The "Anti-Capitalism = Anti-Semitism" Freak Out

Here's the dead-end of conflating dissent against the neoliberal status quo with anti-Semitism. From Chris Marsden's "The assault on Jeremy Corbyn is a warning that must be heeded":

Blairite MP Siobhain McDonagh told John Humphrys on BBC Radio Four that anti-Semitism is “very much part… of hard left politics, to be against capitalists and to see Jewish people as the financiers of capital. Ergo you are anti-Jewish people.”

When Humphrys asked, “In other words, to be anti-capitalist you have to be anti-Semitic?” McDonagh replied, “Yes.” This astonishing libel against socialism passed without comment from the BBC’s presenter.

Now another anti-Semitism resolution is to be voted in the U.S. House of Representatives, likely tomorrow (see Sheryl Gay Stolberg's House’s "Anti-Semitism Resolution Exposes Generational Fight Over Ilhan Omar"), all because Ilhan Omar made a statement to the effect, as she tweeted in an exchange with Nita Lowey:

I should not be expected to have allegiance/pledge support to a foreign country in order to serve my country in Congress or serve on committee.

The "Israel, right or wrong" Democratic leadership of Pelosi and Hoyer are going to be on the losing end of this one. As the American Conservative notes, the polling on this skews heavily to old vs. young:

According to a 2018 Pew Research Center report, the number of Republicans that sympathize with Israel over Palestine has increased to 79 percent, while sympathy for Israel dropped among Democrats to 27 percent, a disturbing trend especially for the anti-BDS movement. Besides growing sympathy for the Palestinians, progressives are echoing the ACLU and other groups who say any law prohibiting [BDS] boycotts won’t ultimately survive a Supreme Court test. They are probably right.

Equating anti-capitalism with anti-Semitism is a true sign of desperation, a flashing red light along a road where the tried-and-true Russian bogeyman hazard has already been passed along the way to our crack-up.