August 9, 2002

“A Revival of Hitler’s Madness”

A heart-broken father, whose son was murdered by Hamas in 1994, urged Israel on national American television to compromise and give the Palestinians what they want for peace. “Israel,” he said, “does not want peace.” I can subjectively empathize with anyone who has lost a child, especially a victim of vicious terrorism. But there is no excuse for a unilateral statement made before many willing ears to condemn Israel as the obstacle to peace.

Most everyone in Israel wants peace and Ariel Sharon, the so-called hard-line Prime Minister, has repeatedly given support to the establishment of a Palestinian state for the sake of peace, but Israel’s enemies want neither a state nor peace. Their mission is the genocidal end of Jews. Richard Bernstein writing in the New York Times exposes Europe’s growing hostility to Israel for what it is, anti-Semitism. His essay should be mandatory reading for every thinking person. Among the many sources he quotes is José Saramago, the Portuguese Nobel laureate, who said, “We can compare what is happening on the Palestinian territories with Auschwitz.” In another quote, Bernstein cites an editorial in The Guardian, a respected European newspaper, calling Israeli actions in Jenin “every bit as repellent” as the terrorist attacks of September 11th against the United States. This was after the United Nations, not known for its support of Israel, concluded that Palestinian accusations of massacres and atrocities in Jenin were unequivocally false.

Many of Europe’s intellectuals and writers have waited for an opportunity to justify European indolence at best or complicity at worst in active participation in the murder of six million Jews, and to put the shoe on the other foot, it’s the Jew who is a Nazi. Eli Wiesel wonders about those who compare Israelis to Nazis and tells Bernstein, “I ask myself, why do they hate Israel, which is, after all, the Jewish State, so much?” There can be no doubt as to the reason. It is the old anti-Semitism.

Jews making irresponsible accusations against Israel validate and exacerbate anti-Semitism. After all, anti-Semites contend, Jews themselves are making the same accusations against Israel. Jews do have a right to their point of view, but they need to wake up. Today’s war against Israel is not about territory or Israel's right to exist, but old Jew hatred. Israel is also seen as an extension of the United States and the hatred for America and what it stands for is reflected by Israel. American freedom and democracy, like Israel, grants unto all peoples justice and the right to live, think and practice as they wish. Today anti-Semitism is anathema in American culture. President Bush’s support for Israel has shocked the world’s Jew haters. Bush is a Republican and in their deranged minds the Democrats were the only friends the Jews had, but now a Republican President supporting Israel as none has before debunks their mistaken notion. Bush’s predecessor, the Democrat, Bill Clinton, tells an audience in Toronto for all the world to hear that he would be willing to pick up a gun at risk to his life in defense of Israel. For the anti-Semites, all this must be overwhelming.

All freedom loving people understand Israel’s incredible dilemma. It must retaliate against the evil of Arafat’s terror and unfortunately, at times, bring death to innocent people. Israel is a victim of Arab Jew-hatred and Islamic exclusiveness which does not tolerate any religious practices other than its own. Lebanon’s bloody immediate past exemplifies the intensity of this bigotry. Shame on all who would point accusatory fingers at peaceloving Israel. Now more than ever people of good will, who love freedom and truth, must unite in support of Israel.

The reappearance of the ugly head of anti-Semitism should convince every Jew of the critical necessity for a Jewish state. The doors to the Auschwitz gas chamber are yet to be sealed. Europe is as anti-Semitic as ever and Palestinians are quite adept at pushing Jew-hatred buttons. The war against Israel is a revival of Hitler’s madness. September 11th should have awakened Jews to this harsh reality. Bin Laden and Arafat are fighting for the same reason. They hate America for its freedom and Israel for espousing this noblest of human ideals in the Middle East.

I might add what today’s anti-Semites hate and fear most is the new Jew. The new Jew is an Israeli who, unlike the lamb-like innocents who helplessly walked to their deaths in Hitler’s day, today fights back and sends a message to Jew haters: “Keep your hands off of us. If struck, we will strike back.” Peace loving Jews should now understand what G-d taught in the Torah—defend yourself. Moses told Joshua, “Be strong and courageous, for you shall come with this people to the Land that Hashem swore to give them and you shall cause them to inherit it.” (Devarim 31:7)

Shabbat Shalom