Philosemitism Is More Dangerous than Antisemitism

If antisemitism is a unified theory(of science, religion, history, etc) that views Jews and/or Jewish culture as essentially sinister, philosemitism argues the very opposite. Philosemitism is a grand theory that says Jews are the fountain of much if not all that are wise and noble. It says Jews are inherently good, or at least better than other people. It believes that Jews are essentially harmless or beneficial to mankind. Even when Jews gain great power, wealth, and influence(and even when they commit acts of evil), we are to convince ourselves we need not worry about since JEWS, a naturally noble and wonderful people, have the power, wealth, and influence. Since Jews are great, it would be wrong to question their power as it would be wrong for Christians or Muslims to question God.

Now, some Jews will argue that philosemitism or Judeification–deification of the Jew–is also a form of antisemitism. Since it idealizes and ennobles the Jew toa ludicrous degree, philosemitism may judge Jews according to a higher moral criteria. We are seeing some of this in the international criticism of Israel. How often do we hear critics say, “since Jews experienced the Holocaust and were ennobled by the suffering, Jews ought not treat Palestinians the way Nazis treated the Jews.” Jews often complain that the world judges Israel differently than other countries with far worse human rights record. After all, where is the UN condemnation of what China has been doing to Tibet? What has the world done about the horrors happening now in the Congo?

The animosity toward Israel has elements of both antisemitism and philosemitism. Antisemites exploit the Israel-Palestinian conflict to point out that Jews are ‘just like the Nazis’. But, philosemites are also anti-Zionist because of their ‘spiritual’ view of the Jew as the Eternal Victim, Eternal Martyr, Eternal Saint. More

Possibly Related:

Anti-Semitism

'Kosher Anti-Semitism'

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