The Common Roots of Anti-Americanism and Anti-Semitism

When analyzing the virulent anti-American sentiment that has resurfaced in Germany – especially among left-wing pundits and observers – following the Snowden revelations concerning massive data-mining, it is useful to consider the recent history of anti-Semitism. 

Martin Engelberg, writing in Die Presse, sees a close connection between both positions, which are particularly entrenched in the German left today: 

Dazu werden beide ("die Amerikaner" und "die Juden") für bestimmte Erscheinungen – insbesondere der Moderne
– personifiziert und diffamiert. Juden und Amerikaner werden als „das
andere“ oder „das Böse“, als konträr der eigenen moralischen Position
gegenüber bezeichnet. Bereits zu Beginn des 20. Jahrhunderts wurde der
„amerikanische Geist“ als bedrohlich und zersetzend für die deutsche
Kultur angesehen; sehr ähnlich der „jüdische Geist“, dessen Bekämpfung
in der Nazi-Zeit ihren Höhepunkt fand.

(Both the Americans and the Jews personify certain social phemonena – especially modernity – and are reviled for this.  Jew and Americans are seen as "the other" and "evil", since they are contrary to the superior moral standing of the Volk.  Already at the beginning of the 2oth century the "American spirit" was seen as a corrosive influence on the "German spirit; the same as well with the "Jewish spirit", the resistance against which reached its apex in tne Nazi era.)

Underlying both anti-Americanism and anti-Semitism, according to Martin Engelberg, is a feeling of profound powerlessness: 

Amerikanern und Juden wird gleichermaßen zugeschrieben, die Macht zu
besitzen, das Weltgeschehen bis in Details zu bestimmen. Die Bedrohung
durch beide ist deshalb so gefährlich, weil sie sich im Inneren
europäischer Gesellschaften „eingenistet“ haben. Die Juden lebten
tatsächlich bis zur Nazi-Zeit inmitten europäischer Gesellschaften, die
USA drangen mit ihrer Sprache, Kultur, ihrem Lebensgefühl in Herz und
Seele der Europäer ein. Bei jeder sich bietenden Gelegenheit muss die
Volksseele versuchen, sich dieser Dominanz zu entledigen.

(It is taken for granted that both the Americans and "the Jews" have the power to influence world events down to the smallest detail. They pose such a great threat since both have "burrowed" deeply in European society.  Up until the Nazi era the Jews lived in the heart of European society, while the US forced itself into the European soul with its language, its culture, its American way of life. The pure soul of the Volk must take every opportunity to throw off this dominance.)

But Engelberg's critique is tame compared with that of Andrei S. Markovits, who sees anti-Americanism and anti-Semitism as "Siamese Twins" in Europe today.  Markovits has written a good book about the history of anti-Americanism in Europe:  Amerika, dich hasst sich's besser.  In another essay he writes about how the perception of an all-powerful Israel has bled into the perception of an all-powerful America – creating a two-headed evil monster in the left-wing imagination:

In today's intellectual Europe it is illegitimate to view European Jews
as Shylocks (or deride them as such), but it is entirely legitimate to
portray those Jews who, instead of fitting the picture of the weak
pariah, have built their own state (namely Israel and the Israelis) as
Rambos and to hate them as such.¹³ It
is the figure of the tough, aggressive, unscrupulous, and ruthless Jew
in the form of the powerful, brutal Israeli that is lending a new
dimension to contemporary European anti-Semitism. And it is strength and
(military) power that assigns anti-Americanism an auxiliary and
indispensable role in this new form of anti-Semitism (outfitted as
hostility toward Israel)¹⁴ and that turns these two phenomena into politically potent Siamese twins throughout Europe.

Until recently, it was clear how the U.S.-Israel relationship fit into
this line of thinking: It was the powerful United States that was using
Israel as a marionette or "aircraft carrier" for its "imperialist" and
"neo-colonial" schemes; the U.S. was the real power, and Israel was the
henchman. But in the discourse of many Europeans after 11 September 2001
– and especially since the Iraq war – this has been reversed almost 180
degrees.

The current controversy around the spying activity of the HSA will gradually fade away, but anti-Americanism is bound to resurface in Germany over and over again.