Are Jewish Expulsions Evidence for the Fifth Column Hypothesis?

Some in the Alt-Right believe that the large number of Jewish expulsions from cities and nations all over Europe… constitutes prima facie evidence that Jews in general are inherently predisposed to undermining the nations of gentiles. However, I think this line of thinking is wrong on two fronts.

First, for the sake of argument, let’s assume that Jewish expulsions weren’t merely carried out on grounds of irrational prejudice. Let’s assume that genuine Jewish “undermining” of gentile territories was really going on. Let us then recall the fact that historically, Jews have been rather insular (tending strongly to interact with their in-group to the exclusion of outsiders). Thus the Jew on the street generally didn’t cross paths with his gentile counterpart. Jewish Elites (on the other hand) were the most likely Jewish group to interact with European gentiles. As such, it seems highly plausible to think that if there really was Jewish “undermining” going on, that this activity could have easily been confined to Jewish elites. In other words, European gentiles may have formed negative stereotypes about Jews (stereotypes that eventually resulted in Jewish expulsions) that were only characteristic of Jewish elites and NOT the Jewish general public. Put another way, the same reason why some in the Alt-Right have a negative view of Jews today (i.e. knowledge of the enormous misdeeds of Jewish elites) may have also been the historical reason why many of our Christian ancestors had a negative view of Jews.

Secondly, the fundamental problem with using Jewish expulsions as evidence of Jewish nefariousness involves the matter of religion. Obviously Christianity predisposed Europeans to have an inherently negative view of Jews for purportedly killing their lord and savior. In all the areas in which Jews were expelled from Europe, Christianity was, without question, the dominant religion. Thus religious intolerance may very well explain the expulsions.

I do not mean to suggest here that either religious intolerance or the nefariousness of Jewish elites completely explains all of the Jewish expulsions from cities and states across Europe. It is certainly possible that the Jewish public was indeed engaged in systematic cases of undermining. Moreover, the expulsions may have occurred for any number of other reasons. My only point here is that the plausibility of alternative explanations for Jewish expulsions, explanations that we cannot rule out, entails the following: Jewish expulsions cannot be used as prima facie evidence that Jews are inherently predisposed to undermine gentile societies (as alternative theories fit the same data just as well).