Introduction by Oaklandsocialist
Today, defenders of the genocidal state of Israel throw the charge “antisemitism” at anybody who makes legitimate criticisms of that state or of Zionism in general. We must not allow that to obscure the real antisemitism that exists, and in fact seems to be on the increase. What makes this antisemitism doubly dangerous is the fact that some of it cloaks itself in supposed defense of the Palestinian people. As the author of this article below writes, “anti-Zionism is not inherently antisemitic, but antisemitism is more than capable of disguising itself as anti-Zionism. It is doing so now. It is climbing through the cracks, wearing slogans it does not believe in, borrowing language it will one day set on fire. And if we do not recognize that, we will hand the movement over to the people who want to destroy it.”

That is why it is so important for us to understand the antisemitism that is developing today. See Oaklandsocialist’s further comments below this article. The author of the article below, who wishes to remain anonymous, grew up in a working class Catholic community. He experienced antisemitism all throughout his early years. Many socialists, including readers of this blog, have not had those experiences, and as a result do not understand the weight of those experiences. Tens of millions of other people have had those experiences, however. For them a Christian education itself opens the door to antisemitism. That was the experience of this writer.

Anti-Semitism is a Growing Danger,
but not in the way you think

By Anonymous

left to right: Nick Fuentes, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Ted Cruz, Tucker Carlson.
These far far right wing bigots pose as critics of Israel. They are wolves in sheeps’ clothing.

My Background
When I was growing up, my grandfather was the patriarch of my family, and in many ways everyone’s hero. He was drafted into the US Army during the Second World War and served in the invasion of Europe. In 4th grade I was given my first formal class on the War, and I realized that I should ask him about his perspective on it while he was still around to give it. He discussed it as if it was a vacation through Europe, and talked about all the great friends he made. Discussion of the bad stuff, he figured, would have to wait until I at least reached middle school.

But there was one thing I asked him that he thought was very important to get across to me at a young age, and it was prompted by me asking this question:

“Why did the Nazis hate the Jews so much?”

I’ll never forget the moment where he thought we were alone in the house and leaned over and whispered to me: “You’re not supposed to talk about this, but The Jews own a lot of businesses, and they had made things very hard for people during the Depression. It wasn’t just the Germans that had problems with them. At first, we thought Hitler might be a good thing; he might be able to get them in line, but he went too far.”

I tell that story to explain that I grew up in a deeply anti-semitic place. I’m not proud of it, but it’s the reality. I understand how anti-semitism works and how many workers in the United States relate to it.

Given that a leftist perspective on this current in American society is basically non-existent, I’m going to use this piece as an opportunity to articulate how Israel’s genocide in Gaza has awakened a sleeping giant of some of the most reactionary attitudes in the United States, attitudes that all workers should be deeply concerned about. None of this discounts the leftist or socialist viewpoint in general nor the socialist rejection of Zionism as a racist and pro-imperialist movement. None of it in any way means that our movement against Israel is anti-Semitic nor that we should tone it down.. What I write is meant to explain how some on the far right, including outright fascists, see the issue of Israel. That understanding is important

The Palestinian solidarity movement has found itself strange bedfellows as of late with a variety of voices on the far right. Not just outright Nazi sympathizers like Nick Fuentes but also mainstream figures like Tucker Carlson and even sitting politicians like Marjorie Taylor-Green.

First, I would generally caution that anytime an advocate of the working-class finds themself allying with people that enthusiastically advocate for our wholesale bondage under authoritarian regimes, they should take a step back and ask why. It doesn’t mean the position is wrong, but they are likely coming to that conclusion for very different reasons than we would, and an understanding of those reasons is valuable. I’m going to break down the reasons I can confidently infer why these people have taken their position on the genocide,

l: Nick Fuentes; r: David Duke. They are both fascistic anti-Semites who criticize Israel

Nick Fuentes is a far-right internet pundit who has been largely deplatformed for his open admiration of Adolf Hitler and unapologetic support for White Christian Nationalism. He is the ideological and cultural successor, in many ways, to David Duke, who is a former leader in the Knights of the KKK and Member of the Louisiana House of Representatives. Fuentes has actually praised Duke in the past and it’s not difficult to figure out why: they are both proud, ideologically-rooted racists. 

Both of these men have historically condemned Israel’s crimes against the Palestinians. In many ways their position has been more honest about the crimes than most liberal perspectives on the Israel’s occupation of Palestine. Figures like Fuentes are not in the business of caring for the rights and safety of Palestinian children. In their eyes the Palestinians are also part of the masses of “mud people” put on this earth to serve the White Man.

What they are in the business of, however, is building a working-class that is amenable to fascism in the truest sense, and that requires widespread hatred of “The Jews.”

The nuance of that term is typically missed by people who didn’t grow up hearing it. When anti-semites use the term “The Jews,” they are not referring to all people of the Jewish faith or who identify with contemporary Jewish culture. They are referring to their belief in a vague grouping of powerful Jews in finance, mass media, and the military-industrial complex who have corrupted the elite of Western society and rule over Gentiles (non-Jews) by systemically stealing their hard-earned money and sometimes consuming the blood of or molesting their children. While the anti-Semites might admit that these powerful Jews are a minority among all Jews, yet for them all Jews are part of this conspiracy and are not to be trusted. This may sound crazy and irrational to you, which is a good sign because it is, but it is not a wholly unpopular opinion in the US working-class.

Epstein
There are many reasons why the myriad scandals around Jeffery Epstein have gained so much traction in the working-class over the past decade. Some are legitimate; they are clearly evidence of successful efforts on the part of powerful capitalists to subvert accountability for heinous crimes, but another part of the reason why the scandal is so widespread is the perceived evidence that anti-semites say it gives to the existence of “The Jews.” A shady financier whose name ends in “Stein” coordinating an international sex-trafficking ring of underage girls and is close to some of the most

top: Epstein plus some of the girls he trafficked; bottom Ehud Barak.
Epstein’s last name plus his association with the former Israeli PM is grist for the mill of the far right, anti-semitic conspiracy theorists.

powerful people on the planet is any anti-semite’s wet dream, and for the anti-Semites the effort put into covering the situation up only increases confidence in their hypotheses. The fact that he had a relationship with former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak and Ghislaine Maxwell, and has familial connections with Mossad make the Jewish nature of the conspiracy blatantly obvious in their eyes.

To repeat: This does not in any way detract from the significance of the Epstein scandal, which shows how rich and powerful men (and a few women) sex trafficked usually vulnerable young women. My point is that for many anti-Semites this is not the real issue; for them the real issue is the fact that Epstein is at the center of it along with a few key people from Israel.

This thread, the association with Israel, is the axis around which these anti-Semitic conspiracies turn, and it’s easy to understand why. Since Israel’s founding, its leaders have made it extremely clear that to them Israel is the nation-state of all Jews, and that Israel and the Jews are one and  the same. Many Zionists see this as a defensive statement that ensures the safety of Jewish people, but anti-semites are focused on the other side of the coin. They use Zionism’s supposition that Israel is the representative of all Jews as a slam dunk in their argument that “the Jews” have a coordinated international leadership based around Israel. (This is part, but only part, of the reason why socialists reject the very idea that Israel represents Jewish people.)

For figures like Duke and Fuentes, Israel’s crimes provide a massive target that they can take potshots at all day. When they say: “look at what Israel and the Zionists are doing” they mean (and their audiences hear): “look at what The Jews are doing.” This provides the foundation for a larger project to unify the reactionary aspects of the working-class around an identity rallying around a common cause: removing the yoke of oppression “the Jews” supposedly have around our necks by any means necessary. Once again; if you find that language disturbing, good. You have an understanding of the problem.

Then we move to more mainstream figures and their reasons for changing tune on Israel; specifically the likes of Tucker Carlson and Candace Owens. Their shift from the standard right-wing line is similarly insidious but occurs for different reasons: their Christian beliefs.

These passages from the Bible are often used to condemn all Jews, past, present and future.

Growing up in the Catholic education system there was always an awkward discussion around a particular set of verses in the Book of Matthew; specifically 27 : 11-26. In that part of the Bible, Pontius Pilate makes an offer to the people of Jerusalem, always understood to mean “The Jews.” He asks whether they would rather have Jesus Christ released from his custody or Barabbas, who was allegedly imprisoned for being a violent criminal. The crowd cries out that they would rather have Barabbas released and that Jesus Christ should be crucified. Verse 25  is sometimes interpreted to mean that the crowd said that they welcome Christ’s blood on their hands and the hands of their children.

A traditional Catholic interpretation of this verse has been used to justify anti-semitism by claiming:

1. Jesus Christ is the Messiah of the God of Abraham and Israel
2. He came to Earth to bring all of humanity salvation
3. When the ancestors of the people who call themselves Jews had the opportunity to accept his salvation they conspired to have him killed
4. When given one last chance by Rome to save him they collectively refused
5. The Jews then became the enemies of God forever

If you’re not religious this may sound ridiculous to the point of farce, but remember I’m not talking about people who are religious in the sense that they have hope in the existence of an afterlife and pray at difficult times; I’m talking about people that think if they don’t follow specific doctrines they are going to burn in Hell for all eternity. Even if you don’t know any in your personal life, trust me that there are tens of millions of them in the United States and around the world. 

Tucker Carlson, whether he wants to admit it or not, follows very much in this Christian tradition. This has been made extremely clear in the way that he approached criticism of Israel in his interview with Ted Cruz. When confronting Cruz on why Israel is at the core of his faith, they got into a particular back and forth about what the Bible means by Israel which was illuminating:

Ted Cruz:
“Growing up in Sunday school … I was taught from the Bible, those who bless Israel will be blessed and those who curse Israel will be cursed. From my perspective, I want to be on the blessing side of things.” 

Tucker Carlson (pressing for clarity):
“Of those who bless the government of Israel?” 

Cruz:
“Those who bless Israel … doesn’t say the government. It says the nation of Israel. That’s in the Bible. As a Christian, I believe that.” 

Carlson (challenging scripture location):
“Where is that?”

Cruz:
“I can find it for you. I don’t have the scripture off the tip of my …” 

Carlson (pressing again):
“It’s in Genesis. So you’re quoting a Bible phrase … you don’t know where in the Bible it is, but that’s like your theology? I’m confused.” 

Carlson (defining Israel):
“What does that mean Israel? Are you kidding? … Define Israel?”

Cruz (firmly):
“We’re told those who bless Israel will be blessed.” 

Carlson (drilling deeper):
“Is the nation God’s referring to in Genesis, is that the same as the country run by Benjamin Netanyahu right now?”

Cruz:
“Yes. Yes, it is.”

To a non-Christian this can seem like pettyfogging around an obscure Bible quote and a huge waste of time to even think about.

It is very much not.

What Cruz and Carlson are debating is not a scholarly dispute over ancient tribal identities; it’s a proxy war for how many American Christians interpret their political obligations today — and whether the modern state of Israel is to be viewed as a divinely sanctioned project or a secular government that can be held accountable like any other. Carlson’s questioning, however unmoored from compassion for Palestinians, is grounded in a tradition of Christianity that no longer sees Jews as God’s chosen people, because they “rejected” Christ. From that view, the state of Israel is not sacred but fallen — and perhaps even aligned with anti-Christian global elites. Not all Christians necessarily hold these views. Not even necessarily a majority do (although it might be). But there does seem to be a rising layer who do, and their numbers are not insignificant. This dialog between Ted Cruz and Tucker Carlson is a dog whistle for that layer. It is not the only such message.

This is where the theology blends back into the conspiracy. The conservative Christian critique of Israel arises from a belief that modern Jews have, once again, strayed from God’s plan. They (supposedly) remain, in a spiritual sense, the Christ-killers, the ones who chose Barabbas. In doing so, they forfeited their role in salvation history. That belief may not always be expressed in explicit terms, but it lingers beneath the surface of their rhetoric and is heard loud and clear by all of us who have been to another kind of Sunday School. This is why figures like Carlson and Owens become especially outraged when the state of Israel harms Christians (who happen to be Palestinian): because they see it as a defining example of the true nature of The Jews as enemies of God. They express outrage at the murder of Muslim children as well, but more as a way of showing that The Jews don’t care about anyone but themselves. This is octane fuel for anti-semitic attitudes amongst Christian Nationalists, which brings us to the most formally powerful one in the United States: Marjorie Taylor-Greene.

Marjorie Taylor Greene at Nick Fuentes’s white-nationalist America First rally. She and Nick Fuentes have a lot in common.

Marjorie Taylor Greene
Anyone who has followed Taylor-Greene since her arrival on the political scene is well aware that she is no fan of “The Jews”. She has explicitly stated beliefs in Jewish Space-lasers, throws around the term “cabal” very casually, and spoke at Nick Fuentes America First Political Action Committee. Before she ever voiced opposition or voted against Israel it was obvious that throwing the term “anti-semite” at her was going to have the same effect as throwing mud at a pig. But this is a reason for greater concern, not a dismissal of the accusation.

What we are witnessing now is not the evolution of Greene’s thinking; it is the culmination of it. Her shift from reflexive support of Israel to open condemnation of its conduct in Gaza is not a break from her ideology; it is the moment that ideology fully expresses itself. When she criticizes Israel now, she is not standing in solidarity with the oppressed; she is reaffirming her belief that the Jews are no longer, and never again will be, the chosen people. That they have betrayed God; seized illegitimate power, and now must be punished for it.

Her opposition to Israel does not grow from a leftist critique of imperialism; settler colonialism; or military occupation. It grows from/appeals to a conviction that the state of Israel is the final, blasphemous act of a people who once killed Christ and now rule the world in defiance of Him. That’s why her criticism sounds, on the surface, similar to ours, but beneath it flows a current of judgment, vengeance, and theological resentment. When she says “Israel,” she is not thinking about tanks and bulldozers; she is thinking about Barabbas. She is angry at The Jews. And her followers know it.

This is why it is more important than ever for the left – and for the working class – to understand the shape of this hatred. Anti-Zionism is not inherently anti-Semitic; but anti-Semitism is more than capable of disguising itself as anti-Zionism. It is doing so now. It is climbing in through the cracks, wearing slogans it doesn’t believe in, borrowing language it will one day set on fire. And if we do not recognize that, we will hand the movement over to the people who want to destroy it.

This is why it is extremely important when discussing Israel to disarm these fascist arguments immediately by making it clear that the tail is not wagging the dog.

It is the imperialist interests of Western Capital to support and defend Israel by any means necessary. All the crimes of Israel stem from that geopolitical status.

The greatest speech Joe Biden ever gave was in the Senate on June 5, 1986:

Joe Biden says if Israel didn’t exist, the US would have to invent one to protect US interest [Oaklandsocialist is the only socialist blog that has taken note of and publicized this speech.]

Biden did something in that speech he may have never done any other time in his entire political career: He brought clarity to a situation. He says something that was obvious since the Balfour Declaration of 1917 but has gotten lost in the bloody mess that is the history of the Occupation: Israel was created and exists to force-project for the West in the Middle East so that its capitalists can maintain a degree of control over the price of crude oil and natural gas. The United States is now the primary imperial power in the world, so Israel directly reflects its priorities.

Israel does not control the United States, the United States controls Israel to a degree. Any crimes Israel commits are done with the full facilitation and support of the United States by default. The reason why there is no significant resistance from the United States government on the genocide is that US leadership either agrees with it, or doesn’t consider it to be a big enough deal to show any lines of division between the two nations. This is viewed as the cost of doing business with an ethno-state at best, and a good example to show the Muslim world at worst. In any case, even if some US capitalist politicians see it as creating too much instability in that part of the world, they cannot abandon Israel, which means they cannot stop sending Israel arms and money.

It is critical that this analysis be pushed at all times when discussing Palestine. If anyone tries to advance the perspective that Israel or “The Jews” control the US government they must be immediately challenged and forced to explain what they mean. It might be simply a regurgitation of talking points that are now ubiquitous; but that isn’t a valid excuse for adding fuel to a growing fire.

Anti-semitism has been, throughout history, a fire that may settle into quiet embers for periods of time but is always capable of igniting into violent conflagrations. We are currently witnessing the flames being stoked, and we should be very wary of the far-right coming together to throw gasoline on it.

There is a direct thread from the modern neo-Nazi movement and this new right that is enthusiastically critical of Israel. Defending the people in Palestine is an overwhelming priority, and defending against the formation of a broad-based, politically significant fascist movement rooted in anti-semitism must not be far behind that. If we collaborate with these people now, it might seem like we are making progress, but we will be setting the table for a far greater crisis in the future. We will help lead to a regime that will not only continue to facilitate crimes against Palestinians but is also willing to expand the genocidal aperture much wider, threatening workers of all backgrounds across the world.

Oaklandsocialist comments:  We also believe that there are other factors giving rise to antisemitism in the United States. The lack of clarity on the class question is also a factor. For instance, in the populist movement at the turn of the 20th century they talked a lot about the “toilers“ and “parasites”. Oakland socialist discussed that history and explained how that opened the door to antisemitism in the section from left populism to racism in this article on fascist ideas on the left. There is also the role of identity politics today. The antisemites, of course, engage in identity politics. According to them, if you are a Jew at the very least, you cannot be trusted. But identity politics goes far beyond that, and of course, Zionism itself bases itself on identity politics – the idea that all Jews, regardless of their class are all linked together and have common interest and a common fate. In our pamphlet, the New Apartheid, we explained how Jewish identity politics gained a mass foothold amongst European jews at the time of the rise of Hitler. Today, the state of Israel defines itself as the state for all Jewish people, in other words, Jewish nationalism or Jewish identity politics. It is also when they’re interest to encourage far right antisemitism, which intern strengthens Jewish nationalism. And that is exactly what they do.

Today, identity politics, in and of itself, plays a powerful role in both capitalist and supposedly socialist politics in the United States. Identity politics is based on the idea that all people of all social classes who practice a certain religion, or have a particular sexual orientation, or are a particular gender, or are of a particular nationality – that they all belong together, regardless of whether they are workers or capitalists or something in between. Jewish identity politics – or Jewish nationalism – serves the interests of both the antisemites and Zionists.

The writer talks about Christians who “support” Palestinians out of anti-Semitism. At least among the Christian nationalist evangelicals (as opposed to Catholics), the majority avidly defend Israel. Those are a different subject. We hope that this article will help alert socialists to the rising danger of genuine antisemitism, and help the Palestinian rights movement  reject the far right antisemites who pose as supporters of the rights of the Palestinians.