What Bernie Madoff has done for the financial reservoirs of the Modern Orthodox community of Manhattan, the Israel-defenders are doing to genuine concerns about antisemitism, watering them down hopelessly. A friend writes:
I'm struck by how younger bloggers like Matt Yglesias are now using "anti-semite" and its cousins in a satirical way, as in : "notorious anti-semite Ehud Olmert recently said. . ." or "according to well-known Jew-hater Gideon Levy.
. ." This is significant: they are in effect making fun of a
tactic [employed chiefly by Marty Peretz and friends] that has outlived its usefulness. If this keeps up, anyone
playing the "anti-semite" card will become a self-discrediting event:
as soon as someone does it, others will immediately conclude they have
no case on the merits. It would be wonderful if this shift in discourse
triumphed, except for the fact that there are a few genuine bigots out
there and we do want to be able to call them out and ostracize them. As
many have noted, this is another reason why abusing the anti-semitism
charge is a bad idea: it may paradoxically make it easier for real
anti-semites down the road.
. ." This is significant: they are in effect making fun of a
tactic [employed chiefly by Marty Peretz and friends] that has outlived its usefulness. If this keeps up, anyone
playing the "anti-semite" card will become a self-discrediting event:
as soon as someone does it, others will immediately conclude they have
no case on the merits. It would be wonderful if this shift in discourse
triumphed, except for the fact that there are a few genuine bigots out
there and we do want to be able to call them out and ostracize them. As
many have noted, this is another reason why abusing the anti-semitism
charge is a bad idea: it may paradoxically make it easier for real
anti-semites down the road.
