Anti-Semitism has the longest uninterrupted history of hatred.
In his 1927 edition of The History of Philosophy Will Durant wrote, “history can become philosophy only by being not analytic but synthetic: not shredded history, but wedded history, history in which all phases of life in a given period shall be studied in their correlation in their common response to similar conditions …That would be the picture of an age…”
When it comes to the Jewish people, there seems to be desire to separate history into individual blocks of time. How quickly we have forgotten the 2000 years of anti-Semitic actions and now the Holocaust-because we have. How quickly we blame the Jews as individuals or now in a group- as a country. Name another people, another country that has been as vilified as the Jews and now Israel, almost 70 years old. Israel is a democratic country, home to people of all races, colours, creeds and religions. It is the country whose practices are closest to the Utopian ideal as described in the Hebrew Bible-based on social justice and prophetic law. And the country of Israel accomplished this in a mere 70 years.
Have you ever asked yourself-how does it feel to be a Jew, especially since 1948 here, now?
Think of how it must feel to be the descendants of people chased, tortured, murdered, libeled, called Christ Killers, then survive the Holocaust, and still not be given a moment of peace? It is as if the past never happened.
Richard Dawkins wrote about cultural memes. Like DNA our culture gets passed down. The best memes survive. The memes I have inherited also include, depression, anxiety-my father watched as Cossacks killed others around him in a pogrom. And I have no doubt that I have paranoia regarding comments made about the Jews. I am sensitive to them, especially when they are spoken or written with such hate. Blaming the Jews it seems to me is the default position of too many people especially those who shape opinion.
Can you imagine how it feels to be a Jew, read about the Middle East and hear about Israel only when it is being criticized?
Imagine how Jewish students and their families feel during Israel anti-apartheid week or when Queers against Israel attack Israel, the only country that welcomes the LGBT community.
In the past Jews were vilified. Jews were the perennial scapegoat-from the black plague to poor economies. Now it is Israel. In a 2012 poll produced by the BBC evaluating the worst countries in the world Israel finished third-just behind Pakistan and Iran and just before North Korea.
Today, Israel is held responsible for the failure of the two state solution. A solution that Israel agreed to in 1947.
Refugee camps were established in Muslim countries following the defeat of the Arabs in their attempt to annihilate Israel in 1948. The Arab countries refused to allow the UN to retrain and relocate these people. The refugees were to be kept in Arab refugee camps until the “refugee” problem was solved. Israel was prepared to consider taking back 100,000 refugees in return for a meaningful peace. It wasn’t enough for the Arab countries.
There are no refugees in Israel. None of the 700,000 Jews expelled from the Arab countries since 1948 were ever called refugees. They are Jews and were welcomed as citizens the moment they arrived. They were never considered an “other” as happened in the Arab countries.
But the Arab families are kept in camps, in Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, run by their brothers and sisters who will not let them establish themselves as citizens, with gainful employment, while waiting for a political solution. The Arab world is holding its people hostage while trying to regain its honour.
In all of modern history, can you think of another place in the world where after a war permanent refugee camps were established; camps with running water and electricity?
Rarely are the Palestinians held accountable for their actions. Between 1969 and 1971 Jordan faced guerilla warfare from Palestinians living in the country. Syria aided the PLO in its efforts to overthrow the King of Jordan. Jordan expelled 150,000 Palestinians from their country. Where was the world when Jordan expelled these people?
It isn’t a question of not agreeing with all the actions of the Israeli government. But blaming Israel, accusing Israel of behaving like Nazis or being an apartheid country is the face of the new anti-Semitism. And the accusations come so easily.
Why the antipathy toward the Jewish people?
Israel removed 9000 Jews from their homes in Gaza as well as every Israeli soldier. The Israelis left behind an infrastructure for agriculture-greenhouses-and Hamas destroyed them instead of taking advantage of the gift to provide food for their people. And Gaza became an outpost for Iranian terror-thousands of bombs that were dropped in Israel, on civilian targets. Israel offered peace in Madrid, Oslo, Taba, Annapolis and an offer for peace was presented in Amman in 2012. The Palestinian leadership walked away.As they continue to walk away each time peace is offered. Where was your anger, frustration at that?
Today there are world-wide demands for a boycott on Israel-boycott, sanctions and divestment. This is not a new idea. In Germany 1933 with anti-Semitism marching through the country, the government sponsored a boycott of its Jewish stores to contain the Jewish influence in Germany’s public life. Then in 1938, Kristalnacht. Germans rampaging through the streets destroying synagogues, Jewish stores and homes.
Each time organizations like the Canadian Union of Postal Workers or a church group, like the United Church, condemns Israel without criticizing the Palestinians they enable them to play the victim card. And you put Jews as the victimizers and compare us to the Nazis and as practitioners of apartheid. And the terrorism continues.
There is no question that the situation for the Palestinians is untenable. Work needs to be done but it takes two willing to love more than hate.
Have you ever imagined how it must feel to be a Jew living in Israel? 6 million Jews surrounded by 150 million Muslim Arabs threatening your survival as a people and as a state?
The recent United Church report says the state of Israel has a right to exist but the status as a “Jewish State” is not at all clear and adds that Palestinians shouldn’t be pressured to “accept Israel as a Jewish state as a pre-condition for continuing negotiation.” But no one questions the fact that the 150 million Muslims surrounding Israel are not open to other cultures or religions. Saudi Arabia is 100% Muslim. The other Arab countries are between 97% and 100%Muslim.
Recently on a Huffington Post blog, Mr. Zogby, a spokesperson for the Middle East asked how Israel could be a Jewish nation when 20% of the people are Arab. I think he meant Muslim. Not all Arabs are Muslim. Is he suggesting that Israel cannot be a Jewish nation because non-Jews live there? Italy is culturally a Catholic state and Germany Lutheran. Or is he suggesting that for Israel to be a Jewish it must be like Saudi Arabia-remove anyone not Jewish? Or is he picking up where the United Church left off?
I read a novel that had a modern Arab woman from Saudi Arabia as one of the main characters. Upon her return home from the West she would have to put on a chador and a veil. She said that she was treated no differently than a camel but at least a camel can uncover its face. Yet, there is no uproar in the West to demand human rights for 50% of the population in Saudi Arabia.
The authors of the U.C. paper “believe that Israel can and should be held to a higher standard than surrounding undemocratic countries or authoritarian regimes. It is precisely because of Israel’s close identification with democratic ideals that is needs to be challenged.” So that means a free ride for totalitarian, autocratic, theocratic despotic countries?
While challenging Israel, the nations turn a blind eye toward the Arab-Islamist genocide of black Africans in Darfur; the tyrannical rule of Mugabe in Zimbabwe who turned a country that was the breadbasket of Africa to a basket case; the repression in Iran, Chinese imperialism in Tibet. Rwanda, the site of a massacre of 800,000 people, has been providing weapons to the M23 rebels in the Congo where mass rape is a war tactic. Greg Queyranne of the Center for African Development and security in Cambridge England wrote “Conflict in the Congo has caused the deaths of more than 6 million people since 1996.” And where were you when 3500 people were killed in the tribal warfare between Protestants and Catholics in Northern Ireland?
And where is your outrage at the Christians being murdered by Muslims in The Egypt and the Arab countries?
Can you imagine how it feels to read about your people as a question? What will we do about the Jews? This is the Jewish question which began in the 19th century. Why is there a question about the Jews and no other group?
That question was answered by hitler. No one cared. Your families watched and did nothing.
For thousands of years Jews have been murdered just for being –not because we murdered, or looted, or rioted-but just for being Jewish.
And now, when there is a safe harbour for people no one wanted after a massive attempt was made at annihilating us, the Jewish people are still attacked-not as individuals. The Jewish Question now is “What will we do with Israel?”
Can you imagine the memories that stir in those who survived the Holocaust and the fear it engenders in their children and grandchildren that the world is again talking about those Jews?
As a Canadian Jew, I wonder how it is possible to have peace when the rest of the world vilifies the Jews at every opportunity. There are 7 billion people in the world. 2 billion Catholics and Christians, 1.5 billion Muslims and 14 million Jews.
If the Jews were under the protection of the World Wildlife Fund, they would be declared an endangered species.
The negative focus on Israel and the Jews is postmodern anti-Semitism.
Archetypal hate.
