The Aesthetic of Hate
The New Antisemitism: Jewish Perceptions, Rhetorical Strategies, and Operation Cast Lead
Open Access
Author:
Isaacson, Robert Brant
Area of Honors:
Jewish Studies
Degree:
Bachelor of Arts
Document Type:
Thesis
Thesis Supervisors:
Paul Lawrence Rose, Thesis Supervisor Paul Lawrence Rose, Thesis Supervisor Tobias Heinrich Albert Brinkmann, Thesis Supervisor Brian C Hesse, Thesis Honors Advisor
Keywords:
Antisemitism the New Antisemitism Operation Cast Lead The Independent Jewish aesthetic prejudice rhetoric anti-Israel Israel
Abstract:
The so-called “New Antisemitism” is an academic perception of a recent mutation in traditional antisemitic ideologies to characterize specifically anti-Israel hate. This New Antisemitism synthesizes the rhetoric of traditional antisemitic tropes with a unique twentieth-century context to level essentialist criticisms against Jewish Israelis specifically in their character as Jews. Such critiques are prejudicial in their foundations and expression, and have been perceived by some members of the Jewish academic community as constituting a consistent, demonstrable pattern with a distinctive aesthetic. The aesthetic of the New Antisemitism can be, and has been, irresponsibly deployed by non-antisemitic individuals to rhetorically embellish their social commentary. This rhetorical engagement with the aesthetic of the New Antisemitism is problematic in its implications and seeming endorsement of prejudicial views. The coverage of the State of Israel’s 2008-2009 Operation Cast Lead against Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip by the British news outlet The Independent is particularly notable for its engagement with the aesthetic of the New Antisemitism, and constitutes an instructive exhibition of this problematic rhetoric from recent history.
