Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks is not only right on target, but voicing warnings just in time and, if anything, not quite broad enough in his warnings by leaving out the United States. Still, the warnings by Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks will fall on deaf ears except for those looking to fashion a strawman to destroy and ridicule by taking excerpts of his speech recently given at a conference in Herzliya where the most quoted line has been, “Jews have been faced with a choice: live in Europe and criticize Israel or be silent – or leave Europe.” These words likely were close to the warnings given by Ze’ev Jabotinsky in the middle of the 1930s to his fellow Jews in Eastern Europe where he too warned that Jews should, “vacate Europe before Europe vacates you.” The first and foremost thing Jews must learn in this the Twenty-First Century as per the Gregorian Calendar and not to be compared to the Hebrew Calendar which is in year 5775, is that anti-Semitism has again morphed into yet another form, anti-Zionism and anti-Israelism. Just as everything else has taken on new paradigms far more rapidly and continue to change, react, amend, adjust or simply seek a new name once the older names have been successfully attacked or revealed for the venomous toxin that it actually is, traditional anti-Semitism has taken repeatedly new avenues of assault on the Jews and Israel which all failed until they found the message which fits like Cinderella’s foot into the glass slipper but resembles more Cinderella’s wicked step sisters.
Anti-Semitism has a new face which has shapeshifted more times in the last twenty or so years than any other period of its horrific history. Perhaps a quick trip through the former faces of anti-Semitism from what has become its traditional and accepted definition on through its face changes and alterations will serve to set the direction of the various forms of anti-Semitism today and its most dangerous facets we face today. Throughout most of history anti-Semitism had one familiar face we could easily understand and which was sufficient to define anti-Semitism for over two-thousand years. So attached have the Jews and their surrounding society come to this simple definition, and sold on its validity, that they have allowed that mantle to be stolen by the Arab Palestinians in their war to eradicate Israel, as well as the remaining Jews worldwide. The traditional face of anti-Semitism, and the most recognizable form, has become the sole definition much of the world is willing to recognize. In ancient Egypt the original forms of anti-Semitism were forged through the centuries of oppressions. Back then it was simple, the Jews were the hated other who, because of their growing numbers, could from within the society cause its downfall so it was best to enslave them and thus gain complete control over them. This was the earliest face of anti-Semitism and a face we need remember, the face of the outsider whose great strength through numbers and potential, if not actual, military abilities if used against the Egyptians might assist an enemy to overwhelm and destroy Egypt. The face of the Jews, or Hebrews, Israelites, was that of a threat and thus anti-Semitism took the face of military might which potentially could upset any balance of power. This face lasted for close to a thousand years and was only put to sleep by the Roman Empire. There too the Jews were a military threat which might destroy the might of Rome from within as was proven by the near and actual success the Jews had had in their revolts against Roman rule which had thrown off the Roman yoke once and had almost a second time which had to be stopped, thus the Romans diffused their strength simply by dispersing the Jews to the far corners of the Roman Empire for two reasons; first to weaken the numbers of Jews in any one group blunting their military might and second to destroy their identity such that the Jew would fade into history eventually becoming just one additional insignificant set of tribes which history had swallowed.
The Roman dispersion led to the next face of anti-Semitism, the hatred of the other, the minority which acted oddly and had strange customs which they practiced almost in secretive meetings or in their homes always wary of prying eyes and always still the threat posed by the other in the larger society’s midst. This was the face of anti-Semitism in the entirety of Europe and the lands around the Mediterranean Sea which became the Ottoman Empire starting with the fall of Constantinople in May of 1453 thus bringing the collapse of the Eastern Roman Empire, also called the Byzantine Empire. Anti-Semitism then became split taking two very similar but definitively separate paths which would lead to the faux division in Judaism between the Ashkenazi Jews of Christian Europe and the Sephardim Jews who originated mostly in Spain under the rule of the Muslims who called the areas Andalusia, a name still used by Muslims adding it to Israel in order to blunt the valid claims of anti-Semitism when listing lands which must be returned to Islamic rule as they were once under Islam and thus must always remain under Islam. The Sephardim often was used to describe any Jew residing within Islamic lands and even including the Mizrahi Jews, Jews who resided in the Middle East never having lived in Europe, often depicted as the Ottoman Empire as it had taken the title of Caliphate despite their not ruling over all of the Arabian Peninsula nor over Persia (Iran) or the rest of the non-Arab Islamic lands reaching from Afghanistan to the Philippines. Despite the two largely separated Jewish entities, their treatments were very much the same under Christian and Islamic Rule. Both faced persecutions which forced them to pick their most cherished items, place them on a cart and, if among the fortunate, hook the cart to a draft animal (anything from a horse to a mule to even a cow) or taking the straps on oneself and leave trudging along until having put distance between themselves and the raging hordes finding some new and hopefully easier life starting anew. Under both the Jew faced limited or no recourse legally, was considered a second class (Dhimmi) citizen if permitted citizenship at all, was subjected to mistreatment and having items stolen often during the various pogroms, purifications, inquisitions, and forced conversions upon pain of death. Oddly, when life was near impossible under the Christians the Jews under Islam usually fared well and during times of great persecution and forced conversions under Islam making life unbearable or worse in the Islamic world, the Jews under Christianity had a better life. This imbalance has led to numerous false comparisons used to claim the Jews lived any better or worse life under the Muslims or the Christians.
This dichotomy continued until the Ottoman Empire, or what remained of it and had not been turned into a French, British or Italian colony, joining the losing side of World War I. World War I was a vital event in history as it was the war of Empires where the German Empire, Austria-Hungarian Empire and Ottoman Empire allied and became known as the Central Powers, while the British Empire, French Empire, Russian Empire, the Japanese and the Italians who were joined subsequently by the United States who formed the Entente Powers. The Jews were caught on both sides of this war and armies fighting along the trench warfare in Europe or the war across the shifting sands and barren terrain of the Middle East, the fighting often contained Jews on both sides shooting towards each other. The fact that the Jews did not band together to form a separate entity and fight on whichever side they chose and instead remained loyal to the nations or empire in which they lived put to lie a common claim leveled against Jews throughout history of being a threat and unfaithful citizen more dedicated to their Jewishness than to the parent nation in which they resided and thus untrustworthy and a threat yet these same hypocrites gave the Jews no credit subsequently either in World War II or after the forming of Israel and its War of Independence across the Islamic or Christian worlds. After World War I and partially due to the recognition of the past mistreatment of the Jews virtually in every corner of the globe, the British Foreign Secretary Arthur James Balfour acting on his earlier November 2, 1917 letter to Walter Rothschild, 2nd Baron Rothschild, stating the need for the formation of a home for the Jews as their Zionist Movement was demanding since the formation of the First Zionist Congress was established in 1897 had begun to work on the dream of Theodor Herzl, who chaired this Congress, for the return of the Jews to Eretz Yisroel, their ancient homelands that the Balfour Declaration was made in 1917 and was subsequently included word-for-word in the Sèvres peace treaty with the Ottoman Empire, the Mandate for Palestine and the San Remo Conference which itself was accepted by the Allied powers who incorporated the San Remo document into the Versailles Treaty as well as being adopted unanimously by the League of Nations which led to its inclusion in the United Nations Charter under Article 80 as well as the San Remo Conference being one of the stipulations of the Anglo-American Treaty of 1924 stipulating the United States support for the Balfour Declaration formalizing their acceptance and support for a Jewish State to be formed and the British Mandate as the vehicle for that formation. Finally in Mid-May of 1948 that Jewish State was formed. What was surprising is that many of the world leaders who originally and even today supported this movement and the State of Israel it begat did so because they believed in the Bible and that the Jews had been promised through a covenant with Hashem to receive the lands and that it was a holy act to assist in furthering the goal of establishing Israel. It made little difference that for the large part the Zionist movement was a secular movement, they supported it because of religious beliefs.
One might have thought that the formation of Israel and their subsequent surviving the assault by seven Arab Armies would have cemented the inviolable Jewish State and thus lead to better treatment of the Jews who remain outside of Israel in the Diaspora, but that was not the case. There had been numerous cases in Europe in the aftermath of World War II and despite the revealing of the horrific deprivations of the Holocaust and the subjugation and attempted genocidal removal of Jews, Roma, the mentally infirm, political opponents, Christians who spoke against the Nazis and anybody else considered unnecessary or inferior as the Holocaust was the result of the application of the theory of Eugenics taken to its most extreme. Eugenics was a theory which stated that the human race could be perfected through proper breeding and the elimination of those unable to provide for their own needs including the mentally infirm, the physically handicapped, Jews, non-Caucasians, political enemies, deviants of all kinds and anybody else deemed a danger to the perfection of society. These situations which were mostly ignored or covered up came out of an uncomfortable situations which arose as a result of the extermination of the Jews and others considered unfit to be included in the future of the world by the Nazis. When some survivors returned to their home towns they often found that there was another family living in what had been their house, operating their shops and that their place in their home town had been erased and then replaced. In some instances upon the return of the Jews to their towns and cities they were rounded up and disposed of rather than deal with the situation. These cases solved what was an embarrassing situation by turning it into a horrific situation and then simply disposed of the damning evidence and life returned to normal as if nothing had transpired. Some Jews were fortunate enough to have heard of these events and thus either started their life over from scratch or attempted to go to the lands under the British Mandate and be a part of the formation of the Jewish State. This caused them to run into another problem. The British were refusing to permit any mass emigration from war-torn Europe by Jews into the British Mandate lands as they had made an agreement with the Arabs that they would take all steps to assure the Jews not only never were permitted sufficient numbers for a majority but that they would remain an insufficient minority unable to make their Jewish state thus allowing the Arabs to not suffer the humiliation a Jewish State in the middle of the Arab world would cause. This was simply another form of anti-Semitism and possibly the first real effort to by policy commit oneself to applying an anti-Zionist agenda and in the open by the very people charged with facilitating the formation of the State of Israel. Eventually Israel was formed, the British left, the Jews poured into the land and today Israel is a shining example of what can be accomplished with effort and determination even in a state of constant threat of warfare and under the brutal and persistent assault by terrorists and proxy state actors financed and even trained by Iran amongst others.
Moving to the present, let us look to the latest transmogrification of anti-Semitism giving it a face almost unrecognizable from the traditional forms of anti-Semitism from throughout History. This all boils down to the Arab and Islamic desires to eliminate Israel using human rights and Palestinian suffering despite the majority of that suffering being self-imposed and not about their reforming their lost homeland. The Arab Palestinians have taken the slant as being the injured peoples whose lands were stolen by colonialists who now practice abject racism so severe as to deserve the title of Apartheid and are always just mere moments away from engaging in ethnic cleansing and genocide on a massive scale rivalling that of the Nazis, who they claim the Jews most resemble, while robbing the poor, unfortunate and helpless ‘Palestinians’ who are suffering vile oppressive policies which have caused a humanitarian crisis where their people are on the verge of suffering the worst human rights indignities and violations in the history of mankind, even worse and more of a threat than the Jews have ever known or suffered. The Arab efforts to destroy the Jewish State of Israel did not begin in 1948 with the invasion of the nascent Israel immediately after their declaring statehood, no, not at all, we should have been so lucky. Their murderous efforts to murder the Jewish State began even before the San Remo Conference was held and before there was even a British Mandate set in place to form the Jewish State. It began with the onset of Theodore Herzl and his declaration defining the idea of Zionism and the return of the Jews from everywhere in the world to their ancient homelands. The first pogroms began in 1920 and have continued at varying levels ever since. This has truly become the case in modern times as many of the Arab riots are actually scheduled for certain days of the week or hours of the day or where directed to riot that will gain coverage by the media arranged often by European leftist organizers. European organizers, instigators, activists, antagonists and a thesaurus full of other descriptors all meaning European anti-Semites who have learned the best way to fight the Jews is to destroy Israel and the assimilated Jews in the Western World will intermarry and die off and take Judaism with them. This is the secret which almost everybody involved in the ‘Peace Process’ are completely aware of on the side opposing the existence of Israel under the guise of supporting the Palestinian desire for the establishment of their own homeland. They are also aware that the Arabs who make up the so-called Palestinians are actually Iraqis, Syrian, Saudis, Jordanians, Sudanese, Yemenites, Lebanese, Turkish and Egyptians just like Yasser Arafat, the presumed first Palestinian which says a lot all by itself.
The best kept secret is the secret kept in plain sight which anybody is able to discover with minimal effort which lies there unspoken because nobody actually cares about the truth when the story is so much more enticing when the lies are the sacred beliefs. The fact is that Yasser Arafat could have had his state instead of the Oslo Accords. He knew if he had asked for what are now Area A, Area B both in Judea and Samaria, and Gaza; but it has never been about a Palestinian State, it is about the existence of the Jewish State, Israel. It gets awful repetitive but until the truth becomes part of the discussion the only thing we are guaranteed are more needless sufferings and deaths. The Arabs were first offered a state beside Israel when Israel was formed with the Arabs receiving half the land and the best of the lands with almost two-thirds of the Jewish lands being the Negev Desert, a story we covered back in September 18, 2011 with an article titled “The Real Truth About the 1967 Borders, Israel, the Palestinians, and the Arab League” complete with a map and a short article compared to current writings. That was the partition plan which was unacceptable to the Arabs because the Jews got land as well instead of being permitted to live as Dhimmi second class serfs under their Arab masters. Arafat was offered what even United States President William Jefferson Clinton thought was what Arafat desired in Paris and Arafat walked out after shoving the papers sketching out the deal across the table and declared them unacceptable storming out to his waiting and engine running and driver holding its door open car. The reason President Clinton was so mistakenly sure the deal being offered was what Arafat wanted was simple, it was exactly what Arafat had demanded in private conference the day before and that President Clinton charmed Israeli Prime Minister Barak into giving Arafat everything President Clinton had believed Arafat desired when he had asked Arafat what would it take. Yasser Arafat could have saved the world so much wasted talent and efforts if he had simply come out and done the one thing he appeared to be incapable of doing, told the truth that the only thing he would accept was to sit in Jerusalem and view the corpse of the murdered state of Israel which then could do whatever it desired as long as it did not include Jews having self-rule even in an apartment building, let alone a nation of their own.
Yasser Arafat is gone and his protégé and second in command has taken the lead. Think of him as what he is, Arafat in a suit with a big smile that I feel is more of an evil grimace. That is about all that has changed along with the Cayman Island and Swiss bank account numbers where Abbas has stashed his likely billions of dollars, or maybe Euros. There is the construction company that Abbas is favorable to which is run by his three sons. They seem to get tons of contracts to build things which are paid for lavishly but ground is never broken, let alone two bricks laid one upon the other. Graft begins in the family, right? Abbas smiles because he knows his game of deceit will never be taken apart and the truth dragged from his tortured lips, as telling the truth would surely set his soul on fire as it would be a first which it likely be unable to handle. He lies to the west claiming he wants peace with Israel all the time defining peace for Israel as a final peace for Israel and every Jew within. He lies to the Arab Palestinians when he claims that he will get them their longed for victory over the Jews and they will be given the riches of Tel Aviv and the treasures the Jews are hoarding and keeping from them and that it is the Jews who have stolen their funding for building better schools, hospitals and roads. He never tells them about all the moneys he has stolen and the food and clothing and housing and infrastructure and a better and healthier life for all that his graft he and his ruling unelected cabal have stolen right out of their mouths. He lies to the Arab nations when he calls for their support and funding to help the unfortunate Palestinians in the refugee camps in the West Bank and Gaza which begs another question, why are there Arab Palestinians kept in refugee camps in the areas under Arab Palestinian autonomy? We all witnessed the concern the Arab Palestinian leadership has for their fellow Arab Palestinians when they did absolutely nothing, not a single word of protest, not one demand for the world to step in a save them, not a single offer to take them into the Arab Palestinian areas, not even the whisper of a care when the Arab Palestinian Yarmouk refugee camp was overrun by ISIS and they were slaughtering Arab Palestinians because they did not consider the Arab Palestinians to be the right kind of Muslims. Of course it did not help that the Arab Palestinians supported Bashir al-Assad at the start of the Syrian catastrophe.
But Abbas and cabal need not worry as their secrets and lies are safe as they are the same secrets and lies the Europeans tell themselves. Abbas and too many in Europe believe the world should be rid of the Jew but as the better people they claim they only have problems with Israel. The Europeans want their Jews gone and they want them permanently dealt with and the Arab Palestinians are the perfect choice to support to achieve that goal. Europe can only hide their discontent for so long before the glossy cover of civility begins to tear and the raging beast of Jew hatred escapes into full view and then they quickly patch together their armor of correctness and claim no harm no foul, but there is harm and they know that as they perpetrate it at every turn, and the new anti-Semitism is anti-Zionism or anti-Israel politics. Daniel Bernard in 2001 while attending a party in a posh London event as French Ambassador to the United Kingdom was heard to state,
“All the current troubles in the world are because of that shitty little country Israel. Why should the world be in danger of World War III because of those people?”
Then there was the conversation between Sarkozy and Obama during the G-20 conference in Cannes in 2011 where the following was overheard through an open microphone, if I remember correctly,
French President Sarkozy said: “Netanyahu, I can’t stand him. He’s a liar.”
United States President Obama snapped back, “You are sick of him, but I have to work with him every day.”
These are just snippets of items overheard when the individuals believed they were amongst like-minded people and thus safe or alone and not realizing they were able to be heard and thus spoke freely. These little examples from amongst the elite and presumed cultured leaders of European society and these are their exact feelings according to themselves without any varnish or taint by anybody else. If this is how the leadership of Europe feels towards the Jewish nation, how can they be trusted to safeguard the Jews within their borders when they likely have little to no desire to do more than put on a show and curse the necessity to protect those peoples. Just as Ze’ev Jabotinsky before warned, “vacate Europe before Europe vacates you,” Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks warned, “Jews have been faced with a choice: live in Europe and criticize Israel or be silent – or leave Europe.”
Beyond the Cusp
Beyond the Cusp 