Anti-Semitism is a disease

So argues Paul Johnson in the June Commentary, (The Anti-Semitic Disease.) Anti-Semitism, like Anti-Americanism is a pile of incoherent contradictions like any other mental illness. It is communicable like other diseases … look at the whole Arab world and Germany today, it has spread like a plague.

Contradictions are a sign of mental illness. Jews are greedy, stingy, and generous in buying favors. Americans are extremely religious and materialistic; stupid and cunning, aggressive and cowardly. Jews are the source of all the worlds’ ills and so are Americans.

The most interesting argument that Johnson makes is that because anti-Semitism is a mental illness it is debilitating. That is why the entire Arab world is incompetent and stuck in 12^th Century poverty; their brains have been destroyed when they drove out the resident Jews and became anti-Semites. Nothing similar has happened in India or China.

I find the Johnson model interesting but frankly Arab society will go nowhere because of its culture and social structure. Arabs have never heard of meritocracy or openness … honesty is not a meaningful term even inside the family unit. The “façade” is all that matters.