"Why was the Torah given on a mountain called Sinai? Because of the great sinah- the tremendous hatred- that emanated onto the nations of the world from there" (Tractate Shabbos 89)
Tom Lehrer's folksong "National Brotherhood Week" says:
Oh the Protestants hate the Catholics,
and the Catholics hate the Protestants,
and the Hindus hate the Moslems
and everybody hates the Jews.
Anti-semitism is the most virulent and deeply-rooted forms of hatred and is commonplace in every single culture and religion. It has an amazing way of transforming itself to suit each new age or epoque and to make itself a part of each new ideology or paradigm. In the ancient world, the Jews were thought to be xenophobic, intolerant of pagan religions. Judaism, and the moral code that it espoused, were hated by the promiscuous and immoral societies which surrounded it.
Christians made anti-semitism an integral part of their theology as well. Their god was a Jew, based himself on Jewish scriptures and aimed his message at the Jews- and yet they rejected him! In retaliation, Jesus tells his worshippers “Behold I will make them of the synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews and are not but do lie; behold I will make them to come and worship before thy feet...” (Revelation 3.9) The strongest homilies against the Jews are found in the writings of "Saint" John Chrysostom who writes: "The Jews are the most worthless of all men. They are lecherous, rapacious, greety. They are perfidious murderers of C. They worship the Devil. Their religion is a sickness. The Jews are the odious assassins of C and for killing God there is no expiation possible, no indulgence or pardon. Christians may never cease vengeance, and the Jew must live in servitude forever. G-d always hated the Jews. It is essential that all Christians hate them." The Church was furious at how the Jews who were very knowledgeable and learned in Scriptures rejected "their" messiah who was so evidently alluded to by the prophets. They charged that G-d replaced the Jewish people and the Church was the "New Israel". The Church spilled rivers of Jewish blood across the centuries during the Crusades, Inquistions, pogroms, expulsions and Holocausts. Even the Protestant reformers continued Christinity's legacy of hatred and judeophobia. Martin Luther, who protested much of Catholic doctrine, was on common ground with the Pope concerning the Jews. Martin Luther, father of Protestantism and whom these "Hebrew" Christian orgnaizations will never condemn, recommended harsh measures to deal with "this rejected and condemned people". "First, to set fire to their synagogues or schools and to bury and cover with dirt whatever will not burn, so that no man will ever again see a stone or cinder of them." He advocated forbidding the rabbis to teach, burning the Talmud and synagogues and many cruel methods to destroy the Jews.
In the Islamic world, although Jews do not play as heavily in their theology as in Christianity, the Jews were still seen as an accursed people who had incurred the wrath of Allah. Muhammad originally ordered Muslims to pray towards Jerusalem and to fast on Yom Kippur, in the hopes that the Jews accept him as a prophet. When they refused, Muhammad changed the direction of prayer towards Mecca and imposed many restrictions on the Jews. Muhammad claimed that the Jews rebelled against their prophets, were arrogant, miserly, rejected and lying hypocrites. The fatiha, Islam's most basic prayer, beseeches Allah to guide Muslims to "the straight path", "not (the path) of those upon whom Thy wrath is brought down", the Jews. The Jews were not necessarily to be killed (though that featured in eschatological beliefs) but to be humilated, subjugated and demeaned.
When religion lost its influence, anti-semitism did not disappear but took on a new form- racial hatred. Where the Jew could once be saved by simply converting to another faith, the new anti-semitism held that the Jew was of an inferiour race and sought to pollute the pure Aryan race. He was a parasite and had to be dealt with accordingly. This perverted belief led to the death of 6 million Jews in the fires of the Holocaust, as the world stood silent.
Today, except for in the Islamic world, the belief that Jews are 'C-killers' is not acceptable. In public discourse, no legitimacy is given to the idea of the inferiour semitic race. However, anti-semitism is far from gone. The traditional anti-semitism of the past has been replaced with the rabid anti-Zionism that is evident in the world's hatred of the Jewish State. While in public one will not hear 'Death to the Jews' (except of course by the Muslims), the call of 'Death to the Zionists' is acceptable and is even made in mainstream universities. Instead of killing Christian babies to use their blood in matzot, Israeli soliders murder Arab children indiscriminately. No longer plotting world domination by the Elders of Zion, the US is a pawn of Israel and went to war to protect its interests.
Anti-Zionism is a deadly new form of anti-semtism and one that has intense legitimacy in the eyes of the elitist left. Anti-Zionism is the denial of a homeland to an entire nation simply because they are Jews. It is also the legitimization of the murder of Jews in Israel by painting Israel as a colonialist apartheid state. If the Jews are invaders, the natives have every right to use any means to repel them. In this vein, the anti-Zionist shrugs when he hears that Jews have been blown to shreds in a bus bombing or a toddler shot in the head by an Arab murderer, just as the world responded apathetically to the news that entire communities were being shot or gassed in Europe. Israel is expected to remain calm in the face of overwhelming hatred and constant attacks and to never retaliate, for fear of using "disproportionate force", as if a country can only kill 5 enemies if 5 of its citizens have been killed.
Every time the anti-Zionist clamours about Israeli "apartheid" practices or "war crimes", he is wishing to see the smoke rising from the chimneys of Auschwitz (G-d forbid). When he speaks about "Palestinian" "resistance", he is getting ready for the Final Solution to the Zionist Problem. Do not be fooled! Despite his slick and articulate words and flowery talks of peace and freedom, he remains a wolf in lamb's clothing. "Thine enemies are in an uproar; and they that hate Thee have lifted up the head. They hold crafty converse against Thy people, and take counsel against Thy treasured ones. They have said: 'Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation; that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance.' For they have consulted together with one consent; against Thee do they make a covenant; The tents of Edom and the Ishmaelites; Moab, and the Hagrites; Gebal, and Ammon, and Amalek; Philistia with the inhabitants of Tyre; Assyria also is joined with them; they have been an arm to the children of Lot." (Psalm 83) They plot the destruction of the Jewish people!
Anti-Zionism must not be given forum to speak and anti-Zionists must not be given liscence to spread their hateful poison. It is in essence a rationalization for genocide (G-d forbid). One cannot claim to be pro-"Palestine" and pro-Israel at the same time because "Palestine" is merely a euphemism for the wholesale slaughter of the Jewish people. And to that I say: 'Never Again!'
Cross-posted from For Zion's Sake
