The curious case of Jewish anti-Semitism

While it afflicts an inordinately loud minority of Jews, it carries a disproportionate weight in secular society. Some of their adherents are so emotionally twisted that they consider everything Israel does despicable and hateful, while every murder, rape or terrorist attack committed by their enemies fills their hearts with awe.

They espouse a rejection of Israel's identity as a Jewish state and a dismissal of its right to defend itself. Friedman and his ilk inflate Israeli sins, real or imagined, while rationalising Palestinian anti-Semitism.

There has been a lot of research in seeking an explanation of this occurrence. Michael Welner, a psychiatrist at New York University, suggests that Jewish anti-Semitism is akin to a personality disorder, enabling a person to "derive some psychological benefit from this pathological thinking".

Harvard psychiatrist Kenneth Levin cites the so-called Stockholm Syndrome, where "population segments under chronic siege commonly embrace the world view of their besiegers, however bigoted and outrageous", as well as "the psychodynamics of abused children who blame themselves for their situation and believe they could mollify their tormenters if they were 'good' ".

Julie Ancis, a psychology professor at Georgia State University, says that it isn't "uncommon for a minority group with a history of oppression and persecution to possess internalised self-hatred regarding their cultural/religious identity".

That Jews tend to exhibit more sensitivity to another group's pain is a sign of humanitarianism, but embracing the goals of people openly committed to one's destruction is a form of madness. As Haaretz journalist Uzi Silber points out: "Being more sensitive to pain suffered by members of a group other than (one's) own metastasises into a malignant emotional and moral identification with people committed to (one's) annihilation."