Anti-Semitism: The Same Old Lies Since 200 B.C.
When it comes to Israel and the Jews, the defamatory impulse never dies. The Iranians and their supporters claim there was no Holocaust. The Jews just made it up. Or if some magnanimously concede that the Holocaust did take place, then the death toll was unconscionably exaggerated for political and financial gain. Arabs and Muslims insist that the Jews have no lien on the Holy Land and are recent interlopers. Indeed, in clear violation of the historical muniments and the canonical texts, it would appear there never was a Temple in Jerusalem, as the director of the Al-Aqsa Mosque categorically states.
Anti-Zionists falsely contend that the Palestinians are an indigenous people displaced by European Jews who colonized the territory by force and that the Israeli war machine ethnically cleansed the original inhabitants during the 1948 so-called Nakba. There is no recognition of the fact that the Arabs were the instigators of the conflict and were mainly responsible for the flight of their own people, as attested in Mitchell Bard’s Myths and Facts and many other authentic sources.* There is no awareness or acknowledgment of the 4000 year-old Israelitic connection to the land, the continuous settlements even after the Roman expulsion, and the Mizrahi and Sephardi Jews who together outnumber their European Ashkenazi cousins.
PA President Mahmoud Abbas, dismissing the Jews as “incidental in history,” absurdly asserts descent from the Canaanites, a people who long ago disappeared from the historical record. Popular opinion in many Muslim countries blames the Israeli Mossad for 9/11. “Israel Apartheid Weeks” abound on university campuses, targeting the only true democratic and non-apartheid nation in the entire Middle East. Suppressing most of the relevant context and playing fast and loose with the facts, the notorious Goldstone Report and the UNHRC accuse Israel of human rights crimes in Gaza during Operation Cast Lead. According to a Swedish newspaper, Israelis harvest the bodies of Palestinian youths for the lucrative trade in organs — the contemporary form of the ancient blood libel. The litany of lies, slanders and fabrications continues to proliferate without end as part of the “Palestinian narrative,” which has now become the anabolic locus of the campaign against the Jewish state. But such libels and denunciations are as old as the Judean hills. The ecstatic crusade against both Judaism and Zionism remains a historical constant.
In effect, the Palestinians and the antisemitic left have merely revived the ancestral libels going back at least as far as 200 B.C. when, as Raymond Scheindlin documents in A Short History of the Jewish People, “Egyptian writers circulated distorted and insulting accounts of Jewish history,” claiming that the Jews “originally came to Egypt as alien conquerors, set fire to Egyptian towns, destroyed their temples, and mistreated their inhabitants.” As usual, history proves otherwise. These putatively conquering Israelites who were said to have despoiled Egypt in fact constituted a slave population, notably under the Pharaoh Ramses II (c. 1290—1224 B.C.)
The obloquy didn’t stop there. The Seleucid emperor Antiochus IV Epiphanes, who desecrated the Temple in Jerusalem in 167 B.C., was the first historical figure to persecute the Jews for their religion as such, and the antisemitic virus has been gathering momentum ever since. Josephus tells us in Against Apion of a certain first century A.D. grammarian of that name who apparently started the hoary blood libel on its global career. Apion writes that “at a set time every year [the Jews] used to catch a Greek foreigner…and kill him, and sacrifice with their accustomed solemnities, and taste of his entrails.” Josephus comments: “Now this is such a most tragical fable as is full of nothing but cruelty and impudence.”
The “tragical fable” has traveled through the centuries and bred far more than “cruelty and impudence.” Whether considered as members of a religion, a “race,” or an ethnic group, Jews have rarely ceased to be persecuted, traduced, attacked, murdered, and portrayed as a malignant people bent on treachery or world domination or insidious designs of one kind or another. Today it’s the same old, same old as Jews are castigated as fiscal sorcerers or unrepentant colonialists and Israel as a Nazi state redivivus turning parts of the Holy Land into an open-air concentration camp. This is pure mendacity. Such visceral hatred as is discharged against Israel and Jews, along with the chamomile treatment reserved for the Palestinians, is predicated on a willful and near-universal ignorance of history, a reluctance to disambiguate the evident facts, including the dispensations of international law, and a sordid eagerness to adopt every “fable” and canard cooked up by the Arab and Palestinian propaganda factory and compliantly circulated in the mainstream media. Minds of this stripe, according to Robin Shepherd in A State Beyond the Pale, are principally “energized by the need to hate. The discourse, therefore, is hateful.”
I am tired of hearing about Antisemitism as a raison d’etre for retaining an interest in Judaism and Israel. Antisemitism is the least reason to have any interest in Judaism and Israel.
This Saturday I sat in a Talmud class in which the question at hand was “At what point land transfer was complete, so that recourse by the new owner to the original owner for damages was no longer possible.” There were at least 10 opinions that needed to be considered from as many scholars – not the traditional two of most Western thought. A major discussion of differences between Jewish and Western legal positions also took place, since about a quarter of the participants were practicing attorneys. It seems that in the end, “buyer beware” is not a Jewish principle, since any contract would be cancelled by a Jewish court if it could be shown that the seller lied about the property’s condition, e.g., the presence of prior liens.
The scholars presenting their opinions covered the years from about 200 to 1100. Perhaps next week we shall extend the discussion to more modern commentators, perhaps as late as the 1950s.
The outcome of the discussions is unimportant, but the discussion’s effect on the participants produces changes within each person that then forms the basis of discourse and understanding between us. We “break our heads” to hold these opinions apart so they can be compared. It changes our neuroanatomy, I am sure!
Later in the afternoon the Rabbi held a discussion of material that had been extant before the destruction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem. It dealt with the question of whether an observer should judge someone’s actions as meritorious even though at the moment they seemed to be out of character and not very constructive. Among the principles at the base of this discussion was the recognition that an observer can modify his thinking to circumvent self-serving rationalizations. This discussion turned today’s Marxist theories of action on their heads. Truth is not to be manipulated at the cost of everything else in life. We are active influences in determining our views – not pawns in the hands of the powerful. Reality is the interaction of events that surround us and our own reactions to those events – ever so slightly more nuanced than much of our level current discourse “they did it! No, they did it!”
Either law will civilize us or it will be used by the powerful to deny us justice. If everyone, child to adult, participates in understanding the development of civilization, then we have a chance. Law will protect everyone or no one. Mob rule is a poor substitute. Life is too complex to believe that “justice” is crystal-clear and obtainable without immersion in the process of study.
These discussions that I have described of a single Saturday afternoon, engaged in in the Diaspora, are a better justification for the continued existence of the Jews in their own country than the existence of Antisemitism.
When one encounters a pattern in human behavior extending over millennia and involving many different societies, one might wish to look for underlying reasons. Anti-Jewish sentiment (anti-Semitism might continue as including Arabs, who have contributed nothing positive to human progress for all of history, and counting) would disappear in all civilized precincts tomorrow if the question before the house were justification for the existence of Jews “in their own country”. As demonstrated in Israel itself, daily, Jews are contentious to the point of ungovernability, even by themselves. In other peoples’ countries, they are very often found among social misfits, who encourage and support cultural vulgarization, societal dis-integration, anti-religious activity, economic destruction, and general anti-social activity of every kind. The Nazis could demonize German Jews as aliens because they were involved prominently in every aspect of the Weimar degeneracy, which was correctly seen as anti-German cosmopolitainism. Another good example would be the ACLU in today’s America. Their unending, merciless war against Christianity and Christians is no stereotype — it’s simple fact. E.g., this year is 2011 C.E.(?????) Bullcr*p! In healthy societies, such as England, 1295-1655, such peoples are expelled or eliminated. In decadent societies, aliens can no longer be dealt with. The problem for Jews in such societies (e.g., Western Europe) is that there’s no guarantee that the usurping people will be Jews. In fact, except temporarily and indirectly, this has never happened. The subjugation of Western Europe by Mohammedans has hyped anti-Jewish feeling to new heights, as well as superceding mere prejudice by violent actions, even in the face of native Europeans’ Holocaust guilt. Another example of “be careful what you wish for” on a cosmic scale. Jews being very intelligent people, there’s no explanation in reason for their anti-social behavior wherever they reside.
The most notable feature of “Jacobite’s” smear is his attribution of group characteristics typical of Jews at all times and places. It is a collectivist tic and also reflects generations of hereditarian racism, or the notion of national character advanced by Herder and then other German Romantics. I wrote about the many tributaries of modern antisemitism here: http://clarespark.com/2010/11/14/the-abcs-of-antisemitism/. See also http://clarespark.com/2010/11/16/good-jews-bad-jews-and-wandering-jews/.
Spoken like a true antisemite.
The truth hurts, doesn’t it? Still waiting for the Jews to apologize to the world for spreading the contagion of communism and reaping its rewards. Holocaust? Try the death of a hundred million presided over by the Jews of Russia. Ever heard the expression not every Jew is a communist, but every communist is a Jew? That was decades ago before the great silence descended and no one questions who exactly was involved. Why hasn’t there been a decades long concerted effort to arrest and make an example of those involved in the starvation of millions and the abolition and destruction of the Russian Christian churches? Why hasn’t there been a worldwide effort to compensate those whose property was stolen from them? We all know the answer. You can scream anti-Semitism to the skies but when a group of people is despised and driven from every country they have lived in, millions of people can’t be wrong. No one hates those who do not hate. Even now in America the preponderance of Marxists are Jewish and the biggest mouths are still trying to eradicate any semblance of Christianity in the public square. The latest example: David Silverman who wants to prevent the cross from being installed at the Twin Towers. People are waking up and the silencer anti-Semite! is just about as effective as yelling racist in a crowded theater. If the Jews want to stop the hate, they should start with themselves. Oddly enough, I support those in Israel to defend themselves and am not blind to the evil and the deceit of those who support the Palestinians. In fact the Jews in Israel have nothing to apologize for. It is those, here, and around the world, who are hell bent on destroying cultures and countries for their own profit. George Soros is the face of every Jewish stereotype known to man. And he is REAL.
Is Betina Jacobite’s evil twin?
Betina- Your words allow me to address an out-and-out lie repeated in Jew-hating and fascist circles: that Russian communists = Jews. You apparently are ignorant of Russian history and yet you bring it up to spew Jew-hatred. There were two main Russian communist groups, the Menchiviks and Bolsheviks. The Bolsheviks were especially not very Jewish and they actually opposed and battled against the Menchiviks. Lenin, an extrenely famous and major architect of Russian communism- immortalized in statues and the name of the city Leningrad (formerly St. Petersburg) was a non-Jew. Stalin, the “Man of Steel”, the absolute dictator and ruler of the early Russian communist regime, was not only non-Jewish and from a church-going religious family, but later in his career displayed malice toward Jews in his regime. While there were Jews in the communist party- who were not acting as “Jews”, but were actually non-religious, atheistic Jews who did not want any special ethnic treatment for Jews and in fact preached universal ethnic brotherhood, the majority of Russian communists came from Christian backgrounds. Russia was an enormous country with a giant population and a huge army, overwhelmingly non-Jewish and at least nominally Orthodox Christian. Millions and millions of Russians were involved with the transformation of the country and the overthrow of the Czar. Millions of Russians on the street hated the Czar Peter because he was CORRUPT, GREEDY TYRANT. He was starving his people and living like an ARROGANT JERK. As kings have been known to do on occasion. That’s why the Russian nation overthrew him. The armies that you say killed “a hundred million” Russian Christians, were made up of mostly RUSSIAN CHRISTIANS, under thousands of RUSSIAN CHRISTIAN leaders including their ABSOLUTE DICTATOR Josef Stalin. Because Czar Peter was a BASTARD who also killed and starved hos own Russian Christian people. The truth is hard to take, huh? Actually, no it’s not. Blaming solely the Jews is lying about history and reality. Jew-hatred is a meme and becomes a sort of mental disease. Jews do plenty of wrong things like all peoples, and Jews vary incredibly amongst themselves, as do all peoples. Talking about millions of “Jews” as if they’re identical robot clones is a form of insanity and delusion.
Jacobite wrote, “As demonstrated in Israel itself, daily, Jews are contentious to the point of ungovernability, even by themselves.”
So what business is it of yours! From what source do you gain the right to even comment on the Jews’ mode of existence! Can you find nothing inside yourself or in your immediate environs that is more worthy of your attention and efforts! You would not last 5 minutes in a Talmud class! Your ignorance is infinite!
For such an ungovernable people and nation, the Jews, and Israel, after surviving persecution after persecution, in over 2,000 years in exile, have rebuilt an absolutely amazingly strong and productive, thriving nation from swamps and barren desert, in little over 60 years. And they still continue to grow, exponentially.
And, for such “social misfits”, they are the leaders in advanced technology, science and medicine, as well as being the only democracy in the middle east. They are also the only nation in that region that provides freedom of religion- for all faiths, even at the risk of their own lives. They also treat arabs and their children with serious medical conditions in their hospitals, free of any charge, while providing their parents with food and lodging and additional needs. In Hati, they were the ones who immediately showed up, and were the only ones with complete, field hospitals, operating rooms, surgeons, nurses, and complete medical staffs, and a pharmacy. Very anti-social behavior, indeed.
They have also been one of the few nations who have continuously paid off, on time, every loan ever granted to them by the US, in addition to providing the US with their advanced technology, of which they are decades beyond everyone else.
And, if you look through history, every nation where Jews lived, that nation increased in education, culture, sciences, and wealth. And, you will also note, when they brought harm to the Jews, and /or forced the Jews to leave- by pograms, inquisitions, or death, those very same nations fell from power, and suffered from the lack of those assets, very soon after.
I think Arab contributions of Arabic numbers and soap are significant and refute antisemitic charges that Arabs contribute nothing.
They are called “Arabic” numbers by Europeans–the Arabs took them from the Hindus of India, who invented them. Romans are widely credited with inventing soap although Babylonian records indicate it may have been used there.
Yea – I guess Jacobite, we Jews are just social misfits. Before WW II, Germany won 25 Noble prizes to America’s 5; after WW II it was America 62 to Germany’s 15. Such social misfits should bless all countries. After WWII the British and Americans joked about why they won WWII; the British said that their German scientists (i.e., their Jewish scientists) were better than Germany’s German scientists (i.e., Aryan scientists). Jews are such social misfits, but useful, no? Had Hitler and his thugs dropped their ideology and used Jews in a sensible way instead of killing them, we all might be speaking German today.
That would also be the case under U.S. law. It’s basic contract law. The expression, “buyer beware”, refers to defects which are discoverable by ordinary means.
In other words, if you insist on being stupid, don’t come running to the courts to bail you out.
Well, in US law, defects of title that can be found in the public record are considered easily accessible, as are legal rules. So, the example of liens on property in the original writer’s comment is correct. A buyer would be presumed to have had access to them.
All that said, I am amazed that people like Jacobite and Betina actually exist, much less are capable of stringing together a coherent series of words.
Anti-semitism is based upon a fable, layered upon a mountain of lies and given oxygen by a malevolent political movement from time to time.
Hitler used it to whip up a frenzy…have an identifiable “them”…against all blame could be placed in a convenient basket and passed around, like a hallucinogenic drug for the masses.
The Communists did much the same…and today…the small c communists and their flea-ridden bedfellows, the jihadists…are whipping up a frenzy of their own.
Unlike Jerry above, who sees law as the savior…I see no law that can guide a contest played by teams who follow very different rules. When you are being beaten to death with your own rulebook and the other side has a no holds barred, no rules, no limitations…by any means necessary approach…the law is futile and useless. It can’t apply, it doesn’t apply…when only one side recognizes it.
The small c communists skulk around posing as centrists. They take up “front group” names that invoke “peace” or “harmony”, or “hope and change”. But, essentially they exist to tear down capitalism, Judeo-Christian belief systems and the precedents of Constitutional democracy.
In its stead, totalitarian statism….one world political dominance with a ruling elite.
Chipping away at the foundations of Judeo-Christian successes….constitutional free market democracies…requires first that they be labeled as evil. In order to brainwash, you first need to seize the lines of communication. Poison the minds of the youth. Then infiltrate the government itself.
Mass media, academia, pop culture must have “message control”…going off “message” should be severely punished.
And, after several decades of brainwashing…seize one major political party. Own it. And insert yourselves into the very halls of “the law” that Jerry so deeply relies upon.
Judges, legislators, congressmen, senators…even a President.
Hide out in plain sight. Use coded words and mask your intentions with “sweet” words…pour sugar in the gas tank, not bile.
Destroy capitalism from the inside. Tear it down piece by piece. Make it implode. And blame the successful for being “greedy”. Blame the Christians and Jews. Blame the believers, defenders and supporters. Call them terrorists. Bloodsuckers. And keep on pretending that you are “do gooders”.
Your propaganda, mountain of lies and peer pressure…will keep them from protecting themselves…until you have overthrown their entire way of life….and it’s too late to stop you.
Sounds like you’ve come to the conclusion that we’re past the tipping point, that it’s over.
How does one do a John Galt today?
pelaut…we are past the Rubicon. As for the tipping point, we are long past that.
The next question is…are we past the point of no return. Not yet. But we can see it from here.
And, the only way to truly address and correct this course, is to address and correct the root cause. We are at war and we keep acting as if war is coming. We are prepping the battlefield and being slaughtered on it.
The real problem is the aligned axis of crypto-communism and Islamic jihad…pulling an inside/outside job on us.
The small c communists have taken over our communications and now can publish/air/blog any filthy lie, distortion or slander they damn well please. This keeps the truth from those who have not yet seen the light.
They own our pop culture, movies, TV, music, plays, etc. They dominate the “talking topics” in academia. They have infiltrated even some of the hard sciences. They have infiltrated religious institutions. Rampant, unchecked leftism is a virulent disease.
They have seized the unions. They own the Democratic Party. They are in our courthouses, our legislature and our White House. They are in the CIA, the Department of Justice and our State Department.
They attack America and Israel with impunity. They attack our Judeo-Christian heritage.
And they have made bedfellows with radical jihad.
And…they pretend to not exist. They take on soft coded names, pretend to be “do gooders” and pacifists. Unless and until we rip off the mask and unveil the deceit…we get trapped over and over and over again…debating against their fraudulence …on carefully crafted and framed “issues” that belie the truth of what they are up to…and succeeding…in implementing.
Soros, Bill Ayers, …the whole “tear down the system” apparatus…is an intentional and systemic attack on capitalism, constitutional democracy, free market success.
More than half of this country doesn’t even believe that this exists….how can we fight it, if even those who would be moved to help…are so brainwashed they can’t recognize it before their very eyes?
NO Republican politician is willing to take the beating that would ensue by carrying the banner of truth onto this battlefield. That’s the hugest advantage the leftists have. Owning the propaganda machine and having a 40 year head start on brainwashing the electorate…you have to have the courage of a Karelian Bear Dog to run on a platform of absolutely telling the truth on them.
Someone who has a Socialist father, a Communist mentor poet who sat him on his knee, sought out the most radical professors, frequented the Cooper Union, pals around with Bill Ayers, Danny Davis, Heather Bloom, Carl Davidson, Van Jones, Rashid Khalidi, the Midwest Academy, UNO, ACORN and SEIU ….has birds of a feather flocked around him.
Check out Zombie’s pictures from a union march a while back.
Unless and until we are willing to have this conversation out in the open, expose the left for who and what they are…and what they intend to do…we will always be chasing shadows. We will be having silly debates on silly issues…because that’s how they trip us up every time.
Ably and fittingly written. As you so accurately describe it, today’s social milieu replicates the subversions of the progressives of the 1930s through the 1950s — replicates and broadens, for the infection has taken over the entire society. What were then sabateurs and provocateurs are now the gentry.
I would amend “Owning the propaganda machine and having a 40 year head start on brainwashing the electorate…” to say “50 years”, or “into the third generation”. Being generationally established, you can no longer call it sabotage. You must call it established tradition or culture or, alas, the extant “civilization”.
I can see the point of no return too — it’s well past and behind us. Concerted action won’t happen, will fail. So it’s indeed over.
So what does an individual do to save himself and his own?
How does one do a John Galt today?
cfbleachers wrote, “Unlike Jerry above, who sees law as the savior…I see no law that can guide a contest played by teams who follow very different rules. When you are being beaten to death with your own rulebook…the law is futile and useless. It can’t apply, it doesn’t apply…when only one side recognizes it.”
Jewish law (and practice) is not “law”, but a continuous study in the development of human ideas. Practicing Jews live within their own history and produce their own future. When,in college, I learned history, it was through the study of wars, conflicts that took people’s lives. If there were no deaths, there was no impact on history. Jewish history nowadays is learned in the same manner. Not so for those who study Jewish texts on a daily basis. Rarely, if ever, does my study center on the “snuffing” of life. Jewish separateness is based upon personal responsibility to observe the law – all the time understanding your point about the general community’s misuse of law as a whip or gun or gas chamber. Those Jews on their way out of Judaism choose simpler ideologies that must end in conflict unto death. When ideas are too simple, they summarize reality quite poorly, leading to conflict.
Islamist, Arabs and their self called Palestinians have such a chronic compulsive Syndrome to forgery and hate blaming always Jews and gentiles for everything. their elemental fables. Is a psychological problem which they love and use for political gain to expand and conquer. And it seems they are becoming sicker and angrier because they find some limits for their craziness. However the madness continue with their children indoctrination, creating new generations of fanatical believers on all lies they have been taught. This morons will be our problem for ever at least we do not stop them drastically.
180,000 Palestinians treated in Israel hospitals – WHY? Electric service to Gaza Generated in Israel – WHY? The Sewer System of Gaza City being one big storm away from overflowing and causing Dysentery – WHY? Beyond anything else, it is the inability or unwillingness of the “Palestine” Powers that be to use the Billions in aid given them by the US and EU to remedy any of these problems. Considering the circumstances – Does Israel owe the “Palestinian” Population anything? Absolutely Not! In fact if I were PM of Israel, I would make it clear that the date a UDI is voted in the UN would be the date that all utilities and services from Israel proper be shut off. IOW – Yo Mohammed, you are a NATION now DEAL WITH IT!
Dr. Shalit
Israeli munificence to the Palestinians has long been a mystery to me. I have to suppose they have the notion that it would be inhumane for them to stand aside and simply allow their neighbors to starve and die. But the Palestinians I have met here in America have been, without exception, Jew-haters of the most virulent sort; of a type that doesn’t exist among native-born Americans except at the extreme fringe. I have to think the ones the Israeli’s encounter are far worse than the immigrants to America.
I am not Jewish myself but I have Jewish relatives. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I think that magnanimity toward others may be part of the Jewish faith. Sometimes this includes magnanimity toward enemies … perhaps to a fault.
See:
Utøya Attack Shows Magnanimity of Israel and Vacuity of BDS Campaign
http://1389blog.com/2011/08/01/utoya-youth-camp-was-fatah-plo-camp-for-nearly-15-years/
Sooo Dr. Schalit, You ask and answer your own question:
Does Israel owe the “Palestinian” Population anything? Absolutely Not! In fact if I were PM of Israel, I would make it clear that the date a UDI is voted in the UN would be the date that all utilities and services from Israel proper be shut off. IOW – Yo Mohammed, you are a NATION now DEAL WITH IT!
Christian Americans are saying same to Israel: Get off our backs, stop using our politicians, get out of our pockets and stand on your own. PROVE you are a nation and can deal with it. As long as you suck on the United States of America, you are no nation. We know nations, and you are no nation when you can’t make it on your own. Better make friends with your neighbors, with friends like you we don’t need enemies. GET IT? WHINERS.
Stop attacking Americans for their viewpoints, you are in the wrong place to do that. Go home to Russia… and ask yourself ha ha, what the heck are jews doing that pisses off the rest of the world since the beginning of time?
I have news for you, piggy: that check that you got from the Sa’udis for posting their lies is going to bounce.
“what the heck are jews doing that pisses off the rest of the world since the beginning of time?”
We refuse to give up who we are to become like you, and it pisses you off. Live with it.
In fact there are several organizations of Christian Americans dedicated to protecting Israel.
WHY? because the USA demanded it, that’s why. Don’t forget to answer the Why.
“The Sewer System of Gaza City being one big storm away from overflowing and causing Dysentery – WHY?”
You may find it interesting to note that the arabs in gaza were given the copper pipes to replace all of the sewer lines in their systems. Instead, they took those copper pipes and assembled rockets and missiles which they lobbed into Israeli civilian areas.
In Israel, by the way, 1 million people sleep in bomb shelters every night. They have had over 12,000 of these rockets and missiles fired at them in just the past few years. That is a little fact the media continues to censor.
The result of not replacing their sewer lines, and using the tubing for bombs, was the massive flooding of raw sewage into homes, soon after. At least 25 homes were completely submerged in raw human waste, as the flood filled streets, neighborhoods and shorelines, killing 5 people, and injuring many.
They did this to their own people, and then, of course, promptly blamed Israel.
The Seleucid emperor Antiochus IV Epiphanes, who desecrated the Temple in Jerusalem in 167 B.C., was the first historical figure to persecute the Jews for their religion as such,
How could you forget Haman?
The colossal irony, that the learned, “enlightened” Academy is so vibrantly alive in its utter loathing and hatred of Israel and Jews, is compounded many times over by the fact that so many voices at its very heart — like Professor Judith Butler at Berkeley — are Jews themselves.
“…They limit themselves,” writes Belladonna Rogers in Pajamas Media, “to so few sources of information” that they resemble cult members “whose involvement forbids contact with anything that isn’t cult-approved.” They have their Index Expurgatorius by which they faithfully abide.”
That is a textbook definition of liberalism. Which is why, as Andrew McCarthy so chillingly describes in his book, there is a natural affinity between the leftists and the Islamo-fascisti.
Really in principle the lies began, as the human race began, and before it began. ‘I will be like the most high God.’ The conflict will play its course. Woe to those who harm the Jews.
Evidently we are not a very likable people!
You are on the right track, keep going… Say CHRISTmas trees, say RIGHT to prayer in school, say FREEDOM OF religion not FREEDOM FROM religion, say CHRISTIANS WELCOME IN THE HOLY LAND AND PROVE IT. Say SORRY for using Caterpillar Tractor to run over American girl, say what you mean, we already know the truth. Go for it.
Sure, when you apologize for slaughtering Jews during the Crusades, for expelling Jewish communities in Europe and indeed their homeland, for perpetuating the lie that Jews killed Jesus and more recently – perhaps you should apologize on behalf of humanity for the stupidity of Rachel Corrie.
Your drawing a very long bow. Jews also helped the Muslims conquer Spain and also Narbonne. Jews were also very prominent in slavery in the Caribbean. Everyone can dig up histories and other stuff to say apologize for this or that. What matters is the situation today. Israel should remember who their friends are, also the US should remember which civilization it belongs to and stop helping Turkey, Egypt Indonesia etc in their various persecutions, genocides and wars of conquest.
That would be Rachel Corrie, the anti-American girl, would be vicarious outlaw, who before trying to protect a Palestinian arms-smuggling tunnel, was busily engaged in burning a drawing of an American flag for Palestinian school children….THAT “American” girl. No, we won’t apologize for the accidental death of an idiot who got run over trying to help weapons-smugglers bringing in missiles to kill our citizens because she stood in front of a bulldozer whose driver she couldn’t see )hint: meaning he couldn’t see her either).
You got that right. Somebody wants to sit down in front of a bulldozer, they takes their chances. Especially somebody protecting terrorists. How are those towns and cities still ‘refugee camps’ anyway. For goodness sake, they have permanent homes, shops, and municipal services. It’s like calling Dallas a ‘refugee camp’ because people from New Orleans settled there after Katrina.
Geanwhile in Germany: http://www.pi-news.org/2011/04/dont-buy-jewish-2011-reloaded/ “Germans! Don’t buy Jewish goods!” No, this is not from 1934, this is from 2011.
Jerry:
“…It changes our neuroanatomy, I am sure!..
Not nearly so much as literacy. Communicating in symbols requires abstract thinking and Jews have been literate since the invention of writing. Literacy is an essential of a faith with an extensive canon and long prayers. Moreover, literacy among Jews–men and women alike–was never limited to priests and royals. Three hundred years ago when most of the “civilized” world was illiterate, all Jews were Hebrew literate and read every day.
I’m no expert on the brain but two millennia of literacy may indeed have changed our neuroanatomy.
Demagogues require scapegoats.
If Obama runs out of his long list of scapegoats, he will ramp up the domestic attack on Jews, just as he has focussed his entire foreign policy on destroying Israel.
No, he’s more clever than that. He’ll continue to ramp up his race wars that the MSM can blame on “right wing extremists” and “supremecists”.
Today it’s flash mobs and State Fair bashes.
2012 will be the “long hot summer” the Democrats gave us in 1968.
And =:obama will make it the fault of his opposition.
Already the suburban mom-and-pop “Tea Party” = terrorists, extremists, racists.
Thank you, Mr. Solway, for providing such a delectable essay to read on a fine Sunday morning.
“Truth is the first casualty of war;” And so, the United States is in a war to sustain it’s heritage, as is Israel.
It’s not sufficient to read about the history of mankind’s struggles; They must be lived and felt, thereby reinforcing their authenticity.
Ultimately, for mankind to survive the throngs of tyrants in the world today, epistemology must be sustained.
Thanks again, for your contribution.
I disagree. I cannot think of any Jewish persecution in the US that could be construed as more than an isolated incident. On the contrary, the US Jewish population is approximately 2% and that 2% is overrepresented in leadership roles by an overwhelming amount. Look who runs the 5 major movie studios, look at the major liberal journalists (Krugman,J. Klein, E. Klein, Maddow – you know the long list. Who runs major banking and investment firms? – - Jews by a huge margin. Let’s list our recent Secretarys of Treasury – Paulsen, Geitner. At least Paulsen had some private sector experience – Geitner has not had ONE private sector job (and it shows in his performance). If you want to read about how Jews discriminate I suggest you pick up a copy of “House of Cards” by Cohen and you will see a firm populated by Jews (Bear Stearns)that should make the EEO shudder.
I support the state of Israel. A new web site with many Jewish writers, AmericanThinker.com is making an effort to bring a balanced view of the political world into view and Jonah Goldberg, Bernie Goldberg and David Horowitz try and counterbalance the disproportionate mob on the left.
Sadly, the far left Jews with the most wealth in the US believe we should give the ‘masses’ what they want so they will leave those with millions and millions of dollars alone. They fear another Holocaust or French Revolution. Somewhere along the line they lost any belief that a person should earn what they receive and have contributed heavily to the decay of American values that the Founders espoused.
Judy, there is a great deal of anti-semitism going on in the US., and the world in general. They are not “isolated” at all. On college campuses it has gotten so bad that parents have banded to force the colleges to protect Jewish students, or face legal troubles.
Those major movie studios are now owned by Japan and Saudi Arabia and a few other nations and corporations. They were once owned and operated by Jews, yes. We went into the movie/media industry. But you also need to understand that most of the gentiles would not hire us. So, we made it on our own in various industries.
Those journalists do not own the media, and if you know anything about CNN, and the MSM in general today, they are told what to say and what not to say. Again, if you look, you will find Saudi Arabia, Murdoch and others are the owners, and they are not Jews.
Geithner is not Jewish. That is a falsehood. He is German, and Episcopalian, the son of Mr. and Mrs. Peter F. Geithner of Larchmont, N.Y. The Rev. Thomas Keehn, a United Church of Christ minister, officiated at his wedding in 1985. Henry Paulson, is not Jewish either. He is a Christian Scientist. He worked at an investment firm among Jews, ( yes, they do hire gentiles) but he is not Jewish. And those wealthy Jews on the left earned their money, as anyone who works, does.
And as far as the Jews fearing another Holocaust, yes, we are. And, it is not the Jews on the left- it is all Jews. All the red flags are there, and all the same anti-semitic stories are being told, once again, to incite people.
And those wealthy Jews on the left earned their money, as anyone who works, does.
You should research these things far more thoroughly before writing them, otherwise people will think you are an anti-semitic.
The anti-Jewish Arabs have also stolen the name of “Palestine” and “Palestinian” from the Jews. The Roman Emperor Hadrian changed the name of Judea to “Palestina” in 135 A.D., after defeating the last Jewish rebellion under Bar Kochba. The name “Palestine” then became synonymous with “land of the Jews” or “the Holy Land” (since Jesus was a Jew, and “Palestinian” became synonymous with “Jew.” Thus, the British, after World War I, were awarded the “Palestine Mandate” to be the “homeland of the Jews.”
How did “Palestinian” become the opposite, meaning Arabs who hated Jews? In 1964, in Cairo, Gamal Nasser and the Soviet Union, haters of Jews, created the “Palestine Liberation Organization” (P.L.O.), with all the phony history and propaganda to go with it.
In the West, morality is what we inherited from the jews. They were the original recipients of the 10 commandments, and they managed to preserve them before Christianity adopted them. This is really where modern morality comes from.
Should we be surprised that antisemitism is on the rebound precisely at the same time when morality itself is under attack? Maybe this is just a coincidence, but what is not a coincidence is this: We won’t be able to protect the jews and support Israel if we cast morality aside for the sake of expediency.
Antisemitism is just a call for more than proprtional prosemitism, whether the word exists or not.
DesecrationOfIndependence:
Please kiss my American Jewish ass, Cockroach. Both cheeks, please. Nice big smooch.
“…Christian Americans are saying same to Israel…”
Speak for yourself, Roach. Don’t wrap your tiny twisted self in millions of American Christians of many denominations.
“Get off our backs…”
Erotic fantasy, this? Are you a Judeosexual? Think American Christians at large are Judeosexuals?
“…stop using our politicians…”
What means “using” American politicians? Are you objecting to malicious foreigners laying many millions of dollars, overt and covert, on American politicians, and American cultural and educational institutions to corrupt and pervert America to their own alien world view? That describes the Saudis not the Israelis.
“…get out of our pockets…”
According to polls, most Israelis would be glad to. Reality is, the US has a great deal invested in Israel,militarily, politically and culturally. If American Christians didn’t see clear benefit in it, Israel wouldn’t get a dime. And the Jewish Nation would survive and prosper, nonetheless.
“…and stand on your own…PROVE you are a nation and can deal with it…”
(yawn)
“…with friends like you we don’t need enemies…”
A Jewish expression from an anti-Semite. Amusing.
“…WHINERS.”
Place Benjamin Netanyahu next to Barack Obama. Who is the whiner?
“…Go home to Russia…”
Where do you hail from in this blessed nation of immigrants? You Native American? What makes you think that a Jew from Russia is inferior to you? An Israeli has a far stronger indigenous claim on his soil than an American has on his.
“…ha ha, what the heck are jews doing that pisses off the rest of the world since the beginning of time?…”
It isn’t what the Jews are doing, Roach. It is who they are. Those people in the Bible. Old Testament and New alike. Jews are the authors and Jews are the characters in the narratives. The “rest of the world” is not “pissed off” at Jews because the Bible is Jewish literature and the great Patriarchs Prophets and Kings were Jewish. Only Christians and Muslims have a problem with that. The Christians imagine themselves the “New Israel.” The Muslims insist that the Arabs are Israel and the Jews are imposters and that their illiterate Arab Prophet is greater than all the poets-prophets of the Bible. Buddhists and Hindus who owe nothing to the Jews religiously or culturally and comprise far more of the world’s population than Christians and Muslims combined have no history of hating Jews.
Jews are hated because in Western Civilization, Jews are owed. The more we are imitated, the more we are hated; the more we are hated, the more we are imitated. That’s the essential historical dilemma of a brilliant and talented Jewish people, Roach.
And it is great deal more response than a lowlife like you merits.
Don’t waste the bottom of your shoe on a cockroach, David. While it may feel good to hear the crunch under your heel, there’s still all that slime left over to clean up.
You must have left this antisemite scum speechless. Great answer. But then, I doubt his diminished reasoning can grasp even one half of what you said. Trouble with antisemites is that with very few exceptions, they are intellectual midgets who will buy the stupidest of arguments in their pursuit of hatred. Like those who believe unquestionably the story of some retrograde foul pedophile, self-delusional murderer full of hatred, and consider him the raw model and moral compass to follow.
Not to derail your comment, but there are about 3.5 billion Christians and Muslims, and about 2.5 Hindus and Buddhists. So you are incorrect in stating there are more than both Christians and Muslims combined.
You’re still correct in saying that the Hindus as a majority in India have never had a problem with Jews.
Besides that, spot on comment
AP:
I just read a very funny book called Kosher Chinese published by Holt. Reminiscences of an observant Jewish Peace Corpsman in China. A billion Chinese, call them Buddhists or call them Capitalo-Communists, have nothing but high regard for the Jews. They Know next to nothing about Jews or Judaism. but they light up at the mention of Einstein and Marx and recognize that they belong to a special category of Westerners called Jews, known for great intelligence and a talent for making money. The best selling books in both China and South Korea carry titles like “The Financial Secrets of the Jews.”
Antisemites cannot stand the notion of a powerful, armed contingent of Jews who are ready and willing -for a change- to fight for their lives and give their enemies a run form their money. That is what modern Israel means for them. Watching an F-15 flying the Star of David as an emblem or the picture of an elite commando unit with fighters that wear tefillin is more than what your average antisemite can take. That’s why, in their view, Israel has to be destroyed at all means.
In the antisemites’ utopia, Jews have to be subjugated to the submissive, defenseless people of bygone days. Unfortunately for them, Israel and the Jews are here to stay, and stay as not only the powerhouse of thought and reason that they have been throughou the centuries, but also of military might. Or do you think your average Aryan or Muslim is happy with the notion that today’s IDF could take on any of his countries’ army and defeat them in 6 days or less?
For the last 60-plus years, they’ve been trying (unsuccessfully) by every conceivable means to destroy the Jews yet again, now in this hated form of the modern state of Israel. They’ve tried it by force, by proxy, by attempting to rewrite history, by inventing a non-existent people of a non-existent country, by redefining right and wrong, by pouring billions of their undeserved oil-wealth into the pockets of gangsters and corrupted Western politicians, “journalists” and trend-setters.
Over 60 years ago, Hitler (cursed be his name and memory forever) tried to destroy the Jews, and in the process of killing 6 million of them he managed to get another 50 million people killed. Islam today is trying to attempt the same feat, and in the process they have already managed to get tens of thousand of non-Jews killed. In the process they are also managing to convert the Western world, once a place of personal liberties, of the source of ideas and of reason, into the Third-World rat-hole countries that they cherish. They have managed to regress air and land travel, once simple, cheap, and even fun, to what amounts to travelling thru the 9-th century desert dunes filled with tribes of Hashashim. All this is the result of myopic Jew-hatred, brought to the new dimension of the 20 and 21-st centuries.
For a detailed history of the events surrounding the establishment of Israel, including Arab and British sources which have just recently become available, I highly recommend Efraim Karsh’s “Palestine Betrayed.” It is meticulously researched, and the inescapable conclusion is that, with very few exceptions carried out by the Israelis based on purely strategic military necessity, the “Palestinians” fled Israel spontaneously or after having been ordered to do so by Iraqi, Trans-Jordanian or Egyptian forces which turned Arab villages into fortified military bases.
Antisemitism is a disease of the soul as well as the mind.
When looking at an antisemitic opinions it is easy to understand why they drive a ind to insanity. The antisemitic mind, and one can see examples in many of the previous posts, rants, ” look at them they are all communists” and ” look at them they are all capitalists ” simultaneously. It screams, ” look how they destroy societies ” and ” look how they build huge business’ “. It farts, ” look how they destroy culture ” and ” look how they are so entrenched in the arts “.
They wonder why it is Jews are hated so much as they themselves preach the hatred they wonder about. They wonder why so many societies hate Jews when they have spent decades in Churches and Mosques that preach antisemitism. They are driven insane and to insane lengths to justify in their own minds their Jew hatred even as they get on their very knees and worship at the statute of a dead Jew.
The question is not why we as Jews are hated. The question is why is antisemitism so pervasive? The answer is simple.
Even a dunce can procreate.
Jew-hatred is such a debilitating sickness that it renders the sufferer so insane, that they become incapable of self-preservation. Killing Jews becomes more important than their own survival.
The savage Islamonazi Palestinians are proof of this. The mullahs of Iran are another. And the Europeans as well.
Europeans, you may ask? Well, look at it this way — look at how hard the EU is working for a to eliminate Jews from the world once and for all, even though those same EU bigots believe Israel has a large thermonuclear arsenal. Aren’t they afraid that a dying Israel might nuke Europe’s cities in its last gasp? And even if she were not, almost certainly Israel would obliterate the Mideastern oil supply, collapsing the world economy for decades, and driving hundreds of millions, if not billions to starvation – and that would include Europeans. But that does not stop the Europeans from working to wipe out Jews once and for all.
,,The question is why is antisemitism so pervasive? The answer is simple.
Even a dunce can procreate.”
________________________________________
You talking about your parents, pro- creating the dunce/ dummkopf, I am quite sure.
Scathing retort. Surprised it wasn’t written in crayon.
Here’s an interesting experiment -a GedankenExperiment- in which I’ll quote almost verbatim two of our favorite antisemites in this articles’ posts:
—————————————
DeclarationOfIndependence:
“…Christian Americans are saying same to Blacks: Get off our backs, stop using our politicians, get out of our pockets and stand on your own. PROVE you are a nation and can deal with it. As long as you suck on the United States of America, you are no nation. We know nations, and you are no nation when you can’t make it on your own. Better make friends with your neighbors, with friends like you we don’t need enemies. GET IT? WHINERS…
…Stop attacking Americans for their viewpoints, you are in the wrong place to do that. Go home to Liberia and Ghana… and ask yourself ha ha, what the heck are blacks doing that pisses off the rest of the world since the beginning of time?”
————————————————
————————————————
Betina:
“…You can scream Racism to the skies but when a group of people is despised and driven from every country they have lived in, millions of people can’t be wrong. No one hates those who do not hate. Even now in America the preponderance of criminals are Black… ”
“…In fact the Blacks in Africa have nothing to apologize for. It is those, here, and around the world, who are hell bent on destroying cultures and countries for their own profit. Jesse Jackson is the face of every Black stereotype known to man. And he is REAL.”
——————————————————————
Every Westerner reader will naturally feel horrified at these very racist, very politically-incorrect statements. These comments will be attacked sistematically by leftist and rightists, Christians and Jews, Democrats and Republicans. Yet, all I did is cut-and-paste the very comments of our enlightened antisemites “DeclarationOfIndependence” and “Betina” and changed “Jews” for “Blacks” and “Israel” for “Africa”. The result sounds disgusting, vile, inciting, slanderous and hateful, doesn’t it? Yet when the context is Israel and Jews it doesn’t sound so bad, it even sounds progressive, righteous and just. I dare any of these antisemites full of hatred to post any anti-Black statement in any reasonable forum. Their posts wouldn’t last 30 seconds before they’d be removed.
Which comes to show the moral depravity and double standards of those self-righteous antisemites, and the equally “double-standarded” leftist bloggers that allow Jewish slandering but who would be horrified at Black slandering.
QED. “Quod Erat Demonstrandum”
While I appreciate the attempt to illustrate prejudice, the attempt to equate blacks and Jews is qualitatively and quantitively impossible.
And for reasons, I’m sure, you are very well aware of.
I’m not attempting to equate Jews with Blacks, not quantitatively nor qualitatively nor historically “nor nothing”. I’m trying to bring forth the point that today’s American and European majorities, would be horrified at anybody using hate speech and slander against Blacks, while on the other hand, denigrating Jews and/or Israel, vilifying them and equating them to the worst of evils and assigning to them the cause of all wrong-doing in the world doesn’t seem to upset almost anybody.
Anyone doing the same towards Blacks, toward Asians, even towards the most bigoted and discriminatory of them all, the muslims, would be swiftly and decisively dealt with, tagged with the assorted “racist”, “bigoted” and “you-name-it-phobic” labels. The rags from “The View”, the lesbian self-righteous Rachel Maddow, the Oprahs and the Courics, the New York Times “editors” and “journalists”, the CNN and PBS anchors and “reporters”, the Canadian CBC and the British BBC, the acolytes of the leftists endeavors throughout the Western society, they all in unison would jump and raise their voices in indignation at the merest sound of the words.
Yet not one of those guardians of truth, honor and justice would bat an eye at the continous slandering and provocations towards Israel and/or Jews. All of them would view as valid, justified and even desirable all the harm done against Jewish children, Jewish schools, Jewish synagogues, Jewish businesses, Jewish rabbies and the Jewish nation.
And that is where the inconsistency and double standards of these self-proclaimed judges of the truth really shows up. If one truly stands for equality, for human rights, for moral decency, then one doesn’t suscribe to the Orwellian “more equal than others”.
And I used the Black analogy merely because for some reason, the Black analogy brings this more to the point. Nowadays, practically everybody (at least in public) is comfortable granting rights and equality to Blacks, as it should. Practically nobody (at least in public) is comfortable granting rights and equality to Jews. Starting all the way from Obama on the top, down all the way to the misfits Tom Friedman and Noam Chomsky at the very very bottom.
For what it’s worth, Dec. of Ind., Christians are welcome in the Holy Land, at least in the Israeli part of it. Hundreds of thousands visit every year and the only country in the Middle East whose Christian population is increasing is Israel. When I lived in Israel in the seventies Bethlehem was about eighty percent Christian; it’s about fifteen percent now and they didn’t leave because of fear of the IDF.
Pat Buchanan once agreed that European Christians had committed sins against Jews but thought it was only fair for Jews to apologize for the sins they committed against Christians. OK, we apologize for poisoning wells, raping Christian virgins, and using the blood of Christian children to make matzah at Passover.
Arabs are also welcome in Israel, but somehow that fact is always ignored.
the truth is not of concern to these two a holes, jacobite and betina. if it was they would be talking about the child molesters, rapists and serial killers (some of the most henious crimes on civilization) in this country of ours. of course as you all are aware of the perpatrators are overwhelmingly non jewish white males. the truth is the truth and sadly i admit to being in this category.
Look at the Palestinians and see a foretaste of what you become when you are manipulated for political purposes, have no wealth-producing economy, trained to hate a more well off group, become a cause celebre of the left, and yearn only for retribution. There but for the grace of (fill in the blanks) go us.
I’m reminded of the Jew-baiting hatred I’ve seen on sites like Antiwar.com. Writers like Philip Giraldi and Justin Raimondo demonize one prominent Jew after another and vilify Israel constantly. Judging by the antisemitic comments they attract, their propaganda is having the desired effect. Sadly, there are many such rabble-rousing sites. The internet has created an army of antisemites.
Interesting posts on here, for the most part. Very thought provoking! Yet I would only state, in my humble opinion, that the truest peace, is the peace of your soul. The world is full of evil and those that do it, yet they cannot touch your spirit unless you allow them. I applaud Israel for their blessed efforts of humanitarian aid, even to those whom profess open hatred towards Israel.For if you only help those that like you, where is the victory? “Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.” Romans 12:21 KJV
What is with this resurgence of these Mussolini type characters??
Giraldi & Raimondo also believes the United States was led into World War II through lies by President Franklin D. Roosevelt and that the US provoked a war with Japan deliberately through economic sanctions.[20] Raimondo’s views have been compared by Christopher Hitchens to those of Charles Lindbergh,[21] whom Raimondo describes as an “American hero sprung from the heartland.”
i promise you these two would have been Father Coughlin admirerers had they been around to here that a hole.
Thanks for the reminder about these two jokers, Orlando.
No problem. I’m not sure how much harm those two rabble-rousers are actually doing, but they sure are enjoying themselves. Giraldi distorts reality and attacks Israel and her supporters in EVERY column, and Raimondo is doing his utmost to lay the blame for the Norwegian murders at the feet of various Jews and conservatives who have been warning about the threats posed by radical Muslims.
They both receive glowing feedback from their obedient readers and virtually zero objections. It would be wonderful if some of the folks who comment here started posting on their blog (antiwar.com) and ruined their happy little echo chamber. What Giraldi and Raimondo get away with is unconscionable.
Demographics tell the truth. George Will pointed a while ago that if the Jeiwsh people had been allowed to increase their numbers through natural means over the last two millenia there would be a total of around 200 million today instead of 13 million. The reason 187 million Jews are missing is because of genocide committed against them by the catholic church and islam. One would think that total would be enough to satisfy anti-semites. Obviously, it isn’t.
Not just Catholics and Islam, Marty. Bogdan Khmelnitsky and his cossacks were Orthodox Christians.
Gosh, tihson, I as a Christian was just thinking to reach out to the Jews around me. Now I’m feeling horribly guilty after reading about these 500-yr-old events. It looks like no forgiveness is possible. We’re doomed.
Start with 1938 through 1945 if contemporary history is your cup of tea.
No need to go that far away in time. Go to the “second intifada” around 2002-2006 with its 1,000-plus killed Israelis, mostly children, teen-agers, women, and elderly; mostly civilians. Most of them while riding a bus, while sitting at a street-side cafe, while having lunch. All of them killed by barbarians of the muslim persuasion because they were Jews, just like Khmelnitsky did.
And no, don’t try to misleadingly compare them to the arab casualties. Jewish kids were blown up while riding a bus; arabs were shot while either (1)throwing stones and Molotovs against Israelis or (2)while serving as shields for the brave Hamas terrorists, who have a long tradition of taking cover behind women’s burqas and baby’s strollers while shooting against their targets.
And no, we don’t need your sarcastic Christian reach-out or your facetious sorrow. Simply shutting your face up would be enough.
David Soloway – The picture of the past is not as bleak as you paint it. The business with Antiochus IV Epiphanes was more of a civil war within Judaism plus Antiochus’ continued need for money, as opposed to any animus Antiochus may have had specifically towards Judaism. (Antiochus’ father, Antiochus III Great, was the loser in a major battle against Rome at Magnesia; the Romans imposed a very heavy fine on his state, and so he and both his sons, Seleucid VII and Antiochus IV, were in constant need of money to pay the fine; indeed, Antiochus IV was killed by raiding a pagan temple in Mesopotamia.) Subsequently, under the Maccabees/Hasmoneans, there was a very large increase in the size of the Judean state, and very large increase in the number of Jews (some of it through forceable conversions – our hands are not clean either). Until 70 CE, the Romans treated Jews pretty well. Problems began afterwards, with Vespasian and the Flavian successors. Vespasian, to aggrandize himself and his conquest Judea plus destruction of the Temple, set about to demean the Jews. He was quite successful at it. The next nail in the coffin was the Bar-Kokhbah revolt in 132-135 CE and the difficulty Hadrian had in putting it down. The final nail was the adoption by the Roman state of Christianity under Constantitne the Great in 305 or so. Until then, Christianity and Judaism had had an uneasy relationship as more or less equals within the Roman state. When the Roman state became Christian, the Christians used the power of the state to beat up on the Jews, and that’s the way it was until the Reformation and the splitting of church and state.
The reformation did little to help Jews, though it did challenge the catholic cult. luther was every bit as viciously anti-semitic as the papacy. Even today methodists and episcopalians denigrate Israel and Judasim and support the efforts of muslims to exterminate Jews in the Middle East and elsewhere.
An interesting video I came across earlier this morning
“The video that is driving the palistinians crazy” is enlightening.
http://unitedwithisrael.org/the-video-that-is-driving-the-palestinians-crazy/