Anti-Semitism Controversy – The Left: “Nobody here is an anti-Semite”

This week, several members publicly resigned from the Left Party due to an “anti-Semitism scandal.” A few half-right wingers believed they had once again found anti-Semitism somewhere on the left. And because their party failed to take a position against it, they had to leave. Let’s be honest, there’s something else behind it, probably an “internal power struggle” or a right-wing agenda, like the smear campaigns from “Bild”. The newly elected co-chairman Jan van Aken said it clearly: “Nobody here is an anti-Semite.”

This also corresponds to the research. A recent study in Mannheim found that the left-wing, young, academic milieu was the least anti-Semitic. Pro-Palestinian and critical of Israel, yes, even more so; But that is precisely on the left, something completely different than “classic anti-Semitism”. If any anti-Germans come around the corner again with their terminological confusion, saying that modern anti-Semitism shows itself in precisely these forms, you have to give a clear statement like Jan: “We reject that!” And that is particularly important for the fight against anti-Semitism !

Because anyone who uses such broad definitions of anti-Semitism waters down the term and thus relativizes the real problem of anti-Semitism. A problem that doesn’t exist on the left at all, but “classically” only on the right. And they want to distract from this by accusing Muslims or leftists of anti-Semitism. Anyone who plays the game and accuses the left of anti-Semitism is helping the right, i.e. they are actually right-wing.

This could finally clear up the matter. We as the left could turn our attention to the fate of the world (Israel’s war!) and the oppressed (Palestine!) instead of always making these divisive discussions about ourselves. Unfortunately, only one problem remains for us on the left: How do we explain the fact that some people – always others, of course – are anti-Semites?

It’s easy for the rights, they can attribute some sort of creature to their enemy images and be racist: That’s just how they are, the strangers, and so on. That’s not possible for leftists, we have this annoying self-commitment that we don’t accept any higher or deeper being and always have to explain everything in terms of circumstances when it comes to people and society. After all, we make the story! Oh, that’s why leftists once analyzed that modern anti-Semitism doesn’t just mean hatred of Jews, but represents an exaggerated form of the phenomenon of having to projectively process the contradictions of capitalist society because that’s the only way you can endure them and not feel so powerless. That’s what society does, it’s capitalism, stupid! Luckily, of course, this has nothing to do with us.