Since the presidential inauguration on January 20, I have seen a lot of online discourse over whether right-wing or left-wing antisemitism is the most dangerous and harmful. I’ve even seen people entirely delegitimize antisemitism on one side or the other; for example, they’ll claim “right-wing antisemitism is the real antisemitism.”
I have long said this, but I believe this approach is misguided. In fact, I don’t believe there is really such thing as “right-wing” or “left-wing” antisemitism. Sure, there are antisemites who are politically right-wing, and there are antisemites who are politically left-wing, but both traffic in the exact same antisemitic tropes, stereotypes, and conspiracies. More importantly, they don’t operate independently from each other, but rather, they feed off each other.
When antisemitism rises among the left, it also rises among the right, and vice versa. Treating “left-wing” and “right-wing” antisemitism as separate entities keeps us from truly dismantling antisemitism at its core: a conspiratorial worldview that places, projects, and/or blames every one of society’s ills — whatever these ills may be across any given time period, society, or social or political group — onto Jews.
THE SAME CONSPIRACIES, STEREOTYPES, AND TROPES
There is an ongoing debate both within and outside the Jewish community over whether left or right-wing antisemitism is “worse.” People on the left claim right-wing antisemitism is worse, and people on the right claim left-wing antisemitism is worse. I find this conversation absolutely exhausting, useless, and disingenuous. You are trying to absolve your side while pointing fingers at the other. You should want to fight antisemitism because antisemitism kills, not because you want to make the other side look bad.
Left and right antisemitism work together, not apart. They are not two separate entities. They utilize the same tropes, same conspiracies, and same stereotypes. Time and time again in history, and to the present day, right-wing antisemites have collaborated with left-wing antisemites with one ulterior mission: to hurt Jews. Antisemites always prioritize their antisemitism over their political views.
When antisemitism rises on the left -- as we have seen in the aftermath of the October 7 massacre -- it also rises on the right, and vice versa. When left-wing antisemites spread antisemitic conspiracies, stereotypes, and tropes, white supremacists hear them loud and clear, and vice versa. Meanwhile, Jews are left “politically homeless” and unprotected from those who should be our natural allies.
You cannot adequately fight right-wing antisemitism if you’re not also fighting left-wing antisemitism...and vice versa.
WHO IS MORE ANTISEMITIC?
The right-to-left political spectrum as we know it today is a rather new construct, dating back only to the period of the French Revolution (1789-1799). Those considered to be on the right were those who remained loyal to the king, while those on the left were the supporters of the revolution.
It wasn’t until the early 20th century that the “left” and the “right” became associated with specific political ideologies. Both “left” and “right” were initially considered slurs against political opponents of a differing ideology (for example, someone on the left might insult a conservative by calling them “right-wing,” and vice versa).
Antisemitism predates these political distinctions by millennia. By the time of the French Revolution -- and certainly by the 20th century -- antisemitism had become foundational to a large number of societies across the world. For this reason, it’s no surprise that people on both the right and the left of the political spectrum had internalized antisemitic ways of thinking, both during the French Revolution and long afterwards.
A comprehensive April 2023 study published in Nature’s Humanities and Social Sciences Communications journal corroborated this. The study sought to find whether people on the right or the left of the political spectrum are more likely to hold antisemitic views. The result? The biggest predictor of antisemitism is not whether you are politically right-wing or left-wing, but rather, whether you adhere to conspiratorial views. In other words, those with conspiratorial ways of thinking are likelier to be antisemites. Additionally, antisemites are also more likely to hold authoritarian views -- on the right and the left -- and are also more likely to want to “overthrow social order.”
“Whether we look at the left or the right of the political spectrum, we find people who are antisemitic and people who aren’t. Our findings help us to get beyond the question of whether antisemitism is more of a problem on the right or on the left. What we found is that antisemitic views are more likely among conspiracy theorists, revolutionaries, and people who see dictatorship as an acceptable form of government.”
Dr. Daniel Allington
THE HORSESHOE THEORY
In political science, the horseshoe theory asserts that the far-left and the far-right are not opposites at the end of a political continuum, but rather, that they closely resemble each other, nearly meeting like the ends of a horseshoe, as in the illustration below.
The horseshoe theory is not without its vocal critics. Those on both the far-right and the far-left resent the association with the other.
Others argue that the far-right and far-left only mirror each other in the vaguest sense, such as in their opposition to the liberal status quo, but, that in nearly every other aspect, both ideologies are vastly different.
WHERE DOES ISLAMIST ANTISEMITISM FIT?
The political ideology of Islamism -- not to be confused with the religion of Islam -- is an ideology that, among other things, believes that the doctrines of Islam should be congruent with those of the state. Though it doesn’t fit neatly into the “left-wing” versus “right-wing” political paradigm, Islamism is a deeply conservative ideology. Islamist regimes reject values traditionally associated with the left, such as secularism and gender and religious equality.
Islamists cite the Prophet Muhammad’s conflict with the Jewish tribes of the Arabian Peninsula in the 7th century as the “source” of their struggle with the Jews. This, of course, has absolutely nothing to do with today’s political spectrum. And yet, Islamist propaganda often capitalizes on left-wing terminology to garner support from the left in their opposition to Jews, the Jewish movement for self-determination (Zionism), and the Jewish state (Israel).
For example, Islamist propaganda will often use the language of “anti-imperialism” and “anti-colonialism” to appeal to the left, even though inherent to Islamist ideology is the determination to (re)establish the Islamic Caliphate (empire).
Islamist propaganda will use the language of “Indigenous rights” to garner support, and yet Islamist regimes historically and today suppress Indigenous spiritual practices, religions, and languages.
WHEN ANTISEMITES FEED OFF EACH OTHER
Time and time again in history, left-wing and right-wing antisemites have either fed off each other or actively collaborated in their greater goal of hurting Jews. Some examples below:
- In the 1950s, the far left-wing regime of the Soviet Union — the mortal enemies of the Nazis — disseminated far-right Nazi propaganda films from the 1930s and 1940s to Arab and African nations to win their favor and exert their influence in the region.
- To carry out the 1972 Munich Olympics Massacre, Black September -- a self-described left-wing Marxist Palestinian terrorist organization -- enlisted the help of two notorious German far-right neo-Nazis, Willi Pohl and Wolfgang Abramowski. Specifically, Pohl aided Abu Daoud, the mastermind behind the Munich Massacre, by helping him obtain forged passports, credentials, and other documents. Even worse, he helped Daoud obtain weapons. According to Pohl himself, “[I] drove Abu Daoud around Germany, where he met Palestinians in various cities.” In other words, far-left antisemites and far-right antisemites actively collaborated to kill 11 Israeli Jews.
- In 2022, when a far-left anti-Israel activist published the BDS Boston Mapping Project, a map depicting “Zionist organizations” in Massachusetts, including Jewish summer camps, disability centers, nonprofits, and more, as well as the names and addresses of prominent members of the Massachusetts Jewish community, it didn’t take long for the map to appear on Goyim TV, a far-right, white supremacist video-sharing website, making it easier for white supremacists to target Jews.
SINCE OCTOBER 7
Historically, in the United States, the most violent forms of antisemitism have generally -- though not always -- come from the far-right. But since the October 7 massacre, we have seen an explosion in violent antisemitism, both in the United States and elsewhere in the Diaspora, coming predominantly from the left. According to a study by the World Zionist Organization and the Jewish Agency for Israel, global antisemitism has surged 340% over the past two years. Studies by other groups, such as the Anti-Defamation League, the Foundation to Combat Antisemitism, and the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights have corroborated this drastic surge.
And yet, as I’ve argued before, I think treating left-wing and right-wing antisemitism as two separate entities is a huge fallacy that allows politicians to turn us into pawns to play against the other side of the political aisle.
For example, it’s no surprise that with this rise of left-wing antisemitism, notorious far-right figures such as Candace Owens, Dan Bilzerian, David Duke, and Nick Fuentes are suddenly making the rounds again for spreading vile antisemitic rhetoric, rhetoric that perfectly mirrors the current discourse of antisemites on the left.
Likewise, it’s no surprise that antisemitic conspiracies traditionally associated with the far-right, such as Holocaust denial, are now widespread among left-wing antisemites, usually under the guise of Holocaust inversion.
Antisemitism is not a political position, and addressing it as such is a distraction that hinders our ability to effectively combat how this bigotry moves and functions.
A BRIEF NOTE ON PHILOSEMITISM
The term “philosemite” translates to “Jew-lover” or “Jew-friend.” The word was coined in Germany in the 19th century as a pejorative slur to describe people with a “positive prejudice” toward Jews (in other words: to be a “Jew-lover” or a “Jew-friend” was considered a shameful, negative quality).
While loving or being friendly to Jews sounds like a positive thing, philosemitism almost always inevitably crosses over to fetishization. Not only that, but both antisemites and philosemites believe the same antisemitic tropes; the difference is that philosemites think these tropes are a “good thing.” For instance, Donald Trump has expressed his belief that Jews are wealthy, but unlike “regular” antisemites, he thinks that this supposed wealth is a positive attribute.
According to historian G. Daniel Cohen, philosemitism “can indeed easily recycle antisemitic themes, recreate Jewish otherness, or strategically compensate for Holocaust guilt.”
There are many problems with philosemitism — such as the fetizhisation mentioned above, which reduces Jews to an idea or a character, rather than real, breathing people — but perhaps the most glaring is that it continues to perpetuate antisemitic tropes that have gotten Jews killed for 2000 years.
Nowadays, we most often see philosemitism manifest on the conservative right, but there are forms of philosemitism that are prevalent among the political left, as well. For example, left-wing anti-Zionists who claim to “love Jews” but hate Zionists are also fetishizing certain groups of Jews (for example, the Neturei Karta, who many anti-Zionists describe as “the real Jews,” those delegitimizing the rest of us) or fetishizing (and often misunderstanding) certain concepts in Judaism (such as Tikkun Olam).
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