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| The gate to Auschwitz, a WWII Nazi death camp |
By Alan Caruba
Mankind’s
capacity for hatred never fails to impress me. It is the source for the evils
of war, genocides, and the long litany of horrors. In the last century it
manifested itself with the Armenian genocide by the Turks, the Holocaust by the
Nazis, the inter-tribal massacres in Rwanda, and, of course, wherever you found
communism, you found also the deaths of millions.
There has
been a spate of articles regarding the rise of fascist groups in Europe and, in
February, the House Committee on Foreign Affairs held a hearing on the rise of
anti-Semitism, calling it not only a threat to Jews, but to other religious
minorities and the ideal of tolerance in general.
Anti-Semitism
ranks among the world’s oldest hatreds. It is endemic to Islam, but the hatred
of Christianity and all other religions is a pillar of faith in Islam whose
“holy war” is contributing so much unrest in the world today. Islam’s earliest
efforts to penetrate Europe were stopped in 732 at Poitiers, France and 1683
outside of Vienna. In 711, Muslims had invaded Spain and remained until they
were driven out seven centuries later. The Crusades to redeem Jerusalem were
conducted from 1095 to 1291.
The Jews
have always been a minority. The best estimates are that there are about
13,800,000 Jews in the world today and reportedly their numbers are declining.
It was big news in March when the Jewish population of Israel passed the
symbolic six million mark that was set by the Holocaust that killed a comparable
number in Europe during World War II.
The U.S.
formerly had the most Jews of those living outside of Israel, estimated at 5.5
million with two million in New York City. France has 500,000, mostly in Paris
and Canada has 380,000, mostly in Toronto. Founded in 1948, many of Israel’s
earliest citizens were Jews who were forced to flee from Middle Eastern nations
after it declared independence. Others were refugees from the Holocaust and,
later, Jews from Russia.
Still,
reports of anti-Semitic events and groups draw attention, but it is an
exaggeration to say that Europe is a hotbed of hatred for Jews. It has gained
momentum from the influx of Muslim immigrants from the Middle East and North
Africa, but there is nothing new about Islamic anti-Semitism and it had existed
in Europe for centuries.
It is
fascism, ultra-nationalism, in which anti-Semitism is a useful tool to advance
its aims by focusing, as Hitler did, on Jews as a threat; usually depicted as
“controlling” the banking system, the media, and the government. Always a
minority—in the emerging era of globalism that is absurd.
The United
Nations remains a hotbed of anti-Semitism, sometimes called anti-Zionism,
directed at Israel, but a glance at the map of the world reveals it is a very
tiny nation surrounded by Muslim enemies for whom it serves as a way to divert
their populations’ attention from the oppression that is endemic to its various
dictatorships and monarchies. Anti-Semitic propaganda rages throughout these
nations.
Recently,
the rise in Greece of a fascist organization, the Golden Dawn party, has drawn
attention. The extremist group is reportedly seeking to forge links with
British neo-Nazis and begun to open offices in Germany, Australia, Canada, and
the U.S. The success of Golden Dawn and similar groups will be linked to the
financial stability of these and other nations. Lacking that, all manner of
ills will escape from Pandora’s Box.
This is
not to suggest that anti-Semitism in Europe or anywhere else does not pose a
problem to the Jewish population wherever they live. I marvel that there are
small communities of Jews that still live in Islamic nations, as they do in
many other nations. The bulk, though, now live in Israel and in America.
Anti-Semitism
is a problem for the Jews and always will be. It becomes a problem and a
warning for others when it is used to advance fascism.
© Alan Caruba, 2013
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Romans 11
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