I hate the term “anti-Semitism.” It tends to render the hatred of Jews as something mythical and unworldly. I prefer the term anti-Jewish. Just as many people have anti-white and anti-black and anti-Mexican and anti-Japanese sentiments, so too some people have anti-Jewish animus.
Different groups have different interests and they are often engaged in a brutal competition for scarce resources. An Arab or Muslim who does not have some negative feelings about Jews because of the existence of the Jewish state of Israel on land they regard as their own is an outlier.
I can’t think of many examples of a group seizing power without some other group being disadvantaged. That’s how the world works. When Jews move ahead, other groups by definition fall behind. Modern anti-Semitism is largely a reaction to the rise of the Jews.
My bias is that the world is explicable and people make choices in their own interest. I don’t like “irrational” as an answer to why people act as they do.
From the perspective of one sentence in the Talmud, the great hatred of the Jews arises from them getting the Torah from God at Mount Sinai.
All of these responses seem to find anti-Semitism irrational.
JoshuaPundit : Why antisemitism? It survives and will continue to survive because like any other psychosis or fantasy, it provides what appear to be certain necessary benefits, at least in the short run.
For starters, it’s a convenient excuse and rationalization of one’s own miserable circumstances. And a convenient excuse for theft.
After the Roman Diaspora in 70 CE, Jews became an educated, prosperous and powerless minority in both the Muslim and Christian worlds, which made them a convenient target both as a scapegoat and for plunder.
The pattern was repeated over and over; Jews are invited to settle, and improve the local economy with their skills as merchants, artisans and skilled professionals like doctors and architects. In the latter stages, some of them become intermediaries used by the local aristocracy to lend out their capital and as sources of loans for themselves. And when the time is right, you simply rile up the peasants or the fellahin to stage a pogrom..after which the Jews are either murdered or expelled, their wealth and property are confiscated and all loans outstanding get canceled to the rejoicing of all.
Aside from the obvious financial benefits, it also works well for the local clergy as a lesson to the faithful as to what can happen to ‘non believers.’
And a few years later, when the economy tanks again, you simply invite the Jews back, since they always need somewhere to live. And then you can simply repeat the cycle.
Nowadays, the pattern remains similar, although it’s been expanded somewhat by the advent of Israel. The Muslims did their very best to destroy Israel in1948 and even with modern weaponry and British officers lending a helping hand to jihad and genocide against the sparsely armed and outnumbered Jews, they failed.
