Is There Really a Huge Spike in Anti-Semitism on X?

• Making mendacious, dehumanizing, demonizing, or stereotypical allegations about Jews as such or the power of Jews as collective — such as, especially but not exclusively, the myth about a world Jewish conspiracy or of Jews controlling the media, economy, government or other societal institutions.

In other words, any claim that Jews as a collective have power in the media, etc. This is outrageous. Where to start with the reams of documentation, much of it available on this website? In fact, the ADL is the prime example of the collective nature of Jewish activism— being essentially an adjunct of the most leftist elements of the Democrat Party which still reliably gets at least 70 percent of Jewish votes and probably well over half its funding. And the Jewish community, including the ADL, do act as a collective on several important issues, the most important of which are support for Israel despite its present reality as a racist, apartheid ethnostate while decrying those same policies in the U.S., and support for replacement-level immigration and refugee policy in the U.S. while calling the use of the term racist and anti-Semitic.

And despite many campaigns by the ADL to raise money off attacking Musk (trust me, I’m on their mailing list), Greenblatt claims that any suggestion the ADL would try to shake down Musk (like they did with Kyrie Irving and the New York Nets) is an “anti-Semitic trope.”

Andrew Ross Sorkin asks Jonathan Greenblatt if he was seeking to have a role at X or shaking @elonmusk down for donations to the ADL (like he did to Adidas and the Brooklyn Nets) and he responds by saying that’s an “anti-Semitic trope.” pic.twitter.com/NE33VoMvd0

— Greg Price (@greg_price11) September 6, 2023

To which Musk replied:

Because the answer is “Yes!” regarding seeking donations, hence JG’s refusal to answer the question.

JG instead went on the attack, implying that Sorkin, despite being Jewish, is somehow an anti-Semite just for asking a basic conflict-of-interest question! 🤣

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 6, 2023

• Accusing Jewish citizens of being more loyal to Israel, or to the alleged priorities of Jews worldwide, than to the interests of their own nations.

Are we supposed to think that all Jews in the West are more more loyal to the countries they live in than to Israel? How do they know that, given that many Jews living in the West have dual citizenship and all can emigrate to Israel at any time, and given the power of the Israel Lobby with its long record of supporting U.S. wars that benefit Israel at great cost to the U.S. and credible charges of spying on behalf of Israel?

• Denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination, e.g., by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor.

Claiming that the “existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor” is one thing (I wish we European-descended peoples could have our own ethnostate), but it’s silly to deny that Israel is a racist ethnostate.  Thomas Friedman, an apologist for Israel if ever there was one, has called Israel a Jewish supremacist state, and the current government includes people who proudly proclaim their racism (see “How Democrats Learned to Defend Israel’s Ethnocracy,” by Mitchell Plitnick).

• Applying double standards by requiring of it a behavior not expected or demanded of any other democratic nation.

It’s reasonable for Americans to be more critical of Israel than other countries given the level of financial, military, and diplomatic support that the U.S. routinely gives it. The U.S. is essentially endorsing whatever Israel does.

• Using the symbols and images associated with classic antisemitism (e.g., claims of Jews killing Jesus or blood libel) to characterize Israel or Israelis.

The “blood libel” is a reasonable belief given Ariel Toaff’s book on medieval Ashkenazi practices. Indeed, the campaign against Musk is highly reminiscent of the campaign against Prof. Toaff’s book, as described in the above review.

• Drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis.

Which policies? Being concerned with race and with ethnonational interests? Religious fundamentalists and the ethnonational right are clearly in charge in Israel, to the point that there have been huge protests by liberal Jews—without lessening the pro-Israel activism of the ADL and the rest of the Israel Lobby in the U.S. The above-linked article by Mitchell Plitnick in Mondoweiss makes clear the ethnonational reality of Israel and the massive explicit support it receives from nearly the entire U.S. Congress.

• Holding Jews collectively responsible for actions of the state of Israel.

It’s hard not to hold the Jewish community responsible when one notes the massive support that American Jews give to Israel, without which Israel would likely have been destroyed a long time ago. Support for Israel spans the Jewish-American political spectrum, including neoconservative Jews who have been a powerful force in the Republican Party. Despite some dissenting Jews, support for Israel is a collective project of the American Jewish community because the great bulk of Jewish financial, political and media power is directed at support for Israel.