti-Semitism. We’re fighting fascism, they insisted, and anti-Semitism is a side issue.
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February 20th, 2009 at 05:07 PM
As the economy tanks the government will start looking for a scapegoat. It will start slowly, but look for full blown anitsemitism to raise it’s head. It’s de ja vue, all over again. 1930s all over again.
Peace.
February 23rd, 2009 at 01:58 PM
[...] THE LEFT MUST stand up to anti-Semitism …. [...]