Is the Term 'Antisemitism' Becoming Meaningless?

Just call it 'Jew-hate'

Photo by Levi Meir Clancy on Unsplash

One of the charges that anti-Israel hacks enjoy throwing at proud Zionists like me is that we “weaponize antisemitism” when we voice our concerns about—wait for it—actual antisemitism. In the last year especially, there’s been plenty of real-life examples to call out; it’s what inspired this entire project of mine on Substack. What people who levy this charge of “weaponizing antisemitism” don’t seem to get is that antisemitism by itself is a weapon. How could someone like me weaponize something specifically designed to cause me harm?

What they are really expressing is anger at the accusations of antisemitism—of hating Jews—being leveled against those who engage in things like chanting for an intifada or expressing tacit support for international terrorist organizations to “free Palestine.” I mean after all, what does any of that have to do with Jews? They’re the same geniuses who believe that “antisemitism” doesn’t actually mean “hatred of Jews” because they don’t hate the non-Jews who are also Semites—so how could they possibly be “antisemitic”? Hard to argue with such valiant efforts to reinvent the English language.

Here are the problems as I see them:

1) Calling someone an antisemite, just like calling someone a racist, is a serious accusation.

While I certainly have called out my share of antisemitic nonsense that I’ve witnessed in the past year and change (mostly having to do with public demonstrations or trends in my field of higher education), I generally don’t like using the term to describe individuals. There are a few reasons for this:

• Sometimes people will make statements one might deem “antisemitic” because they’re simply ignorant of the facts. Those people need education more than name-calling.

• Antisemitism ultimately has to do with hate in one’s heart, and it’s impossible to know the extent of that in an individual just by seeing snippets of things they say online. It requires a deep-dive into that person’s history.

• In the last decade especially, the term “racist” has become cheapened thanks to the likes of Robin DiAngelo and her malignant minions. I am against the view that anyone in the “dominant group” is racist by virtue of their existence. I feel the same way about antisemitism—you’re innocent until proven guilty.

To give a notable example of how perceived antisemitism can snowball: in the “depending on the context” congressional hearings in December 2023, the presidents of Penn and Harvard kept repeating their infamous line over and over when Elise Stefanik pressed them on how their universities’ codes of conduct deal with “calling for the genocide of Jews.” The presidents’ performance ultimately resulted in their termination from their jobs. Were they “antisemites” before the hearings? I don’t think so. They (in consultation with their stupid and overpaid legal team) prepared poorly, and didn’t grasp that they needed to be more forceful in their plans to confront Jew-hate on their campuses. But I can guarantee that if they weren’t antisemitic before the hearing, they definitely are now after getting fired.

2) Calling out someone’s antisemitism may not have the intended effect on the accused.

Announcement of StopAntisemitism’s 2024 Antisemite of the Year award

Generally, calling out public figures for antisemitism carries the intention of ostracizing them or diminishing their followings. The problem is that we live in a world where one’s worth as a YouTuber is measured entirely by followers/subscribers. That’s why people who have zero actual knowledge of a conflict can command so much attention when they speak on it, because other public figures (*cough*Piers Morgan*cough*) will have them on their programs in their capacity as “influencers.” It has nothing to do with possessing a deep knowledge of the subject at hand; it’s simply to generate clicks.

Just this week, Candace Owens, an influencer with a following of over 3.2 million, won StopAntisemitism’s annual Antisemite of the Year award. Owens is a genuine Jew-hater; it simply cannot be denied. StopAntisemitism intends for the “award” to generate knowledge to the general public of the winner’s hatefulness.

But StopAntisemitism’s decision did not have that intended effect. Within 24 hours, Candace posted her “acceptance speech” for the “award” as a podcast episode on her own show. The speech just reinforced that she is indeed an antisemitic psychopath. It also received 500,000 views in 48 hours. Here’s the best quote from it, directed as us lowly Jews:

“If you wake up one day and you find the world is not on your side, let me tell you, it’s not because you’re Jewish. It’s because you’re annoying, you’re hypocritical, and people are rightfully calling you out.”

This speech of hers should be shown in psychology classes to educate on what the term “projection” means. That aside, StopAntisemitism’s “award” just brought this miserable broad more attention that she craves—which has the effect of reinforcing her brand. The day after, Piers Morgan featured her on his show for an entire episode, by herself (this is in contrast to when she’s had to face others on the show who hold her accountable, like this one with Jonathan Conricus).

The moment Piers Uncensored posted the interview, it began attracting views at the rate of 80,000 per hour. At the current rate, the Owens interview is going to make the top 3 of Piers Uncensored’s most watched episodes of all time. Currently, the top 3 are individual interviews with Bassem Youssef, Andrew Tate, and Kanye West. In summary: his most popular episodes platform famous antisemites. Anyone else see something wrong with this picture?

No doubt, antisemitism is a serious, persistent global problem—a problem that I did not even fully appreciate myself until about a year ago. It’s a permanent fixture of western civilization that we have a certain responsibility to combat through education and through how we present ourselves as a people. And we must question how much accusing individuals of antisemitism publicly (doing so only amongst ourselves is a different conversation) is in the service of the good fight.