Conclusion From the Holocaust to the Global War on Terror

Abstract

Throughout this work I have concentrated on the interaction among displaced idealizations, traumatic victim identifications, the cultural assimilation of internalized prejudices, and the universal model of globalized indifference. To show how these rhetorical processes are relevant to contemporary society, I conclude this work by turning to a brief discussion of the roles of anti-Semitism and the Holocaust in the “Global War on Terror.” As I discussed in the last chapter, the invocations of the Holocaust and anti-Semitism have been used to justify and idealize the United States’ foreign policy and America’s support for Israel. Thus, from this idealization perspective, we must support Israel because failing to do so will cause an increase in global anti-Semitism and could lead to another Holocaust. Note, in addition, that Islamic fundamentalists are using anti-Semitism to unify their people and to claim their own victim identification status. Moreover, these mutually reinforcing politics of victimization have become more vexed due to 9/11 and the ensuing Global War on Terror. For, after 9/11, the strongest nation in the world began to claim its own trauma and victim status, and this identification was soon employed to justify a series of idealized national aggressions.