The deeper question is not simply why antisemitism appears, but why so many people have found it persuasive. Most people do not see themselves as motivated by hatred. More often, they believe they are defending something valuable—a community, a nation, a set of ideals, or a vision of justice. Antisemitism rarely presents itself in the language of hostility. It presents itself as a way of seeing what others have missed. People come to believe they have uncovered a hidden truth, exposed a concealed threat, or recognized the real cause of society’s problems. In that sense, antisemitism does more than identify an enemy. It turns suspicion into a duty and convinces people that distrust is a form of moral responsibility.

One of the most troubling things about evil is that it changes what people notice. The issue is not simply that they begin calling good things bad and bad things good. They begin paying attention to different things altogether. Facts that reinforce the story become highly significant. Facts that complicate it begin to fade into the background. Reality is still being observed, but it is being filtered through a lens that increasingly determines what can and cannot be seen.

Imagine a man who becomes convinced that his neighbor is stealing from him. At first, the evidence seems minor: a tool he cannot find, a package that never arrived, something that feels slightly out of place. Each incident appears to confirm the suspicion. Before long, he begins interpreting everything through that lens. A missing item is no longer an oversight. A misunderstanding no longer seems innocent. Events that once appeared unrelated begin to form a pattern in his mind. The suspicion starts to organize reality around itself. Even the neighbor’s attempts to clear things up begin to look suspicious. The problem is no longer the individual events themselves. It is that they are all being interpreted through a conclusion that was accepted beforehand. Once that happens, certainty tends to feed on itself. The more convinced he becomes, the harder it is for him to imagine that he may have been wrong from the start.

What begins as a mistaken conclusion........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)