{"id":111871,"date":"2017-01-17T13:09:43","date_gmt":"2017-01-17T21:09:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/?p=111871"},"modified":"2017-01-17T13:30:26","modified_gmt":"2017-01-17T21:30:26","slug":"forward-the-alt-right-hates-the-jews-but-it-also-loves-them-and-israel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/?p=111871","title":{"rendered":"Forward: ‘The \u2018Alt-Right\u2019 Hates the Jews. But It Also Loves Them \u2014 and Israel.’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sam Kestenbaum writes a decent article<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\nWhen Rabbi Matt Rosenberg went to a speech presented by one of the country\u2019s leading white nationalists, he hoped to make a statement about the power of Judaism. During a question-and-answer session after the talk, Rosenberg, who heads Hillel at Texas A&M, asked Richard Spencer, the self-styled ambassador of the \u201calt-right,\u201d whether the two could sit down and study together.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy tradition teaches a message of radical inclusion and love,\u201d Rosenberg said. \u201cWill you sit town and learn Torah with me, and learn love?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDo you really want radical inclusion into the State of Israel?\u201d Spencer asked, a smile spreading across his face. \u201cAnd by that I mean radical inclusion. Maybe all of the Middle East could go move into Tel Aviv or Jerusalem. Would you really want that?\u201d<\/p>\n

Rosenberg fell silent. Spencer did not. He went on, saying the Jewish people have prevailed because they resist assimilation \u2014 and he respected that.<\/p>\n

\u201cJews exist precisely because you did not assimilate,\u201d he said. \u201cI respect that about you. I want my people to have that same sense of themselves.\u201d The two men were speaking about different Jewish paradigms: Jews as nation versus Jews as citizens of the world. One of them Spencer praised; the other he sneered at.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This is an excellent opening that cuts to the nub of things — while different groups often have conflicting interests, all groups have an interest in developing their own destiny, unity, strength and cohesion without negative influence by outsiders and this building up always requires the making of barriers against out-groups. <\/p>\n

Spencer says his dream of building a \u201cwhite ethno-state\u201d is \u201cvery similar to how Jews conceive of Israel.\u201d He even describes his vision as something like \u201cwhite Zionism.\u201d<\/p>\n

Spencer\u2019s complicated relationship with Jews is illustrative. In the sprawling and divided world of the \u201calt-right\u201d there are multiple factions. All groups imagine whites as an embattled group, whose white power and control is under threat from non-whites. But they are divided on the next part: Are Jews an enemy to the white nation, a model to emulate, or some combination?<\/p>\n

In a glossy promotional video for Spencer\u2019s organization, the National Policy Institute, a pro-Israel march flashes across the screen as Spencer reads aloud, \u201cAt a time when every other people is asserting its own [identity]\u2026 are we ready to become who we are?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Jesus Christ Was A Jewish Klansman.\u2019<\/p>\n

Spencer isn\u2019t the first white separatist to hold seemingly contradictory views on the Jews. Earlier white supremacists like the Ku Klux Klan had a similar love-hate relationship; Spencer and his cohort are building on these foundations.<\/p>\n

In a 1926 tract on \u201creligious and patriotic ideals,\u201d one KKK-affiliated minister praised Jews as \u201ca wonderful people,\u201d particularly the way in which they have maintained the \u201cpurity of their racial blood, refusing to intermarry with other races.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Do Jews ever have conflicting feelings about gentiles? The Forward writer acts as though it is shocking that a non-Jewish group has different reactions to Jews depending on time, place and circumstance. <\/p>\n

Years ago, before his David Duke affiliations, \u201cHail Trump\u201d Nazi salutes and rise to fame amid the campaign of Donald Trump, Spencer attended elite private schools in Dallas. Some of his classmates and friends were Jewish.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Jews were the kids that told me Santa Claus wasn\u2019t real. They were kind of nerdy and little different,\u201d Spencer said. \u201cI didn\u2019t have any major problems with them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Spencer didn\u2019t reflect too much on Jewishness or on race at all.<\/p>\n

He was a dedicated student, and in 2005, Spencer entered a doctoral program at Duke University, studying European intellectual history.<\/p>\n

But he dropped out, his website reads, \u201cto pursue a life of thought-crime.\u201d<\/p>\n

He had flirted with far-right ideology, but in the next years he would make a more dramatic shift. \u201cI knew there was something wrong with the world,\u201d Spencer told the Forward. \u201cI began rethinking everything.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2010 he founded a website called AlternativeRight.com and around the same time took the helm at the NPI think-tank, which is \u201cdedicated to the heritage, identity, and future of people of European descent in the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n

Among his influences he cites Jared Taylor, the white nationalist editor of the website American Renaissance, which describes itself as the \u201cpremier race-realist site\u201d on the internet. An early mentor of Spencer\u2019s, Paul Gottfried, the inventor of the term \u201calternative right,\u201d is Jewish and is a graduate of Yeshiva University.<\/p>\n

Taylor describes himself as a \u201cwhite advocate,\u201d but he has made clear that he has no problem working with Jews; one time, he even banned discussion of the so-called \u201cJewish question\u201d from online forums associated with American Renaissance.<\/p>\n

And Spencer has said he respects some Jewish nationalists, including the prime minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would say, if I were to have a beer with Netanyahu I bet we would agree on everything. I think we would see eye to eye,\u201d Spencer said. \u201cIf I had a beer with Jon Stewart, he would be horrified and I would be annoyed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Spencer\u2019s \u201cwhite ethno state\u201d is his long-term goal. It\u2019s just a dream, he says, and he\u2019s not sure how to get there. But he evokes the success of the Zionist project. His white \u201chomeland,\u201d he said, would be \u201cvery similar to how Jews conceive of Israel.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

That’s a fair summary.<\/p>\n

Israel\u2019s founding document, its Declaration of Independence, while declaring the country a Jewish state, also made a \u201cstriking embrace of all peoples and religions,\u201d said Jonathan Sarna, professor of American Jewish history at Brandeis University.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt would be difficult to square that with the notion of a white nation,\u201d Sarna said. \u201cThat is the very opposite of what the white nationalists want.\u201d<\/p>\n

For \u201calt-right\u201d members who see Zionism in a positive light of sorts, it may have little to do with the country of Israel itself.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor a lot of people, Israel is a Rorschach test test,\u201d Sarna said. \u201cWhat they see in Israel tells us more about them than it does about Israel.\u201d<\/p>\n

Spencer compares himself to pre-state Zionist thinkers, seeing his role as a dreamer \u2014 not necessarily as someone who would build his whites-only nation, but one who would lay conceptual groundwork for a state.<\/p>\n

\u201cA similar thing could be said of Jews. Jews were imagining Zionism there is a Jewish state in the Middle East,\u201d Spencer said in a radio interview with the website Reveal. \u201cYou have to dream it before you build it.\u201d he said, trying his hand at a very Herzlian-sounding mantra.<\/p>\n

There \u201cis often talk about \u2018Zionism\u2019 as being a horrible evil that intends to take over the world,\u201d author Brett Stevens wrote in August on the website Alternative-right.blogpost.com, \u201cforgetting that Zionism is an assertion of Nationalism \u2014 the idea that Jews need their own state, and all Jews belong there, where they can control their destiny and live according to their ways.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Torah makes no room for non-Jewish citizenship in the Jewish state. Meir Kahane’s proposed legislation to criminalize sex between Jews and non-Jews is basic Torah<\/a>. Every accomplished group has beliefs about separating from out-groups. Israel’s “striking embrace of all peoples and religions” is a bit of a delusion. Israel is a Jewish state run in the interests of Jews. Most Israelis wish that the Palestinians would disappear. “Death to the Arabs” is a popular chant in Israel. <\/p>\n

Is the Jewish state stronger for providing citizenship to two million Arabs who hate it? That doesn’t make sense. What percentage of Israelis would prefer to have no Arabs in Israel? A majority, I would think. <\/p>\n

Still, Spencer\u2019s admiration for Jews is mixed with repulsion \u2014 particularly the belief that Jews have played a negative and outsize role in the decline of white civilization. And this attitude can be found across the contemporary white nationalist camp, which is beset with internecine disputes.<\/p>\n

He calls the so-called \u201cJewish question\u201d (or \u201cJQ,\u201d in contemporary \u201calt-right\u201d lingo) among the most \u201ccomplicated and difficult\u201d topics for white nationalists. The term \u201cJewish question\u201d of course has its roots in Nazi Germany, whose leaders gathered on the shores of Lake Wannsee outside Berlin to plan the \u201cFinal Solution to the Jewish Question in Europe.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The Jewish Question<\/a> had its roots in Europe more than a hundred years before the Nazis came to power. <\/p>\n

He sees some liberal Jews, like the Texan rabbi, as \u201cduplicitous,\u201d presenting their case in \u201cgooey, universalistic\u201d terms. \u201cI think it is easy to understand black crime, illegal immigrants, that\u2019s in your face,\u201d Spencer said. \u201cBut the Jewish question is extremely complicated.\u201d<\/p>\n

Indeed, the question of just how the \u201calt-right\u201d should relate to Jews is a frequent fault line among Spencer\u2019s followers and fellow travelers.<\/p>\n

In December, the divergent views of the \u201calt-right\u201d on Jews came to a head after online personality Tim Treadstone (better known as \u201cBaked Alaska\u201d) was booted from an upcoming \u201calt-right\u201d inauguration event called the Deploraball after a series of tweets he wrote about the media being \u201crun in majority by Jewish people.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAlt-right\u201d personality Mike Cernovich, the event\u2019s organizer, was worried that Treadstone\u2019s anti-Semitism would undermine the growing political influence of the \u201calt-right\u201d after Trump\u2019s win. \u201cNo Nazi salutes, no JQ bullshit,\u201d Cernovich wrote privately to Treadstone, scolding him and removing him from the event bill shortly thereafter. Paul Joseph Watson, an editor of the conspiracist website Infowars, which is also associated with the \u201calt-right,\u201d described the \u201ctwo \u2018alt-rights.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

One likes to wear Trump hats, \u201ccreate memes & have fun,\u201d he wrote in a public Facebook post. \u201cThe other faction likes to fester in dark corners of subreddits and obsess about Jews, racial superiority and Adolf Hitler.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Wow, just wow. Non-Jews have differing reactions to Jews, just as Jews have differing reactions to non-Jews. Who would have thought?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sam Kestenbaum writes a decent article: When Rabbi Matt Rosenberg went to a speech presented by one of the country\u2019s leading white nationalists, he hoped to make a statement about the power of Judaism. During a question-and-answer session after the … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[42720,37,29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-111871","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-alt-right","category-israel","category-jews"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t