Reply #47: No (to last question) but the difference is...

[LeftishBrit]

that WASPs are, or at least were until very recently, the people explicitly and formally in power in the USA. I believe that of 44 presidents, only two have not been WASPs (perhaps three if you consider Reagan as of Irish descent, but he was certainly Protestant himself). There have been lots of recent changes in this respect. For the first time in history, neither the president nor the vice president is a WASP (Biden being Catholic). The majority of the Supreme Court are now Catholics, rather than all being WASPs. But it is certainly the case that WASPs historically, and to some degree currently, have the formal power.

This is not the case for Jews. No Jew has ever been elected as president. Jews are still regarded by some groups as Not Quite One of Us. Therefore assertions of Jewish power are not just saying 'Jews are powerful'; they are saying at best 'Jews are powerful by 'pulling the strings' behind the scenes' and at worst 'Jews infiltrate the elites by somewhat furtive means, and their influence is baleful'.

Of course there are some places where Jews have power through sheer numbers; in New York and Florida they constitute a significant portion of the electorate. But not in most parts of the USA; nor, unlike the WASPs, do they have power through being a traditional ruling class. Thus, when excessive power is attributed to Jews, there are implied and direct accusations of furtiveness and deceit or at the very least self deceit.

Your example about the WASPs would be more akin to the statement that in Israel, Ashkenazi Jews are a minority group (though a large one) and have power disproportionate to their numbers. As with the WASPs, this reflects traditional class distinctions: e.g. on the whole, it was Ashkenazi Jews who came over on the Israeli equivalents of the 'Mayflower'. But it's a very different matter with regard to American and other Diaspora Jews.

I should add that even with regard to WASPs the point can be and has at times been reached where power is unjustly attributed to evil furtive conspiracies: e.g. the Larouchies' allegations that 'the Queen of England controls the Federal Reserve', etc. However, it is much less common for WASPs than for Jews.