How Self-Hatred in Israel differs from the Diaspora

(Israelnationalnews.com) Please see this review of the excellent new book "Jewish Divide over Israel" by Edward Alexander and Paul Bogdanor, Transaction Books, 2006, reviewed by moi.

As part of the review, here is an observation on the difference between Israeli leftist Jewish self-hatred and assimilationist self-hatred in the Diaspora:

By and large, for such secularized assimilated Jews in the Diaspora, Jewish "self-hatred" was less a form of anti-Semitism than it was an expression of indifference to their own Jewish roots and origins.  Most "self-hating" assimilationist Jews in the Diaspora are simply non-Jewish Jews, people with no interest in belonging to the Jewish community or in practicing any form of Judaism.  By and large they do not actively wish other Jews harm and most have no sympathy at all for anti-Semites....

But Israeli Jewish anti-Semites are a completely different kettle of fish.  They are not posturing against Israel and against Jews because they are a small persecuted ethnic minority in some gentile country of residence.  It is true that there is an element of seeking social acceptance for them, attacking Jews and Israel in order to court favor among overseas anti-Semites, especially among Israeli leftists.  There is also clearly a repudiation of all attachment to Jews and Jewishness among such people, where "Canaanism" in the form of post-Jewish Israeliness is almost universal among Israeli anti-Semites.  But that is clearly not the same as Diaspora assimilationism.  Israeli anti-Semites may posture as "Jewish Palestinians", but none of them are seriously trying to learn Arabic or dress and live as Arabs.  

If Diaspora "self-hating" Jews are by and large simply indifferent to their Jewishness, Israeli Jewish anti-Semites quite openly hate their own people and country.  They invariably identify with and endorse the enemies of their country.  Tali Fahima and Udi Adiv differ from other Israeli anti-Semites only in the degree of their actual treason.  Israeli Jewish anti-Semites are not seeking social and cultural acceptance as much as they are seeking the destruction of their own people and the annihilation of their own country.  They resemble far more Lord Haw-Haw or Taliban John than they do the assimilated suburban American Jew.  

As such, Israeli Jewish anti-Semites increasingly resemble the candidly treasonous fringes of the American and European Left.  Just like the American Left is essentially little more than a movement of anti-Americanism and can be counted on to endorse every enemy of the United States and oppose American interests in everything, so the Israeli Left is motivated by an acute desire to see its own country harmed.  The difference of course is that the anti-American Left in the United States is harmless and an amusing distraction, whereas the radical self-hating Israeli Left is actively collaborating with the enemies of its own country during time of war and when the goal of those enemies is the annihilation of Israel.