- Jan 16, 2012
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The fury has reached such a frenzy that I’ve been wondering if there’s a deeper motivation at work.
Given that bashing the Jewish state is a lot more acceptable than bashing Jews, Israel provides the ideal instrument to camouflage Jew hatred and maintain a semblance of moral purity.
It’s not hard to imagine, then, a certain pleasure in the hearts of Jew-hating protesters. They may be enraged, but they hardly look sad. Indeed, there’s a kind of thrill in the air that goes beyond the search for justice; a sense of exhilaration, even glee, in joining a mob to go after the world’s most maligned country; a smug contentment that you can put the blame for some much evil on one group.
But if Jew hatred feels so good to haters, what does that mean for our goal to end Jew hatred? For starters, it means being realistic. Pleasure is a tough nut to crack. The usual tactics of education and condemnation can’t compete with visceral satisfaction.
Given that bashing the Jewish state is a lot more acceptable than bashing Jews, Israel provides the ideal instrument to camouflage Jew hatred and maintain a semblance of moral purity.
It’s not hard to imagine, then, a certain pleasure in the hearts of Jew-hating protesters. They may be enraged, but they hardly look sad. Indeed, there’s a kind of thrill in the air that goes beyond the search for justice; a sense of exhilaration, even glee, in joining a mob to go after the world’s most maligned country; a smug contentment that you can put the blame for some much evil on one group.
But if Jew hatred feels so good to haters, what does that mean for our goal to end Jew hatred? For starters, it means being realistic. Pleasure is a tough nut to crack. The usual tactics of education and condemnation can’t compete with visceral satisfaction.
The Dark Secret of Jew Hatred: Pleasure
The fury has reached such a frenzy that I’ve been wondering if there’s a deeper motivation at work.
jewishjournal.com