[lbo-talk] Anti-Semitism by Default (was Obama Calls Iran Threat to U.S., Israel)

Yoshie Furuhashi critical.montages at gmail.com
Sun Mar 4 09:49:27 PST 2007


On 3/4/07, Chris Doss <lookoverhere1 at yahoo.com> wrote:
> It seems that capitalism necessarily generates
> hostility/suspicion
> against _some_ ethnic group or groups.
>
> ---
>
> But that was not the claim. The claim as I understand
> it is that the ethnic hostility is for some reason in
> all cases directed specifically toward Jews.

I disagree with Angel on that. I do not think anti-Semitism is inherent in "generalized commodity production."

I do think, though, that the waning of (liberal and Marxist) theories of imperialism more or less leaves the liberal theory of interest groups as default explanation of politics, and since there are prominent interest groups that claim to be serving Jewish constituencies (though there is strong evidence that they work against them and their expressed preferences), anti-Semitism is liable to become a default explanation for Washington's policy toward the Middle East.

Liberals and leftists, facing this problem, normally just duck and cover. They think they can counter this problem by ignoring it altogether or attacking those on the far Right and Left who take note of the aforementioned interest groups in any way. But that doesn't solve the problem, for most people get an anti-Semitic default explanation not from consciously anti-Semitic neo-fascist propaganda or even misunderstood claims made by anti-Zionist liberals and leftists here and there, but from the _mainstream press, including the Jewish press_ (if you doubt this, just keep track of how they discuss Jewish voters and Jewish donors). And, like any ideology, it is rooted in part in an inconvenient "fact" (I put the word "fact" between quotation marks for this is a claim that is not well documented but is impossible to dismiss out of hand and that most people likely believe it as a matter of "common sense" and draw unwarranted conclusions): "In presidential elections, Democratic candidates depend on Jewish supporters to supply as much as 60 percent of the money raised from private sources" (Thomas B. Edsall and Alan Cooperman, "GOP Uses Remarks to Court Jews: Moran's Comments Cited in New Appeal," 13 March 2003: A01, <http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A17878-2003Mar12?language=printer>).

The thing to do seems to me to offer a better explanation for US Middle East policy in particular and imperialism in general. -- Yoshie <http://montages.blogspot.com/> <http://mrzine.org> <http://monthlyreview.org/>



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