Anti-Zionism is Antisemitism
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Summary
The House of Representatives has passed a resolution strongly condemning and denounces anti-Semitism in the United States and around the world, and calls on elected officials and world leaders to fight all forms of domestic and global anti-Semitic hate. What does this mean for the First Amendment rights of Christians and Buddhists? Is this a violation of free speech?
Transcript
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Let me read the resolution. So strongly condemning and denouncing the drastic rise of
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anti-Semitism in the United States and around the world. Whereas acts of hate, intimidation,
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discrimination, and violence based on ethnicity or religion have no place in our country,
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nor in the global community. So it always strikes me as funny when you denounce something that's been
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happening since the Stone Age and saying that it has no place. You know, it's like saying no one
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should die of cancer or something that has no place in our society. Well, that's just a ridiculous
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statement. No one should be alone. You know, everyone should have a meal. I mean, you're just
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you're describing a phenomenon that is so universal, that to condemn it is just absurd. I mean,
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and they're condemning not just anti-Semitism, but discrimination and violence based on ethnicity
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their religion. I mean, they are describing human history. They're describing the history of their
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own institutions, in fact, and claiming that this has no place. It's just a ridiculous, absurd statement.
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Anyway, resolved that the House of Representatives strongly condemns and denounces all instances of
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anti-Semitism occurring in the United States and globally, reaffirms and reiterates its strong
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support for the Jewish community at home and abroad. All right. So we support Jews here. We support
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Israel. So they're equating that. And then calls on elected officials and world leaders to condemn and
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fight all forms of domestic and global anti-Semitism. So everyone on the planet must be fighting this.
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In fact, clearly and firmly states that anti-Zionism is anti-Semitism. Rejects all that's going to be the
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key there. That's platform for rejects all forms of terror, hate, discrimination, and harassment of
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members of the Jewish community. Now, I actually have a lot to say about this. This is a very complex
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thing. And I think it's worth looking at all the layers of this. So when you hear something like
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this, some immediate objections come to mind. And these objections have been voiced by mainstream
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legislators. So Massey, who's a congressman from Kentucky, is actually an interesting guy.
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I sometimes find him to be a bit of a libertarian crank. He is Ron Paul 2.0 in many ways, or I guess
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Rand Paul was Ron Paul 2.0. So he's 3.0. But you get my drift. I think he's a decent guy. But anyway,
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he opposed this. And he actually said something to the effect, you know, like the Congress in particular,
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government in general should not be telling people what to believe. Like, don't you have at the end
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of the day, a right to be anti-Semitic? Don't you have a right to think that the Unabomber was a cool
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guy? Don't you have a right to believe in fairies and unicorns? You know, there's just, you know, some of
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these views might be more benign than others. But at the end of the day, you have a right to them. And
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this is saying denouncing something from government is just obviously a First Amendment violation. Now,
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this is a resolution. So, you know, does this matter? You know, I arguably does, but it remains a First
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Amendment violation. If they said we denounce Buddhism in all its forms, I think it'd be quite
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obvious that the government was taking a stand on what you believe. So that's a decent objection
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that I agree with. Denounce is different from prohibit, right? Correct. They're denouncing it,
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but they're not prohibiting it. And prohibiting it would be a violation of free speech. Well, yes. And
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it goes farther than that because, like, a teacher at a public school can talk about, say,
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you know, what Christianity is or, you know, the life of Jesus, but she cannot, like, lead the class
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in prayer. You know, so it actually does go further than that. Than just, you know, I mean, obviously,
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a public school principal can't, like, not teach someone who's Buddhist or an atheist. That's pretty
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obvious. But it goes a little bit further than that. Like, you can't make it seem like you're
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excluded if you don't, you know, take part in this. Now, out here in Montana, I think that's often
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honored in the breach more than the observance. They do these, like, Christmas things where,
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you know, it's kind of, it's very benign, and they're singing about, you know, Rudolph the
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Red-Nosed Reindeer and things like that. But they are kind of, you know, to me, I mean,
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I'm not going to object, obviously, but they kind of are promoting Christianity, to be honest.
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But it's just, you know, it's so benign. I, you know, only Ebeneezer Scrooge would complain.
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But anyway, the other objection, and actually, Jerry Nadler, who is this Jewish representative
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from New York, it's actually pretty interesting, because he said that anti-Zionism is distinct
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from anti-Semitism. And in fact, many Jews who are his constituents are anti-Zionist. So he is a
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representative from some part of New York, where there are many, many of these anti-Zionist Jews,
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and they're basically extremely pro-Jewish. But they'll say things like, it's an affront to God
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to re-establish Zion, or, you know, re-enter Jerusalem before the Messiah returns, or not returns,
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excuse me, comes. And so they have this kind of curious stance on it. And you can find a number
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of Jews who are like this. Now, I would say that those people, I don't know, represent like 3% of
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world Jewry at the most. But, you know, they are. And obviously, they're not anti-Semitic. So how could
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you equate anti-Semitism with anti-Zionism? Fair enough. But I actually, I don't know, I guess my
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objection to this, and it's, it's related to these things, but it's actually really different. And I
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think it gets at something deeper and a little more insidious. And I think something that is
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worth talking about. So obviously, and I'll talk about this on two levels. So obviously,
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we're adults, we can make distinctions between, you know, two different phenomenon. You could be a
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rabid Germanophile and love German cuisine, and you read Goethe on weekends, but you happily fight
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the Nazis, and so on. Obviously, that is a completely normal perspective for many people
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to have. But first off, let me, let me just, I'll start out saying this. Don't you find that
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on some level, being anti-Zionist is being anti-Semitic? I mean, aren't they in a way
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getting at something? In the sense that this, these actions in Gaza have no doubt inspired a great deal
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of anti-Semitism among Americans and people around the world. Because Israel isn't just a country that
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is majority Jewish. It is a Jewish state that is establishing itself as a fulfillment of biblical
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prophecy. It's a Jewish state that is near the holy sites of this religion. I mean, it goes so far
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in the sense that Yahweh might be in effect present near the temple. We might be close to the holy of
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holies, the actual physical location of the god Yahweh. So the fact that this country is doing these
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things that are offending the world is quite significant. And I think that they, that in a way,
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it's fair to say that being anti-Zionist is being anti-Jewish. Because again, this isn't just some
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curious country where, you know, it has a bunch of Jews, but it has a secular constitution,
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or whatever. But this is a country that is a fulfillment of the very Bible. So in a way,
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if you are criticizing Israel, you are criticizing Judaism. And I was thinking about this last night,
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that I, I was reminded of one of my favorite quotations from Leo Strauss. So Leo Strauss has a
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good book. It's called the history of political philosophy. He edited, edited it actually. And
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it's very long, goes through basically all major philosophers. And he, he offers kind of like an
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introduction or, you know, X, you know, explanation or explication, but then, but then also his own
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perspective on them. And he's talking about Machiavelli and Machiavelli references David and
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he references God. And it's, he has a, Leo Strauss has, and Leo Strauss claims that Machiavelli has
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a kind of interpretation of this, the meek shall inherit the earth or the, you know, he must make
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the rich poor and the poor rich. And what Machiavelli is saying is that when you establish a new, a new
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sovereignty or a new prince, you need to make everything dependent upon you. So everything must
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be new. So you have to dispossess all of the rich people and rise, raise up all of the poor people so
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that they know that they are entirely dependent on you. And this is how you establish yourself as a new
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leader. What Leo Strauss was getting at was that it's interesting that this is suggesting that Yahweh
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is himself a kind of prince or tyrant. And you can kind of go from there in some ways, being a prince
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is making yourself God. Anyway, what he's saying is that that insidious, blasphemous, very dangerous
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sentiment, is implanted in the reader's mind of Machiavelli, even though it's not said outright.
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He's, he's implying very dangerous thoughts. And this is, this is the esoteric quality of
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Machiavelli and also the esoteric quality of Leo Strauss's interpretive method. So he's implying these
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things, but he's allowing you to think them. So he'll take you from A to B to C and a half, maybe.
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And then he'll let you go to D. But D is where the actual blasphemy is. And this is writing under
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persecution, basically. But this is a direct quote, but the concealed blasphemy is so insidious,
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not only because it projects the blasphemer against, excuse me, not only because it protects
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the blasphemer against punishment by due process of law, because again, you haven't said anything
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blasphemous, but above all, because it practically compels the hearer or reader to think the blasphemy
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by himself and thus to become an accomplice in the blasphemer. So what I'm suggesting here is that
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it's almost, when you start declaring that anti-Semitism, excuse me, anti-Zionism is anti-Semitism,
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aren't you in a way giving people ideas? Are you actually suggesting in their mind that that is
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correct? And in fact, if you are anti-Zionist, you should also be anti-Semitic, by which we mean
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anti-Jewish and anti-Yahweh. Is this a kind of dangerous thing to suggest to people's minds?
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And might it imply a sort of passive aggression among Jews? So let me unpack what I'm saying here. So
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I've made the joke often about the anti-German guilt trip that goes on in academia, where,
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and there's a long tradition of this, of, you know, German history from Luther to Hitler.
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And it's just, you know, Bismarck was a Nazi. Wilhelm, Kaiser Wilhelm was a Nazi. Well, you know,
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that one has maybe some kernels of truth. You know, every, it's all Nazis. It's, it's, you know,
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it's all turtles all the way down. It's all Nazis all the way down. You, you dig into German history,
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you uncover a swastika under every rock. But there's a dangerous, it's a dangerous thing to say,
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in fact, because if you keep telling Germans that they're inherently Nazi, at some point,
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they might believe you and take you up on the offer. And the entire valuation that you're putting
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forth gets flipped. And the German says, I am a Nazi. And Martin Luther was a Nazi. We're all Nazis.
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It's a very dangerous thing. And when you keep equating anti, you know, anti-Zionism is anti-Semitism.
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At what point do people hear that and say, yeah, you're right. I am anti-Semitic. So
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if I were a Jew, I would take Jerry Nadler's perspective. And I think he's being a, at least
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in the long term or medium term, a kind of canny operator. What's happening in Gaza right now is going
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to diminish the standing of Israel in the eyes of the world. It's going to reduce its legitimacy.
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And I think it will ultimately strongly reduce the legitimacy of Judaism itself. Because Israel
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isn't just any country. And that is a huge problem. But as more people get this in their mind, and it's
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declared to them that they are in fact anti-Semitic, they, again, might at some point start believing
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their critics. And so it's a very dangerous game. But it also kind of makes me wonder,
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you know, and I got at this a little bit the other night with Nick, where is there a kind
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of passive aggressive instinct, like an unconscious motivation among Jews to inspire anti-Semitism?
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And as I said the other night, to empower their persecutors, and to disempower their friends. So
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if you can just, if you imagine, you know, 1960 demographics in the United States, remaining
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for eternity. We might very well have had a lot of the liberalism that we've had today. Obviously,
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this is kind of coming from white leaders and to a very large degree, etc. But I think it's also fair
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to say that the country would be much more Zionist than it is right now. And if you look at some of this
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polling, like Biden is flailing around, I think 30, it's like 35% of Democrats approve of Israel's actions
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in Gaza. So basically a strong majority is condemning what is happening right now. This is very interesting,
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would not have seen this 20 years ago. But if we had kept our, you know, demographics,
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it seems like we would be a more rabidly Zionist country.
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I can remember even 20 years ago, say after 9-11, when, you know, the patriot-hearted
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nonsense was just at its zenith, you know, people just wearing these big flag pins and crucifixes and
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big, you know, these fatzos with big American flag t-shirts waddling around talking about killing
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Muslims and bringing them to democracy. You know, it's like that line from Full Metal Jacket,
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within every gook is an American just waiting to get out. And, you know, within every Muslim is a
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Democrat. Just, you know, if we bomb them enough times, he'll finally be empowered to,
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you know, take, to vote for the right guys. That was a, that was a whiter country. And that type
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of mentality was primarily popular among white Christians and probably white Protestants in
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particular, and Southerners in particular, but it was, it was popular across the board.
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It's harder to get America whipped up into such a frenzy at this point. There's a generational aspect
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to that, no question. There's a demographic aspect. There's a, there's a racial component to that.
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But you are demanding that brown people support this bombing of brown people in another country and
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like it. Now, Arabs themselves are a small percentage of the population. I think they,
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I think it's one to 2% or 3% maybe. I don't know. It's very, very small. But there are many more
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Hispanics. There are many more Asians. There are, you know, many more Indians, just, just many more
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different people where they see something like this. And there's, they're just thinking to themselves,
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what do we have at stake with all this? Why are we supporting this, these obviously violent actions
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against poor third world communities, this community that might remind me of home in many ways? Why would
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I support this? And yet, as we know, the demographic change of the United States is not entirely, of
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course, but it is to a, to a large degree, to, to a significant degree worth talking about a kind
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of Jewish project. And, you know, the, the notion of America turning away boats of Jews fleeing the
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Holocaust and et cetera. These are foundational myths as much as the Statue of Liberty and Ellis
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Island for, you know, Irish and Italians, et cetera. So it, it has been a kind of Jewish project, but why?
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Why would you ultimately in the long-term empower your own persecutors?
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It, it's a, it's a, it's a fascinating question. Is there a kind of passive aggressive instinct
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Is there like a yoke, is there like a yoke about this, that if the rabbis got to this side in medieval
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Europe, the walls to the ghettos would be even higher because they're sort of like,
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some of this, like, particularly like the Orthodox types, they are getting nurture from this sort of
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antisemitism because they want to be separate. And I don't really want Jewish people to like
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simulate and be like part of mainstream society. So I do think that's like a big part of the Jewish identity.
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It's a balance, you know, because there definitely are Jews who want to be ghettoized and they want,
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they want Jew, Jewish marriage only. Let's remove ourselves from the Gentile community.
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There are Jews like that, no doubt, but obviously the mainstream Jews aren't like that.
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Exactly. I mean, they are to maybe a degree, you know, um, on Saturday, um, and, and, you know,
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in, in, in certain clubs. And then there are many Jews who want to absolutely engage with the Gentiles and,
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and, you know, be a part of it. And so it's, it's a kind of balance, but isn't there, isn't a certain
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like requisite amount of antisemitism necessary to maintain cohesion? You know, I mean, as I've said
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many times, like the Visigoths don't really exist. Now I might, um, you know, cause I, my,
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my, my German ancestry, I might be a little bit Visigoth or something, but it doesn't have the
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meaning that, that Judaism does in the sense that it's a coherent community that at least according
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to them is 3000 years old. That's a remarkable thing. Um, so, and then the other thing I would
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also suggest is, is, is there a kind of maybe a secret death wish? Um, is, is there a death
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drive as, as, as Freud might say, in fact, on among the community where, you know, if you don't have
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the bloody destruction destruction of the second temple, then you wouldn't have a wailing wall and
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you wouldn't have a shrine? Like, is there an almost desire to go there, a desire to make things worse,
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to experience catastrophe and suffering? And it's obviously something that, that would be unconscious,
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but Richard, go on. I've, I've kind of said my piece on this. Go on, Mark.
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Well, yeah. I mean, I think that the, the answer might be, I mean, there is a kind of cyclical
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aspect to Jewish history and I would make the argument that that's sort of encoded into their
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stories and religion and so forth. Um, you know, at some point there, there will be an exodus and
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they'll leave Egypt having plundered the Egyptians and so forth. And this is not necessarily a bad
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thing. It's just part of the migratory life of the Jew, as it were. So they'll either expel or
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be expelled or flee or, and so forth. Um, but I think that part of that cycle though, is that, um,
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that they are, their will to power is basically, uh, the promotion of egalitarianism. Um, so as they're
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rising, they'll be promoting things like free speech and, uh, the liberation of the lower classes
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and so forth, uh, because they see that tied to their own interests. But once they attain sort of
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the heights of, uh, power, uh, they'll oppose those things. Right. But they've already set in motion
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all this, uh, cultural, um, interest or love or affection for things like egalitarianism, freedom,
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freedom of speech and so forth, uh, that end up, uh, you know, sort of biting them in the ass as it
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were, uh, because they're no longer in favor of those things because to be in favor of those things
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is disruptive to their hold on power essentially. Uh, but in previously they were using those things to
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disrupt, uh, you know, the Gentile, uh, um, uh, sort of, um, stranglehold on power, whether it's the,
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uh, it was the elite wasps in America or the aristocracy in Europe and so forth. Right. Um,
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yeah. So I think that that's kind of the answer, you know, it's, it's the serpent that eats its own
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tail. The will to power is necessarily one of leveling. Uh, but once you're in power, uh, you know,
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the sort of leveling forces, these democratic forces or become your adversary. And I think
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really it's just, it's the answer is that it's cyclical that they, uh, again, that their will
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to power is also their undoing. Uh, you know, we have that expression to live by the sword is to die
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by the sword. Um, you know, so maybe some similar aphorism can be developed as it, uh, pertains to
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Jews, you know, to, to live by the egalitarian creed is to die by the, the egalitarian creed and so
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forth. Right. I'm sure a better, a better, uh, aphorism can be developed in that. But, um, I think
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that, uh, I think that that's what's going on and, uh, they've created, uh, they've been very
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influential in the creation. I should correct myself of this kind of egalitarian climate, this,
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this sort of democratized, egalitarian multicultural climate, uh, they've played an important hand in
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fostering that. And now they're kind of, um, you know, reaping the whirlwind. Uh, so I think that
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that's, that's basically the answer, you know, and, uh, that it is cyclical, but Jewish, a Jewish will
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to power, uh, in Jewish history in general is, is cyclical because of the need to, you know, to the need
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to undermine the very things that would ultimately support them once they ascend to a position of
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power. Yeah. I mean, I, that's, that's what I would say.