The most important thing is not to fear at all

A few reasons:1. The belief that Jews are white. This comes with two corollaries: 1. Anti-semitism against White Jews doesn’t matter because they’re white. 2. Racism against Jews of Color matters, but anti-semitism doesn’t.

Case in point, this article in the Daily Dot which totally ignores the fact that Magneto was a Holocaust survivor.

Regardless of their varying cinematic quality, the X-Men movies have always been good at building this political allegory without becoming overly preachy. However, they’ve also been downright abysmal at acknowledging people who face this type of discrimination in real life. The only exception is Charles Xavier, who as a character with a physical disability is near-unique as a blockbuster movie protagonist. 

If the Holocaust isn’t discrimination in real life, I don’t know what is. But Magneto’s “whiteness” somehow cancels that out. 

2. Media Apathy. Despite Jews being the targets of 60% of the “anti-religious” hate crimes in the USA, mainstream news sources don’t report on it. And when they do report on it, it rarely gets much attention. I had to actively look for information about Frazier Glenn Miller’s trial. Half the sites covering the #BoycottStarWarsEpisode7 tag didn’t mention the anti-semitism targeting J.J. Abrams. Discussion of the Charlie Hebdo shootings tend to focus on whether or not Charlie Hebdo was Islamophobic, but pays at best lip service to the Hyper Cacher murders which were connected and deliberately targeted Jews at a Kosher Grocery store. Meanwhile half of all racist hate crimes in France target Jews who make up less than 1% of the population. 

3. Confirmation Bias. There are Israel critics who try to take in all the valid information and make fair statements, but they are nowhere near common enough. There are others who have decided that any Jewish voice that disagrees with them on anything must be an evil Zionist Hasbranik working for the Mossad to destroy their precious bodily fluids. Any article or information about Jews suffering is distrusted because it might lend any credence at all to the notion that Israel exists to combat anti-semitism. Accepting the narrative that anti-semitism still exists means that they can no longer be 100% certain that Zionism is wrong in all instances, which means that they need to fight to keep that precious certainty. Most people don’t seem to want to put in the effort to listen to voices they’re trying to tune out in order to keep their sense of moral clarity. This is a pretty good article on confirmation bias and why it’s a problem. The way that internet communication works makes it easier for people to only hear the information they want to hear, while filtering out the information they don’t. Since there is some overlap between anti-anti-semitism and pro-Israel activism, many people tune out all anti-anti-semitism activism for fear of having their beliefs challenged, even though one can fight anti-semitism and still be anti-Israel. This fear is often so strong that anti-Israel activists are often willing to listen to NAZIS and KKK leaders before they will listen to Jews. THINK ABOUT THAT FOR A SECOND.

4. Anti-Semitic Beliefs. Conscious or unconscious there are tons of anti-semitic ideas visible in the social justice movement. Many of them revolve around the ideas that Jews are all Rich and Jews control the Media. Those are stereotypes that aren’t true, but I’ve seen some people actually working backwards to make the case that, for example, Rupert Murdoch must be Jewish because he’s rich and is a major player in the media even though he is most definitely not Jewish. There is also a disproportionate focus on Jews who are rich and powerful and abusive like Sheldon Adelson while the Jewishness of anti-establishment figures like Naomi Klein is downplayed and ignored because she doesn’t play to stereotype. It’s also easier to tune out anti-semitism if you believe that Ashkenazim “aren’t real Jews” but Khazars which, even if that were true (which it most assuredly isn’t) wouldn’t rule out the fact that we were still murdered in the millions during the Holocaust for being Jews. But call anyone out on this and you’ll get a “anti-zionist not anti-semitic.” Again, they don’t want to risk having their confirmation bias exposed.5. A Poor Understanding of Jewish Peoplehood as it Relates to Diaspora and Race. Tumblr social justice tends to be built on Critical Race Theory and Post-Colonial Theory. But in practice, one gets the feeling that most users really only engage in these concepts to the point where they understand two categories within each context: White/PoC and Colonizer/Indigenous. Jews, being a diasporic people for centuries, don’t neatly fit into either category. Most of us have lived in countries where we were not considered “indigenous” due to exile. As a result, over the millenia we have blended with many of the local populations resulting in genetically and culturally related groups that wouldn’t be considered the same “race” today. Critical Race Theory largely describes Racial politics within the United States. Post-Colonial Theory doesn’t do a very good job of dealing with diasporic populations whose indigineity has been rendered unspeakably complex due to residing as a frequently unwanted minority in other countries for centuries. What happens then is that Jews are frequently refugees, kicked out of various countries because the majority populations decided they didn’t want us. So where then do we have indigenous rights when the majority of us have been a refugee people for centuries? The denial of a safe home for Jews is an issue that many on the tumblr left simply don’t want to acknowledge or reckon with. So they act like Jews fleeing Nazism in the 1930s are no different than European colonialists who were looking for people and resources to exploit. They ignore the various persecutions against Jews in the Soviet Union because Communism is a popular meme. They ignore the expulsions of the Jews in the Middle East and North Africa because they have a hard time calling non-White Mizrahi and Sephardi Jews “European Colonialists.” They frequently confuse Ethiopian Jewish Israeli Citizens with Eritrean Refugees because they don’t understand the fundamental and important differences between the two groups and they don’t want to put in the effort to learn about either so long as they can condemn Israel for something. 

Yes, about that. Can we talk about that for a minute?

* Who are the Zionists you usually express hatred toward? Christian Evangelicals who support Israel for theological reasons? Or Israeli Jews, whose ancestors escaped to Israel as refugees, fleeing from violent antisemitic persecution and genocide?

* Jews are constantly being held up to a harsher standard of what being a ‘Zionist’ means. Bernie Sanders gets called a Zionist because he spent some time on a kibbutz fifty years ago (before the occupation even began). Hillary Clinton’s more pro-Israel than him? Whatever, she isn’t Jewish, so we’ll never call her a Zionist.

* If you go by the broadest definition of “Zionist”, and use it to mean “people who think the state of Israel should exist”, then the majority of the Jews in the world are Zionist. And you hate the majority of Jews in the world. Which makes you a Jew-hater. Sorry, but that’s reality.

* Seriously, hating all Jews in the world, except for a minority of “Good Jews” who agree with you politically, is antisemitism.

* “But anti-Zionism isn’t antisemitism-” We know. Shut up. No one said it was. You can criticize or oppose Zionism without hating the majority of Jews in the world, for heaven’s sake.

* Also, stop ignoring or excusing all the antisemites who are using the word “Zionist” as a code name for “Jew”. If anyone uses classic antisemitic tropes, but replaces Jews with Zionists (for example, “Zionists control the media”), they’re still being antisemitic.

* Hatred for Zionists is constantly used as an excuse for antisemitic attacks on Jews. Do I need to show you all the recent hate crimes against diaspora Jews, where people justified the attack by bringing up Israel?

* You don’t hate Jews, do you? You just hate Jewish nationalism? And what of other types of nationalism, which have been as harmful as Zionism or far more?

Family members mourn at the funeral of Yoav Hattab, a young Jewish man who was murdered during Friday’s attack on a kosher supermarket in Paris.

Yoav Hattab, born and raised in Tunisia, was a son of Rabbi Beto Hattab, a leader in Tunis’s Jewish community. He was finishing up his university studies in Paris.

A Palestinian man walks past a new section of Israel’s controversial separation barrier in the Shuafat refugee camp in east Jerusalem on December 6, 2014.

"Total U.S. aid to Israel is approximately one-third of the American foreign-aid budget, even though Israel comprises just .001 percent of the world’s population and already has one of the world’s higher per capita incomes."

"For the fiscal year ending in September 30, 1997, the U.S. has given Israel $6.72 billion: $6.194 billion falls under Israel’s foreign aid allotment and $526 million comes from agencies such as the Department of Commerce, the U.S. Information Agency and the Pentagon. The $6.72 billion figure does not include loan guarantees and annual compound interest totalling $3.122 billion the U.S. pays on money borrowed to give to Israel."

"Israel is the largest cumulative recipient of U.S. foreign assistance since World War II. To date, the United States has provided Israel $121 billion (current, or non-inflation-adjusted, dollars) in bilateral assistance. Almost all U.S. bilateral aid to Israel is in the form of military assistance, although in the past Israel also received significant economic assistance."

"In 2007, the Bush Administration and the Israeli government agreed to a 10-year, $30 billion military aid package for the period from FY2009 to FY2018. During his March 2013 visit to Israel, President Obama pledged that the United States would continue to provide Israel with multi-year commitments of military aid subject to the approval of Congress."

"For FY2015, the Administration is requesting $3.1 billion in FMF to Israel and $10 million in Migration and Refugee Assistance. The Missile Defense Agency’s FY2015 request for joint U.S.- Israeli programs is $96.8 million. The Administration also is requesting $175.9 million for Iron Dome."

"For many years, U.S. economic aid helped subsidize a lackluster Israeli economy, but since the rapid expansion of Israel’s high-tech sector and overall economy in the 1990s (sparked partially by U.S.-Israeli scientific cooperation), Israel has been considered a fully industrialized nation."

"Israel is the largest recipient of U.S. Foreign Military Financing. For FY2015, the President’s request for Israel would encompass approximately 55% of total FMF funding worldwide. Annual FMF grants to Israel represent 23% to 25% of the overall Israeli defense budget."

The U.S. Senate is 85% Christian and 10% Jewish. According to PEW, U.S. Congress members overall is 8.4% Jewish versus 84.8% Christian of some kind. Yet it’s U.S. Congress that has been primarily responsible in pushing U.S. Support to Israel.

Amount of Jews living in the United States: somewhere between 5 and 8 million (less than 3% of the population either way). Excuse me if I’m wrong, but I’m pretty sure 3% of the population doesn’t exactly translate to the entire American government, primarily white Christians, that has been funding it from Day 1. Unless, of course, you’re saying that 3% of the American population alone is controlling America and forcing it to give aid to Israel and has been since the late 1940s. Even if you state that 10% or less is responsible for Israel’s success and existence it is false.

Do you enjoy licking the feet of Christian Zionists or what?

Today UF SJP & SDS took part in a national day of action for Rasmea Odeh who is currently facing political repression.

Students sat kneeled on the ground with their mouths taped to symbolize the silencing that occurs to activists who have been victims of political repression.

Information was also passed out to UF students concerning Rasmea and how to get involved in the solidarity campaign.

For more information see stopfbi.net