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Anti-Semitism, the prejudice against or hostility toward Jews, has perniciously endured since the 4th Century Holy Roman Empire, coincident with the advent of Christianity. Its origin has been authoritatively attributed to the”obstinate” refusal of the Jewish people to convert to Christianity (See:”Constantine’s Sword” by the Catholic Priest, and religious historian, James Carroll.)
The universal and ubiquitous hatred of the Jews has manifested itself in various, temporally relevant forms since the time of the Holy Roman Empire, ranging from bizarre ideations such as drinking the blood \,of Christian children on the holiday of Passover (N.B. under Hebrew Dietary Law, it is forbidden to eat meat containung any small residue of blood) to being the cause of presenting plagues, dry wells and poor harvests. Jews have been slandered and caricatured as being usurers, or else powerful bankers, engaged in secretly manipulating World affairs, and, conversely, being Bolsheviks or Communists. The ubiquitous compendium of mythological and hateful ideations has been every bit as colorful and diverse as the temporal occurrence of natural disasters or the extent of ingenuity of the bigoted and reductive mind. Our maternal grandfather, a tailor living in pogrom-ridden White Russia in the early 20th Century, was prohibited from belonging to a trade guild because of his Jewish ethnicity (despite that, as advised, because of his skill, he was often engaged to make the official robes for local Russian Orthodox Priests.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt, during the period of the Holocaust, in response to the general sentiment of America, refused entry to a ship (see: the film, “Exodus”) and thereby sent to their certain execution, in German death camps more than 900 Jewish refugees from Germany’s death camps. Only too frequently, in the free and equal American Nation, Jews were denied entry to country clubs, institutions, various employment opportunities, and universities (N.B., including Harvard and Princeton).
The October 7, bloody and sadistically barbaric attack by Hamas was not only an unjustified and medievally cruel incursion into Israel, but served as an effective catalyst for a new and updated version of such ancient hatred of the Jews. The aggressors kidnapped Israelis and, as planned, retreated with them to previously constructed tunnels under the shield of the Palestinian hospitals; with the tactical consequence that the military response would, by empirical necessity, be wreaked against such hospitals, patients, and staff; thus, causing Israel, international abhorrence and moral disdain. Hamas, which knowingly lacked the military capability to destroy Israel, intended, by such a pathological tactic, to shield itself and, additionally, to cause Israel to suffer international disdain.
Hamas’ cold-blooded tactic was successful in thus securing the uniform condemnation of Israel (albeit, the victim of the attack by the aggressor, Hamas) for the unavoidable killing of innocent Palestinians. As the response continued, many Jewish Americans, including ourselves, became appalled by the extent of the right-wing Prime Minister’s (Natanyu’s) administration’s response.
The World was only too willing to express its opposition to what appeared to be an overresponse to Hamas’ unwarranted attack, despite the latter’s unjusdtified attack and sadistic cruelty to Israelis, ranging from rape to barbaric dismemberment of even the elderly and babies. We, ourselves, as Americans and Jews, vociferously opposed Netanyu’s apparent over-extensive bombing, resulting in the killing of many of Gaza’s innocent civilians.
Notably, the perceived excesses of the response, visited in part on the innocent Gaza population, supplied flamable kindling for the bonfire of anti-Semitism, which, as stated, was eternally in the stage of smoldering conflagration. Characteristically, rock-ribbed haters of the Jewish people were the perceptive beneficiaries of an opportunity to re-energize and promote their systemic hatred and spared no chance to do so. It is instructive to note the existence of systemically reductive conflation between Israelis and Jewish citizens of other countries. Indeed, as American citizens of Jewish ethnicity, we, and many others, spoke out against the excesses of Netanyahu’s response. However, it is empirically indisputable that reductive bigotry has little appetite for distinction; any conceivably identifiable victim will suffice.
The impact was especially disturbing and impactful on America’s University campuses, where, at times, young, inexperienced, or sophomoric idealism has empirically proven to exceed pragmatic reality, and has been fertile ground for incidents of student rebellion and demonstrations.
Such stereotype gains further impetus and energy when infused with the eternal subject of anti-Semitism. Huge student demonstrations against Israel’s excessive bombing of Gaza were conflated with an unjust perception relative to the general image and responsibility of American Jews; a short reductive leap for those who were inclined to bigotry regarding the thematically ethnically religious, non-Christian, “other.” Anti-Semitic, non-student inciters on the scene had fertile ground for the tactical planting of students’ sophomoric impressions.
The meme of “anti-Semitism” providentially afforded the Trump Administration and its sycophants with a disguised vehicle for their errant lust for authoritarian control; in this instance, relative to their reductive perception of the liberal inclination of the Nation’s institutions of higher learning, like Columbia University and Harvard. MAGA conspirators, who conceivably, never in their lifetimes, uttered the word or articulated the conceit of “anti-Semitism,” now, tactically employed the concept to disguise their malignant efforts to control University education as an integral part of their desire to achieve a fascist Nation. Donald J. Trump, an inveterate bigot and practiced charlatan, tried to disguise himself as a sympathetic replication of Anne Frank, in aid of his underlying intention to be a Mousellini.
We presume that the average, “dyed in the wool” antisemite received some measure of support for their adamant bigotry against Jews, based upon their erroneous faith in the faux merit of the Trump government’s falsely represented efforts to eliminate antisemetism.
-p.
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