The Surprising Anti-Semitism among Jews

It is troubling to see my fellow Jews supporting the unjust claims and causes of those who want to destroy both them and Israel. However, this strange, auto-immune behavior has a long pedigree, even in Nazi Germany:

• The Association of German National Jews (Verband nationaldeutscher Juden) was a Jewish organisation during the Weimar Republic and the early years of Nazi Germany that eventually came out in support Hitler.

• Among the activities of this group was the fight against the Jewish boycott of German goods. They also issued a manifesto that stated that the Jews were being fairly treated [in Nazi Germany]. In 1934 the group made the following statement. "We have always held the well-being of the German people and the fatherland, to which we feel inextricably linked, above our own well-being. Thus we greeted the results of January, 1933, even though it has brought hardship for us personally".

• A similar contemporary Jewish group in Germany included the German Vanguard (Der deutsche Vortrupp), the German-Jewish followers of Hitler led by Hans Joachim Schoeps, also referred to as "Nazi Jews". (Wikipedia)

Little has changed. Jews are now prominent allies, especially on university campuses, of Muslim groups who want to silence any criticism of Islam, even though it calls for their own destruction. With the help of their unlikely allies, Muslims have been able to silence many voices of sanity on campus. 

How do we explain this phenomenon? Jews tend to benignly explain it as an expression of sympathy for the underdog. However, Islam is hardly an underdog. Instead, such underdog-sympathy should instead embrace the hundreds of thousands of innocent victims of Islam. Nor should the Nazis have warranted such sympathy!

Citing Israeli injustices, one Jewish woman explained to me why she favored the Palestinian cause. I responded by pointing out the overflowing horrors perpetrated by the Islamic community. Her response startled me:

• I hold Israel to a higher standard!

Didn’t she see that she was exercising a double-standard? Justice requires an even hand. However, her hand didn’t seem to care about justice, but instead, something else.

She expected – even required – the Jews to act according to a higher standard, and when they failed to prove that they are better than others, she turned against them, as if they had personally let her down.

We can write volumes about this psychological phenomenon, but I think that this might serve to lead us away from what is most important – the hypocritical, double-standard that both Jews and non-Jews apply to Israel.