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Israel-Palestine
Anti-Semitism And The Converse by Saad Anis The western world has a bleak history of anti-Semitism. Since time immemorial, Jews have been the persecuted nation throughout Europe, hapless victims to some of the most brutal massacres. During a period of 1700 years from A.D 250 to 1948, the Jews had to experience more than 80 expulsions from various countries in Europe. Time after time, they were subjected to macabre pogroms under numerous pretexts, ranging from the social to the economic, the racial to the national. They were massacred by the crusaders when the latter made their way to Jerusalem in the 11th century, slaughtered during the Black Death for allegedly poisoning wells in the 14th century, murdered by Chmelnicki's Cossacks in Ukraine in the 17th century, and butchered in harrowing numbers by the Nazis in the 20th century. Anti-Semitism reached its horrendous zenith in the form of the Holocaust, the single largest systemised extermination of a people. Six million Jews were condemned to the gas chambers. Their skin was used to make bags and coats, and their hair utilised for producing brushes. Fortunately though, the Holocaust served as a wakeup call for the west which has since realised its wrongs and has attempted to redress them. It has owned up its regrettable role in the torture of the Jewish people, and has taken measures to ensure that such persecution is never repeated. So strongly has the fear of anti-Semitism been ingrained in the west today that it has become a societal anathema. However, not entirely unexpectedly, the revolting memory of the Holocaust and the oppression of the Jewish community in the past has come to be misused to lend them unfair advantage in recent times. Anti-Semitism has become a taboo in contemporary western society, to the extent that even frequent transgressions by the Jewish community or by Israel are intentionally overlooked, for fear of any criticism thereof inciting the dreaded charge of anti-Semitism. No one in the west, which has the history that it does, wants the ostracising tag of anti-Semitism attached to them. Sadly, this apprehension of the western world is being grossly exploited. A case in point is the Israeli reign of terror in Palestine, and the meek western response to this methodical barbarism. As a rule, criticism of Israeli violence and the suppression of Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied territories of West Bank and Gaza are cast aside rather contemptuously as being "anti-Semitic". Perplexingly enough, as soon as any opinion is branded with this allegation, no matter how objective it may be, it is thence gauged not on its own merits but with a preconceived bias against it. Lamentably, this is the general perception, and is being abused by Ariel Sharon and his henchmen to indulge in the worst sort of State-sponsored terrorism. The revolting memory of the Holocaust still breathes fresh in the minds and hearts of the world community, and is being exploited by Israel to its benefit. Innumerable instances can be cited of rational criticism of Israel being cast aside as `spiteful Jewish hatred' by those loath to being censured. Journalists of the calibre and integrity of Robert Fisk are unthinkingly condemned as `Jew-haters' for the sin of bluntly reporting the truth. In 2002, Lawrence Summers, the President of Harvard University, denounced European boycotts of Israel and anti- globalisation rallies at which criticism of Israel was voiced, terming them as `anti-Semitic'. As the situation stands today, no one in the West wants to don the ignominious tag of being anti-Semitic, considered synonymous to anti-Israeli in the world today. The line is fine, and few want to tread it. While modern West is heading towards what may be called excessive pro-Semitism, an opposite and extremely disturbing trend is emergent in the Muslims world, primarily in Asia and the Middle East. As one part of the world attempts to bury old memories of cruelty to the Semites, the other is nurturing fresh hatred for the same. The major cause of this anger is Israeli policy in the Middle East, coupled with the inexplicable silent consent of the United States. This inexorably leads to the popular charge that certain Jewish interests are responsible for continued American support of Israel's draconian policies in Palestine. Of course, this claim does hold water, considering the substantial economic, and thus political, influence that the Jewish community wields in the United States. Moreover, the American media, known for its biased coverage of the Middle East crisis, is more or less completely owned by the Jewish community. The largest commercial chain of radio stations in America today, Universal Broadcasting, is owned by a Jew, Miriam Warshaw. A significant number of the most influential newspapers and periodicals -- such as the New York Times, Washington Post, St. Louis Post Dispatch, TV Guide, New Republic - to name just a few - are owned by individduals of Jewish background. One of the largest communications empires in the United States is the Jewish-owned Newhouse chain. It encompasses twenty-six daily newspapers, five magazines, six television stations, four radio stations, and twenty cable-TV systems. Of course, merely because any instrument of the media is owned by Jewish interests does not necessarily imply that the reporting therein should be biased accordingly. However, the fact that the overwhelmingly Jewish-owned American media has consistently presented a prejudiced account of the Middle East situation in favour of Israel, to the extent of distorting the truth on numerous occasions, does lend some credence to cries of Jewish partiality. The statement of the billionaire Jewish financier George Soros last year, blaming investors like himself along with the policies of Israel and the US for the rising tide of anti-Semitism, indicates that the vituperative charges of the anguished Muslim community may not be baseless after all. Thus far, the criticism of certain elements within the Jewish community which unfairly shield Israel from international pressure, is entirely justifiable. However, it sadly does not end here. An increasing majority in the Muslim world today believes that Jews, by nature, are a malicious nation. They stubbornly maintain that all Jews in the world, without exception, are continually engrossed in connivances against the Muslims. This irrational claim is conceived and nourished by fist-clenching theological firebrands of our country, many of whom propagate the belief that indiscriminate killing of Jews is a religious obligation. People are prone to generalisations. It is ironic to observe that the Muslim world, which has itself been the recent target of unfair prejudice owing to the actions of a deviant few from among its ranks, is discriminating against the Jews in a similar stereotyped fashion. It somehow refuses to understand the identical situation of the Jews, where the whole nation is blamed for the contraventions of a minority. While such intense Muslim hatred of Jews may be understandable, it is certainly not condonable. It is spite ad hominem, and is morally reprehensible. The two extremes, one of Western "excessive pro-Semitism" and growing Muslim anti-Semitism, are extremely alarming. It is high time that the educated communities of both parts of the world made an effort to mitigate the state of affairs, and the voice of reason prevailed. About the Author(s): See under Our Contributors to find out about the Author(s) of this article. |
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