Anti-Semitism's Many Expressions

At Jerusalem Post:

In Anti-Semite and Jew, anti-Semitism famously argued that anti-Semitism is best understood as a “criminal passion” as opposed to an idea. “It is not a point of view based rationally upon empirical information calmly collected and calibrated in as objective a manner as is possible.”

Rather, wrote Sartre – in 1946, in the shadow of the Holocaust – anti-Semitism is “an involvement of the mind, but one so deep-seated and complex that it extends to the physiological realm, as happens in cases of hysteria.”

Judging from a recent spate of high-profile anti-Semitic verbal attacks, all sharing the common theme of emotional outbursts, Sartre seems to have it at least partially right.

TV and movie star Charlie Sheen, currently in a fit of personal turmoil, lashed out in a radio interview at Chuck Lorre, the Jewish creator of the TV show Two and a Half Men. Sheen derisively noted during his hate-filled, nonsensical rant last week that Lorre’s Hebrew name was Chaim Levine, as though this somehow explained his aversion to the man.

Then there was John Galliano, chief designer for Christian Dior, whose behavior, according to sources quoted by The New York Times, “had become erratic” and who had of late “been drinking heavily,” apparently due to professional pressures. Last week, a video surfaced of Galliano taunting a patron at a Paris bar who he thought was Jewish.

“I love Hitler,” the designer declared in a slurred voice, adding that “people like you would be dead” and “your mothers, your forefathers” would all have been “gassed” if Hitler had had his way.

This week, it was WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange’s turn. British journalists, including the editor of The Guardian (who is not Jewish), were engaged in a Jewish-led conspiracy to smear his organization, Assange reportedly told Private Eye’s editor in a telephone call. Assange, currently under pressure as he anticipates multiple legal battles and a Swedish arrest warrant, was reacting to a Private Eye report that one Israel Shamir (aka, Adam Ermash or Jöran Jermas), an employed WikiLeaks associate in Russia, was a Holocaust denier.

In each of the cases, Sartre’s description of anti-Semitism as “an involvement of the mind, deep-seated and complex,” rings true. Gripped by emotional crises that undo usual political correctness, these men’s visceral, irrational hatred of Jews is exposed in all its vileness.

I'll say.

More at the link.

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