In These Divisive Times It’s Always Reassuring We Can Unite Around Our Jew-Hate

by Dieudonné M’bala M’bala, comedian

Paris, June 15 – Indications of social polarization and “othering” precede the 2016 US presidential campaign, though we can all acknowledge that since then the general sense of alienation has only increased; it remains of some consolation, to me, however, that even when our differences get accented near to the point of an irreparable rift, devotion to antisemitism brings us back together no matter how far apart we see ourselves on other issues.

Nowhere does this phenomenon manifest more clearly than in the current Black Lives Matter moment. American police brutality against African-Americans, at first glance, has nothing to do with Jews; why should it? A vanishingly small number of US police officers are even Jewish. No matter. Every wedge issue presents an opportunity for left and right to unite against the Jew, statistics be damned. Both the far-right and the far-left see the Jews as an enemy, even if the far-left pretends not to, couching its animosity in terms of opposition to Zionism, or the rights of Palestinians. The racist far-right and the anti-racist far-left agree: liberation from the shackles of imperialism, capitalism, racism, colonialism, or any other -ism begins – and probably ends – with getting rid of Jews.

I myself have lived that rare intersection of demographics. As a French advocate for, and ally of, Islamists – including former President of Iran Mahmoud Ahmadinejad – I get lumped together with “progressives” by ignorant or tendentious media, all while pursuing alliances and partnerships with reactionary personalities in France such as National Front leaders, right-wing Holocaust deniers, and others on the Right as normally conceived. Some of that I attribute to my charisma, of course, and some to the truth that Islamists much more closely resemble the far right than the far left, but also to the fact that everyone hates the Jews. It’s proven such a blessing.

All of us, on both left and right, can take heart from the developments of the last several days even amid spiraling violence in the US and Europe: a London Jew was stabbed and French equality protesters chanted, “Dirty Jew,” and neither of those two incidents made headlines in the mainstream press. It’s become non-newsworthy, the status quo, and when legitimizing attacks on Jews becomes the status quo, it hardly matters on which side of the political map you place yourself: as long as we can take our grievances out on the Jews, there will always be something that holds us together.

Please support our work through Patreon.