Why Zionists (and Nazis) Want You to Believe Antisemitism Will Exist Forever
In an interview with The Stage, english actor and author, Steven Berkoff said “antisemitism has never gone away; it will always be there because it’s a very convenient prejudice. The gene of it, the original DNA, is buried deep within our history.” Berkoff asserts that antisemitism has always existed and will always exist. Unfortunately, he is not alone in this belief. Many people believe that antisemitism is an eternal form of hatred that Jews will never be able to escape. This false idea simultaneously justifies, reproduces, and excuses antisemitism and refuses to seriously engage with it. There are no two groups better served by this idea than zionists and nazis.
For the zionists, if antisemitism will exist forever, zionism is necessary for Jewish safety. This logic asserts that in any situation where there are Jews living amongst non-Jews, the Jews will be targets. If Jews are to be safe, they must live sequestered away from the non-Jewish world. They must live in a place run by Jews that is fiercely defended from non-Jews. In Der Judenstaat, one of the founding zionist texts, Herzl writes:
“the Jewish question exists wherever Jews live in perceptible numbers. Where it does not exist, it is carried by Jews in the course of their migrations. We naturally move to those places where we are not persecuted, and there our presence produces persecution. This is the case in every country, and will remain so, even in those highly civilized — for instance, France — until the Jewish question finds a solution on a political basis. The unfortunate Jews are now carrying the seeds of Anti-Semitism into England; they have already introduced it into America.”
To Herzl, and to Berkoff, antisemitism is almost hereditary, passed down by each generation of Jews to the next. Therefore, anywhere Jewish people live, the threat of antisemitism will be present. This argument, in addition to being completely ahistorical, implies that Jews themselves produce antisemitism.
Zionist organizations such as the ADL and Yad Vashem help produce eternal antisemitism logic with their claims that antisemitism has existed as long as the Jews have existed. Antisemitism is occasionally referred to as the “oldest form of hate.” Instead of seeking to analyze antisemitism- its many forms, evolutions, and under what conditions it has become more or less acute — zionist organizations substitute historical analysis with their own belief that antisemitism is simply inescapable. This substitution is not accidental.
Additionally, supposed efforts to fight antisemitism, often parrot the idea that antisemitism is eternal by framing their fight against antisemitism as if it’s a fight against a hydra- constantly growing new heads when one is cut off. Instead of seeking to create a world without antisemitism, they seek to push back the “resurgence” of antisemitism. Instead of seeking to destroy the systems that produce antisemitism, they seek to stifle the “rising tide.”
If antisemitism will exist forever, according to zionists, there are only two options: continue being victimized by antisemitic attacks or find a place controlled by Jews where only Jews reside. Zionists rely on this false premise to say since they have had enough of antisemitsm, clearly there is only one option left- a zionist Jewish state. Zionist mythology describes the strong Jew who, arising from the ashes of the Holocaust, decided enough is enough and founded so-called israel. Of course, this is not true. Zionism is not a response to antisemitism or a way to escape it. Zionism is a settler-colonial project. Zionists simply disguise their fight for settler-colonial control in Palestine as one that is necessary to keep the Jewish people safe and eternal antisemitism logic is essential for this.
Treating antisemitism as eternal inherently pushes people to adopt zionist positions. In a paper published recently in the Journal of Social Justice, Spencer Sunshine examines so-called “left antisemitism.” Sunshine asserts that antisemitism “eludes easy definitions” but that it is everywhere, including being baked into “the left.” At the end, Sunshine writes that the people involved in creating the paper went through political changes as they worked together and that “there was a definite tendency to move towards a strong support of the Two State Solution (after, in some cases, starting as vulgar anti-Zionists).” It’s not at all surprising that in drafting a paper where the writers focused on antisemitism, treating it as never-ending and universal, that many would become zionists. Eternal antisemitism logic inevitably results in the idea that zionism is a way to keep Jews safe.
For the nazis, if antisemitism has always existed, and will continue to exist forever, they are positioned perfectly to recruit others by saying this must be for a good reason. A meme that recently reached the front page of reddit shows how nazis utilize this argument. (Thankfully, this image was posted as a condemnation of the nazi meme rather than support.)
If antisemitism has existed forever, it must be a rational opinion to hold. Can everyone throughout the entire course of history be wrong? Antisemites on the internet love to ask why Jews have been “kicked out of every country they’ve lived in.” It seems easy that the answer must be something inherent in the Jews that causes people to hate them. Is this not a mirror image of Herzl’s assertion that Jews carry with them the seeds of antisemitism? Antisemites are not doing something without precedent but are joining a long lineage of people who have hated Jews and of people who will continue to hate Jews.
Zionists and nazis echo each other when they spout the idea that antisemitism is eternal. They only diverge in that nazis think this is a justification for their antisemitism while zionists believe this is a useful justification for their settler-colonial project in Palestine.
A World Without Antisemitism is Possible
There is no sense in trying to solve an unsolvable problem. This is the fundamental issue with so-called eternal antisemitism. Of course, just because something is presented as unsolvable doesn’t mean it actually is.
At UC Berkeley in 1939, a graduate student showed up late to class and copied the questions on the board, assuming they were homework. Unbeknownst to him, these questions were not the homework but were two famously unsolved statistics problems. Later in the week, when this student turned in what he thought was an overdue assignment, the professor marveled that he had actually made a breakthrough in statistics. When antisemitism is presented as eternal, many people simply assume that it is. The other students in the classroom who internalized the idea that those problems were unsolvable likely spent no time at home making an attempt.
Rejecting so-called eternal antisemitism and embracing the idea that a world without antisemitism is possible, we can truly begin to explore what that would and could look like.
