Anti-semitism and the state of Israel 4

In the news today was a piece about there being more Anti-Semitic attacks lately

It would help if you provided a reference... where are the attacks and who is doing them?

Whom would it help? Certainly not anybody wanting dialogue instead of fact-checking

My point is that anti-semitism and racist attacks take different forms and are done for different reasons.

There could be all sorts of reasons for the attacks in the minds of the attackers which may or may not be the real reason for their actions. For example neo-nazis may attack jews because they believe that they are part of a world wide conspiracy to destroy the white race.

I do not buy that anybody seriously believes that. The white race destruction conspiracy may be the story they tell themselves over and over until they're in their hate zone.

Well clearly some people do seriously believe that, which is why documents like The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion are still being circulated and why holocaust revisionism is still happening.


However their actual motivation may be that they are trying to compensate for psychological inadequacies.

Their inadequacies may be more basic. I can believe that what's going on there is "You may have more money and success than me but I can duff you up good." Pretty much straight envy.

I think most people experience envy, but most people do not translate this envy into violence. One of the reasons this might happen in some instances is psychological.

What about the way in which those actions are reported by our biased media?

Well different segments of the media are biased in different ways, so you would have to ask the attackers how they formed their views I think.

Yes, I'm sure the attackers would be willing and able to enter a well-formed discourse on the matter. They'd probably mention their psychological inadequacies.Then again, in not asking them I am perhaps falling into the same trap that they have. After all, racist bully-boys are humans too.

Indeed. I think talking to racists is only one factor in identifying the causes of racism and one has to be careful not to take everything they say at face value. I've just finished reading Michael Billig's "Fascists: The Social Psychology of the National Front" in which he interviews a number of NF members as well as analysing NF literature. Actually the interviews (and analysis thereof) were more interesting than you would think - people do often reveal a fair bit about themselves without realising it.

Are racists who attack Jewish people striking a blow for Palestinian liberation?

No, they are striking a blow for racism.

Specifically, racism towards Jewish people. If Israel wasn't (being reported as) oppressing Palestine, would they be striking a blow for racism towards somebody else?

Possibly. Maybe they would branch out into homophobic violence or wife-beating instead? There are many options available for the violently minded.

I wonder what the relative levels of racism are in Europe at present? It seems to me that anti-arab/asian racism (sometimes under the guise of Islamophobia) is greater than anti-semitism. Certainly the casual racism I witness seems directed more towards black people than Jewish people.

A Jewish guy living in England opens the newspaper one morning. The headline is about Israeli oppression in Palestine and he's all like, "thanks guys."By the end of the day he's had so much race-hate directed at him he wants to leave the country."Where can I go?" he asks himself.The same paper that has Israeli Oppression on the front page has the rise of European Antisemitism on the second page.Maybe this is why people move to Israel? And once they're there, somewhere has to be found for them to live. It's a feedback loop.

Maybe. Perhaps they'd be just as likely to move to Golders Green or New York, though?