Since the 1960s, hatred of Jews in America has moved from being primarily a prejudice of the right—where it still persists in “alt-right” circles—to being primarily a prejudice of the left, where it took on the polite guise of anti-Zionism. At the same time, white leftists were willing to turn a blind eye to the more naked anti-Semitism of such black leaders as Al Sharpton and Louis Farrakhan. Victor Davis Hanson describes these transitions, and argues that a third era in the history of U.S. anti-Semitism has now begun:
In the past ten years . . . we have seen an emerging new, new anti-Semitism. It is likely to become far more pernicious than both the old-right and new-left versions, because it is not just an insidiously progressive phenomenon. It has also become deeply embedded in popular culture and is now rebranded with acceptable cool among America’s historically ignorant youth. In particular, the new, new bigotry is “intersectional.” It serves as a unifying progressive bond among “marginalized” groups such as young Middle Easterners, Muslims, feminists, blacks, “woke” celebrities and entertainers, socialists, the “undocumented,” and student activists. Abroad, the new, new bigotry is fueled by British Laborites and anti-Israel EU grandees.
Of course, the new, new anti-Semitism’s overt messages derive from both the old and the new. There is the same conspiratorial idea that the Jews covertly and underhandedly exert inordinate control over Americans. . . . But the new, new anti-Semitism has added a number of subtler twists, namely, that Jews are part of the old guard whose anachronistic standards of privilege block the emerging new constituency of [left-leaning] Muslims, blacks, Latinos, and feminists.
Within the Democratic party, such animus is manifested by young “woke” politicians facing an old white hierarchy. The progressive activist Linda Sarsour oddly singled out for censure the Senate majority leader Charles Schumer, saying, “I’m talking to Chuck Schumer. I’m tired of white men negotiating on the backs of people of color and communities like ours.” In attacking Schumer, ostensibly a fellow progressive, Sarsour is claiming an intersectional bond forged in mutual victimization by whites—and thus older liberal Jews apparently either cannot conceive of such victimization or in fact are party to it. . . .
The new, new anti-Semites do not see themselves as giving new life to an ancient pathological hatred; they’re only voicing claims of the victims themselves against their supposed oppressors. The new, new anti-Semites’ venom is contextualized as an “intersectional” defense by the hip, the young, and the “woke” against a Jewish component of privileged white establishmentarians—which explains why the bigoted are so surprised that anyone would be offended by their slurs.
Read more on National Review: https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/01/new-anti-semitism-woke-progressives-old-stereotypes/