A "new" anti-Semitism
Dovid Katz

A Synagogue burns down. Jews are viciously attacked. Sounds vaguely familiar to pre-Holocaust Europe. Well it is not and is happening in the "liberal" country of France. In the U.S., university campuses are saturated with anti-Semitic protests. These incidents along with a gunpowder keg of anti-Semitism across to world waiting to explode raises a serious question which needs to be discussed. Why? What is special about our times that we are facing such an upsurge of anti-Semitism?

To the narrow minded individual the answer is a relatively trivial one. He Exclaims, the State of Israel is the root of all new anti-Semitism. The treatment of "Palestinians" fuels the new fires of anti-Semitism. If only, the settlements did not exist. If only, Israel took a humanitarian and a more Jewish approach to dealing with the "Palestinians". Then and only then would anti-Semitism be a fear of the past.

If only, people were not so ignorant. Perhaps if one were blind to Jewish History could he concoct such a suicidal solution. I only say perhaps because the nature of national conflicts dictate quite the opposite results. Let us examine a current conflict. The Albanian and Serbian war. Obviously a conflict of a different nature but sufficient enough for our comparison. When Serbians were alleged to have massacred villages of Albanians did a anti-American Serbian cloud overshadow the United States. Did we see University protests proclaiming "Kill the Serbian"? Were American-Serbian churches torched and attacked? Of course not. What we did see was pro-Albanian protests directed at the Serbs in Serbia not the Serbs in America. I recall incidents of Albanians attacking Serbians in New York but certainly not the Italians attacking the Serbs. The Struggle in Israel seems to produce a very different result. We seem to see such a United world front on anti-Semitism. If our naive friend is right, anti-Semitism should be limited at most to the middle east and to Arabs, yet that is not the case.

I would like to propose a more pragmatic solution to our question. The State of Israel has little to do with the new tidal wave of anti-Semitism. Israel definitely does not cool the coals of anti-Semitism but it has to be made clear that Israel is not at the core of anti-Semitism. There is no new anti-Semitism! The same anti-Semitism that existed during World War II exists today. Funny, how the Europeans as a whole did practically nothing to stop the slaughter of six million Jews and today they are the biggest critics and enemies of Israel (aside from the Arabs). After World War II the Jew hater rested for a few years before continuing his war on the Jews. There are two reasons for this. First he felt guilt (as minimum as it was) on his support of the annihilation of Jews. Second logically the need to keep pushing anti-Jewish ideas and programs seemed ridiculous. The tiny Jewish nation was now six million short. The survivors that were left were emaciated and broken with nothing more then shredded shirts on there backs. Of this nothing will come out, the anti-Semite proclaimed. Who could doubt him; peoples families were wiped out, no food, no country to return to. In simple terms they had nothing. How could one expect differently? However G-d had different plans for the Jews and sixty years later they stand taller and prouder then ever. The Jews now have returned home to Israel. They have there own army. Their own country and more and more Jews dedicating themselves to Torah. Does that make sense? Is it logical? No, It is plainly God's plan.

This plan infuriates the anti-Semite; he thought he had destroyed the Jews, now again he must form new tactics on how to defeat the Jews. It occurs to him that he had failed sixty years ago. Now all the Jewish hate which has been suppressed exposes itself in full view. Anti-Semitism now takes the form of "Pro-Palestinian" not because the world is sympatric to "Palestinians" rather because the Jew is the enemy of the Palestinian. Had the Palestinian cause ceased to exist, anti-Semitism would take the form of "Jews control Capital Hill" and campaigns would be made against the Jew that they control everything and we must rid ourselves of the "Jewish problem."

The Jew must always remember that our enemies still exist. Perhaps under different names and causes but still here and waiting patiently for the opportunity to obliterate us from the world. Let us not allow that to happen and know clearly who is our enemy and who is our friend.

The CFPA will always be a friend of Israel and of the Jewish people.

27 Nov. 2003