In the midst of a scourge of anti-Semitic events and statements in the United States and throughout the world, there has emerged a growing number of challenges as well to the historical accuracy of the Holocaust. This is coupled at the same time with a continuing growth of anti-Israel sentiment.
It is not exclusively the rhetoric but the absurdity of those that are attacking Jews: a group that in 2019 consisted of 4.7 million individuals or 0.2% of the world’s population and approximately 2% of the population in the U.S. No one is perfect or flawless and the State of Israel like all Governments deserves to be criticized when they conduct their affairs of state irresponsibly. The blatant hatred of Jews for existing as a faith and ethnic group and the attacks on Israel for being a legitimate political entity is inexcusable. As the late Professor Robert Wistrich, the renowned historian, wrote: anti-Semitism is “the longest hatred.”
Since significant numbers of Jews returned to the Holy Land beginning in the middle of the 19th Century and especially in the 1920’s and 1930’s, the Jewish-Zionist experiment has been undermined and condemned by political and intellectual forces from all parts of the world. The return to Zion which was initially sanctioned and encouraged by the British Government, quickly fell under attack by the Arabs in Palestine and throughout the region. Had the Holocaust not occurred, it is by no means a foregone conclusion that a State of Israel would have ever been tolerated or even come into being.
That the current emergence of anti-Semitism and anti-Israel activity has occurred is not surprising. History is replete with these types of attacks. Jews have had to deflect and counter such behavior as it emerged from all political and cultural quarters. What is troubling about the extent of anti-Semitic incidents is that they are growing and that the leaders of the world are not motivated to make anything more than incidental condemnation of such activities. Anti-Semitism and anti-Israel speech is spewing forth from the political right and political left; in the West and in the Far East; from scholars and public intellectuals. The irrational hatred of the anti-Semites does not even evoke outcries from world religious leaders. In the face of this accelerating barrage of attacks world leaders issue verbal slaps on the wrists and hope that this recurrence will quickly subside; but it never does.
On the other side, there is a growing change among Jews throughout the United States and around the world. In light of the Shoah and the emergence of a free democracy in Israel, Jews are not dealing with these events passively. It can be argued in fact that Jews could and should be doing more, but Jews today are not standing idly by or operating in denial as they did during World War II.
It remains to be seen how effectively Jews will be able to motivate a world that is consumed by the global pandemic and has no time to deal with merely human hatred. As was evident in many circles during the rash of murders against Blacks in 2020 largely by Whites and particularly from law enforcement officers, Americans expressed concern for the growing racism in the country, but it too was transitory. Extremism on the right and excesses on left undermined productive efforts to make real change as was expressed in the closeness of the 2020 elections.
The most alarming part of today’s anti-Semitism is how self-righteous its perpetrators are. There is a willingness to justify actions and statements. (Consider President Trump after Charlottesville or some of the members of the Squad after the 2018 election.) Large segments of the public just turn the page and move on or worse many just pile on, perpetuating vile messaging. This is true among politicians, diplomats, academics, intellectuals, and businesspeople as well as among all classes, races, and religions.
Jews and Israel will not and cannot afford to conduct business as usual. History has shown that the failure to respond to hatred of Jews is guaranteed to produce more of it. Jews learned a lesson after the killing of six million Jews by the Nazis and subsequently by the creation of the State of Israel. They must demand that the world respond and permit leaders to ignore reality and wait for this “phase” to pass.
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