A Dialog about Anti-Semitism

By Sam Vaknin

Author of "Malignant Self Love - Narcissism Revisited"



Rabid anti-Semitism, coupled with inane and outlandish conspiracy

theories of world dominion, is easy to counter and dispel. It is the

more "reasoned", subtle, and stealthy variety that it

pernicious. "No smoke without fire," - say people - "there must be

something to it!".



In this dialog I try to deconstruct a "mild" anti-Semitic text. I

myself wrote the text - not an easy task considering my ancestry (a

Jew) and my citizenship (an Israeli). But to penetrate the pertinent

layers - historical, psychological, semantic, and semiotic - I had

to "enter the skin" of "rational", classic anti-Semites, to grasp

what makes them click and tick, and to think and reason like them.



I dedicated the last few months to ploughing through reams of anti-

Semitic tracts and texts. Steeped in more or less nauseating verbal

insanity and sheer paranoia, I emerged to compose the following.



The Anti-Semite:



The rising tide of anti-Semitism the world over is universally

decried. The proponents of ant-Semitism are cast as ignorant,

prejudiced, lawless, and atavistic. Their arguments are dismissed

off-handedly.



But it takes one Jew to really know another. Conditioned by

millennia of persecution, Jews are paranoid, defensive, and

obsessively secretive. It is impossible for a gentile - whom they

hold to be inferior and reflexively hostile - to penetrate their

counsels.



Let us examine anti-Semitic arguments more closely and in an

unbiased manner:



Argument number one - Being Jewish is a racial distinction - not

only a religious one



If race is defined in terms of genetic purity, then Jews are as much

a race as the remotest and most isolated of the tribes of the

Amazon. Genetic studies revealed that Jews throughout the world -

largely due to centuries of in-breeding - share the same genetic

makeup. Hereditary diseases which afflict only the Jews attest to

the veracity of this discovery.



Judaism is founded on shared biology as much as shared history and

customs. As a religion, it proscribes a conjugal union with non-

Jews. Jews are not even allowed to partake the food and wine of

gentiles and have kept their distance from the communities which

they inhabited - maintaining tenaciously, through countless

generations, their language, habits, creed, dress, and national

ethos. Only Jews become automatic citizens of Israel (the infamous

Law of Return).



The Jewish Response:



Race has been invariably used as an argument against the Jews. It is

ironic that racial purists have always been the most fervent anti-

Semites. Jews are not so much a race as a community, united in age-

old traditions and beliefs, lore and myths, history and language.

Anyone can become a Jew by following a set of clear (though,

admittedly, demanding) rules. There is absolutely no biological test

or restriction on joining the collective that is known as the Jewish

people or the religion that is Judaism.



It is true that some Jews are differentiated from their gentile

environments. But this distinction has largely been imposed on us by

countless generations of hostile hosts and neighbors. The yellow

Star of David was only the latest in a series of measures to isolate

the Jews, clearly mark them, restrict their economic and

intellectual activities, and limit their social interactions. The

only way to survive was to stick together. Can you blame us for

responding to what you yourselves have so enthusiastically

instigated?



The Anti-Semite:



Argument number two - The Jews regard themselves as Chosen,

Superior, or Pure



Vehement protestations to the contrary notwithstanding - this is

largely true. Orthodox Jews and secular Jews differ, of course, in

their perception of this supremacy. The religious attribute it to

divine will, intellectuals to the outstanding achievements of Jewish

scientists and scholars, the modern Israeli is proud of his

invincible army and thriving economy. But they all share a sense of

privilege and commensurate obligation to civilize their inferiors

and to spread progress and enlightenment wherever they are. This is

a pernicious rendition of the colonial White Man's Burden and it is

coupled with disdain and contempt for the lowly and the great

unwashed (namely, the gentiles).



The Jewish Response:



There were precious few Jews among the great colonizers and

ideologues of imperialism (Disraeli being the exception). Moreover,

to compare the dissemination of knowledge and enlightenment to

colonialism is, indeed, a travesty.



We, the Jews, are proud of our achievements. Show me one group of

people (including the anti-Semites) who isn't? But there is an abyss

between being justly proud of one's true accomplishments and feeling

superior as a result. Granted, there are narcissists and

megalomaniacs everywhere and among the members of any human

collective. Hitler and his Aryan superiority is a good example.



The Anti-Semite:



Argument number three - Jews have divided loyalties



It is false to say that Jews are first and foremost Jews and only

then are they the loyal citizens of their respective countries. Jews

have unreservedly fought and sacrificed in the service of their

homelands, often killing their coreligionists in the process. But it

is true that Jews believe that what is good for the Jews is good for

the country they reside in. By aligning the interests of their

adopted habitat with their narrower and selfish agenda, Jews feel

justified to promote their own interests to the exclusion of all

else and all others.



Moreover, the rebirth of the Jewish State presented the Jews with

countless ethical dilemmas which they typically resolved by adhering

uncritically to Tel-Aviv's official line. This often brought them

into direct conflict with their governments and non-Jewish

compatriots and enhanced their reputation as untrustworthy and

treacherous.



Hence the Jewish propensity to infiltrate decision-making centers,

such as politics and the media. Their aim is to minimize conflicts

of interests by transforming their peculiar concerns and preferences

into official, if not always consensual, policy. This viral

hijacking of the host country's agenda is particularly evident in

the United States where the interest of Jewry and of the only

superpower have become inextricable.



It is a fact - not a rant - that Jews are over-represented in

certain, influential, professions (in banking, finance, the media,

politics, the film industry, publishing, science, the humanities,

etc.). This is partly the result of their emphases on education and

social upward mobility. But it is also due to the tendency of well-

placed Jews to promote their brethren and provide them with

privileged access to opportunities, funding, and jobs.



The Jewish Response:



Most modern polities are multi-ethnic and multi-cultural (an

anathema to anti-Semites, I know). Every ethnic, religious,

cultural, political, intellectual, and economic or business group

tries to influence policy-making by various means. This is both

legitimate and desirable. Lobbying has been an integral and

essential part of democracy since it was invented in Athens 2500

years ago. The Jews and Israelis are no exception.



Jews are, indeed, over-represented in certain professions in the

United States. But they are under-represented in other, equally

important, vocations (for instance, among company CEOs, politicians,

diplomats, managers of higher education institutions, and senior

bankers). Globally, Jews are severely under-represented or not-

existent in virtually all professions due to their demography (aging

population, low birth-rates, unnatural deaths in wars and

slaughters).



The Anti-Semite:



Argument number four - Jews act as a cabal or mafia



There is no organized, hierarchical, and centralized worldwide

Jewish conspiracy. Rather the Jews act in a manner similar to al-

Qaida: they freelance and self-assemble ad hoc in cross-border

networks to tackle specific issues. Jewish organizations - many in

cahoots with the Israeli government - serve as administrative

backup, same as some Islamic charities do for militant Islam. The

Jews' ability and readiness to mobilize and act to further their

plans is a matter of record and the source of the inordinate

influence of their lobby organizations in Washington, for instance.



When two Jews meet, even randomly, and regardless of the disparities

in their background, they immediately endeavor to see how they can

further each other's interests, even and often at the expense of

everyone else's.



Still, the Jewish diaspora, now two millennia old, is the first

truly global phenomenon in world affairs. Bound by a common history,

a common set of languages, a common ethos, a common religion, common

defenses and ubiquitous enemies - Jews learned to closely cooperate

in order to survive.



No wonder that all modern global networks - from Rothschild to

Reuters - were established by Jews. Jews also featured prominently

in all the revolutionary movements of the past three centuries.

Individual Jews - though rarely the Jewish community as a whole -

seem to benefit no matter what.



When Czarist Russia collapsed, Jews occupied 7 out of 10 prominent

positions in both the Kerensky (a Jew himself) government and in the

Lenin and early Stalin administrations. When the Soviet Union

crumbled, Jews again benefited mightily. Three quarters of the

famous "oligarchs" (robber barons) that absconded with the bulk of

the defunct empire's assets were - you guessed it - Jews.



The Jewish Response:



Ignoring the purposefully inflammatory language for a minute, what

group does not behave this way? Harvard alumni, the British

Commonwealth, the European Union, the Irish or the Italians in the

United States, political parties the world over ... As long as

people co-operate legally and for legal ends, without breaching

ethics and without discriminating against deserving non-members -

what is wrong with that?



The Anti-Semite:



Argument number five - The Jews are planning to take over the world

and establish a world government



This is the kind of nonsense that discredits a serious study of the

Jews and their role in history, past and present. Endless lists of

prominent people of Jewish descent are produced in support of the

above contention. Yet, governments are not the mere sum of their

constituent individuals. The dynamics of power subsist on more than

the religious affiliation of office-holders, kingmakers, and string-

pullers.



Granted, Jews are well introduced in the echelons of power almost

everywhere. But this is still a very far cry from a world

government. Neither were Jews prominent in any of the recent moves -

mostly by the Europeans - to strengthen the role of international

law and attendant supranational organizations.



The Jewish Response:



What can I say? I agree with you. I would only like to set the

record straight by pointing out the fact that Jews are actually

under-represented in the echelons of power everywhere (including in

the United States). Only in Israel - where they constitute an

overwhelming majority - do Jews run things.



The Anti-Semite:



Argument number six - Jews are selfish, narcissistic, haughty,

double-faced, dissemblers. Zionism is an extension of this

pathological narcissism as a colonial movement



Judaism is not missionary. It is elitist. But Zionism has always

regarded itself as both a (19th century) national movement and a

(colonial) civilizing force. Nationalist narcissism transformed

Zionism into a mission of acculturation ("White Man's Burden").



In "Altneuland" (translated to Hebrew as "Tel Aviv"), the feverish

tome composed by Theodore Herzl, Judaism's improbable visionary -

Herzl refers to the Arabs as pliant and compliant butlers, replete

with gloves and tarbushes. In the book, a German Jewish family

prophetically lands at Jaffa, the only port in erstwhile Palestine.

They are welcomed and escorted by "Briticized" Arab gentlemen's

gentlemen who are only too happy to assist their future masters and

colonizers to disembark.



This age-old narcissistic defence - the Jewish superiority complex -

was only exacerbated by the Holocaust.



Nazism posed as a rebellion against the "old ways" - against the

hegemonic culture, the upper classes, the established religions, the

superpowers, the European order. The Nazis borrowed the Leninist

vocabulary and assimilated it effectively. Hitler and the Nazis were

an adolescent movement, a reaction to narcissistic injuries

inflicted upon a narcissistic (and rather psychopathic) toddler

nation-state. Hitler himself was a malignant narcissist, as Fromm

correctly noted.



The Jews constituted a perfect, easily identifiable, embodiment of

all that was "wrong" with Europe. They were an old nation, they were

eerily disembodied (without a territory), they were cosmopolitan,

they were part of the establishment, they were "decadent", they were

hated on religious and socio-economic grounds (see

Goldhagen's "Hitler's Willing Executioners"), they were different,

they were narcissistic (felt and acted as morally superior), they

were everywhere, they were defenseless, they were credulous, they

were adaptable (and thus could be co-opted to collaborate in their

own destruction). They were the perfect hated father figure and

parricide was in fashion.



The Holocaust was a massive trauma not because of its dimensions -

but because Germans, the epitome of Western civilization, have

turned on the Jews, the self-proclaimed missionaries of Western

civilization in the Levant and Arabia. It was the betrayal that

mattered. Rejected by East (as colonial stooges) and West (as agents

of racial contamination) alike - the Jews resorted to a series of

narcissistic responses reified by the State of Israel.



The long term occupation of territories (metaphorical or physical)

is a classic narcissistic behavior (of "annexation" of the other).

The Six Days War was a war of self defence - but the swift victory

only exacerbated the grandiose fantasies of the Jews. Mastery over

the Palestinians became an important component in the psychological

makeup of the nation (especially the more rightwing and religious

elements) because it constitutes "Narcissistic Supply".



The Jewish Response:



Happily, sooner or later most anti-Semitic arguments descend into

incoherent diatribe. This dialog is no exception.



Zionism was not conceived out of time. It was born in an age of

colonialism, Kipling's "white man's burden", and Western narcissism.

Regrettably, Herzl did not transcend the political discourse of his

period. But Zionism is far more than Altneuland. Herzl died in 1904,

having actually been deposed by Zionists from Russia who espoused

ideals of equality for all, Jews and non-Jews alike.



The Holocaust was an enormous trauma and a clarion call. It taught

the Jews that they cannot continue with their historically abnormal

existence and that all the formulas for accommodation and co-

existence failed. There remained only one viable solution: a Jewish

state as a member of the international community of nations.



The Six Days War was, indeed, a classic example of preemptive self-

defense. Its outcomes, however, deeply divide Jewish communities

everywhere, especially in Israel. Many of us believe that occupation

corrupts and reject the Messianic and millennial delusions of some

Jews as dangerous and nefarious.



Perhaps this is the most important thing to remember:



Like every other group of humans, though molded by common

experience, Jews are not a monolith. There are liberal Jews and

orthodox Jews, narcissists and altruists, unscrupulous and moral,

educated and ignorant, criminals and law-abiding citizens. Jews, in

other words, are like everyone else. Can we say the same about anti-

Semites? I wonder.







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AUTHOR BIO (must be included with the article)







Sam Vaknin ( http://samvak.tripod.com ) is the author of Malignant

Self Love - Narcissism Revisited and After the Rain - How the West

Lost the East. He served as a columnist for Central Europe Review,

PopMatters, Bellaonline, and eBookWeb, a United Press International

(UPI) Senior Business Correspondent, and the editor of mental health

and Central East Europe categories in The Open Directory and

Suite101.



Until recently, he served as the Economic Advisor to the Government

of Macedonia.



Visit Sam's Web site at http://samvak.tripod.com