Monday, January 3, 2011

How Are the Jews Doing?

By Alan Caruba

Wondering how the world’s Jews are doing may seem a trivial question, but I have long thought of Jews as the proverbial canary in the coal mine. When events turn nasty in the world, it is the Jews who are most often its first victims.

If there is a rise in anti-Semitism worldwide it is, frankly, hard to detect from the constant, endless background noise from those who hate Jews full-time and would be utterly bereft of any purpose in life if there were no Jews.

Sadly, Christians in the Middle East are suffering attacks that have long been familiar to Jews throughout history and, these days, the Israelis. There is no room for live-and-let-live in that region of the world where the two Islamic sects, Sunni and Shia, do not hesitate to kill one another.

When one considers that the Iranian mullahs, desperately trying to construct their own nuclear weapons, have vowed to wipe Israel off the face of the map, inquiring as to the Jews’ welfare in general and Israelis in particular is not a trivial question. A nuclear attack could easily cascade into a general exchange of such weapons, a goal the mullahs actually want to trigger.

Thomas Cahill, an Irish author, said, "The Jew gave us the Outside and the Inside - our outlook and our inner life. We can hardly get up in the morning or cross the street without being Jewish. We dream Jewish dreams and hope Jewish hopes. Most of our best words, in fact - new, adventure, surprise, unique, individual, person, vocation, time, history, future, freedom, progress, spirit, faith, hope, justice - are the gifts of the Jews."

So, perhaps, in a way, we are all Jews.

In October 2010, my eye was caught by a speech by the press magnate, Rupert Murdoch, to the annual banquet of the Anti-Defamation League in New York. “We live in a world where there is an ongoing war against the Jews,” said Murdock.

This may be difficult for most Americans to comprehend because perhaps no where else in the world, other than Israel, have Jews not only prospered, but found a level of acceptance that is truly unique. In Israel, being a Jew is the ultimate definition of normality.

Murdoch, however, said that “conventional” anti-Semitism has largely failed, citing the wars against Israel since its founding in 1948. Now, said Murdock, Jews are the target of a “soft war that seeks to isolate Israel by delegitimizing it.”

This is going to be particularly evident when “Durban III”, a United Nations conference, takes place in September.

Originally called the “World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia, and Related Intolerance” the UN conference name was shortened to the “World Conference Against Racism.” Suffice to say, as with most things involving the UN, the conferences have been the exact opposite of their announced purpose.

The previous Durban conference in Geneva caused European delegates to walk out when Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian president, a keynote speaker, launched into a tirade against Israel and Jews. The Conference is recognized worldwide as a cesspool of anti-Semitism. In both conferences the hatred was directed against America as well as Israel.

Durban III will be held in New York!

It will be instructive to see if the U.S. government will send delegates to this hate fest or will officially and outspokenly protest and reject its message.

As Murdoch noted in October, there is a “curious situation we have today: Israel becomes increasingly ostracized, while Iran—a nation that makes no secret of wishing Israel’s destruction—pursues nuclear weapons loudly, proudly, and without apparent fear of rebuke.”

Murdoch said that anti-Semitism has found “a disturbing new home…in polite society, especially in Europe” and expressed concern that America was “distancing herself from the Jewish state.” He added that “the most virulent strains of anti-Semitism “come from the left”, often dressed up “as legitimate disagreement with Israel.”

He warned that Obama administration policies, generally called an outreach to the Muslim world, “Far from making peace more possible…are making hostilities more certain.”

The Iranian mullahs and their Syrian puppet have been supplying an enormous stash of rockets to Hezbollah, the Iranian's Palestinian entity in Lebanon, just as they fund and direct Hamas in Gaza. 2011 may well be a repeat of the 2006 hostilities and Israel will surely not repeat the mistakes that prolonged the last conflict.

So 2011 is yet another year in which to ask how are the Jews doing around the world.

The U.S. and its allies have been militarily engaging virulent Islamists since 9/11, but Islamist attacks predate that event by many years. The Islamist threat has spread to Europe and England, and remains active against America.

The Holocaust is a symbol and a warning of what happens when Jews or any other group is targeted for extermination. Death to America is chanted daily by some. Afterward, “genocide” entered the lexicon as the practice infected parts of Asia and Africa.

The Jews remain the most useful barometer to determine the advance or retreat of evil in the world.

© Alan Caruba, 2011

9 comments:

Wendell Malone said...

If the "proverbial canary in the coal mine" ever quits signing...the rest of us may very well soon go silent as well.

I don't think that most people in America will ever truly understand what the war on terror is really all about...until we are no longer safe in our own homes, here at home.

Most of us are too comfortable with our daily grind to care. That will change when the the Islamic Extremist bring the fight to our front doors.

Ronbo said...

@Alan:

Let's see: rising anti-Semitism, rising anti-Americanism, the rise of hate groups in the USA who have created camps in rural areas where they train with weapons to attack the police, the rise of an appeasement and isolationist bloc who command "hands off" of collectivists who advocate an overthrow of the republic, the rise of totalitarian dictators overseas who plan world war against the West_

Am I talking about the 1930s, or 2011?

LarryOldtimer said...

I am not Jewish, but I have had great friends who were. Intelligent and very nice people they were.

Islam is a rotten to the core "religion", and while I have also known Muslims who were very nice people, they were so afraid of the murderous thugs of Islam, they were not only afraid to speak out against against the wretched acts of those murderous Muslims, they felt that they had to give at least lip service to those foul and nasty people.

The fools in our government, beginning with the stupid president Jimmy Carter, keep saying that Israelis need to "negotiate" with the craven "Palestinians", Muslims who are banned from entering Arab countries, because they kill and maim those who would associate with them. So what are the Israelis to negotiate? The timing of and means by which they will be murdered?

Israel has always been a good ally of the US, the only ally the US has in that region of the Earth.

Yet, our foreign policy has been no more than an attempt to bribe the already corrupt "leaders" in Islamic controlled and other nations. I say "attempt" because the money is taken, but the bribery doesn't work. And the US has long since not only depleted the treasure we Americans once had, but gone into debt so great that it can never be repaid.

We, the Amerian people, have become undone, of our own doing, and I am afraid that the only option left is to stand with our actual allies, which are few indeed, and cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war.

TheJollyGreenMan said...

Hi Alan,

Happy New Year.

I liked your post, very true.

But how do you explain the loathing of Isreal amongst American Jews, even Steven Spielberg is distancing himself?

That I find most disturbing!

TheJollyGreenMan said...

Hi Alan,

Ok, maybe I am wrong, sorry about talking tripe, but, I thought that the end of the film Munich, was very anti-Israeli...

Alan Caruba said...

@JollyGreenMan: "Munich" was not about the Holocaust. It was about the killing of Israeli athletes during the Olympics held there and the Israeli retribution against the murderers.

Speilberg directed "Shindler's List", a different film.

LarryOldtimer said...

Anti-sematism in Europe has been growing apace. Members of the liberal intelligentsia follow Karl Marx. Hollywood whackos are whackos.

TheJollyGreenMan said...

Hi Alan,

Please note that I have seen a lot of Steven Spielberg's movies. I do consider myself fortunate to be living in an age where I can share the genius of such creativity 'almost as it happens'.

Let's get back to 'Munich'.

In the final scene in New York, with the refusal to share in a meal 'to break bread', I read as anti-Israeli. Sorry, but that was and still is the way I viewed that closing.

Joanna said...

Hi,
Happy New Year to all!!
I would like to say something about anti-semitism in Europe...
Jewish people were disliked, are disliked in Europe just like any nationality that is not "it"...
all the European countries and mentalities are very nationalistic!! The Germans hate French and can not stand Americans!, the French dislike everybody that does not eat brie and grapes..Poles dislike Rumanians, Czech dislike Slovacs, and Swedes are turning up their nose on rest of Europe...
the Jews were and are getting more attention because they were/are thrifty, smart, well educated and done in general much better than rest of the society they lived in...
very few people in Europe hate Jews because of their nationality, or religion...
....it is all about the old-fashioned greed and envy!!!