Em Cohen

@emcohen.bsky.social

1423 Followers 64 Following

writing about philosemitism, zionism, antisemitism. constantly thinking about Jews. https://emcohen.medium.com/

Screenshot of the google trends search results for the term "beheaded babies" that shows a huge spike in the term right after October 7 that dropped to almost nothing in the weeks after and since.
Throughout much of the white euro-american left in general and the self-described ‘anti-fascist’ movement in particular, we hear quips like “if there’s a nazi at a table and 10 other people sitting there talking to him, you got a table with 11 nazis” and “anytime, anyplace, punch a nazi in the face.” Then, a Jewish person sits at the table and white euro-american anti-fascists are forced to choose between philosemitism and anti-fascism. The white euro-american anti-fascists make their choice. Suddenly we should make distinctions about those at the table or should pay special attention to their sensitivities. Suddenly there’s a wrong time and a wrong place. Suddenly we must hold our fist, we must carefully choose our words. Suddenly a nazi is not a nazi.
Demonizing the enemy is an effective technique for wartime propaganda. Hitler recognized this technique during World War I. Although most wartime propaganda demonized the political and military leaders of enemy countries, the Nazis went further. They considered all Jews—men, women, and even children—to be a deadly threat to the German people. On posters and in speeches, newsreels, and radio programs, Nazis demonized and dehumanized European Jews. They depicted European Jews as carriers of deadly diseases such as typhus to justify segregating them in ghettos. They identified European Jews as a violent threat, calling them bandits and terrorists. Nazi propaganda held the Jews responsible for causing World War II, for which they would have to pay. All Jews, Hitler’s propagandists proclaimed, were accomplices in an international plot to enslave the non-Jewish world. Using such false claims, Nazi propaganda presented its war against Jews as a struggle between good and evil.
Screenshot of a tweet by Aviva klompas “the 19 Israeli women held in Gaza, are all presumed to be Following five months of sexual abuse”. Under the tweet, there’s a picture collage of 19 women.
Yishai Fleisher يشاي ישי פליישר 🕎 @YishaiFleisher In the end A million more Jews will live in the Land of Israel because of the Hamas attack Global antisemitism will make Israel stronger
Picture of "israeli" soldiers reading a Torah, using a combat knife as a Yad.
Contemporary examples of antisemitism in public life, the media, schools, the workplace, and in the religious sphere could, taking into account the overall context, include, but are not limited to: Calling for, aiding, or justifying the killing or harming of Jews in the name of a radical ideology or an extremist view of religion. Making mendacious, dehumanizing, demonizing, or stereotypical allegations about Jews as such or the power of Jews as collective — such as, especially but not exclusively, the myth about a world Jewish conspiracy or of Jews controlling the media, economy, government or other societal institutions. Accusing Jews as a people of being responsible for real or imagined wrongdoing committed by a single Jewish person or group, or even for acts committed by non-Jews. Denying the fact, scope, mechanisms (e.g. gas chambers) or intentionality of the genocide of the Jewish people at the hands of National Socialist Germany and its supporters and accomplices
The working definition of antisemitism In the spirit of the Stockholm Declaration that states: “With humanity still scarred by …antisemitism and xenophobia the international community shares a solemn responsibility to fight those evils” the committee on Antisemitism and Holocaust Denial called the IHRA Plenary in Budapest 2015 to adopt the following working definition of antisemitism. On 26 May 2016, the Plenary in Bucharest decided to: Adopt the following non-legally binding working definition of antisemitism: “Antisemitism is a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of antisemitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities.”