Paranoia and Irrationality: Ancient and Modern Antisemitism

Modern-day antisemites are irrational, believing something and its opposite (Jews are Communists/ Jews are rich, Jews are rootless cosmopolitans/Jews are Zionist Fascists etc), or inventing conspiracy theories to explain two contradictory beliefs (see my "Why Antisemites are Holocaust Deniers") . What about in ancient times?
The Bible states that the Egyptians detested the Jews, couldn't eat bread with them, and saw them as filling up the land of Egypt (and perhaps compared them in this sense to insects: see my "Egyptian Karma")
It is intriguing that we are not told by the Torah exactly how the Jews were enslaved in Egypt (ie how they were transformed from successful immigrants to slaves), and furthermore the Torah's reason for why they were enslaved is very unclear. According to the Torah, regarding the time of Joseph, the Egyptians couldn’t stand to break bread with the ‘Ivrim’ (Jews and perhaps others from across the river) and regarding the period later on, the Jews were disgusting to them; and then the Egyptians plotted to enslave the Jews due to a paranoid fear about the Jews aiding their enemy. And what were they afraid the Jews would do? That they would leave Egypt!
This is irrational: enslave a people you despise so that they’d not leave? If you don't want them to leave, why do you despise them? If you despise them, why not make them leave? And the implication is that there was already something prevented the Jews from leaving, so much so that they'd need a war as cover for their escape. So in that sense they were already enslaved. So enslaving them is as insane as any rationale offered nowadays for hatred of or oppression of Jews.

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