I don't if this is so much a case of anti-Semitism as it is just shallow thought. Americans have been conditioned to think in terms of proportions. That is, if company X doesn't hire a certain proportion of minority Y from his population he's assumed to be discriminating.



When this thought is applied to Jews, then the results that follow are only to be expected. Jews are disproportionately represented in politics, media and finance. That's pretty much an undisputed contention. Applying the logic I stated above, this would mean they have too much power.



The problem is, that this is a fallacy. Nobody's elected without support, and without Jews our media and finance wouldn't be what they are (whether that's good or bad is a different argument, I guess).



The survey would have been more interesting if they had asked Jews their opinions as well. That way you could isolate real anti-Semitism from just plain confused thinking.



Another thing, I'd be a bit careful with these surveys. A lot of Jewish "interest" groups depend on anti-Semitism for fundraising. I don't know anything about this group, but I tend to be a bit skeptical.



Finally, the rise in anti-Semitism can also be attributed to my big bugbear: immigration. Hispanics aren't overfond of los Judios
, and we all know how Muslim immigrants feel.

It is the peculiar nature of anti-Semitism though that it is based on a belief that Jews control things. Anti-black, anti-Latino, anti-Muslim folks don't think any of those groups secretly control the world.

But that wasn't the poll question, Orrin. They just asked if Jews had "too much influence," not complete control. If you use zero-sum quota logic, then the answer has to be yes.

Yes, but that kind of paranoia is historically uniquely focussed on Jews. Our policy is obviously tilted just as much toward Britain as toward Israel, but there are no Protocols of the Elders of Albion.

I'm not saying there the anti-Semitism you're talking about doesn't exist. What I am saying is that I doubt this poll reflects that. To say that 34% of the country (1/3) thinks Jews control the world in a "Protocols of Zion" manner affronts common experience. And, let me point out, that most of those who do hew to this line of thought are recent immigrants.



This is why I said it would be more helpful if the poll had run a survey of Jewish attitudes about Jews as well, so that it could correct for quota-think.



Oh, yes, and there actually have been groups suspicious of "Anglophiles." This was particularly so during the two World Wars. Britain isn't a huge issue right now because we're not about to fight a war in her backyard and, on the face of it, to her benefit.

I would have thought the Democrat response was due more to blacks rather than immigrants.

Ali:



Yes, blacks do disproprtionately hate Jews and the Left generally favors Palestinians (victims) over Israelis (oppressors).



Derek:



It's a poll of "citizens" so you can't blame the Mexicans for this one.

Hispanic citizens
outnumber blacks. Most of them are either first or second generation immigrants. They tend to carry old pre-Vatican-II prejudices, and that doesn't just stop because they become citizens.



The ADL did a survey a few months ago on this topic and found, to their surprise and chagrin, that it was growing Hispanic numbers that were largely responsible for an overall increase in anti-Semitism. Whites actually became less
anti-Semitic in the survey.



">http://www.adl.org/PresRele/ASUS_12/4109_12.asp




44% of foreign born Hispanics and 20% of native-born Hispanics have anti-Semitic propensities.



Whites have something like 12%.



I agree blacks aren't much better, but they're already here, so we have to deal with them. The same does not apply to immigrants.

Derek:



So in other words, the % for Hispanic citizens is identical to that for the Democrats as a whole, right?

Actually, the percentages are equal only for Native-born citizens. The foreign-born can be citizens, too. So the overall number would be higher than the 20% given by Ha'aretz. How much higher? That I don't know, but it is definitely higher.



But even if the number was the same, I don't see why that would make a difference. Why would you want to import more Democrats, of whom almost half are anti-Semitic? Don't we have enough already?