JOURNALfor the STUDYof ANTISEMITISM

80 JOURNAL FOR THE STUDY OF ANTISEMITISM [ VOL. 3:71
are the representation of all the bad things of modernity—e.g., colonialism,
imperialism, racism, Nazism—that haunt the progressive fantasy.
But not all the criticism of Israel should be considered part of the new
Judeophobia. We must avoid falling into a position equivalent to the intellectuals
here, criticizing and trivializing the antisemitic concept. We must
avoid using criticism flippantly because, in the long run, this category loses
its effectiveness to account for real-life situations. If you are using the
antisemitic concept as a tool to avoid any criticism, it becomes meaningless
in that if everything is antisemitism, then nothing is.
In certain hard-core attacks, there is a tendency to label antisemitic
criticism as anti-Israeli, but not all is. There are certain conditions that must
be met for a valid criticism to become an open declaration of prejudice.
Several authors raise these conditions that help us to draw the boundaries
between the two. We must weigh each statement carefully to avoid falling
into banal generalizations that render both as equally critical.
To avoid these counterproductive accusations, we should establish
clearly that Jew phobias, whatever their origin, have common qualitative
elements that can synthesize a number of characteristics that define,
namely:
a) The “objective” nature: The Judeophobe will always find an excuse
to make a hatred appear objective (detach from it and live it not as
himself but as something objective—i.e., a bad thing in Jews that
legitimizes the bitterness toward them). It is a mental process that
sits the quality of the hatred in the hated object, leading to hatred is
experienced as something generated by the object of hatred (“The
Jew” “El Zionism” “Israel”) because of some objective fact—e.g.,
the Deicide, the desecration of the body of Christ, the global domination
conspiracy, the cosmopolitan betrayal, racial pollution, Palestinian
genocide.
b) The unconscious character: Rarely and only in extreme cases does
Jew phobia appear as a conscious element. It will generally form as
hidden (repressed) consciousness and discomfort that generates as
an unconscious manifestation; as such, it competes to emerge in
consciousness through “flashes” that will assume an increasingly
violent nature and become increasingly difficult to suppress.
c) Suffering: A characteristic of the presence of Jew phobia is the
compulsive obsession with those who suffer. The Jewish problem,
e.g., an obsession with Israel, grows to occupy all space with its
reasoning; there are only anti-Israel demonstrations, and solidarity
is not motivated to confront tremendous humanitarian tragedies.
d) The obsessiveness: It follows from the above that Jew phobia