Opinion

October 14, 2011

Opinion: Exploiting anti-Semitism to destroy Occupy Wall Street

by MJ Rosenberg

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An ugly old tradition is back: exploiting anti-Semitism to break the backs of popular movements that threaten the power of the wealthiest 1 percent of our population. It is being used to undermine the Occupy Wall Street movement, which has conservatives in a state of near panic.

I don’t know the first time the tactic was used, although it dates back almost to the beginning of the Jewish diaspora.

Perhaps its most famous use was by the viciously anti-Semitic Czar Nicholas, whose supporters concocted the “Protocols of the Elders of Zion” at the start of the 20th century to prevent Russians from joining socialist movements and other reform efforts that were fighting to get the czar to cede some power to an elected parliament.

The Protocols were a forged document purporting to show that a cabal of Jews met regularly to solidify their supposed control of the entire world. According to the Protocols, Jews were behind socialist and liberal movements but also ran the banks and Wall Street. (A modern version of this ridiculous theme was a staple on Glenn Beck’s television program that ran on Fox News until being canceled this summer.)

The Protocols have had a long life, used by the czar, the Nazis, and even today by extremist and fringe Muslim groups opposed to the existence of Israel.

But they were primarily used not so much against the Jews as against reform and revolution. Linking a progressive movement to the Jews would destroy progressive movements and preserve the power of those in control.

Perhaps not surprisingly, a bizarre variant of this phenomenon is now being deployed against Occupy Wall Street.

Because utilizing anti-Semitism directly would not succeed in this country today, the reactionary defenders of the economic status quo are using the flip side of the coin: the fear of being labeled anti-Semitic. They are accusing Occupy Wall Street of anti-Semitism, relying on the old myth that Wall Street is Jewish and hence that opposition to Wall Street’s agenda is just opposition to Jews.

Not surprisingly, the first right-wing commentator to use this formulation in the Obama era was Rush Limbaugh. In 2010, Limbaugh told his radio audience that Jews might be having “buyer’s remorse” about having voted for President Barack Obama because “[h]e’s assaulting bankers. He’s assaulting money people. And a lot of those people on Wall Street are Jewish.”

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) condemned those remarks, labeling them a “new low” for Limbaugh. ADL National Director Abe Foxman explained that Limbaugh’s references to “Jews and money” were “offensive and inappropriate.”

Foxman continued: “While the age-old stereotype about Jews and money has a long and sordid history, it also remains one of the main pillars of anti-Semitism and is widely accepted by many Americans.”

And now the “age-old stereotype” is back, flipped on its head by right-wingers who seek to discredit Occupy Wall Street by accusing it of anti-Semitism, an accusation based on the idea, as Foxman said, “widely accepted by many Americans,” that Wall Street is Jewish.

One of the first conservatives after Limbaugh to use this tactic was the usually quite proper Ivy League conservative, New York Times columnist David Brooks. In an October 10 column dismissing the Wall Street protests as “trivial sideshows,” Brooks wrote:

Take the Occupy Wall Street movement. This uprising was sparked by the magazine Adbusters, previously best known for the 2004 essay, “Why Won’t Anyone Say They Are Jewish?” — an investigative report that identified some of the most influential Jews in America and their nefarious grip on policy.

Interesting. Brooks essentially is charging that a magazine few have heard of “sparked” the movement and, even worse, smearing the movement as anti-Semitic by bringing up an article that magazine published seven years ago about the Jewish “grip” on policy. Quite a reach.

And then yesterday the Emergency Committee For Israel, a far-right Republican group run by Bill Kristol, issued a video flat-out accusing Occupy Wall Street of anti-Semitism, with side swipes at leading Democrats (what a coincidence!) like President Obama and Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, who have sympathized with the movement and are therefore, by implication, probably anti-Semitic themselves.

The Emergency Committee’s evidence is presented in the video, which shows three anti-Semites and two anti-Semitic signs among the protesters. That’s it, out of a crowd of thousands. (Far be it from me to guess at the number of anti-Semites who might be at a Tea Party event, but they don’t define that movement either. Mass movements attract all kinds of people, some invariably unsavory.)

Story continues after the jump.

In any case, the Emergency Committee for Israel is not concerned about anti-Semitism or Israel. It is, rather, dedicated to defeating Democrats and promoting its billionaire donors’ economic interests. During the 2010 congressional campaigns, it produced videos almost as deceitful as the Wall Street video that lied about Democratic candidates. It used Israel and Jews as devices to direct money and votes toward the Republicans. (See this profile.)

In attacking Occupy Wall Street, the Emergency Committee’s goal is simply to smear Democrats. If, in the process, it reinforces the stereotype that Jews and Wall Street are interchangeable, so what? How different is that from its usual practice of suggesting strongly that American Jews should vote only based on Israel’s supposed interests, not America’s? To put it not-so-mildly, the Emergency Committee for Israel does not care about fueling anti-Semitism in America.

Because that last video of a couple of anti-Semites may have left a bad taste in your mouth, here’s another one. It was shot at the Wall Street demonstration on Yom Kippur Eve and it features not a few anti-Semites but thousands of Jews celebrating the holiest day of the Jewish year, a day dedicated to the same ideals as Occupy Wall Street: repentance for putting our desires before the needs of the poor, the homeless, and the exploited.

In this video, Occupy Wall Street is repenting for greed. Wall Street itself is silent.

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Come on MJ Rosenberg. But I guess since they hung Julius Streicher at Nuremberg you have to go with what you have. I suppose we’ll have a roundtable next that will also include Phil ( Hitler should have finished the job ) Weiss. And Norman “the fink” Finkelstein.

Comment by Bill Pearlman on 10/14/11 at 1:05 pm

Adbusters did in fact “spark the movement,” and this is in no way a factual misrepresentation on Brooks part. They were the ones who made the first call to occupy the park, and initially organized the protest.

Although I am in no way sympathetic to Brooks politics, I think it is on of the best critical articles on Occupy Wall Street out there. There is no doubt that Adbusters hosts anti-Semitic views and are sympathetic to Islamic Fundamentalists - which are self-declared anti-Semitic organizations. See Micah White’s article bemoaning that fact that Bin Laden’s death was not mourned by the Left.

http://www.adbusters.org/blogs/blackspot-blog/who-mourns-osama.html#comment-30540

Comment by Chris Mansour on 10/14/11 at 2:13 pm

I chuckle at the ignorant Jews who feel they are safe in this country, or any country. They have never lived in fear for their lives for what they are, they never faced adversity or open, government sponsored anti-semitism. So incidents like this not just get a pass from them but they are outraged that people spotting and citing genuine anti-semitism are to blame because it may derail their pet ideology.

As someone who stood up for Jews all of my life in countries that would make these anti-semites here look like Moshe Dayan, I am ashamed and appalled. Cling high to that pole of ignorance you’ve climbed up thinking you are safe among your Liberal left fringe.

Comment by ethics on 10/14/11 at 2:46 pm

The Jews have destroyed America, but America has no king to issue an edict to expel the Jews the way England did several hundred years ago.  Jews have evil written into their DNA and are vicious predators.  The word pernicious comes to mind as Jews will hesitate at nothing to exploit the most innocent person for profit.  The damage they have done to America is incalculable.

Comment by Wayne on 10/14/11 at 3:37 pm

Wow Jewish fascists, where is Mussolini when these frightened followers of Jabotinsky and Begin need him. Oh, he’s in Berlin. You probably have no idea what I mean. I’ll make it simple, believe me tough guys when the going gets rough you are Jews and the right will turn on you as soon as they can. The only people who ever stand by you, protect you is the left. Why do you think the founding fathers of Israel were socialists. Stop puffing and start thinking.
And, I challenge you to find one anti-semitic sentence in Adbusters (no fair to conflate anti-semitism with criticism of Israel criticism or a stance against Zionism. Thank you Mr. Rosenberg for your incisive comments.

Comment by Adamo on 10/14/11 at 8:51 pm

The good news here is that the ‘occupy’ movements are indeed being taken as a serious threat by the parasitic classes - proof being that it’s very early days for these divide and conquer tactics to be trotted out. If patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel, racism is the among the first.

Comment by Dwight on 10/15/11 at 1:07 am

The top ranks on Wall St. are Democrats and were big givers to Obama, Tim Geither ran out the clock on his taxes and signed off on the AIG bonuses. And Eric Holder is too busy running guns to mexican drug cartels to look into any of this.

Comment by Bill Pearlman on 10/15/11 at 3:20 am

Wow, Adamo. If the left are the Jews’ only friends, it looks like Jews are in trouble. Google “antisemitism in the Soviet Union” and see what you come up with, for starters. Even under De-Stalinization, Khrushchev refused to denounce Stalin’s antisemitic policies, so go figure. Israel’s victory during the Six-Day War only made antisemitism in Soviet countries worse, largely due to the fact that the Soviets had armed the Arab armies against the Israelis. Wonder why they would’ve done that if they were the only friends the Jews had in the world? Try googling the term “Zionology” as well. It was official Soviet anti-Jewish policy throughout the Cold War.

Comment by Walter on 10/15/11 at 1:09 pm

And, Adamo, if the Founders of Israel weren’t nationalists, seems strange they would’ve founded a Jewish state in Palestine. European-Jewish socialists largely remained in Europe at the time of Israel’s founding and advocated assimilation over immigration. Those who could bring themselves to support a nationalist idea like the formation of an ethnic/religious state, did not want the state to be connected in any way to the historical homeland of Judaism. They pushed for places like Uganda, but it was the Zionists who pushed for Palestine, because their “blood” was connected to the “soil” by virtue of their “history” and their “religion”. Yes, very socialist indeed.

Comment by Walter on 10/15/11 at 1:11 pm

The Jews there are most likely from J-street - they are more liberal then anything else and being funded by George Soros.  If that was a couple of white people talking about Blacks , Obama would be all over it.  Wake up and smell the coffe

Comment by Bonnie on 10/15/11 at 2:04 pm

This is Jewish self hatred par excellence.
Most Jews don’t “exploit” anti semitism. At most some overstate, misunderstand or misfire as to its importance. Exploit has a pernicious tone to it that has no basis in reality.
Any attempt to blame the monolithic “Jews” for the crisis is laughable and probably coming from someone with a low IQ. The 13 bankers in Simon Johnson’s book about the crisis are almost all non-Jewish. Many of the Jewish economists were actually working in PUBLIC sector jobs making significantly less.

Comment by gal shalev on 10/15/11 at 6:05 pm

MJ Rosenberg, when are you going to take some bacon and just glue it on your schmeckle.

How many articles revealing that the AMERICAN NAZI PARTY SUPPORTS OCCUPY WALL STREET will it take for you to get your self-loathing jino head out of your nether brain pan.

BONUS - now the AMERICAN COMMUNIST PARTY supports OWS.

Nice company you keep. BTW, what color vest and helmet do you wear?

Comment by jpeditor on 10/15/11 at 10:20 pm

Rosenberg is in bed with hamas, hezbollah, and all the rest. And has been for a long time.

Comment by Bill Pearlman on 10/16/11 at 5:43 am

In reading the comments, people clearly fail to see the difference between support vs supported. jpeditor, for example, says that the American Nazi Party and American Communist Party support OWS. However, this really has nothing to do with what OWS supports, so it isn’t really relevant.

Rosenberg, excellent article. Thank you. There is a large pile of dirt, and people are going to throw handfuls of it at you. Eventually, though, maybe their pile will shrink. Unfortunately, many of us will get really dirty in the process. The important thing is that we continue to see clearly, even if the air is really dirty.

Comment by KG on 10/16/11 at 5:48 am

I don’t understand why Jews continue to not see what is right in front of them.  The Liberal Jews in this country will become outraged at the building of houses, but turn the other cheek when bombs are flying into shcoold and buses.  Hamas has valued their people like this 1000 to every one Jew.  Why can’t the liberal Jews in thits country open either eyes - there is an ever groing hate for jews now more then ever…. Obama tops the list along with George Soros….. These people are working to destry Isreal and now with J-street they are working from within to turn one Jew against another.

Comment by Bonnie on 10/16/11 at 6:41 am

I think he’s saying that we have to be careful and be ever-vigilant.  Bacon on the schmeckle?  That must be how that commenter dresses up on Halloween.  No, I mean Purim.  No, I mean Halloween.  Thanks for an intelligent, unusually well-written article.

Comment by Tzipporah on 10/16/11 at 7:13 am

Yes, protect the Left and the Occupy Wall Street Group and villianize the Right. What’s a matter Mr. Rosenberg? Still trying to fit in with the Jew-hating Left? You know, the Socialists and Nazis who are now supporting the Occupy Wall Street gang.

Where were you when Apple released the “Jew or Not Jew” App.? Nothing to say? Perhaps you’re looking forward to marching your own kind into the new camps so to “fit in”?

Comment by RightJew on 10/16/11 at 9:28 am

Wow Rosenberg, paranoid propanganda. Czar Nic and his family were shot in cold blood by the Bolshvics, 80% were Jewish, Stalin and Lenin were maried to Jews. Trotsky was a paid agent from Germany, the Bolshevics were financed by the Jew Andrew Shiff. Why, Car Nic owned l/3 of the world’s wealth. Over 60 million white Russian souls were purged. Study the Heglian Dialectical, the philophy that Marx based his thesis on. Fascism and Communism are one in the same.

Comment by Kathryn on 10/16/11 at 10:17 am

This article is shameful Taking vitriol out of context is propaganda. Danny Cline, known as the lotion man,  is a Jewish kid giving another Jew a piece of his mind.
Making it into an opportunity to suggest anti-semitism is Jew-bating at its worst. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3Y9CARUwio

Comment by jon on 10/16/11 at 12:58 pm

A double standing ovation for a great article. Check out also the vicious smears by the supposed guardians of all things Jewish. For future reference, a recap of comments so far how this works. According to the sludge throwers: the author is a Nazi-supporter, Marxist-supporter, Democratic Party-supporter, liberal-supporter, Islamic fundamental extremist-supporter, anti-Semitic,  ignorant,  self-hating, shameful and paranoid.  Many of us are on to your nasty tactics. And note what they don’t address—many Americans are suffering from horrible inequality and severe economic downturn. The sludge throwers want to change the subject desperately in defense of the super rich. They don’t fool me.

Comment by LL Bean on 10/16/11 at 3:34 pm

Look, when you have a guy who is named Rosenberg who is a mouthpice for hamas and takes pleasure in the daths of other Jews. And is allied with people like Phil ( Hitler should have finished the job ) Weiss. It brings out passions.

Comment by Bill Pearlman on 10/16/11 at 4:54 pm

deaths

Comment by Bill Pearlman on 10/16/11 at 4:54 pm

The American Nazi Party just endorsed this Movement, so what kind of proof do American Jews HAVE TO SEE to understand that these people are not on your side?  How many times must history repeat itself in order for you to take the words of your enemies seriously?  Are you going to wait, again, for the yellow stars and the cattle cars?  May you be haunted by 6 million Jews who died in the Holocaust for encouraging such blindness.

Comment by Susan on 10/16/11 at 8:45 pm

Again, Susan Pearlman, etc. in your histrionic, Kahanist,hearts do you really believe that OWS and the Nazi Party have anything in common. It is Netanyahu and Likud who are hugging the neo-nazi extreme right all over the world, just like they did with Mussolini before the Nazis offered him a better deal.It was Israel who funded and supported Hamas at the beginning. You know this, why the Big Lies about OWS, a movement made up of all ethic groups and religions. Are you that frightened that you would sacrifice your decency

Comment by Adamo on 10/16/11 at 10:15 pm

antisemitism at the LA.hatefest.Imagine what rosenberg would have said if it was Tea Partiers   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMjm4LxFa1c

Comment by Steve on 10/17/11 at 5:43 am

Wall Street doesn’t repent because it’s, well, an inanimate object—a series of buildings and roads where thousands of hard-working Americans go to work each day.

And little history lesson: it was the “reactionary defenders” of capitalism that decried the Soviet Union from the start, while foolish leftists fawned over it—including too many of our fellow Jews. Meanwhile, the Soviet Union was one of the most anti-Jewish, evil governments besides Nazi Germany in the world.

I wonder if you would label all those Jews and gentiles that expressed refusenik solidarity as evil conservative reactionaries too.

Comment by Nathan S on 10/17/11 at 7:32 am

You lie. While I did miss some of Glen Beck’s show’s ,I know he isn’t Antisemitic. However, He did have many things against George Soros and Moveon.org but many Jews will not know this because of your own political lies. I am a Jew and politically an independent who used to be a democrat until I came to realize the lies the left perpetrates on the Jewish community. Also Mr. Kristal is not far Right.

Comment by mark lampert on 10/17/11 at 8:23 am

Again and again the Soviet Union is held up as the only representative of the left, as if that is some sort of touchstone of democratic socialism instead of an aberration. Don’t you realize that Russia now and before communism was virulently anti-semitic.
It is a fact that Israel for Israelis is the kind of state that the USA liberal left could only dream of. The rich are fairly taxed, socialized medicine, free education for all,gay marriage, generous social benefits of all kinds and recently after responding to their own people even more generous. Israel had its own OWS recently and the government to its credit responded with agreement to many of the demands of the demonstrators.

Comment by Adamo on 10/17/11 at 2:59 pm

Another idiot.  During WWII, a US Supreme Court Justice opined that the constitution was not meant to be suicide pact.  Apparently, liberal jews think they should have one. The communists were really good for the Jews, right?  I wouldn’t work 10 minutes so these bums in the park can get the product of my work and stress.  And if they want some of my daughter’s salary, then let them pay the student loans.

Comment by Scott Becker on 10/17/11 at 5:14 pm

This may be the most incoherent rant by MJ, ever. Yes, there were some anti-Semitic nutbags at some OWS events. NO, this does not mean that OWS is infested with anti-Semites, and NO it is not a “conspiracy” by the eebil Right Wing to smear OWS with “anti-Semitism.” The nutbags speak for themselves, they were not “planted” by the eevil Right Wing in a nefarious, elaborate “Protocols of Zion” conspiracy. MJ is a shrieking, hysterical caricature of himself.

Comment by Vicious Babushka on 10/17/11 at 5:55 pm

Dear Vicious, not at all what MJ said unless you are as concrete as, well Scott,Lampert, and the rest of the screaming cliches. A second reading please. But look at the vids put out by the right led by Kristol—big lies to be kind, I’d say they qualify as nefarious.

Comment by Adamo on 10/17/11 at 7:00 pm

Scott, what is it you are talking about—-liberal jews, communists, Supreme Court, bums, daughter? What exactly are you refering to. Calm down and next time think before you write, just for clarity sake. Thanks.

Comment by Adamo on 10/17/11 at 7:06 pm

The Jews have traditionally done a poor job of knowing their enemies.  Arafat was the darling of the Clinton administration, yet the Jews supported Clinton wholeheartedly.  Who on the left exactly is a friend of the Jews?

Comment by Reasonman on 10/18/11 at 10:37 am

sadly, this is not an issue of right vs left.  Both the edges of the right and the left are dangerous for jews and jews have no friends in either place.  The OWS does have its anti-Semites with strong despciable views and apparently they are not confronted or denounced by other participants.  Same as in the Tea Party.  others will stand by while “the Jews” are scapegoated, regardless of right or left wing.

Comment by tbomb on 10/18/11 at 1:29 pm

To be clear:
1)Everyone can be a Jew, if they’re willing to convert. So Judaism, sirs, is not a racial ethnicity. If a non-Jewish woman converts and has children, all her children are granted “Jewishness”.
2)The moral fundamentals of Judaism are found in ‘Pirkey Abot’ in eng. “Chapters of the Fathers” or “Ethics of the Fathers”. At its heart is social Justice and humanitarism. Check it before you talk.

Comment by Jake on 10/18/11 at 2:07 pm

This article is off-base.  This is video-graphic PROOF of abhorrent behavior, and it is being dismissed on the grounds that those exposing it are killing a movement (as well-meaning, but misguided as it may be).  The article also presumes Tea-Party anti-antisemitism and racism.  There is only proof among the OWS group.

Don’t make excuses for egregious behavior.  It should not be tolerated.

Comment by Davie on 10/18/11 at 2:33 pm

The “right” is playing the antisemitism card? Guess you haven’t seen the “Hitler’s Bankers - Wall Street” signs and the clueless kids parroting the words of antisemitic speakers as they do in college. Wake up! The Jews are always the scapegoats in bad times, now as in 1930’s Germany. Hilter found his most ardent followers in the German universites, which purveyed the Volkisch doctrine in the 19th century laying the groundwork for Nazism and the Holocuast. Wake up, this is a similar pattern of indoctrination in academia today under the guise of demonizing Israel, all protected under the umbrella of academic freedom.

Comment by Phil Orenstein on 10/18/11 at 3:42 pm

I’m so sorry for all these hateful comments. I think that’s all there is I can say. Oh, and…guess what…the real Jewish Messiah is here! So is Christ! and uhm…we are getting married! So…no more hate.

Comment by Christal on 10/18/11 at 6:11 pm

No comment of course about Perry’s anti-semitic minister Jeffers, the anti-Zionist/Jewish groups and militias that flocked to the tea party, Ron Paul’s passive acceptance of professional anti-semites and his demonizing of Bernanke, the Rothchilds, and Israel. A duh! Who is gullible and who is making excuses now. Not the thousands of Jews who have participated in OWS with a public celebration of Yom KiPPur. Do you actually think they either put up with or hide a few frankly psychotic anti-semites who crawled out from below—-they are iin fact all over the media.

Comment by Adamo on 10/18/11 at 8:52 pm

Jews started the NAACP and other civil rights organizations.  It hurts when the dog bites the hand that feeds it.

Comment by Joshua on 10/18/11 at 10:49 pm

NAACP? Really? That’s amazing. I know I sound crazy, but all these revolutions—i think it’s because of me. My fiancee is jewish-by blood. Do u know a site I can read about the jewish messiah? What are the signs of the messiah? I am the Christ. You were right-i wasn’t the Messiah. I was a whole new spiritual being. The man I think is your messiah, us named Anthony Siegel. We will marry 11/11/11. I know who I am, now I have to figure out him. Please help. Also, I have sickle cell disease, a common genetic “defect” among blacks. Do u know the genetic “defect” among jewish people? I hope the jewish people are more open than I have found Christians, or blacks. I come in peace and love.

Comment by Christal on 10/18/11 at 11:41 pm

Shorter MJ Rosenberg:
- There is not a substantial amount of people rejecting the current economic order that think that finance is run by jews.
- Anti-semitism is fine when it happens in a context that serves a “greater good”

Wonderful…

Comment by RandomGermanDude on 10/19/11 at 1:29 am

Memo from Palestinians to ows we will take it over and turn it into anti Israel protestBTW jon, Danny Cline is 1/4 Jewish don’t make him into something he’s not. Now to the internal memo from Anti Israel groups

http://owsmail.dc406.com/OWSMailList_3246.html

Comment by Steve on 10/19/11 at 3:40 am

It is rarely right to blame someone else for your misfortune.  The occupy movement is for finacial equality, not blaming Jewish people.  I’m a non-practicing jew, poor and I stand by the occupy movement.  Even my richest relative is part fo the working class.  We need real statistics to end this battle against hard working people. The problem isn’t a race, but an arrogant and greedy state of mind.

Comment by Corrine on 10/19/11 at 8:50 am

To all illiterate and uneducated imbeciles who claim the right is antisemitic. Maybe, but the worst antisemitism was always displayed by left: K. Marx (converted Jew), Mussolini (socialist), Hitler (National Socialist), Stalin (communist). During the second world war the most jews saved from Nazis were by Franco (Spain), Horti (Hungary), Antonesku (Romania) - the later two before being occupied by Nazis in 1944

Comment by Igor on 10/19/11 at 9:14 am

Igor, Mussolini, Hitler were men of the left? Do you even know what democratic socialism is? Just visit any of the first world countries,including Israel, and you will see it in action. Tyrants from the left and right, Stalin and the Czars have always hated Jews and freedom—-but not sure what your point is. Steve, you know very well, that the important thing about Danny Cline is not his ethnic background but the fact that he is frankly psychotic and sadly homeless. If the vid had not been cut, you would have seen poor Cline berating “niggers” five minutes later, I did. Why the Big Lie, why use the mentally ill, you have broken your covenant.

Comment by Adamo on 10/19/11 at 9:58 am

I cannot believe you’re calling it a guise to undermine the movement. In LA - A WOMAN LOST HER JOB WITH THE UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT FOR SAYING ON TV THAT ALL OF THE “ZIONIST JEWS THAT RUN THE BANKS SHOULD BE FORCED TO LEAVE THIS COUNTRY”. 
Those are her own words & public knowledge. So, why do you defend such dangerous & hateful talk?  Because: you have never feared for your life in any country as my grandfather and grandmother did.  I would love to see you tell them to their face what you wrote above & see the scars & tattooed numbers on their wrists. You should be ashamed and also be fired from your position as a writer for this forum.

Comment by Lisa Mueller on 10/19/11 at 11:30 am

I’ve seen several anti-semitic signs and interviews from the occupiers.

Comment by jack on 10/19/11 at 5:56 pm

I was very touched to see you write from a Jewish perspective, but see you bash the capitalist class.  I think you know that the 1% right now and Jewish leaders (not all Jews) are very much converged in their agendas, yet you still opposed the 1% despite its attempts to portray itself as friendly towards Jews.  This shows that you are quite an independent thinker and it debunks any antisemitic stereotypes I may have had going into the article. To see Abraham Foxman speak out against the ruling class really surprised me.

Comment by daryl basarab on 10/19/11 at 8:23 pm

Jews who support the power structure really aid antisemitism.  It is clear that Israel benefits from American worldwide dominance and while Jews do not “control” non-Jews or institutions, it is clear that many Jews occupy positions of prestige as individuals disproportionately.  When random Jews come out and defend the status quo, it makes it seems as if they are incapable of thinking in terms of ethics or morality or complex ideology.  What makes me think more positively of Jews are people like the author of this article, who condemn the system even if it claims to defend Jews.  They think in terms of what is right instead of what gives Jews the most amount of power in the aggregate.

Comment by Daryl Basarab on 10/19/11 at 8:55 pm

GASP!
Does that mean the protesters are all CommiNazis?
TERRIFIED SCREAM!!!

You people do know that “Guilt by association” is a Logical Fallacy right?

Comment by BunchofCowardshere on 10/20/11 at 2:00 am

It’s amazing how liberals can excuse all forms of deviant, bigoted behavior when it is inside their ranks.  When they didn’t see a large number of black people at Tea Party rallies, we have to assume all the white people are racist (btw I don’t see many black people at the OWS gatherings either).  Now we have these “fringe” groups spouting anti-Semitism and we need to turn away because “this doesn’t reflect the majority of the OWS supporters.  The hypocrisy is staggering and the liberal media has forfeited objective journalism for bending to Obama’s agenda.

Comment by Tony on 10/21/11 at 10:19 am

Why does this rabid anti semite continute to be published by the “Jewish” Journal?

Comment by george on 10/23/11 at 12:38 pm

Because the anti-Jewish Journal has long raised the banner of Jewish self-loathing and this MJ Rosenberg is a proud carrier of that flag.

Comment by yehoshua on 10/23/11 at 1:23 pm

I wish someone would have the guts to poll Republicans and Tea Party members about their feelings towards Jews. Then finally these nutty, frightened right wing Zionists will see who their real friends are not. The right now and always has crawled with anti-semites who consider Jews to be some of their “best friends”. Are the huge percentage of Jews who make-up OWS all anti-semitic?

Comment by Adamo on 10/23/11 at 6:27 pm

No, not anti-semitic, just self-loathing.

Comment by yehoshua on 10/24/11 at 7:16 am

By far and away the best reaction I have seen to this effort to tar the #OWS with anti-Semitism. I’ve read the piece Adbusters that is getting every bodies knickers in a twist. It strikes me as well reasoned and not remotely anti-Semitic, anti-Zionist maybe. It is now 3 generations since The Holocaust, I don’t really think that the possibility of a repeat is ever going to happen again to The Jews anytime soon, some other poor bunch of distinct people maybe, but not the Jews.

Comment by longbenavery on 10/25/11 at 12:20 am

In the time of the Holocaust, republican party was very different. Attacking this author, or fighting over who’s anti-semitic is a victory to the enemy that wants you distracted by the REAL issue. OWS is a fight for HUMANITY! We are ONE. ENOUGH! Stop the insanity!

Comment by Christal Terry on 10/25/11 at 12:37 am

Here’s what your fight for humanity has brought:
http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/281160/occupying-st-paul-s-charles-c-w-cooke
In Los Angeles the two acre lawn used for OWS encampment has been destroyed.  Who will pay to fix it?  Not OWS folks, you can be sure of that.

Comment by yehoshua on 10/25/11 at 4:50 am

Why is the loathsome antisemite MJ Rosenberg allowed to write for the “Jewish” Journal?

Comment by george on 10/26/11 at 6:07 pm

We Jews have always been our own worst enemies.  Recall that Ishmael, son of Abraham, was the father of the Arabs and that Esau, son of Isaac, was the father of the Christians.  The Jewish journal is run by Ishmael and Esau, individuals that, while born into the Jewish nation, became the Jewish nation’s greatest enemies.

Comment by yehoshua on 10/26/11 at 7:48 pm

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