Why not attack Jews?

I get that the author is supposedly the editor of a Conservative publication and that he's got a Jewish surname, but i've read this piece like 3 times and I still dont see much articulated about why anti-Semitism is either wrong or even counterproductive to the folks playing with it.

I appreciate the excuse for Trump, half hearted though it is, but I don't actually see much substance here.

What's the game here? Did he have to fight that hard to put this out and yet was vetoed when he tried to put in a little beef, or is he too, well aware that antisemtism sells to his base?

Is he trying to obliquely sell the risk of alienating the 1/5 of one percent, and if so, why?

I want to agree with this title, really, but, honestly, reading the stuff that follows seems to support the proposition that Jews are unprincipled money grubbers and that Phillip Klein is one of them.

https://www.nationalreview.com/2022/10/can-people-just-stop-talking-about-the-jews/amp/

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Ynotisay · M

@MistyCee I don't think it's anything more than latching on to an opportunity. It's about perpetuating the idea of antisemitism. I think his attempt at a takeaway shows that.

"If you’re a celebrity or public figure with a very large platform, and you feel the itch to get something off your chest about the Jews, how about just don’t."

Wow. Such hard hitting language. That'll change minds and influence behavior.

MistyCee

@Ynotisay It's so pathetically weak an article, I'm not sure if it wasnt wasnt written deliberately perfunctorily without any intention of actual persuasion.

The background facts ache, if not for actual condemnation, at least for an explanation of why stuff like this isn't just peachy and cool, but the pitch ultimately seems to be, do the "Jews a favor" without even saying why they deserve it.

It's NOT an anti-semitic piece, exactly, but its also not anti antisemitic, and really seems to me to be written that way deliberately.

Ynotisay · M

@MistyCee You're right. My takeaway was that Conservative Jews have to walk a pretty thin tightrope to appeal to both sides.

MistyCee

@Ynotisay So do Orthodox, Reform, or liberal Jews, though, and this particular tightrope almost seems to have been made out of a hawser and run about a foot off the ground.