tigerbengalis wrote: > timothy.howells wrote: > It is true that the antisemitism faced by Jews in the Ghettos was of a different nature, and was not based on resource competition. The issue of the highly collective and exclusive nature of Jewish identity was a constant though. > Reply: > > Tim, again with the Macdonaldesque anti-Semitic twist. Even while acknowledging that the Holocaust had nothing to do with Macdonald's pseudo theory, you still feel compelled to point out this supposed anomaly in Jewish "identity."
I think that the Holocaust was the result of German antisemitism, and that German antisemitism was the result of resource competition between Jews and Gentiles, pretty much in line with MacDonald's theory. All ethnic groups maintain their cohesion and their identity through ingroup/outgroup distinctions, so there is nothing anomalous about Jewish identity in this respect, except in degree. I don't think anyone familiar with Jewish history will regard the statement that the Jewish community has been extreme in this respect as even slightly controversial. This is not by any means entirely a bad thing. Without this dynamic the Jewish community could not have survived as such - it would have been completely assimilated long ago. Tim Howells
