14 Debasing Praise: Hatred of the Jews in a Global Age

Abstract

From the late 2000s, many observers noticed the appearance of a new form of antisemitism that seemed to have sprung up as a consequence of Second Intifada. Was it antisemitism, and was it new? If the ancient hatred of Jews was continuing, this was indisputably a new type of hatred. The author defines it as antisemitism of third type or, as it defines itself, anti-Zionism. Anti-Zionism is now a political hatred targeting Jews as a nation-state, or more largely as a people. These types of hatred developed in different political historical frameworks: the age of empire, the age of nation-state, and the global village age. Anti-Zionist hatred is appropriate to the present status and condition of the Jewish people, especially as it appears in the State of Israel which today embodies the world's only collective, sovereign Jewish destiny. We can apply two perspectives to this new configuration: strategic and ideological. Keywords: anti-Zionism; antisemitism; global village age; hatred of Jews; Second Intifada; state of Israel