The new coalitions of perpetual victims needed a bogeyman to blame for their woes and – surprise, surprise – they picked the Jews, whom they now malign as "privileged whites."
Victor Davis Hanson, writing in the National Review, described an "emerging new, new anti-Semitism … [that] 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. … [Its] 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 [it] 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 woke Muslims, blacks, Latinos, and feminists."
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Is "white Jewish privilege" a thing? We had the "privilege" of being persecuted for centuries by Christians for rejecting Jesus and by Muslims for rejecting Muhammad; denied the right to vote, hold citizenship or own property; crowded into ghettos; denied admission to universities; rounded up and killed in pogroms; scattered to the ends of the earth; beheaded, raped and enslaved; and butchered by the millions in the Holocaust while the world looked on. And today we have the very special "white privilege" of record numbers of hate crimes against Jews worldwide – more so than any other religious group.
Yet, despite centuries of hatred and ostracism, we not only survived; we thrived. Why? Because we do have one privilege, unique to Judaism. We have Jewish values and culture which emphasize higher education, achievement, cherishing our children and helping others by contributing to all of the communities we are allowed to live in.
According to a website for the documentary film "From Swastika to Jim Crow," "The American Jewish Committee, American Jewish Congress, and Anti-Defamation League were central to the campaign against racial prejudice. Jews made substantial financial contributions to many civil rights organizations, including the NAACP, Urban League, Congress of Racial Equality. About 50% of the civil rights attorneys in the South during the 1960s were Jews, as were over 50% of the whites who went to Mississippi in 1964 to challenge Jim Crow laws."
Jews were at the forefront of fighting institutionalized racism. Though it still exists in more subtle forms, most employers now look to fill positions with minorities, and universities are open to all.
So, to all of the new "victims" who are blaming Jews and Israel for your woes, a question asked by Professor Alan Dershowitz summarizes this new ignorant victim bigotry well: "In a recently issued 'platform,' more than 60 groups that form the core of the Black Lives Matter movement went out of their way to single out one foreign nation to accuse of genocide and apartheid.
"No, it wasn't the Syrian government, which has killed tens of thousands of innocent people. … Nor was it Saudi Arabia, which openly practices gender and religious apartheid. It wasn't Iran, which hangs gays and murders dissidents. It wasn't China, which has occupied Tibet for more than half a century. And it wasn't Turkey, which has imprisoned journalists, judges, and academics. … Nor was it the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip … where the police … act as judge, jury and executioner. … It was only Israel, the nation-state of the Jewish people and the only democracy in the Middle East."
Victims? Israel's Arab enemies are victims of their morally bankrupt choices, repeatedly rejecting every single fair peace offer, and then blaming Israel for all of their woes instead of building communities of peace and prosperity, as Israel has done.
If being "woke" means having one's consciousness raised, then I suggest waking up, taking a long hard look in the mirror, and instead of blaming the Jews, blame yourselves for not taking advantage of the many privileges open to all to achieve your goals. Wake up to your own false victimization that is truly keeping you down. Wake up, thank Jews who have given so much, particularly to the marginalized groups that now embrace the "new, new anti-Semitism." Wake up to your own vile bigotry. And if you cannot wake up to these truths, do us all a favor and go back to sleep.
