ABSTRACT
Antisemitism involves not only cognitive errors on the part of its perpetrators, but also the provision to those perpetrators of deep psychological and emotional satisfactions. Three such ‘pleasures’ of antisemitic discourse are examined: hatred, tradition, and moral purity. Hatred offers the satisfaction of feeling superior to the objects of hate, and a sense of righteousness in taking steps to punish them – an experience which is more pleasurable for more people than we often like to believe. The weight of tradition can make it feel natural to fit living Jews into the space created for them by a long tradition of hostility on the left. The so-called ‘socialism of fools’ indicted the Jews as capitalists, or the capitalists as ‘Jewish’, hence exploitative and oppressive. Today’s left antisemitism updates this trope for the era of Jewish sovereignty, the Jewish state standing in for ‘the Jew’ as uniquely central to a system of oppression. Finally, this antisemitic form of ‘anti-Zionism’ can satisfy a desire for moral purity, easily rendered visible to others and leveraged as a ticket of entry to socially and politically desirable circles. While each ‘pleasure’ is an independent source of satisfaction, the three interact in various ways, which often strengthens their effects.
