Rising World of Anti-Semitism

 

Thanks to the Congressional election of 2018, the fact is that anti-Semitism can still infect governing bodies of nations as the United States has elected three or more anti-Semites whose hatred of Jews is so obvious; their own party leaders have denounced some of their statements and Tweets demanding for them to apologize. Their apologies were less than satisfying and their return to detestable statements has cemented the fact that anti-Semitism now sits in the United States Congress and as such could eventually sit in the White House leading that nation. Now BTC editorialists know that no nation should elect such a leader, that should be impossible and you should know that. But is it really impossible for such? Let’s take a look over at Europe. Currently, if what many are predicting turns out to be true, the current ruling party will not be the one which chooses the next coalition and their main adversary may even have sufficient to rule absolutely without the need for smaller parties supporting them. We are speaking of the British Labor Party. Should the British Labor Party win in the House of Commons, they will select the next Prime Minister to sit at 10 Downing Street. Parties normally select the leader of their party to fill that address and the current Labor Party leader is Jeremy Corbyn, a man who calls Hamas and Hezballah leaders and members his friends. He, and his Labor Party, have been embroiled in charges of anti-Semitism which they have conveniently brushed aside claiming they are only anti-Israel or anti-Zionist. This is the new fig leaf behind which anti-Semitism is currently ensconced. It is the fig leaf which Jeremy Corbyn uses to attempt and play off his honestly overt anti-Semitism.

 

That brings up a question of how does one separate honest criticism of Israel from criticism which crosses into anti-Semitism? One of the most accepted tests is called the “3D test of anti-Semitism.” These three D’s are delegitimization of Israel, demonization of Israel, and subjecting Israel to double standards. We would like to point out that the easiest one to detect is the last, the double standard. When the BDS Movement refuses to boycott other nations which have a worse human rights record or also are occupying disputed lands, or are committing specious activities considered worse or are far more oppressive than Israel, then they are using a double standard when judging Israel. When they call for Israel to be destroyed through accepting many millions of refugees from the Arab world or making one super state out of the Palestinian Authority regions, Hamas’s Gaza, the aforementioned refugees and Jordan, these are forms of delegitimization as it transforms Israel from the homeland of the Jewish People into another Arab majority state with the Jews a likely persecuted minority. The final one is easily explained as when one refers to Israel as Nazi or the IDF of using Nazi tactics of genocide, then you have demonization. These are outright obvious examples and there are numerous far more nuanced means of still failing the Three D’s test. This test has been approved and adopted by the United States State Department in 2010 and remained in use until in 2017 when they adopted the Working Definition of Anti-Semitism authored by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance. The Working Definition of Anti-Semitism has become the virtually universal accepted definition adopted by numerous governments, the European Union, the United Nations Security Council and numerous NGO’s. It has also been rejected as being a Jewish induced plot to absolve Israel of her crimes against the Arab Palestinians, which is a form of anti-Semitism in and of itself. When one refuses to accept the otherwise accepted definition of actions of which they are guilty in order to claim that their actions are not anti-Semitism, they probably are strongly anti-Semitic.

 

Further proof is readily found simply by reading almost any major newspaper, even the NYT, and within a week or so, there you will find articles reporting of Jews being attacked; Jewish cemeteries being desecrated; Synagogues being firebombed, desecrated, windows shot out, swastikas and anti-Semitic slurs painted on them or Jewish shops such as bakeries and kosher markets vandalized. These reports are currently more prevalent in Europe, but the United States is doing what she can to catch up. I remember when if you claimed that anti-Semitism was coming to the United States and growing there, you were basically laughed out of the conversation and people treated you like you were a nut case. There probably are places where such is still the case, but these are becoming rare as even the most news averse person will have at least overheard at least one conversation about the new and fresh anti-Semitism elected to the United States Congress or the near certainty that Jeremy Corbyn will become the next Prime Minister in Britain, depending on your circle of friends and coworkers and location. My advantage in reading the tea leaves about the growing anti-Semitism came by way of observation and experience which initially encouraged me to run faster than everyone else and later to be glad of my size as that prevented my need for speed which with age decreased greatly. Moving often for a decade also led to sampling most of the United States simply as my work had me living in a new Motel 6 every month to month and a half. The experiences and ability to see reality is greatly enhanced under such conditions though it can be a difficult life.

 

The problem has surfaced in one place which most people would have suspected Jews would be safe if only due to their numbers, the Jewish bergs of New York. It has reached the point where the NYT asks, “Is It Safe to Be Jewish in New York?” as well as the Forward where they reported, “Is A String Of Attacks Against Brooklyn Jews Really About Anti-Semitism?” But despite anti-Semitism only recently making appearances in the mainstream news coverage, an article by the Anti-Defamation League from November of 2017 reported, “Anti-Semitic Incidents Up 96 Percent in N.Y State in 2017,” proving that the problem has been growing for some time. Below we are including a video from PIX 11 News with a report about a gang attack of a Jewish sixteen-year-old youth in Queens, New York. And if we wish to cross the Atlantic into Europe, we find this in today’s Times of Israel where they reported, “Belgian carnival float condemned for anti-Semitic puppets of Jews.” Perhaps the most damning comes from CNN with the title, “Anti-Semitism is so bad in Britain that some Jews are planning to leave.”

 

 

The entire world has not gone around the bend; it just appears that way. Below, we have included a map which depicts percentage of people with anti-Semitic views, often a fairly accurate indicator of anti-Semitism. There are numerous forms of anti-Semitism. There are those who simply hate Jews, period. This is what is found throughout much of the Middle East and North Africa (the Arab Muslim world), in groups such as the neo-Nazis (todays Nazis), the KKK and new on the list is Black Lives Matter. There are those who claim that the Jews are the reason they failed because the Jews controlled their company, the media, the banks, or have too much influence in the government or any number of the tropes Jews have heard for centuries. The newer version is that the Zionists or Israelis controlled their company, the media, the banks, or have too much influence in the government. You probably noted a similarity between the two lists, that is because they are the same excuses and stories which simply get recycled. The story that the Jews bake their Matzah using the blood of non-Jewish victims who they kidnap choosing some hapless soul and place them in a machine which has sharp points on the inside and tumbles bleeding out the person has been used by the Christian world and the Muslim world and has recently begun to be used by NGO’s and will likely spread once more. Another version of this blood-libel which is also in use is that the IDF steals body parts, eyes, kidneys, and other organs etc. for use in the Israeli hospitals, as they need these for Jewish patients. Anybody with even a cursory knowledge of medicine would immediately note that this would never work as transplants require genetic matching to have any possibility of being successful, thus it would be insane to go about such in this manner. The body parts falsehood is simply a modernized version of the Matzoh libel. Then there is the Czarist anti-Semitic invention “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion” (Russian: Протоколы сионских мудрецов) or “The Protocols of the Meetings of the Learned Elders of Zion” which weave a tale describing how the Jews are planning to take over the world, all 0.02% of the world population, the Jews, are going to take over the world. What was astonishing is that this was believed by the Russian people as they assisted in the pogroms and often with mass slaughtering of Russian Jews. This fiction is still being printed and distributed and has regained popularity in some places around the world. The only fortunate side to this is that it is most appreciated in areas where the Jews are already quite disliked, one could say hated. Mein Kampf has returned to print and supposedly is selling well despite a disclaimer that much of what is enclosed as being untrue, plus it can be found and read in its entirety on the Internet. You really can find just about everything on the Internet. All these things are going to do is add fuel to a fire which will soon be burning completely out of control across far too many swaths of land and groups of nations and people, more fuel is the one thing which is not needed.

 

 

Then there are the defenses given by people which in and of themselves are simply a way of excusing their hatred and actions, sometimes explaining such to themselves so they will be able to dismiss their guilt and feel perfectly fine with their hatreds. Our favorite excuse is simply ridiculous and it goes, “Some of my best friends are Jews.” Then there is the excuse that, “Well, there are Jews who also claim that Israel is a horrible and racist place.” That or other claims against Israel, as that appears to be the main place this excuse is used and the people using it honestly believe that it holds some or complete validity. Here’s a small inside look into the Jews, some of the world haters of Jews have been Jews. Our favorite Jewish Jew hater is George Soros. He has claimed he cannot be anti-Semitic because he is Jewish and has many Jewish friends and a good number of his Jewish friends agree with him. We have to credit him with using the most number of refutable reasons which are refuted as they simply prove nothing. The Jews have been on both sides of virtually every issue since Moses and the twelve spies. Simple historic proof comes from two of the greatest murderers of Jews, Hitler and Stalin. Hitler claimed the Jews were all Communists and thus a threat to the Nazi state while simultaneously, Stalin claimed the Jews were national socialist supporters and enemies of the Soviet Union. There is a small validity to that as Jews supported the Communists and the National Socialists when their parties first rose to power and well before it became evident that the Jews were going to be used as the scapegoat by both the Nazis and the Soviets. Jews in the Muslim World, especially the Arab parts were also murdered in pogroms, rioting and other violence including in the Holy Land where the British often stood by and watched these riots until the Arabs came too close to the British before they would fire a single warning shot in the air bringing the violence to an end. Some anti-Semites are so sure that their hatred is founded will actually state, “Well, you know, that is how those people are.” This is an unfortunate truth about all too many people, that they are so assured in their misbeliefs actually believing their excuses will indemnify them against being called a racist, an anti-Semite, an Islamophobe or whatever hatred in which they are steeped. Hatred is one of those unexplainable truths which exists and will remain prevalent in so many different forms all of which have one thing in common, they are self-enforcing through the circular logic which is used in powering their vile, loathing hostilities. Racial, religious, nationalist and other bigotries will likely never disappear until the coming of the Messiah, in the meantime, all we can do is to uncover and reveal these despicable acts for what they are, unfounded hate. Anti-Semitism is just one of the oldest of these hatreds which has morphed into the forms of anti-Israel and anti-Zionist maligning defamation where many of the old stereotypical tropes have simply been made into nationalistic based falsehoods being presented as truth. Many of these are so easily taken apart as to be ridiculous, but people insist that they know the real secret which the rest of humanity is simply too blind to see. You cannot argue with such people as their minds are already set and nothing will sway them or force them to reconsider their beliefs. Even if you are able to silence them temporarily, they will simply walk away convinced, in the case of anti-Semitism, anti-Israelism or anti-Zionism, that you have been co-opted and turned by the Jew influence and that you are the one who needs to reconsider your lack of enmity towards the Jews, Jewish state or Jewish love of Israel.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

Rising Signs of America Sliding Down the Slippery Slope

 

Sometimes you pray that what is before you is not really what it seems to be. It makes it even worse when you have warned people that this was coming for over a half century. When the warnings were first voiced, people would denounce my observations as absurd because such things could not happen in America. When I would point out that these were the exact same denials which the Jews in Germany would hide behind even after it became undeniable, I would be castigated as suffering dementia or having psychotic episodes and needed help. The few times I would tell how the same rebuttals were given to Ze’ev Jabotinsky when he attempted to warn the Jews of Eastern Europe that they needed to make Aliyah and return to Israel because dark times were on the horizon, people walked away and no longer spoke with me. Now hardly a week goes by without some reference to the growing anti-Semitism or attacks upon Jews or Jewish institutions in the United States makes the news. As such things are underreported to the police and authorities and even less covered by the mainstream media, we can only assume that the problem is deeper and more wide spread than it appears. In Israel we know who and why we are attacked such as the brutal rape, torture and slaying of Ori Ansbacher, a beautiful and vibrant young lady, which we covered yesterday. In Israel, the only ones in denial of the reality and substance of the Arab demands are those who believe that were Israel to just return to the 1967 pre-Six Day War armistice lines from 1949 that the Arabs would live with us in peace. Why they believe this when they did not live with us in peace before the Six Day War and have sought our annihilation even before Israel was declared a nation is purely baffling. Guess we have those who like to dream of a world and then live in that dream ignoring all which occurs around them. The Arabs have made their intentions well known; they want Israel destroyed and its Jews dead.

 

When we started to think about what to write in this article to prove to some extent our feelings, we had not yet heard about the shooting of the windows of Temple Beth Israel-Shaare Zedek, a synagogue in Lima, Ohio. There were some optimistic qualifiers to the story. First was that nobody was injured and the damages were only to some of the windows in the synagogue. Further, the shots appear to have come from BB or pellet guns, and not a rifle or other firearm. Police believe it was mischief perpetrated by youths as this has happened to other buildings. We cannot state our following conjectures as facts as we have not checked with the Lima, Ohio police department. Still, we are willing to bet that the other buildings or houses which have also had windows damaged by such youthful exuberance were not houses of worship. We are willing to bet that there has not been a similar window popping of a church or other house of worship and this was the first such incident where a building of religious significance has been so damaged. The article reports that there were over thirty holes found in the windows of Temple Beth Israel-Shaare Zedek. Thirty-plus shots through the windows in one building takes some time and was not done randomly as the perpetrators were gallivanting along the street, this took a while to shoot that many shots through the synagogue windows. The shots counted were merely the ones which went through windows, and as some were on the upper floor, there were likely a fair number of additional shots targeting this one structure plus the story does not report any windows of other buildings in the vicinity being so struck. Despite the Lima, Ohio police treating this as mischief and not as a hate crime, it does bear noticing the number of holes, the fact that this was the sole target, the targeting of windows from numerous separate parts of the synagogue and the lack of previous similar events against other houses of worship. Even if this was mischief, it was malicious mischief targeting the synagogue and by dismissing the possibility of any anti-Semitic motives is probably premature and very likely erroneous. Just because this was likely committed by youths does not mean that they had no anti-Semitic reason behind their selected target. Allowing this to be dismissed as simply youths and the boys will be boys reason is nothing less than sloughing off any responsibility for actual investigation of the motives of the perpetrators and where allowing such could lead to far worse intents in the future. Big and serious problems come when the smaller problems are ignored allowing for a feeling of invulnerability and that such actions are permissible as long as they are targeting Jews and their house of worship. And what if next they shoot the windows of the homes of the Jews in Lima, Ohio, will that also be mere horseplay by excitable youths?

 

Temple Beth Israel-Shaare Zedek Synagogue

 

If only the above were a one-off, but we all know that is not the case. The problem of anti-Semitism, as much as most American Jews wish to push from their minds, is a fact that is at the starting point and how far it will reach is dependent on what the general public will allow and how much it is ignored by the body of the Jewish communities. If as Jews in and of America the reaction to such events is to simply report them and forget them and refuse to make a fuss or a big deal telling themselves that they should not make a mountain out of a mole hill and other submissive postures; then the public at large will take the view that if the Jews are not upset and have not protested with any vehemence, then why should we worry or even care, obviously it is no big deal, right? We have an example of what follows when we as Jews do not look out for ourselves and draw the public’s full attention to the fact that our building, our holy and precious building, was the sole religious house of worship so targeted and that this is not something which as Jews we can take lightly. As long as we are throwing around trite sayings, it just begs for us to add, from the little acorn does the mighty oak grow. Similarly, it is from the mischief and then the small little slights that are the prerequisite from where persecution inevitably will follow.

 

Now allow us to turn to where our, as Jews, disregarding the growing threat of anti-Semitism and claiming that all the anti-Semitism was from a small minority on the far right, of which has become the new term, the alt-right. Well, anti-Semitism has come full blown to the Democrat Party and as far removed from the alt-right, except for the Nazis which the Islamists not only admired, but plan on emulating in order to finish what they started, and they were elected to the United States Congress. Yes, the anti-Semitism which Jews have largely ignored and claimed could never happen in America have come to mainstream America. The college and university campuses have in too many instances become dangerous for Jews to wear any identifying clothing or jewelry and when a Jew is found out, they are demanded to denounce Israel. In all too many cases, these efforts to denounce Israel are backed and supported by Jews, so how can others be denied the right to demand that Israel be singled out for condemnation and brought low through the BDS Movement, a group which far too many young Jews have come to support simply because all the right and popular other kids are doing the Israel is the only evil in the world meme and I want to be in the in-group. These young Jews do not realize that siding with those who wish to persecute Israel will eventually come to persecute all Jews and they will start with the ones closest at hand, the Jews supporting their hatred of the Jewish State. Israel was not there the last time that the Jews needed a place to run and hide, though they could have attempted to make it to Israel past the British blockade of Jews escaping to the Holy Land, as the British caved to Arab demands. The people supporting BDS are in reality supporting the original Arab boycott of Israel and thus supporting the same people who denied the Jews a place to which they could have escaped the Nazis. It was the Mufti of Jerusalem Haj Amin al-Husseini who spent World War II in Berlin and the Balkans where he organized Muslim battalions for the Nazis who persecuted Serbs, Jews, Christians and others in the Balkans as well as making regular radio calls for the Arabs to rise up against the British, and often also the Jews, across the Middle East and North Africa. He was also instrumental with the start of the Arab boycott of Israel and numerous other anti-Semitic acts. His call for the Arabs to leave the Jewish State such that the invading Arab armies could simply ride in and murder everyone they encountered as only the Jews would remain. This is what was largely responsible for the start of the Arab refugee problem as over half of a million Arabs heeded his call and left their homes and fled to Jordan, Egypt (in the Sinai), Lebanon and Syria. The Mufti was Yasser Arafat’s mentor and role model as well as for Mahmoud Abbas who emulates Arafat.

 

Mufti of Jerusalem Haj Amin al-Husseini
in His One of Many Personal Meetings
with the Führer Adolf Hitler

 

Looking at the recent results of the elections in the United States, we find some peculiarly disturbing results. There is Ilhan Omar, whose tweets and comments have already earned her a rebuke from Nancy Pelosi (we are agreeing and with Ms. Pelosi); Rashida Tlaib, the individual who wrapped herself in the Palestinian flag at a victory party; Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez whose hate for Israel likely has blurred into less than warm feelings for Jews generally (though her lack of knowledge on virtually everything may account for some of her bias); all need be added to those already in the Congress who are critical of Israel and are accommodating of Louis Farrakhan and other anti-Semites which includes but is not limited to Maxine Waters, Barbara Lee, Danny Davis, Andre Carson, Gregory Meeks, and Al Green. Ms. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota tweeted out in November 2012 “Israel has hypnotized the world, may Allah awaken the people and help them see the evil doings of Israel.” Then, Ms. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez had her infamous interview where she was questioned about her statements against Israel and her support for the BDS Movement where she laughingly stated that she knew little if anything about the political and other facts about the Arab-Israeli conflict stating she was not an expert on international affairs using ignorance as her excuse proving that her hate for Israel was blind and without any substantive basis which is a sign that her disturbing views about Israel were more likely a result of anti-Semitism. Ms. Rashida Tlaib insisted that she wore traditional Palestinian gown for her swearing-in ceremony on Capitol Hill. She has stated that she favors a one-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, as opposed to a two-state solution that would establish a Palestinian state alongside Israel, and the state would be an Arab state where the Jews would have limited, if any, rights.

 

Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

 

When one adds in the likes of Bernie Sanders and the other far left Social-Democrats and one starts to see a picture where Israel is once again singled out as the central problem with the world, then one begins to see the whole picture and the anti-Semitism hiding behind the rhetoric. This is nothing different from the blood-libel that the Jews are behind every calamity in the world, the Jews are responsible for the wars so they can make money, the Jews brought this plague upon us poisoning the wells, the Jews only crave money and the entire litany of tropes from across history with which hatred and persecution of the Jews originated all the way back to Egypt with the pharaohs and Persia with Haman. The rise of anti-Semitism in the world in general and in the United States is a troubling series of events. Allowed to continue unchallenged will result in a world turned against Israel where Israel will have no allies. It is this end that makes the rise in anti-Semitism and the recent vote where the anti-BDS legislation where six of the seven leading candidates for the Democratic nomination for president voted against the bill is telling and the story is not pretty. The days of bi-partisan support for Israel are gone and the future paints a troubling picture when the sole democracy in the Middle East is targeted while such places as Iraq, Syria, Libya and Iran as well as outside the Middle East also North Korea and the other nations with dismal human rights records such as Saudi Arabia (Jamal Khashoggi murder), Yemen, China, Turkey and the rest of the usual suspects are ignored and given a pass, but Israel is the main problem in the world. As if the United Nations was not enough, as if the Group of 77 electing Palestine and Mahmoud Abbas to lead their delegation in the United Nations and before the world was not enough, as if the European Union building fake communities without any permits or utilities just to steal Israeli designated lands in Area C were not enough, as if the Human Rights Council passing an anti-Israel motion at the start of every meeting were not enough, as if the Durban anti-Israel and anti-Semitic conferences were not enough and we could probably continue this for another few pages and make it a Hagaddah for a new future celebration of how we survived the next persecution which surely will come once the United States decides that Israel is a burden too far and the Jews are the reason for all their problems. We know that most will laugh and claim that these are simply exceptions to the support for Israel. That too was the reason not to worry. Anti-Semitism usually grows and rarely shrinks. Claim that our warnings are based on little but a puff of smoke and we will add one last trite saying, where there is smoke there is usually fire. The times where being a Jew outside of Israel becoming a threatened identity are coming, maybe not immediately, maybe not all too soon, but things will continue to accelerate unless the Jews demand that this time they are not going to remain silent. But as good Democrats and supporters of the underclass and downtrodden, the Jews will allow the hatred to grow because it will not be them who will be sought and taken out, it will only be those other Jews, the bad Jews; we who are completely in tune with the correct and human rights side are safe, and just keep telling yourself that until it is too late. When that time comes and you realize that you are threatened and in deep trouble, pray that Israel has survived, as you will have nowhere else to run.

 

Beyond the Cusp