Secondary Antisemitism: Holocaust Inversion

“One of the cruelest aspects of the New Antisemitism”

Prof. Robert Wistrich

Holocaust Inversion “… [is] the most potent form of contemporary antisemitism.”

“Anti-Zionists” who insist on comparing Zionism and the Jews with Hitler and the Third Reich appear unmistakably to be de facto anti-Semites, even if they vehemently deny the fact! This is largely because they knowingly exploit the reality that Nazism in the postwar world has become the defining metaphor of absolute evil. For if Zionists are “Nazis” … then it becomes a moral obligation to wage war against Israel. That is the bottom line of much contemporary anti-Zionism. In practice, this has become the most potent form of contemporary anti-Semitism.”^[1][1] https://www.jcpa.org/phas/phas-wistrich-f04.htm

Holocaust Inversion: Identifying Israel and Jews with the “Metaphor of Absolute Evil”

Selected Surveys:

Gallup Poll Norway 2012: 38% Believe Israel Treats Palestinians Like How Nazis Treated Jews.^[2][2] https://www.haaretz.com/jewish/anti-semitism-limited-in-norway-survey-shows-1.5178366

Inspira EU Survey 2020: 24% think Israelis behave like Nazis towards the Palestinians.^[3][3] https://besacenter.org/europeans-hatred-israel/

Inspira EU Survey 2020: 25% think of Israel’s politics, and feel they understand why some people hate Jews.^[4][4] https://besacenter.org/europeans-hatred-israel/

University of Bielefeld were European Survey 2011: “… One questions was whether that Israel is carrying out a war of extermination against the Palestinians.The lowest percentages of those who agreed were in Italy and the Netherlands, with 38% and 39%, respectively. Other figures were Hungary 41%, Britain 42%, Germany 48%, and Portugal 49%. In Poland, the figure was 63%.^[5][5] https://besacenter.org/europeans-hatred-israel/

University of Bielefeld Survey of Germany 2014: German adults were asked whether they agreed with the statement: “What the state of Israel does today to the Palestinians is in principle not different from what the Nazis did to the Jews in the Third Reich.” 27% answered in the affirmative.^[6][6] https://besacenter.org/europeans-hatred-israel/

“150 million [Europeans] embrace a demonic view of Israel” – “…Extrapolating from a 2008 study of seven European countries which found high levels of agreement with the statement ‘Israel is carrying out a war of extermination against the Palestinians’ to conclude that ‘out of 400 million citizens of 16 years and older, 150 million embrace a demonic view of Israel’ (2015).”^[7][7] http://israelandtheacademy.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Johnson-chapter-for-Rosenfeld-ed-14-July-2016.pdf

French Interior Minister Christophe Castaner^[8][8] https://www.cbsnews.com/news/anti-semitism-spreading-like-a-poison-in-france-official-warns/

“In 2004, no less than 68% of the German population agreed with the shocking and totally false statement, “Israel is carrying out a war of extermination [Vernichtungskrieg] against the Palestinians.”^[9][9] Wistrich, Robert S.. A Lethal Obsession . Random House Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. Location 5290

(“The use of such a manifestly Nazi term suggests the compulsiveness of the projective mechanisms at work.”^[10][10] Wistrich, Robert S.. A Lethal Obsession . Random House Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. Location 796)

Selected Surveys: Perceiving Jews as Nazis

• Italian Poll 2003: 17% of Italians said it would be better if Israel did not exist^[11][11] https://besacenter.org/europeans-hatred-israel/
   
• Italian Poll 2004: Nearly 40% percent of Italians agreed that “the Israeli government is perpetrating a full-fledged genocide and is acting the way the Nazis did with the Jews.”^[12][12] Goldhagen, Daniel Jonah. The Devil That Never Dies (p. 276). Little, Brown and Company. Kindle Edition.
   
• In four surveys from 2004 and 2008: between 40 and 50% of Germans asserted that Israel’s treatment of Palestinians “is in principle not different” from what “the Nazis did to the Jews.”^[13][13] Goldhagen, Daniel Jonah. The Devil That Never Dies (p. 276). Little, Brown and Company. Kindle Edition.
   
• European Poll: “I can understand why people hate Jews”: Almost two in five Europeans (37.4 percent), which across the EU would amount to 185 million people, assert that “considering Israel’s policies, I can well understand that people do not like Jews.”^[14][14] Goldhagen, Daniel Jonah. The Devil That Never Dies (p. 276). Little, Brown and Company. Kindle Edition.
   
• Swiss Study 2007: 50% of the Swiss population see Israel as “the Goliath in the extermination war of the Palestinians.”^[15][15] https://besacenter.org/europeans-hatred-israel/
   
• British Study 2017: 23% of the British population thinks Israel is deliberately trying to wipe out the Palestinian people.^[16][16] https://besacenter.org/europeans-hatred-israel/

 Understanding the Poison of Holocaust Inversion 
 

Prof. Lesley Klaff: “Holocaust Inversion, then, involves the abuse of the Holocaust memory to issue a moral stricture aimed at Israel and ‘the Jews’, imposing upon them a uniquely onerous moral responsibility and accountability in their treatment of others.”^[17][17] https://fathomjournal.org/author/lesley-klaff/

Prof. Alan Johnson: “In short, the Inversion means that what the demonological Jew once was in classical antisemitism, the demonological Jewish State now is in anti-Semitic anti-Zionism: evil; uniquely malevolent; vampiric, full of blood lust; the all-controlling but hidden hand in global affairs; the obstacle to a better, purer, more spiritual world; uniquely deserving of punishment.”^[18][18] http://israelandtheacademy.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Johnson-chapter-for-Rosenfeld-ed-14-July-2016.pdf

Jews as Nazis: “The most common antisemitic statements with which Jews in Europe are confronted on a regular basis” (2018)^[19][19] https://besacenter.org/europeans-hatred-israel/ 

The EU’s Fundamental Rights Agency found that the most common antisemitic statements with which Jews are confronted on a regular basis in Europe are that Israelis behave like Nazis towards Palestinians. This was mentioned by 51% of those interviewed.

Jews as Betrayers of the Holocaust

Prof Martin Kramer quoting British novelist Howard Jacobson: “…  Instead of saying the Holocaust didn’t happen, the modern sophisticated denier accepts the event in all its terrible enormity, only to accuse the Jews of trying to profit from it, either in the form of moral blackmail or downright territorial theft. According to this thinking, the Jews have betrayed the Holocaust and become unworthy of it, the true heirs to their suffering being the Palestinians.”^[20][20] https://martinkramer.org/tag/rashid-khalidi/

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