Hacker News Reader

Comment by unshavedyak | Hacker News Reader

That's interesting. I can understand being reasonably anti-Israel, but i'm suspicious that many people take the leap from being anti-Israel to being anti-Jew. Especially when you consider how many people of both the Jewish faith and/or ethnicity live within the United States. Tbh it feels like a straw man, but we're speculating anyway, so i can't fault you for it.

I appreciate the discussion nonetheless. I'll definitely be curious to talk to people i know (when politics comes up) to see their thoughts on Jews and Islam (as a different commenter pointed out). I suspect that no one i know will be anti-Jew or radically pro-Islam.

Appreciate the points of discussion/anecdotes. I can't say i agree with them, but they were certainly a surprise. Far from what i expected.

View on HN

> While antisemitism in the U.S. is often written about through a “both sides” lens, our evidence — the first of its kind in testing hypotheses through experiments on a large repre- sentative sample — suggests the problem of antisemitism is much more serious on the right than the left. This evidence confirms that the antisemitism that has been on prominent display in white nationalist protests is not merely confined to a tiny group of extremists; antisemitic attitudes appear quite common among young conservatives, and much more so than among older conservatives or among liberals of any age.

* https://www.eitanhersh.com/uploads/7/9/7/5/7975685/hersh_roy...

> I can understand being reasonably anti-Israel

Pretty much all "I'm only against Israel's policies" is shy Antisemitism. You can easily test this by asking them about other countries that have similar (or much harsher) policies as Israel and see whether the "no no, it's not about being Jewish, not at all" person is similarly upset about those and demands Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions. 99% aren't and it really is only about the Jews - the Antizionism is just a cloak over the Antisemitism because the pure stuff doesn't fly in polite society, but if you pretend that it's not about the Jews then you can go at it.

Not sure i follow, are you assuming i'm in favor of other countries policies that match Israel?

To be fair i know little on the subject, and don't claim to. The only reason i said "i can understand .." is that i know it's a hot-button topic. Israel is often portrayed in the west as being overly militaristic towards neighboring areas. The United States itself does similar, depending on who you ask.

I judge both quite harshly on this front. I also know very little about world politics. Both in ignorance and on purpose, heh.

No, I don't mean you personally, I mean the people you might talk to in your circles.

Test them by pointing out behavior that they find abhorrent when done by Israel, and see whether they react similarly (by demanding action against them, denying them a right to nationhood etc). If they do: good. If they don't: it's about the Jews, not about the behavior. And from my experience, they almost always don't, and you really need to press them on the issue until they'll halfheartedly agree that yeah, that is also not good what the non-jewish country does. Case in point: the "Gaza Freedom Flotilla" tried to sail from Turkey to Gaza to protest Israel. It's like starting a Journey in the Third Reich towards Stalin's Russia to protest the inhumanity of Finnish policies.

I'm sure you're familiar with the idea of "Driving While Black". Israel is "Being A Country While Jewish". Some cops will pull over Black people all day long and claim that the color of their skin has nothing to do with it, it's just about how they drive. But you'll see them letting white drivers do all kinds of stunts and will quickly understand what the deciding factor is. You can do the same with people's opinions on Israel.

Fwiw i bet you'd call me anti-Jewish in this context. Not because i believe it more strongly against Israel, but because i'm uneducated on this front and the big countries like Israel make the news more frequently. So if i was to have any opinion at all it's more likely involving Israel than other similar countries.

I suspect that's true for most people.

A better analogy for the “Gaza Freedom Flotilla” would be Americans sending supplies to Ukraine. As , Israel is violently stealing neighboring land.

And yes, you hear much about Israel, and less about other barbaric conflicts, but how does this prove antisemitism?

Those acts are horrific too, but that doesn’t minimize the acts Israel is committing.

Personally, it seems absurd in the extreme to think the lefts ideas concerning Israel have anything to do with antisemitism. Anecdotally, I have never encountered it, and my Jewish friends find this idea absurd as well.

> And yes, you hear much about Israel, and less about other barbaric conflicts, but how does this prove antisemitism?

Every BDS-supporter is aware of all the other conflicts, they just don't care because no Jews involved. Hell, they'll happily ally with Erdogan and support his regime.

> Those acts are horrific too, but that doesn’t minimize the acts Israel is committing.

Of course, and pulling over Black drivers is perfectly reasonable. But if you concentrate only on Black drivers, it's not their driving that you have a problem with, that's just the excuse you make.

Sounds like more conspiracy theories. It simply is people having empathy for Palestinians. Wouldn’t matter if Israel was Jewish or Christian or Wiccan etc…

Reply on news.ycombinator.com