Monday, October 05, 2009

Turns out the Vantz is a Jew

Oy vey is right!
But perhaps we should have seen it coming. Rabid antisemites are so irrational one always tries to find an explanation for their disorder. Did a little Jew bully them at school? Did they spend too much time listening to hostile clerics?
Unfortunately, there are instances in history of rabid antisemites, like Hitler or the Iranian Vantz in question, who happen to have had Jewish ancestry.  This is both painful and disturbing: such self-hatred, obviously fanned by an already hating world. However, in the case of Ahmadinejad, I find it is some sort of vindication. The revelation of his Jewish ancestry utterly destroys his calculated campaign against Israel and the Jews. It makes him look even more puny and pathetic. The betrayal is exponential. Not only has he turned against his roots with a vengeance (sadly for him, he could have never reached the pinnacle of his power had the Iranian clerics known about his origins), but he has also betrayed those who get feverish excitement from his hatred. He looks like an ass and makes everybody who agrees with him look like idiots too.
It's hard to explain, and Non-Jews must be scratching their heads as we speak, but this is a perverse instance of "It's Good for the Jews" he's a Jew.
Given that this is Iran, the unmasking is serious. Could it put an end to his political career? What is almost a given is the vitriol that is surely to follow. You can count on a Jewish Media conspiracy, for starters. And let's hope he doesn't hold it against the remaining Iranian Jews (who I bet are mortified with fear as we speak).


As I have mentioned in these pages before, official antisemitic campaigns, irrational as they sound, have always been used with very clear strategic ends by those in power. First, they create fear not only in Jews, but in the population at large. If a leader can turn so violently against one group, what prevents him from doing the same with his opponents or other minorities? Better to keep one's mouth shut. Official antisemitism, unfortunately, works like a charm.
Secondly, concentrating hostile emotions against a single enemy is a useful distraction from more pressing problems, which is why antisemitism is an official policy in many Arab countries and was the official policy of the Catholic church for centuries.

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