America and Judaism Share One Great Concept

 

Most nations and religions trace themselves to some great person who was responsible for their greatness and in some form or another deify that individual. For nations the examples are legion. Rome traced to the two children raised by a she wolf, Romulus and Remus, China was unified by a leader who was born of a dragon which brought him to China where he unified the separate kingdoms forging a great power, England has King Arthur and the Camelot myth and so on it goes. Christianity gave us Jesus, Islam gave us Mohammed, Buddhism gave us Buddha, Taoism came from Tao and so forth with each religion traced to a person who is raised above other men and in some way deified or immortalized. What follows will likely not sit us well with many readers but is presented for thought and not as any claim that the two seminal foundings were directly related beyond their emphasis on the sanctity of the human spirit and its enabling by the Creator, by Hashem.

 

But with the United States there was no one individual though George Washington is regarded as the father of the nation nobody would claim that he founded or singularly established the country. His greatest feat was giving up power when he could have continued as President until his death thus establishing the temporary power of the office instead of making it into a form of elected monarchy. The American idea was the world of the Founding Fathers, a group where though many people may choose one they prefer, none is more vital to the forging of the United States than the others. Sure we credit Thomas Jefferson with writing the Declaration of Independence but this only came about because John Adams deferred and chose him because he was a talented writer and an amiable person where, as John Adams is credited with stating in persuading Thomas Jefferson claiming when Jefferson claimed Adams was the stronger writer and better at expressing himself claimed that was why he could not be its author because he was far too disliked and anything he wrote would be torn apart by many of the others. James Madison is credited with crafting the initial wording of the constitution but again it became the work of all the signatories in some means or another. The United States is not traceable to a single person but instead to singular ideals expressed in that Declaration of Independence and a form of governance delineated in that Constitution and those are the two pillars upon which America rests.

 

Judaism is similar in that there were great people but no individual can be credited with establishing the religion. Granted when Hashem altered Avram’s name making it Avraham and Sari became Sarah, this would be the seminal point where the Covenant would be made and circumcision the sign of the contract which was to be undertaken by every male; yet the religion itself is transferred through one’s mother and not the father. To be a Jew one is required to have come from a Jewish mother. But Avraham received the Covenant with Hashem; he did not codify Judaism and did not write the Torah. Torah was transcribed by Moses which was why he is referred to as the lawgiver. But Moses transcribed Torah and led the Israelites from Egypt which is told in Torah in Exodus and retold in Deuteronomy. Moses went to great lengths to refute any deification including assuring that he would have no burial location which would be known so as to refute any worship giving all due credit to Hashem. Joshua was the leader of the Israelites when they conquered the Promised Land. Hashem kind of left out that after leaving Egypt the Israelites were going to have to conquer the Promised Lands but that was the way of forming a nation and claiming your place among nations in those early days of humankind. There also were numerous Judges and Prophets who ruled the Israelites but none were greater than the others in reflection and thus none were ever made to be more than wise and knowledgeable men. King Saul was the first Israelite king and was deficient in many ways but did preserve the nation passing it to King David more by default than any other means as the battle which claimed Saul’s son and heir to the throne also threw Saul into such grief that he took his own life, not the most glorious of endings. From King David the throne passed to King Solomon. King Solomon was regarded as one of the wisest of men but also had great failings chief amongst them were the inadequacy of his children who brought great harm upon the Israelites or Hebrews.

 

Torah the Founding Document of Judaism
with Declaration of Independence, Constitution and Bill of Rights
Founding Documents of the United States of America

 

What is less known by many is that the Jews were the remnants of the Israelites. The kingdom ruled by Kings Saul, David, Solomon and so forth broke into two kingdoms with the northern Kingdom called Israel and the southern Kingdom named for its larger tribe, Judah, named Judea. Israel consisted of ten tribes and their priests and was conquered by the Assyrians and never actually heard from until modern times. These became known as the ten lost tribe of the Jews but were really the ten lost tribes of Israel. Jews are the remainder of the tribes of Benjamin and Judea and the Priestly classes, tribes, of the Levites and Kohanim. These two tribes basically merged into the entity of Judea and the people were the Judeans, obviously. With time people grew lazy and did not care to actually say Judeans so it eventually shortened to simply Jews. Judea traced back to Judah and Benjamin to Benjamin, two of the sons of Jacob. One need remember that when Judaism relates to Avraham it is almost always referenced as Avraham, Isaak and Jacob as these were the Patriarchs buried in Hevron in the cave bought by Avraham in which to bury Sarah. Still the story of the Jews hinges greatly on Jacob’s twelve sons but one was responsible for the survival of the entire family, Joseph. This was one of the more unusual stories amongst many unusual stories. Joseph was sold into slavery by his jealous brothers but because of this act he was in the right place at the right time to become a favored one of Pharaoh and was placed as Chancellor over Egypt second only in power to Pharaoh himself. He managed resources of food saving Egypt from a great famine and saved his family as well. This led to the eventual enslaving of his family which was then brought forth by Hashem through the vessels which were Moses with Aaron. As is said, the rest is history except in this case it is more accurate to say the rest is the Hebrew Bible or the Old Testament and then history as that story has had a rebirth which was foretold in the Bible with the formation in a single day of the nation of modern Israel in its ancient homelands, though that is still being contested the eventual forming of Israel will include its ancient lands even if that takes a thousand years.

 

Judaism and the United States owe their formations to many individuals with none more vital than the rest and neither would exist if not for all of these great people all of whom were guided by principles and forces beyond their comprehension. Did these people know they were a part of something far greater than themselves, of course they did. But each group had the guidance of great people when required the most and both claim that Hashem is an integral part of their formation as a nation. Neither deifies any individual and instead when they use the term Creator their reference is to the Creator of all things as told in Genesis and both Judaism and the United States of America claim to owe their creation to that very same Creator and both claim the view that mankind was imbued and “endowed by that Creator with unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” These principles are found throughout the laws and preaching in Judaism and were carried forth in Christianity and found their place in the Declaration of Independence where they were once again ensconced in the human mind and established repeatedly but most forcefully in Torah and thus made available for Thomas Jefferson to include in his declaration.

 

Beyond the Cusp 

 

Is Anti-Semitism or Islamophobia Growing in the United States?

 

We hear about the ever-increasing anti-Muslim hate crimes often in response to a terrorist act and with these claims the warning to avoid Islamophobia as if Islamic hatreds were growing out of control. Let us look at the reality on the comparison between anti-Islamic and anti-Semitic crimes starting in 2000 through 2014, the last year we could find comparable statistics, using FBI gathered statics below:

Year                                            Anti-Islamic Crimes                                 Anti-Semitic Crimes
2000                                                   28                                                                1109
2001                                                 481                                                                1043
2002                                                155                                                                   931
2003                                                149                                                                   927
2004                                                156                                                                   954
2005                                                128                                                                   848
2006                                                156                                                                   967
2007                                                115                                                                   969
2008                                                105                                                                 1013
2009                                                107                                                                   931
2010                                                160                                                                   887
2011                                                157                                                                   771
2012                                                130                                                                   674
2013                                                135                                                                   625
2014                                                154                                                                   609

 

As one might have expected, hate crimes against Muslims peaked in 2001 and settled back to a level which was significantly higher than the 2000 statistic but there was no significant rise after 2001 despite the incessant cries of Islamophobia which we hear after every Muslim atrocity such as the recent attacks in Israel, the United States, Europe and the others in Africa, Asia and the rest of the Middle East which we do not hear about. Yes, we know there is violence and fighting going on in Libya, Syria and Iraq, but we hear little about the fighting between the Islamic State and the Kurds as well as Turkey and the Kurds and the Christians who are still getting murdered wholesale in the Middle East, North Africa and all along the borders between Islam and the Christian world and between Islam and the Hindu and Buddhist worlds.

 

As also noted from the table of anti-Islamic and anti-Semitic crimes, it becomes quickly evident that if there were an actual problem between the two it would be anti-Semitism. The sad news is that anti-Semitism has been reported to be escalating, especially on college campuses where at some major universities the Jewish students are afraid to let their religion become known and would never consider wearing any religious items such as a Yarmulke or Star of David jewelry for fear of being assaulted. A report in Arutz Sheva titled Anti-Semitism jumps by more than 100% in New England obviously is some ominous news as if counting New Jersey and New York to New England, that small area, accounts for approximately half the Jewish population of the country. The particulars may not sound horrific but anyway one looks at the number of anti-Semitic incidents doubled from five per month to just over ten a month is worrisome in what it portends for the future. The Majority of the offences were registered from Massachusetts. Going back a few years and taking the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) figures, there was a 21% increase in anti-Semitic offences in 2014 over 2013 with the numbers rising from 751 to 912. What is troublesome to us is whose figures to believe, these from the ADL or the FBI reported a drop from 625 to 609. Who to believe is the problem, but for a solution one can believe that the ADL receives more reports from Jews who decide not to take out a police report as such can often be more problems for no arrest or other assistance as most often the report is taken and filed as many of the incidents are misdemeanor crimes though to the victim it probably feels a whole lot more serious. Still, unless one seeks to find information about anti-Semitism you are unlikely to know how much more prevalent it is in the United States as well as Europe, the Middle East and around the world.

 

 

Looking at recent activities on many college and university campuses, as stated above, the majority of it is anchored on Israel, which is the springboard for further anti-Semitic actions. Whenever there are activities such as Israel Apartheid Week events designed to misrepresent Israel making Israel out to be the haters and the Islamic world as the exemplary nations where Utopian tolerance and inter-religious tolerance exists, even a cursory review of reality proves this to be a fiction of the worst kind. In Israel the Arabs, both Muslim and Christian alike as well as Buddhists, Baha’I, Hindu, Yazidi and any other religion practiced in the world are accepted and protected with the same or more open acceptance as in the United States while throughout the Islamic world their nations persecute Christians as well as Buddhists, Baha’I, Hindu, Yazidi and any other religion practiced in the world. Even Muslims who are of a different sect or variety are persecuted by the majority Islamic variety such as is prevalent in places where Sunni and Shiite both reside in the same nation. This has been extremely evident in Iran, Syria and Iraq where the violence is often open and flagrant. Yet within the United States Islamophobia is a static and a far lesser problem than is anti-Semitism, but what about the future?

 

This is where things become more clouded and obscured because attempting to paint a picture of the future one cannot necessarily rely on the past, even the most recent past, but instead must rely on a sixth sense which is difficult to support with facts but let us give it a go. Islam is ascendant in the West and has been cutting out a niche, especially in Europe but also in the United States, where their communities are often segregated from the rest of the nation and are so by design. There is this move towards civilizational Jihad where they initially set aside areas where their numbers are prevalent and work towards clearing an area in major cities and also form small communities out in the countryside usually well away from the beaten path. These are intentional as once they have cleared an area they can impose Sharia or in the remote communities set up military training areas outside of the normal police and societal rules where Islam makes the rules. Many of these hubs of Islamic activity are represented on the map below depicting statistics gathered by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. What is most distressing is that a number of these locations are already “No-Go” zones for law enforcement within the United States just as have existed in Europe for the past few decades. Within these miniature Islamic areas, one might equate them to the little Islamic homeland away from home forging their own little Middle East homeland in America. Many of these locations are financed directly by terrorist organizations and others by Islamic countries. Some of the terrorist influences include but are not limited to Hezballah (one of the most widespread and heavily financed terror groups in the world mostly financed by Iran), Muslim Brotherhood (includes CAIR and ISNA), Islamic State, Palestinian Liberation Organization (financed by the Palestinian Authority, Fatah, and largely responsible for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions BDS against Israel) and others. Two of the nations who are by far the largest are Saudi Arabia and Iran. Saudi Arabia builds Mosques, provides Imams, finances youth groups and spreads the Wahhabi form of Islamism and finances Middle East Chairs as well as providing professorships. Iran finances many Shiite Mosques and training areas and these interests just got a huge financial windfall as these areas are part of the Iranian government through the IRGC (Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps) as the Iranian Military which was granted many billions of dollars resulting from the Iran Nuclear Deal and with a large interest under Hezballah control also financed by Iran through the IRGC and directly. The main influence which will have large effects in the future are the manipulations and influences being introduced and has been heavily financed on college and university campuses.

 

 

One of the main aims of the Islamic influences on campuses is to indoctrinate anti-Semitic strains of thought into the educational systems and onto college life. The Palestinian influence is seen with a heavy hand in these areas. They wrap their anti-Semitism in an anti-Israel agenda where they pound home the propaganda that Israel is a hate-filled and racist nation where only Jews are permitted rights and everybody else is at best victimized and at worst are the victims of genocidal campaigns to annihilate them. This is the line being proposed with their Israel Apartheid Week where the claim that Israeli Defense Forces are routinely implementing a genocidal campaign whose aim is to ethnically cleanse the Palestinians residing within the “occupied” areas. The evidence they provide are based on lies and they never explain or permit into the discussion the inconvenient fact that the Palestinian numbers have grown from 650,000 in 1948 to presumably over 5,000,000, if their numbers are to be believed, when they demand that Israel accept every last Palestinian to return to within Israel with full rights so they can destroy the Jewish State via the ballot box, something that would otherwise be impossible if Israel truly was an Apartheid State. There is never permitted any discussion about the three-quarters of a million Jews expelled from the Arab World in the Middle East and North Africa between 1948 through 1960 in an attempt to inundate Israel with Jewish refugees who had been stripped of any wealth. One has to wonder where these Jewish refugees are today and that is easy to tell, they are incorporated and a vital part of Israeli society because the Israelis welcomed their brothers and sisters and never for a moment considered placing them in refugee camps to utilize as propaganda against their former home nations within which many of their families had resided in these areas for close to two-thousand years. Israel would not degrade anybody in such a manner. Another small fact that is never permitted into the equation is that the Arabs who continued to reside within Israel after the seven Arab armies failed to destroy her in 1948-9 were also not thrown into refugee camps but fully intertwined into Israeli society, given full rights from day one, had full voting rights and voted in every election since 1948 including the very first Israeli elections, were allowed to work in any job, many as doctors and nurses, members of the Israeli Parliament (Knesset), are judges, lawyers and many own their own businesses just as any Israeli is permitted, be they Jewish, Christian, Muslim or any other religion.

 

The frightening effect the peddling of these lies on campus is that they also paint the Jews with the Israelis claiming there is no difference and that the Jews in the United States are Israeli agents and are attempting with great success to destroy the United States sacrificing America for Israel. When one listens to their rants, they use Israeli and Jew interchangeably making no differentiation despite the fact that the vast majority of American Jews have never visited Israel and all too many have no desire to visit Israel and do not even support Israel. There are numerous Jews who ally themselves with these anti-Israel, anti-Zionist and anti-Semitic organizations supporting their fight against Israel. These are useful idiots in the truest sense of the word. They are used as foils to prove the openness of the Arabs and Muslims and as proof that Israel is every bit as evil as claimed as even these Jews fight against the monstrous crimes committed by Israel. The only problem is that these Arab and Muslim propagandists and community organizers are suffering from the world’s worst case of projection as their Arab and Muslim homelands are guilty of virtually every charge they accuse Israel of committing. There is a reason that these Arab and Muslim activists fight tooth and nail against having people visit Israel, simply because within a few hours of visiting Israel their entire lie-soaked presentations would collapse before the obvious evidence within Israel’s open society. Instead, when they arrange trips to see the reality in Israel, one is whisked off to the Palestinian Arab side where any Jew would be murdered on the spot unless they are with the group being indoctrinated, and they are treated to the greatest show that can be put on. The show includes lies that claim that the Jews believe themselves to be superior to others just as the Nazis had done and that the Jews are the modern Nazis. The entire propaganda served up about Israel equals Jews and Jews equals Israel and both are contemptable racist haters. The only defense we will attempt is to invite those desiring truth to visit Israel independently from any group and see reality uncolored by any preconceived notion or filtered through any lenses other than one’s own glasses or contact lenses should one wear them. Nothing else is required to prove the Israeli side of the discussion and Israel has nice beaches and believe it or not skiing in the winter with any good fortune. There are historic sights, the Dead Sea, the lowest place on Earth and what many claim are therapeutic benefits from swimming or just immersing in the salty waters of the Dead Sea. There are even Roman period ruins and those are some of the youngest sites. There is Akko, one of the oldest cities in the world and a once powerful port city with a crusader history as well as being the sole city to repel all attacks from Napoleon. There are religious sites from Islam and Christianity and even older sites from Judaism which predate both religions. For an idea on the age of Judaism one need only know that Buddhism and Confucianism, which predated Islam and Christianity by centuries, their founding teachers Confucius (551–479 BCE) and Gautama Buddha (558 – 491 BCE) both lived and taught during the Second Temple periods beginning as it lasted from 515 BCE until its destruction by the Romans in 70 CE. Judaism’s First Temple, or Solomon’s Temple, period was from its construction 970 BCE to 931 BCE until its destruction in 587 BCE. So, yes, there is quite a lot of history to be witnessed and a surprisingly open and vibrant society where everyone enjoys equality.

 

Those who wish to claim that Israel is not open and that the Jews are haters are selling the oldest of all anti-Semitic diatribes. Nazi Leader Adolph Hitler was far from the first anti-Semite claiming that the Jews were responsible for all the nation’s woes and were a threat to the continued government. Anti-Semitism very likely even predated Pharos though Pharos was the first to be credited with such falsehoods. The Jews of that era were to be known as the Israelites even before there was an Israel as the Torah was written with the promise that all the lands which Avraham could survey from the tall hilltop would eventually belong to his bloodline from generation to generation. The modern version of anti-Semites paint a picture of Israel as the greatest oppressor and hater of all outside of herself and then smear Jews in general using the presumably proven evils of Israel and claiming that all Jews are Israel and Israel is all Jews. This is circular reasoning, a form of reason considered to be false and the worst place to be should your side be caught in such a supportive argument in any debate. Unfortunately, the anti-Israel, anti-Zionist and anti-Semites do not permit debate and will intimidate, shout down and use the campus codes and ban on Hate Speech to silence any pro-Israel argument. The ever-present threat of violence should any opposition be permitted against the anti-Israel-Zionist-Semites attempt to express their side almost always intimidates the University or College officials into closing off any counter arguments as hate speech thus silencing one side allowing the other to claim there is no opposition because the other side has no legitimate argument. Who’s practicing Apartheid techniques now?

 

The eventual desire of these anti-Israel-Zionist-Semites is to prove that the Jew is the real threat and that the Jew is the enemy of all good people and the Jew is the ruination of the nation and as such the Jews must be eradicated. All of their arguments are by their nature intrinsically anti-Semitic as they deny Israel the right to exist thus denying the Jews their own nation as every other peoples have with the exception of the Kurds who have been denied self-determination by Iran, Iraq, Syria and Turkey. Their attempt to define Israel as the sole nation to have ever committed any hate ignoring equal or more often worse such actions is again singling out the Jew amongst nations for special judgements. Setting a different bar by which to judge Israel and then only judging Israel is again anti-Semitism by selective judging of Israeli society. Singling Israel from all the nations on the planet and setting it aside for special considerations is another form of Israel victimization and when all counter arguments are summarily dismissed out of hand is refusing Israel a defense or defender and thus anti-Semitism. Finally, when supporting a Palestinian State, those supporting such always mean replacement of Israel with another Arab state and not two states side-by-side as is almost always claimed when these anti-Semites are put upon and this can be proven by their favorite chant, “From the River to the Sea, Palestine must be free.” Where is there any allowance for the Jewish State in that argument? The final nail in their coffins is their oft repeated chant straight from the streets of Tehran which demand, “Kill, kill Israel, kill, kill every Jew.” Another of their stock and trade is the chant, “Death to the Jews.” That last one need not be given any argument beyond the pointing to the quote and allowing it to stand for itself.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

Shoah and Anti-Semitism

 

Today was Yom HaShoah here in Israel where the nation comes to a halt at ten in the morning and the nation stands while the sirens blare. It is a moment of reflection and solemn meditation as well as remembrance both of those who perished and those who survived scarred for life and those who survived and partly due to that adversity not merely survived but thrived. There was one thing I noted from the limited numbers of Holocaust survivors that I was privileged to know or meet, the most successful were slim, fit individuals with great amounts of energy and others were more lethargic and usually heavier than most as if they were eating to make up for the near starvation they faced in the camps. It was as if the experience in both left them with a hunger, one group for the thing they hungered for in the camps, food, the others for life and engaging in everything they did with a ferocity that seemed to eat up every morsel of life as if it needed to be savored before heading to the next. Both were reacting to the same deprivations and horrors in very different ways and are significant as the same dichotomy exists in how most Jews face anti-Semitism even when it is staring them in the face.

 

The majority of Jews remaining in Europe and the United States are those whose first, second and even third reaction to increasing anti-Semitism is to dismiss it as either irrelevant or as happening to those other Jews, not to the kind of Jews I know who are comfortable and integrated and of course accepted as equals in the society and not seen as anything different. They keep sticking to an old Jewish belief when struck upside the head with anti-Semitic hatreds thinking that “It can’t happen here. Not to me or those I know. We are all assimilated and no different than anybody else. We are accepted. We are safe.” Others feel even more threatened than is warranted as they read a single article and they start using their dead-bolt, read a second article and keep their window shades drawn and the windows locked, another article and they get extra latches for the windows and a second dead-bolt in every door. Eventually they start seeing shadows behind every object and have paranoid feelings that they are being targeted and jump if touched out in public at the grocery store or the bank or wherever.

 

 

Wailing Wall with Soft Pale Blue Star of David Writ Large

 

The reality for both is somewhere inbetween as extra precautions are always a good idea these days even if one is not Jewish and a healthy awareness of surroundings is advised for all, but paranoia to the point of stark terror if outside at night is something beyond reasonable. Of course there are those places where the stark terrifying paranoia is warranted such as Sweden, Malmo in particular, and in France and soon to be areas in Britain and eventually throughout Europe. The answer for the growing anti-Semitic hatreds growing across Europe both emanating from the immigrant communities coming from countries where anti-Semitism is infused into the blood and Jews have become an extinct people or very close to so with perhaps a dozen or two very old Jews who refused to heed the signs and even the forced evictions, some even resorting to residing in their Synagogue where the authorities left them seeing them as harmless and a foil they could trot out as the happy Jews still living the good life, in the shadows trembling, in their fair and multi-cultural nation. Many of these same nations have a small and vulnerable Christian community which is an empty shell of its former self and equally endangered. When facing excessive threats, one is usually facing leaving; but the question is always where to flee. Should one flee to the United States where things are so different or to Israel where we will need to stand no matter the threat. Fleeing to Israel always has seemed like the place of last resort and if one is more an assimilated Jew, Israel becomes a threat in some manner as it is viewed as being too Jewish and is under threat more so than anywhere else; they are just more adapted and capable of minimizing most threats. The United States has always been the nation for those huddled masses yearning to be free, which these Jews honestly believe this includes freedom from anti-Semitism. Unfortunately they would be wrong as the ugly face of anti-Semitism has been lifting its head and snapping at the easiest targets. The latest was a graffiti spree where anti-Semitic phrases and references including swastikas were drawn on a pair of buildings, one being a school, in Rockville, Maryland about ten minutes outside of Washington D.C. on Wisconsin Avenue/Rockville Pike. This is in the middle of a number of heavily Jewish neighborhoods and from what we have gathered has been hushed up in the Capital City area likely not to upset the Jewish communities or blemish the nation’s Capital with such events being publicized.

 

Europe, on the other hand, had had a rising and bordering on vicious wave after wave of ever increasing anti-Semitism with France, Britain, Belgium, Sweden, Norway and others growing more antagonistic each and every day. The current spate of Ministers, former Minister, former Mayors and the head of the Labor Party all coming under suspicions of anti-Semitic outbursts leading to the suspension of around a half dozen pending hearings could eject them from their positions as Ministers and possibly from membership in the Party itself. These have simply been the most flagrant episodes which lie just sufficiently under the radar to be ignored by the media. Still, many Jewish neighborhoods have become aware and sensitive to the threats being faced and have already had the initial emigrations with half heading across the Atlantic to the United States with the remainder heading straight to Israel. Those heading to the United States may have chosen well, but time will tell. Those moving to Israel are very likely more traditional orthodox or religious and secular Zionists. The secular Zionists are most likely to take up residence in one of the various communities in and around Tel Aviv most likely to choose one fairly close to their new employment or in a neighborhood where the majority speak their native language. Perhaps those choosing Israel were fully aware of the statistics which combines terrorism with normative criminal activities giving a complete view of the dangers of each society, those in Israel against those in the United States. The immediate result between the two which becomes obvious was that in either nation one can avoid criminal victimhood one need only avoid certain areas where criminal activity is the highest. What surprises many people is that even with the terror statistics included, an individual is measurably safer in Israel.

 

 

 

 

The growing levels of anti-Semitism are notable in two main streams. The first is the same type of hatreds as has been seen over the centuries. This is largely the type of anti-Semitism as found in the developing nations. The second type of anti-Semitism is evidenced in Europe and the rest of the modern world and has spread to the rest of the world due to its apparent acceptance in the modern industrial nations, and that is anti-Israelism and anti-Zionism. This style of anti-Semitism basically stated claims that the Jew does not need their own nation as they can be a Jew anywhere they choose just as they have for centuries. The claim is that only the Jew may not have a nation they may call their own. The argument often goes that no other religious groups have their own nation. This ignores all the Islamic nations, Christian nations, Buddhist nations and targets solely Israel. It also ignores that every other religion has at least one nation where they are the majority peoples of the main religions and even Shinto has the Japanese Isles. This demand that only the Jew be forced to reside throughout the world an accursed minority and be denied a nation of their own is simply anti-Semitism. The claim that only the Jew be seen as never having existed as having their own nation ignores the nation of Judea which was the last independent Jewish state, and many well point out that the Jews came exactly from Judea and that before the split into Israel and Judea there was no Jew goes that last step in realizing that the Jew is really a Judean with it shortened to one syllable for lazy convenience. Still, whether we wish to call anti-Semitism what it is because it denies Jews their own state as Israelites, of which the Judeans were but one tribe’s worth, or demands that any and all former Israelites be forced to live dispersed as they are the true people damned by Hashem to forever walk nationless accursed amongst the peoples of the earth, either way it is anti-Semitism and holds the Jew as separate and reserved for hatred, lack of acceptance and scorn.

 

Lastly, how does the Shoah, the Holocaust fit into anti-Semitism. The manner in which the Shoah fits into modern anti-Semitism is when it is claimed that the only reason the Jews received their state of Israel was because of the Shoah and due to the guilt felt by Europe who punished the Arabs, later becoming the Palestinians, for the evils in Europe. This claim also ignores that half of Israeli Jewish population are Arab Jews from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) and arrived in Israel as a direct result of anti-Semitic pogroms. Then there are the classic anti-Semitic tropes where Israel is directly threatened in a manner of claiming that the Holocaust never existed and that there will be another Holocaust when Israel is to be wiped from the map. How you can have another Holocaust while denying the former Holocaust is beyond logic. These Holocaust deniers who promise another Holocaust are a truly frightening sort as they claim there is no break in their logic and at the same instance claim that if only the Nazis had completed the task and followed through on their promises to the Mufti of Jerusalem Haj Amin al-Hussein there would be no need for another holocaust.

 

Those claiming to be the final hand against the Jew further demand that they are serving the same deity as do Christian and Jews despite their name of Allah. Their claim goes even further astray in that they claim they follow the god of Abraham, Ishmael and Mohammad and of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Where they claim to be an Abrahamic religion, which is undeniable, their matron was not Sarah making theirs a separate Abrahamic religion not of the same lineage of Christianity and Judaism. This places the Islamic anti-Semitism on a different track of all other forms of anti-Semitism in that it claims the branch of Abrahamic religions as impure to be those from the lineage from Sarah and that the chosen religion comes from Abraham through Hagar, Sarah’s handmaiden. This would further make Christianity as false a religion as Judaism and we see that Islam does hold Christianity as a false religion just as it does Judaism. This should give pause to all the Christian groups who saddle up next to the Muslims as they see them as allies against the Jews but ignore their near equal hatred of Christianity. The one other note that both Christianity and Judaism need take of Islam is their current claims that Moses, Jesus and all the other main pillars and greats throughout the ages after Abraham as their prophets as well and their love of them is a matter of convenience and a method through which they hope to coopt both religions and take from them the weaker and less knowledgeable and plan that once they have eradicated the Jews and later the Christians they will drop these prophets of convenience and claim those believing in these as actual prophets of Islam to be heretics and apostates who need to be crushed and put to the sword and that will be their final treatment of the false Jews and Christians whose faith was so weak they gave up their rightful religions for the protection, temporary as it will be, of those who never wished their company but accepted it as a convenience when it was necessary. The Jews should recognize such as we have seen it time and time again be it the Hellenistic Jews to Jews for Jesus. But history has taught that there is no anti-Semite as hateful as the former Jew coopting Judaism in order to save their lives at the expense of their brethren Jews. That is truly the world’s worst and most persistent and second oldest form of anti-Semitism with the idolaters who served Ba’al amongst others who were the original anti-Semites as the Jews have witnessed many a varied sort of anti-Semite with the Jew turned against their own being the worst as it is their weakness and lack of faith and love of Hashem which has pained us the most throughout the ages. As the old adage claims, “Save me from my friends as my enemies I can take care of myself.” These are the wolves in sheep’s clothing which are the most scary as they attack from within our gates.

 

 

Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing

 

Beyond the Cusp