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• Thursday, January 12, 2006 04:47 AM

  Every time and place has its own anti-Semitism

  I once read an article that advanced the thesis that while anti-Semitism is pervasive and has existed in every time and place for the last 2000 years, each time and place has an anti-Semitism designed to resonate with the prevailing conception of evil. Juan Cole illustrates this point very nicely.

  In the Middle Ages, when evil was defined in terms of religion, the Jews were infidels. In the 18th century, when nationalism was in the ascendancy, the Jews were stateless aliens. In the 20th century, capitalist societies labeled Jews as communists, and communist societies labeled Jews as capitalists.

  So, in the 21th century, what's the worst evil now. You guessed it: the worst thing you can be is an imperialist, a colonizer. And, what'd you know, the Jews are now imperialists and colonizers, and practitioners of apartheid thrown in to boot.

  Of course, the Jews have to be shoe-horned into their customary role of evil, since it doesn't actually fit, but no matter. Imperialists want an empire, and the Israelis (the current stand in for all Jews everywhere)show no sign of looking for land outside of the extent of ancient Israel. So what, imperialists are bad, Jews are bad; therefore Jews are imperialists.

  Colonists created colonies as far flung outposts. The Israelis have acquired contiguous lands in 5 wars of self-defense with the stated aim of tactical security. No problem, colonists are bad, Jews are bad; therefore the Jews are colonists.

  Apartheid, well that's the worst of all. Apartheid is a legal system that denies the existence of legal and moral rights for a particular group. Israel has no such legal and moral system. No problem. They built a wall to keep out suicide bombers. That must be an "apartheid" wall, even though apartheid can only describe a legal and moral system, not a tangible object. As we know, that doesn't matter since (let's say it all together now): apartheid is bad, really bad, and the Jews are bad, so the Jews must be practitioners of apartheid.

  All this posturing about the plight of the Palestinians (has anyone ever actually aided the Palestinians, or do they simply criticize the Israelis?) is anti-Semitism, pure and simple. It's just the up to date version of anti-Semitism.

  Let's face it, the whole Jews poisoning the wells, using the blood of Christian children to bake matzo etc. is just so 14th century. You gotta get with the times. The latest version of anti-Semitism is that the Palestinians (a group of virulently anti-Semitic, homophobic, misogynistic people ruled by a thugocracy committed to the destruction of Israel) are being oppressed by the imperialist, colonizer, practitioner of apartheid Jews.

  I'm not saying that Juan Cole doesn't believe what he writes (and, no doubt, some of his best friends are Jews}, but plenty of people believed that the Jews poisoned the wells, and used Christian blood. Just because people believe it passionately and whole-heartedly doesn't make it true.

  Of course he believes it; it's the latest version of socially sanctioned anti-Semitism, evidently one of the most satisfying and enduring prejudices of all time.

  —Amy Tuteur, MD Read Amy Tuteur, MD's other letters
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