I'm going to take a risk here. I'm going to try and look at the world through the eyes of anti-Semites. I know it's asking for trouble - we're not supposed to sympathize with these guys - but I've been harshly trained; never go into battle without knowing the enemy. So let's try to take a walk through the anti-Semite mind.
Let's say somebody's an extreme-right anti-Semite. He hates Jews. They have too much power, they're loyal only to themselves and they're controlling everything in America from the banks to the courts. Why does he think that way is anybody's guess. He just does (By the way, if that doesn't sound plausible then we have problem. If not all anti-Semites are mindless beasts then we need to think how to talk to them, as distasteful as we may find it...).
So he gets to work. He draws some swastikas on some synagogue doors, he harasses Jews on the street (whenever he can identify them, that is) and he floods the internet with all the bad things he has to say about them.
So now the Jews get to work. They lobby, they petition, they write articles and they pour their energy and money into advocacy. They have their say in the media, in the judicial system and even with the government, and soon enough, our hypothetical anti-Semite - who thinks of himself as a normal, well adjusted human being - finds that his ideas have become an illegal abomination. Why? He knows: because of the Jews; because they control EVERYTHING. How does that make him feel?
My guess? Angry, frustrated, wary and dangerous. More than before.
Now let's look at the left wing. Here we may have an extreme progressive left-winger. He thinks that what is happening in Palestine is horrible and that Israel acts with impunity because it's a colonialist privileged nation who's living at the oppressed expense. About Jews, he's not one-hundred percent certain. Some of them join him in his struggle but then the other Jews turn on them with such savagery that it seems that "his" Jews are traitors of some kind. He ends up understanding that there are good Jews and bad Jews. And the bad Jews are all over him: they try kicking him out of university, try to make his ideas illegal, they keep using his tax money to oppress Palestinians and eventually they call him an anti-Semite. At this point our hypothetical left winger - who thinks of himself as a normal well adjusted human being - finds that his ideas have become an illegal abomination. Why? He knows: because of the Jews. Not all of them, but a lot of them. Because they control EVERYTHING. How does that make him feel?
My guess? Angry, frustrated, wary and dangerous. More than before.
Now there are two questions you probably want to ask. The first goes like this: Haters will be haters; why should we care how they feel? we're not going to change their mind about us.
Well, it could be that haters will always remain haters. The question still remains, how much will they hate? Will they hate Jews based on folklore and prejudice or will they actually find out, in real life, that Jews are the enemy?
Which leads us to the second question. According to what I have just stated, any act of fighting antisemitism will just fan the flames of antisemitism. So, are we supposed to do nothing? to just let haters and bigots dictate the way we live? smear us? hurt us?
The answer is no. We should not give up, not at all, but we should not fight back either. Between giving up and fighting lays the territory of non-violent action. We should start exploring it. I understand it's not a popular choice, but hey, we're Jews. When have we ever been popular?
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