In a recent interview Dieter Graumann, president of Germany’s Central Council of Jews, said: “These are the worst times since the Nazi era. On the streets, you hear things like ‘the Jews should be gassed’, ‘the Jews should be burned’ we haven’t had that in Germany for decades. Saying these things isn’t related to Israeli politics, it’s just age old rhetoric and Anti-Semitism. It’s not just a German phenomenon. It’s a resurgence of centuries old hate repackaged and embedded within a conflict, and then hidden behind a supposed human rights grievance. Rashi writes (Bereshit 33:4) “Halacha B’yeduah Eisav Sonah Yakov” which translates to: It is a known fact for non-Jews to hate Jews, and it’s a natural part of creation. As a liberal secular Non-Religious Atheist, it is easy to dismiss this as pure nonsense, but looking at recent events it makes you wonder if maybe it is a genetically nurtured idea that gets passed down for generations.
One must wonder, what happened in the past few years that caused Anti-Semitism incidents to rise to levels we haven’t seen since the Nazi Era?
Anti-Semitism is unfortunately nothing new, the justification for hate simply evolves over time. For one to explain the rise of Anti-Semitism worldwide on the Israel / Palestine-Hamas crisis, would be like suggesting that ISIS beheads people in Syria, because of all the fighting over parking spots in New York City. ISIS beheads because they are Terrorists.
Roger Cukierman, president of France’s Crif, said French Jews were “anguished” about the rise of Anti-Semitism in France. He pointed out that the rise has nothing to do with Israel but rather an open Anti-Jewish movement. As a result the French population is openly being attacked, and this has caused a massive exodus with thousands of French people moving to Israel. They are leaving in record numbers, with a 72% increase last year, and a four time increase this year over last year so far(NY Times).
On November 18, 2014 a 53-year-old Orthodox Jew was attacked in Brooklyn NY, during the attack they yelled many racial slurs including, “dirty bloody Jew”. This is Brooklyn. That’s about as close to attacking Jews on their own turf you can get (outside of Israel).
The more we advance as a society, the more we hold on to our primitive views and old religious segregation. The more technology we develop to break down those barriers, the more we use the same technology to enforce old racial segregations and strengthen our own ties to stay within them. We use it to reinforce these barriers and strengthen our own separation.
Why isn’t there such venom and hatred when talking about Russia, and Syria? Yes we discuss it with hopelessness and concern, and we protest and condemn, yet we are not emotionally invested. Why is everyone so emotionally invested in this tiny piece of land? The answer is Anti-Semitism.
Let’s analyze the conflict and put things into perspective. It is important to consider that never in history of the Jewish State, did Arabs have so much freedom and opportunity within Israel. Anyone who visits any part of Israel will see Muslims living and working within the state. Ironically the Jewish state, gives Arabs more freedoms and security than any other country in the Middle East.
Some arguments are outright lies while others are a victim of distortion and propaganda. For example, many claim that Israel is Occupying Gaza, not realizing that in 2005 Israel left Gaza. This involved the difficult task of forcibly removing almost 10,000 Israelis that lived there. The term “relocation” is a horrible word that gets thrown around, and is considered so horrible, and in the same category as Genocide, yet Israel relocated 10,000 of its citizens. Try bringing up the idea of “relocating” Palestinians and see what happens. The idea of expulsion is so horrible, that Jews the victim of this for thousands of years, are embarrassed to even consider that, yet they expelled their own citizens to appease the world. Yes the settler movement is not without its own crimes, but try telling that to Russia as they currently annex Crimea, or the US as they relocated the Japanese innocent US citizens into “Camps” for the entire World War two, with some never getting their houses back.
The terror that Gaza has produced since disengagement is the equivalent of New jersey going to war with New York. Yet Israel tried over and over again to deal with it in a very controlled manner until it became a festering wound that needed to be dealt with for it was infecting the entire Country.
Much of the condemnation stems from Israel’s actions in the last war. In November of 2014 while discussing Operation Protective Edge, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Martin Dempsey said that Israel went to extraordinary lengths to limit collateral damage and civilian casualties. He further stated that a delegation traveled to Israel to learn lessons from the conflict and to learn measures they used to prevent civilian casualties. Amnesty International knows better than all military experts, they claim the exact opposite of what General Martin Dempsey said. This is well within their untarnished track record of criticizing Israel yet is mostly quiet about all other atrocities in the world.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights claims that US led coalition airstrikes in Syria against ISIS has so far killed 860 people including civilians. Nobody seems to have an issue with these civilian casualties and there has not been a worldwide outcry and global rise in hatred towards America and its products. It is understood that it is not our intention to kill them, nor did we start this war, but it is a natural occurrence in war. McDonalds and Burger King are not worried about any backlash due to the actions of the US, yet a movement has started around the world, run by Professors and Universities to Boycott all Israeli products.
Both the US and Israel go to great lengths to protect innocent lives. Like Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said during Operation Protective Edge, “Israel uses its missiles to protect its children, Hamas uses its children to protect its missiles”.
Americans and Israelis gain no pride or happiness when they hear an innocent human was killed. Even during the darkest moments during Operation Protective Edge, you would not find a single Jew in Israel celebrating the news that an innocent Palestinian was hurt or killed. Yet every successful suicide bombing in history (even outside Israel) is followed by street wide celebrations and the distribution of candy to children. This is the education they teach their kids, as they work hard in raising the next generation of so called “desperate hopeless terrorists” that are pushed to extremes because they have no other choices or opportunities in life. Perhaps it’s all that candy that puts them on a sugar rampage, and causes them to run over innocent civilians.
Although the same arguments keep coming up over and over again, they can’t be ignored. The world leaders keep on telling Israel that if only they do this, and if only they do that, the Terrorist will start behaving. When Israel allowed more building materials to enter into Gaza, they used the humanitarian aid to build more terror infrastructure to hurt both Israel and Egypt.
Hindsight is twenty twenty. In March of 2013 Prime Minister Netanyahu while visiting with President Obama called Turkey’s Tayyip Erdogan and expressed an apology to the Turkish people for any error that may have led to the loss of life during the Mavi Marmara incident. There was another ship headed to Gaza to bring humanitarian aid, and the world was upset that it got blocked. Only now after we saw what Hamas does with the “Humanitarian Aid” can rational people appreciate the fact that Israel blocked whatever was in that boat. The amount of tunnels going through Gaza was nothing short of a city underground. This was created for the sole purpose of attacking Israel from within its own borders, underneath its own feet.
So what is the answer? Why the sudden rise of Anti-Semitism?
Anytime Jews are being accused of injustice it gives Anti-Semitism the moral high ground it needs to blossom and become an Anti-Jewish rallying cry. Hence the increased attacks and worldwide rise in racial slurs and beatings. Why should Jews in Africa or Europe have any connection to the actions in Israel? Why are Jews being slurred outside of Israel? It is a known fact that most prestigious Alawites support Bashar Al Assad the perpetrator of some of the most horrific crimes of our time. Do Syrians living in the US fear for their lives? Many Syrians in many countries are part of his sect and staunchly support him including most of Lebanon and Hezbollah. In fact Hezbollah is sending troops to help Assad. Are Lebanese around the world being attacked? If you compare the scale of immorality and injustice they can’t even be mentioned side by side, yet the entire world although concerned, they are mostly indifferent. Not even close to the amount of passion and fury you get from the average person when discussing the Palestinian conflict. Why are people so emotionally invested in this conflict?
On November 18, 2014 Two Palestinian-Hamas Terrorists entered a synagogue in Jerusalem and killed 5 people. Even the condemnations that followed are exclusive to Israel and leave you wondering. Every condemnation is followed by a reminder that the only solution is the peace process, and immediately twists the event into a two sided tit for tat, and doesn’t even give the event the correct attention. It does not allow for the Israelis to even mourn their victims and process the event without immediately being followed by calls of restraint.
Imagine if after 9/11 world leader would condemn the terrorist act and proceed to say, “Now is a great time for America to talk with the radical Islamic terrorists and see what can be done to bring about peace”. This is more than a “time and place” issue.
The cause for the massive rise in Anti-Semitism right now is thanks to the world leaders who are knowingly and unfairly laying blame on Israel. They know that hating Jews is a unifying and riskless endeavor, especially for Arab Countries. For them it is the easiest deflector of their own human rights violations, and a deflector of everything wrong within their own society, and an easy way for them to maintain their grip on power. For Western countries it is a great way to ally themselves with these corrupt Governments, tap into their oil wealth, and maintain the flow of goods and services we all need.
We need to leave Israel alone. We need to stop taking the bait thrown by these Countries. They use these tactics to maintain power and perpetuate this hate. These barrage of attacks against Israel are having a domino effect that can lead to another Nazi Germany or even worse a nuclear war. Yes we need these Countries and we need their alliance if not at least to combat extremism within their own countries but at what cost? Innocent Jews around the world are suffering and bearing the brunt of the venom that is becoming commonplace. This isn’t about whether Israel is right or wrong, it’s about whether we are right or wrong to be so heavily involved in this conflict. Maybe it’s time for us to take a step back and not feed into what the Muslims really want, which is a full-fledged holy war, or another Genocide.
Written by David Eretimas