France: Is French postmodernism good for the Jews?

Via Mosaic Magazine and Jewish Review of Books (Michael Weingrad):

The title of Bruno Chaouat’s Is Theory Good for the Jews? refers to a school of thought—variously dubbed “critical theory,” “postmodern theory,” or simply “Theory”—that dominates philosophy departments in France and literature departments in the U.S., and has infiltrated the humanities everywhere. Articulated by thinkers like Michel Foucault and Jacques Derrida, Theory’s overarching principle is the rejection of absolute truth, linguistic meaning, conventional morality, and the ideals of civilization and progress; its central characteristic is its own obfuscatory jargon. In his book, Chaouat elucidates the troubling tendency of Theory’s leading lights to pay particular attention to the Jews, and to do so in way that is never complimentary, especially where Israel is involved. Michael Weingrad writes in his review:

Chaouat shows how various postcolonial theorists justify or ignore Muslim anti-Semitism, seen as a legitimate response to European colonialism. Indeed, as Chaouat writes, a number of French writers are less concerned with Muslim attacks on Jews than with the [alleged] political threat posed by those European Jews who decry anti-Semitism even when exhibited by Muslims, and who defend Israel against those who would see the Jewish state destroyed. . . .

Chaouat traces some part of these inversions to Theory’s abstraction of Jews and Jewishness into symbols, fungible moral tokens easily transferred into other bank accounts. It is little surprise that intellectuals who see Jews only as de-territorialized outsiders have little use for actual flesh-and-blood Jews, let alone those with a nation-state. . . . [Today’s] postmodern theorists prefer to support projects of resistance and political violence on behalf of what they see as downtrodden groups. If Jews and Israelis, who are now defined [by most devotees of Theory] as white colonialists or even Nazis, must be thrown under history’s bus as part of this utopian project, so be it. 

[But], one might respond, isn’t all this a problem not of Theory but of the radical left more generally? . . . [T]he anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism of postmodern intellectuals, their fetishization of the Palestinians and of violent jihadists, have less to do with new readings of Derrida than with longstanding features of left-wing political ideology. . . . For all his analytical acuity and moral passion, Chaouat leaves the broader historical and philosophical context of Theory’s relation to the left largely unexplored. . . . 

While valuable and trenchant Chaouat’s book resembles other recent attempts by left-liberal Jewish academics to push back against their more militantly radical colleagues. . . . One applauds these efforts, but viewed from outside the truncated political system of today’s professoriate they can seem both belated and somewhat pyrrhic: old-fashioned liberals asking their radical colleagues not to march them off the same gangplank as were their conservative colleagues, and faculty who support Israel’s continued existence pleading for Jewish membership in the club of the aggrieved.

Read more at Jewish Review of Books

Norway: Union not sure whether to ban antisemitic sign at May 1st parade dedicated to fighting antisemitism

Via Adressavisen (h/t On Elpeleg):

For the past three years antisemitic professor Trond Andresen has come to the traditional May 1st parade in Trondheim with this sign.

The sign says: 'The continuous whining about antisemitism is a diversion tactic... that is beginning to get old"

This year he was called out on it.  Art historian Daniel Johansen wrote that the organizing committee should ban racist and antisemitic placards such as this one.

At first the union leader in Trondheim, John-Peder Denstad, refused to do anything.

But after the issue hit the news, some left-wingers got to the conclusion that the sign is really out of place.  Peder Martin Lysestøl, a board member of the Palestine Committee, asked Andresen to leave the sign at home.  The union also asked Andersen to drop the sign.  Because May 1st is about unity, and this issue is creating disunity.

The antisemitic content of the sign apparently did not bother them, but rather the argument over it.  It certainly did not bother them in previous years.

Andersen says that the sign is just portraying facts.  Anybody who criticizes Israel is accused of antisemitism, and Jews do not suffer from hate.

The main slogan this year for the May 1st parade was "Fight antisemitism and Islam-hatred".

In the end, this was what Andresen came up with.  He put a smiley face over "The continuous whining about antisemitism" part.  The sign is now no longer antisemitic.

Note the "boycott Israel" sign in the background.  This is what Norwegians call a march against antisemitism.

UK: Mira Bar-Hillel says Jews are exaggerating antisemitism

Via Campaign Against Antisemitism UK:

Mira Bar-Hillel wrote on Monday on her personal blog that rising antisemitism is a myth invented by the Community Security Trust (CST) as a ruse to perpetuate its own existence. Bar-Hillel has previously said “Am I prejudiced against Jews? Alas, yes.”

Bar-Hillel writes that there was “only” one antisemitic incident resulting in grievous bodily harm in 2014, the year that antisemitic incidents reached the highest level in the 30 years since incident statistics began to be recorded. She is unimpressed by 81 cases of less gruesome physical attacks which did not result in grievous bodily harm and goes on to say that the other antisemitic incidents, numbering over 1,000 “were not even assaults”.

Clearly Bar-Hillel believes that antisemitism does not count unless a Jew is physically attacked, and even then we should only worry if the result is "grievous bodily harm", the legal definition of any extremely serious wounding that falls short of murder.

Bar-Hillel goes on to claim that some of the non-physical antisemitic incidents should not even count as antisemitism. Referring to an incident in which “Jews kill Palestinian babies” was daubed on a pavement, Bar-Hillel writes “...it was factually correct. And it was certainly not a crime, more a report of a crime” using the example to claim that CST “sexed up” the stats.  more

Germany: Berlin State Secretary thinks complaints of antisemitism are "utter nonsense"

A German Jewish leader recently warned Jews not to wear a kippah in Muslim neighborhoods.  A Muslim leader agreed Jewish fears are justified.  Meanwhile, Jewish kids are leaving public schools due to harassment.

So what does Bernd Krömer, Berlin State Secretary for Internal Affairs, think of the problem?  There isn't one:

This public discussion about 'no go' areas keeps coming up. I find this whole discussion utter nonsense. There are no 'no go' areas in Berlin. Jewish people are safe in all areas of Berlin.

I also don't see a huge rise in antisemitism here either. Sure, there is the occasional incident, but that's been the case for decades and I don't see any noticeable rise in their occurrences in recent years.

Switzerland: "Antisemitism is deeper rooted in Swiss consciousness than appears at first glance"

h/t Daniel for translation help.

Swiss news-site SRF visited the Wiedikon district in Zurich, which has an Orthodox Jewish community.

They were joined by Thomas Meyer, a local Jewish resident and author.

When they stood next to the Agudas Achim synagogue, a group of men eyed them suspiciously.
Meyer explained to SRF: Whoever stands here with a microphone causes latent distrust.  Because unfortunately, there's a certain paranoia among Jews - which is historically understsandable, but which has now turned into a certain nervousness.  Though after the attacks in Paris and Copenhagen, this nervousness is understandable.

Note that though Meyer is Jewish, he waves away Jewish distrust of strangers standing next to a synagogue.

Meyer: "Antisemitism is deeper rooted in Swiss consciousness than appears at first glance."  He constantly has to argue against conspiracy theories.  "Antisemites make me livid, when I tried to argue against their primitive notions, they tell me; yes, see, there you go again trying to argue yourself out of it like a Jew would. That disgusts me."

UK: Jewish pro-Palestinian group discovers site admin is antisemitic

Shocking. I know.

The Jewish Chronicle was nice enough to say the group's site has been 'hijacked'.  By the site admin.

Via the Jewish Chronicle:

A Jewish pro-Palestinian group has been forced to relaunch its social media efforts after a supporter promoted a series of articles questioning aspects of the Holocaust and rising antisemitism in Britain. 

Jews for Justice for Palestinians (JfJfP), which lobbies for a boycotts and sanctions against Israel, said it had reacted to complaints about the offensive articles.

The posts were made by the administrator of its website and Facebook page.

One article, uploaded on Holocaust Memorial Day in January, questioned the findings of a survey on antisemitism and appeared to suggest Jew-hatred was a direct result of Zionism.

It stated: “To actually question the dogma around antisemitism itself is one of the ultimate taboos. It’s at the very foundations of the Zionist enterprise. You know at this rate, we European Jews will all be going to the gas soon. Yawn.”

JfJfP said that this was "absolutely not the sort of thing we felt appropriate to be on the page".    And yet, people had to complain about it.

Sweden: Journalist Jan Guillou accuses Jews of lying and exaggerating about antisemitism

Swedish journalist and author Jan Guillou asks in an op-ed in Aftonbladet why Jews are receviing protection, when the real victims of racism in Sweden today are the Muslims.

"After more than a dozen mosques in Sweden were targeted by arson and other attacks, the police decided to take exceptional measures."

"They stationed armed specialized police officers with exceptionally heavy German machine-guns outside the country's synagogues and Jewish schools."

Guillou continues to ask: why is the country debating antisemitism when the dominant form of racism is against Arabs and Muslims?

Guillou also accuses the Jews of lying about antisemitism.

"For those who want to portray Sweden as an antisemitic rather than an Islamophobic country, every lie and exaggeration is a means justified by the end."

For example, Willy Silberstein head of the Swedish Committee against Antisemitism, claimed that Jews are packing their bags.  Obviously he's lying, for a good cause.

Germany: New study justifies Muslim antisemitism, charges Jews with exploiting isolated incidents

Via AJC:

AJC Berlin is disputing a new study by the Technical University’s Center for Research on Anti-Semitism (ZfA) that charges Jewish and civil society organizations with exaggerating and exploiting anti-Semitic incidents in Berlin for their own gain. 

"We need studies that clearly define the problem of anti-Semitism instead of questioning its very existence," said AJC Berlin Director Deidre Berger. “Trivializing hatred of Jews is dangerous.”

(...)

Berger noted that the study seems to defend anti-Israel and anti-Jewish sentiments within Muslim society by linking it to “direct personal painful experience, or experience of the parents’ or grandparents’ generations, related to the conflict in the Middle East,” and by asserting that anti-Semitic statements uttered by young Muslims are the consequence of the widespread discrimination and racism that they experience in Germany.

(...)

AJC Berlin has issued a commentary, “Defining Anti-Semitism: The Battle for Interpretation,” which warns about the dangers of trivializing anti-Semitism by deeming it a justified reaction to policies of the Israeli government. 

British Middle East expert: “The possibility of a conventional attack against Israel is next to nil"

Fanar Haddad is considered an expert on the Middle East.   So he must be aware that the residents of every major city in Israel have been under conventional attack in the past ten years.  I myself spent time in a bomb shelter, and I do not appreciate being called 'paranoid', when I wish that next time a rocket is aimed at me, it will be blown out of the sky before it lands.  Because it's obvious to all Israelis that there will be a next time.

But some feel Israel, which gets significant funding from key ally the U.S. for missile defense capabilities, is going overboard.

Fanar Haddad, a research fellow from the Middle East Institute in Singapore, said Israeli military superiority in the region was so firmly established that Iron Beam was unlikely to change anything in the short or medium term. 

“The development of another layer says more about Israeli paranoia,” he said. “The possibility of a conventional attack against Israel is next to nil and there is hardly a need for five layers of missile defense systems.”

More: Times of Israel