Constant Target Of Genocides, Pogroms, Terrorism Told To Stop Overreacting

“You’re not oppressed. You’re privileged and white, so shut up. Also, you ran the slave trade.”

New York, December 6 – A tiny ethnoreligious group that has fallen victim to extermination attempts, blood libel riots, assorted religious massacres, legal discrimination, forced conversions, mass expulsions, denial of their humanity, restrictions on where they may live, blame for spreading diseases, fear-mongering that they exert too much control, and organized political violence, among other depredations, should really show less sensitivity when people attack them, according to prominent voices.

Jews who face almost-daily attacks in New York City and Israel, plus constant attempts on social media to vilify and blame them for all the world’s problems – within living memory of the extermination of millions of them during the Holocaust to an extent so severe that the global Jewish population has yet to reach its pre-Holocaust numbers eighty years later – are told to stop being crybabies, observers report, when news of fresh assaults reaches them, such as the recent bombings in Jerusalem and the constant stabbing, ramming, and shooting attacks on Jews by Palestinian terrorists.

“Stop overreacting,” the tweets and social media posts read when Jews face attacks, vilification, or threats. “You’re not oppressed. You’re privileged and white, so shut up. Also, you ran the slave trade,” the last portion a falsehood that animates a harsh strain of Black anti-Jewish rhetoric and violence despite Jewish-Black solidarity during the struggle for civil rights.

“Don’t use your victim status as carte blanche to victimize Palestinians,” Jews who have done nothing against Palestinians are admonished when they face violence. “It’s like you haven’t learned the lesson of the Holocaust,” by which the speaker presumably means Jews should let themselves be killed rather than appear aggressive or assertive in any way by defending themselves, and that the chief lesson of the Holocaust somehow does not involve non-Jews doing a better job of defending the defenseless, rather than blaming the victims of the Holocaust for a robust defense of their continued survival.

“What does Israel need all that American military aid for, anyway?” the critics add, implying that it is not in the American interest to defend allies, to benefit from an ally’s innovations and defense of American interests in the Middle East, and that Jews in the US constitute a valid proxy for criticism of Israeli policy.

A survey of other rhetoric from the critics of Jews overreacting found statements to the effect that Jews invite their victimization by projecting the weak, defenseless image of bookish, anxiety-ridden schlemiels.

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