I would be interested to hear comments on:

The new anti-Semitism?

How ancient prejudice and outright hostility have re-emerged since the Nuremberg Trials

This is a review of:

Denis MacShane
GLOBALISING HATRED
The new antisemitism
188pp. Orion. £12.99.
978 0 297 84473 0

by Christopher Hitchens who is a columnist for Vanity Fair. His most recent book, God Is Not Great: The case against religion, appeared earlier this year.

Full story: http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/the_tls/article5186954.ece

Anti-semitism is a very complex matter and this article fails to address some very pertinent facts.  Chief among these:

1.  The article speaks about the traditional antagonism between a rural, established conservative Christian community and the Jewish, urban, eduated elite.  However, in the contemporary US, the biggest supporters of Israel are in fact rural Christian fundamentalists who wish Israel to prosper becuase they see it as a sign of the imminent return of Christ.  Support of Israel is thus linked to ideas such as anti-scientific reasonging (e.g. support of creationism).  The most prominent Jew in American politics, Joe Lieberman, campaigned ardently on behalf of the most anti-intellectual politician in America, Sarah Palin.  Some anti-Jewish sentiment thus stems from its association with conservative ideas.

2.  The article fails to address the cultural tensions between Jewish and Anglo-Saxon American culture.  As a WASP who has spent considerable time among Jews, I have observed a number of Jewish cultural traits that WASPS view disfavorably.  First, Jews can be very clanish and arrogant, and even cold, to non-Jews.  Second, the approach to language and discourse between Jews and WASPS is quite different.  WASPS tend to favor subtle, indirect language, whereas many Jews are direct and blunt, which WASPS interpret as rude. 

3.  Many Americans have lost respect for Jews because they are so clearly self-centered and indifferent to other groups.  The treatment of Palestinians has eroded much good will, and many have been horified at the silence of the Jewish community in the face of genocide in the Balkans, Rwanda, and Darfur.  I grew up in the 1970s hearing Jews say over and over again that they would "never again" allow genocide to occur.  It appears, however, that they only meant Jewish genocide, and that the genocide of other peoples is unimportant.

This has always struck me too and is actually beyond my comprehension.

Jacek

Originally written by John Bunch on November 20, 2008 6:20 PM We Americans never wanted the Germans to be pacifists. We wanted them in NATO. Or am I missing something ?

The US never wanted a German army that was able to do anything on its own.  Mostly the US wanted to base its own forces on German soil and work with token German forces that would follow US policy.  The last thing the US, or any of its other WWII allies, wanted was an independent and strong German military that could actualy exert power on its own, even if it was within NATO.  The US was displeased enough when France removed its forces from NATO control.

Ukrainian gendarmes and Latvian auxiliary police, Romanian soldiers or Hungarian railway workers, Polish farmers, Dutch land registry officials, French mayors, Norwegian ministers, Italian soldiers -- they all took part in Germany's Holocaust.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,625824,00.html