Why do the anti-Semites always deny their own openly stated positions?

The other day, in the thread , “The Neo-Darwinian/Neo-Nazi Synthesis,” Hannon recommended an article he had found at Majority Rights, saying it was a clear indicator of what that site is about. The article is in fact an extreme, or, if you prefer, logically consistent, expression of white supremacism (in the same way that Sayyid Qutb’s writings are a logically consistent expression of Islamic supremacism), and it doesn’t even mention the Jews. I’ve been looking through it, and will be saying something about it later. But in the discussion thread I came upon this comment about myself which is instructive:

Posted by W. Lindsay Wheeler on January 11, 2009, 02:11 AM | #

On Lawerence Auster,

Auster is the typical Jew, the typical hypocrite. This man is a Judas goat. Tell me, how does a Jew, which is an Eastern people, a semitic people, tell us Europeans how to behave and act??????? This man has the brass balls of Baal.

Lawerence Auster banned me from his website. Why? Because I do not subscribe to the State of Israel. See, Lawerence Auster goes out and says “anti-semitism” is an “ideology”. Well, if we ban, excoriate and disfranchise people because they are not Pro-Israel——that is Zionism and that is an Ideology. This is the pot that calls the kettle black. Auster is an ideologue for at the basis, the foundation of all his criteria is Israel, Israel, Jews, and More Jews. Auster is to make sure that European conservativism is Zionist. That is his mission (probably assigned to him by his rabbi master). All things come down to Israel. All things are judged according to how well you support Israel.

All things are driven down to only ONE Criteria——Are you a Zionist. That is what Auster is all about. To make sure the stupid goyim European cattle sheeples adhere to Zionist propaganda.

I got news for you Mr. Auster, The Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church as always taught that the Jew is to wander. That is the punishment. To uphold the state of Israel is an act of disobedience to God.

It has nothing to do with anti-semitism. Jews are to wander and the Jews are to be suppressed. That is the teaching of the Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church. And so Mr. Auster condemns the teaching of the Holy Catholic Orthodox Church? I think not.

[end of comment]

The thing that particularly interests me here is Wheeler’s complaint about my treatment of him:

Lawerence Auster banned me from his website. Why? Because I do not subscribe to the State of Israel.

So I searched VFR for Lindsay W. and found this exchange between him and me in July 2006, the time of Israel’s war with Hezbollah, in which he stated that Israel is a uniquely guilty and cursed society and deserves to be destroyed.

Here’s part of what he said:

Do you know about “karma”? What goes around, comes around.

The Jewish State was founded upon terrorism. It used terrorism to drive Great Britain out of Palestine and to drive out the indiginous inhabitants….

I wish you read the Bible esp. Deuteronomy chapters 28 and following. There are the curses levelled against Israel for not obeying the Word of God. The curses call for persecution both day and night against the Hebrews. Scripture can not be broken….

If you found your state upon terrorism, expect terrorism to plague it—Don’t bring America and Christianity into it….

“Do unto others as you wish others do unto you”. The Jews used terrorism to create terrorism—expect terrorism to follow it forever!

Now, I think any fair-minded person would agree that for Wheeler to declare that Israel, alone of all countries on earth, is cursed forever, doesn’t have the right to exist, and doesn’t have the right to defend itself from those seeking to destroy it, is not exactly the same as “not subscribing” to the state of Israel.

Wheeler thus exhibits the classic dishonesty of the anti-Israelites which I’ve discussed many times. They ceaselessly grumble about the fact that they are called anti-Semites and ostracized from polite society because they “don’t subscribe” to Israel, or because they “don’t genuflect” to Israel, or because they “don’t jump on the Zionist bandwagon,” and other similar phrases, as though anyone were asking them to subscribe or genuflect or jump on a bandwagon! These people never have the simple honesty and manhood to say something like, “Auster excluded me from his website because I said that of all the nations on earth Israel alone is cursed and deserves to be the target of terrorism forever.”

Why do the anti-Semites, who make such a deal about their own courage, nobility, and honesty in the face of a hostile and hypocritical society, always try to conceal their actual beliefs and the actual reasons that other people reject them? Why do they keep telling such transparent lies? Why don’t they take proud responsibility for their avowed principles that get them excluded? Why do they declare a war of perpetual terrorism against Jews, and then claim to have been treated unfairly when Jews simply refuse to talk to them?

In other words, apart from their sick and evil beliefs about the Jews, what is wrong with these people?

- end of initial entry -

Bill Carpenter writes:

Great article. I suspect the basic dishonesty of victimary self-pity is behind the anti-Semites’ dishonesty. Because one is mistreated, one may lie freely. There is also an element of competitive envy of other victims, especially Jews and blacks. There was an outstanding episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm that captured competitive victimary envy: two characters arguing back and forth, I’m the survivor! No, I’m the survivor!

Lindsay Wheeler has made some recent appearances at The Brussels Journal, which is not at all friendly to anti-Semitic ideology. Gilbert de Bruycker turns out to be quite the anti-Semite too. Some regular commenters are unfriendly to Jews, but not at the insane end of the spectrum. Though they overvalue the role of Jews in contemporary Western degradation, their basic complaint is not far from your own and Takuan Seiyo’s. In other words, their criticisms of Jews have a basis in fact and reason, like yours (“Jews are overwhelmingly liberal and support policies and culture hostile to the welfare of the white Christian majority”), but also have some element of hostile misprision of fact (“Jews control the media,” “Jews control immigration policy”), yet they do not descend into the cosmic insanity (“Jews are cursed by God”) of a Wheeler. That distinction between principled, reasoned criticism and scapegoating hatred cannot be overstressed, and it is one the liberals will try to stop you from making in order to scapegoat you (and the West).

Harry Horse writes:

“In other words, apart from their sick and evil beliefs about the Jews, what is wrong with these people?”

I have found that a reasonable clinical explanation would fill a small book—and thus makes the question irrelevant for our purposes. Recall that madness doesn’t always have a purpose or reason, which is what your question is really asking.

It does help me to think of this as a neural short-circuiting such that a preferred pathway is superseded by a more primal paranoia/fight/flight response. The only thing that can dampen (but not resolve) it is heavy-duty drugs or years of therapy (or the combination).

Shaming the behavior when in newly erupts in polite society (or discussion at VFR!) is the good Christian thing to do, as a cohort will then ask why the sting is more painful than being “swindled by a Jew.” Nevertheless, I have found that the righteous anti-Semite allows the poison to bathe every aspect of his thinking. They will not accept rational argument. They will not accept the alms of Christian brotherhood. They will hunt down your pedigree to find that one quintillionth ounce of offending blood. They will then exclaim, “Ah-hah,” as they ascribe almost Satanically supernatural powers to the offense.

What rational person who champions a movement based upon the very best of our shared tradition, has a role for such a person?

January 18

Richard H. writes:

I have to laugh at people like Wheeler when they declare that Israel is permanently cursed.

Wheeler is, of course, talking about Deuteronomy chapter 28, in which God promises to make Israel a great and blessed nation if she follows hard after God. God also makes converse promises if she does not. Both have been fulfilled as Israel followed not after God, but after her own opinions of what God wanted and heart of the nation became hardened and resulted in the rejection of the promised Messiah. God usually made two prophecies when it was conditional.

The other side of this is also found in Paul’s letter to the Romans. In Romans 3:1-4, Paul tells us that being a Jew has much advantage, and in Romans 11:1-2, that Israel has not been abandoned. In Romans 11:11-27, Paul warns the gentiles not to get puffed up because some of the original branches have been broken off to graft them in, because they can be broken off for the same reason Israel, the original branches, were.

The idea that Israel is perpetually cursed certainly isn’t biblical. Israel has not been utterly abandoned. We see this in Psalms 83, which is widely regarded as prophetic.

In Isaiah 17:1 it is prophesied that Damascus will be destroyed, and the main event that really calls to Israel, and will draw Hebrews back to the land is found in Ezekiel chapters 38 and 39. Here is Ezekiel 39:23-29:

The Gentiles shall know that the house of Israel went into captivity for their iniquity; because they were unfaithful to Me, therefore I hid My face from them. I gave them into the hand of their enemies, and they all fell by the sword. According to their uncleanness and according to their transgressions I have dealt with them, and hidden My face from them. Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: Now I will bring back the captives of Jacob, and have mercy on the whole house of Israel; and I will be jealous for My holy name—after they have borne their shame, and all their unfaithfulness in which they were unfaithful to Me, when they dwelt safely in their own land and no one made them afraid. When I have brought them back from the peoples and gathered them out of their enemies’ lands, and I am hallowed in them in the sight of many nations, then they shall know that I am the LORD their God, who sent them into captivity among the nations, but also brought them back to their land, and left none of them captive any longer. And I will not hide My face from them anymore; for I shall have poured out My Spirit on the house of Israel, says the Lord GOD.

Also, the anti-Semite needs to recall the promise made to Abraham in Genesis 12:3,

“I will bless those who bless you, And I will curse him who curses you; And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

Last I looked, Israel, the new name God gave Jacob, grandson of Abraham, was a descendant of Abraham, and as such is a recipient of this promise.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at January 17, 2009 12:20 PM | Send