Are there non-vile anti-Semites? Are there vile Jews with anti-Gentile sentiments? How come anti-Gentilism isn’t even a thing? If it is not a thing, how can anti-Semitism be a thing?
“Anti-Semitism is as natural to Western civilization as anti-Christianity is to Jewish civilization, Islamic civilization and Japanese civilization.” (Maj. Kong)
Jews, for understandable reasons, often hate gentiles and gentiles, for understandable reasons, often hate Jews. It would be weird if two different groups having frequent interactions and clashing interests did not develop some negative as well as positive feelings about each other. An Arab without any negative views of Jews is an unhealthy Arab. It makes sense that Muslims would have animosity for Jews due to the existence of a Jewish state in their midst. Similarly, Christians should be expected to have negative views of Jews as the very existence of Jews challenges the truth of Christianity.
Forward: Born on September 13, 2016, Roald Dahl, the beloved author of “Matilda” and “Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory” would have turned 100 today. It’s an anniversary we mark with admiration and a bit of uncertainty as well. For, aside from his brilliant imaginaton and wicked sense of humor, Dahl was also something of an unrepentant anti-Semite.
In 1983, he told the New Statesman, “There is a trait in the Jewish character that does provoke animosity, maybe it’s a kind of lack of generosity towards non-Jews. I mean, there’s always a reason why anti-anything crops up anywhere; even a stinker like Hitler didn’t just pick on them for no reason. I mean, if you and I were in a line moving towards what we knew were gas chambers, I’d rather have a go at taking one of the guards with me; but they [the Jews] were always submissive.”
In 1990, he told the Independent, “I am certainly anti-Israel, and I have become anti-Semitic.”
In his biography of Roald Dahl, Jeremy Treglown wrote that Dahl once complained about the number of Jews in the Curzon House Club and, when people objected to Dahl’s outburst, reportedly told them, “Go home if you don’t like it.” And, Treglown reported further that after the 1982 Israeli attack on Lebanon, Dahl wrote, “we all started hating the Jews.”
