Signaled Virtue

Jews and many outside observers noticed after October 7th that many activists and politicians in America from across the political spectrum were repeating neo-Nazi talking points while advocating against Israel's war on Hamas.

Ideas that were generally understood to be conspiracy theories in those circles before 10/7 – that Jews controlled the U.S. government and the world; that Jews drink the blood of non-Jews or steal their corpses from graves; that Jews are manipulative liars who will do anything to get their way – now hold wide currency. Just take a look at any contemporary “criticism” of Israel and compare it to the basic tenets of antisemitism.

To understand why this is, it's important to understand how disguised antisemitism operates in the U.S.

Disguised antisemitism uses the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as a cover: falsely accusing Jews in Israel (and their supporters in the U.S.) of crimes such as apartheid (constructing a separate legal system for non-Jewish citizens of Israel, which didn't happen), genocide (which we explained previously), controlling the U.S. government by siphoning funds from Americans (yet failing to levy those same charges against other American allies), etc.

What characterizes disguised antisemitism is that it hardly ever manifests as overt antisemitism – in other words, it's rare for a disguised antisemite to talk about Jewish people. Instead, they replace the word “Jew” with “Zionist” and reference Israel in order to disguise their antisemitism as “criticism of Israel.” The deception becomes obvious when the word “Zionist” is swapped for “Jew,” but the disguised antisemites nonetheless retain plausible deniability with authorities and non-Jews.

To muddy the waters more, after October 7th, many new advocates for Jew hatred claimed that the pogrom was a “natural response” to a (non-existent) “occupation” of Gaza by Israel; that the innocent people murdered by Hamas on October 7th were “complicit in their oppression,” and other nonsense talking points. These advocates bill themselves as pro-Palestinian, which ties their language back to the Nazi roots of the Palestinian national movement.

For example, one of the founders of the Palestinian national movement worked directly with Adolf Hitler to help kill Jews; Hamas militants have been found with copies of Hitler's writings (such as Mein Kampf); and children in Gaza have been and are currently being educated to hate and kill Jews.

While Palestinians were not generally considered white within the neo-Nazi community prior to October 7th, that perception has been gradually shifting with time. For example, some prominent (and “Aryan”) neo-Nazis have publicly converted to Islam despite their perception of Islam as an Arab religion. After October 7th, this process accelerated massively: white supremacist groups began hosting “Solidarity with Palestine” protests and increased anti-Jewish activities. They have attended pro-Palestinian rallies hosted by traditionally “non-white” organizers and lent their support wholeheartedly, indicating that white supremacists no longer consider Arab populations to be beneath them – they may even consider them white.

Coupled with the gradual acceptance of other racial groups into the neo-Nazi movement, it’s clear that white supremacy is no longer advocated by only white people. Antisemitism is especially accessible to non-white individuals, since on the surface it has nothing to do with white supremacy.

Thus, post-October 7th, the differences between neo-Nazis, white supremacists, white nationalists, and some pro-Palestinians in the United States have become meaningless. All of them are singularly focused on the elimination of Jews worldwide, and it's clear that this focus is resulting in the consolidation of previously-separate ideologies. Historically, these groups have leveraged perceived separations between their ideologies in order to divide and distract outsiders from conducting anti-extremist activities: we are seeing the same effect today, with neo-Nazis claiming to be “pro-Palestinian, not antisemitic” despite holding entirely the same beliefs as historic white supremacist entities.

TLDR: Some American pro-Palestinian advocates are repeating neo-Nazi propaganda because of the Palestinian national movement's historic and current ties to Nazi ideology. They claim it's about Israel, and not Jewish people, because it allows them to repeat antisemitic statements while retaining plausible deniability about their antisemitism. We also know that neo-Naziism is no longer advocated just by white people – Arabs, people of color, and others are being increasingly accepted into these movements. In other words, some American pro-Palestinian advocates repeat neo-Nazi talking points because they are neo-Nazis.