If someone were to ask me to define anti-Semitism, I would offer the following: Anti-Semitism is the targeting, brutalizing and exploiting of people physically, socially, economically, and politically, and endorsed by those in power, for no other reason than they are Jewish (Hebrew), Assyrian, Phoenician, and Arab.
Yes, my friends, genetic studies indicate that modern Jews (Ashkenazi, Sephardic, and Mizrahi specifically), Levantine Arabs, Assyrians, Samaritans, Syriacs-Arameans, Maronites, Druze, Mandaeans, and Mhallami, all have an ancient indigenous common Near Eastern heritage which can be genetically mapped back to the ancient Fertile Crescent.
Let us also consider the likelihood that there is closer genetic relationship between Hebrews and Palestinians than between Hebrews and their brethren from Eastern Europe.
What this means then, is that there are many groups that share the same Semitic genealogical history and it is Zionist Israel that has assumed a dramatic anti-Semitic stance.
On January 21, 2015, Benjamin Netanyahu, head of Israel’s apartheid government, was authorized by the UN to organize a conference to address “the rise of anti-Semitism world-wide.” But, Netanyahu is not going to include in his statements reference to Israel’s anti-Semitic attacks on the Arab and Islamic world. In other words, we can describe him as pro-Jewish, but anti-Semitic.
This is the first time in the history of the UN that they have agreed to such a conference. Endorsing this conference were 40 countries, including the U.S. and every member of the European Union. That comes as no surprise.
Although we usually identify Germany and the Nazi movement with anti-Semitism and the Holocaust, there were many European countries that were sympathetic to the cause. Close allies of the U.S., such as England and France offered Germany assistance in the extermination of Jews. The Ukraine and Poland also offered support for the German’s efforts.
Israel, under the leadership of Benjamin Netanyahu, is attempting to compare the attacks by Muslims with those of the European anti-Semitism which lasted for several centuries. What he refuses to recognize and communicate is that the Muslims are responding to Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory, its destruction of the infrastructure of this territory, and the military violence perpetrated by Israel on the Palestinian people.
It is the Muslim communities that are oppressed, not the Jewish communities, and their targeting of Jews is in retaliation for what Israel continues to perpetrate on them. What Netanyahu hopes to communicate to the world leaders at the UN is comparable to focusing on the Jews, who in WW2 took up arms to resist the onslaught of the European Christian communities, and accuse them of anti-Christian behavior. Those Jews killed Christians not because they were Christian, but because they represented oppression, destruction, and very likely death.
European anti-Semitism was imposed by people who had power and control and could, therefore, enforce their bigotry and hatred with little or no retribution and with the support of their own communities. What we have today, in the name of Islamophobia, are people who have been disenfranchised, with no control or power to initiate change, whose only recourse are what are called acts of terror. Each act of what is called terror furthers the view of Islam as a religion that promotes and supports these acts. When people are willing to strap explosives to their bodies and blow themselves to pieces, these are not acts of strength, these are acts by people who are vulnerable, impotent and frustrated. As is usually the case, these are people that are called terrorists while their neighbors call them freedom fighters.
Unfortunately, too many people confuse Judaism with Zionism and the response to Israel’s atrocious acts against the Palestinians is seen as acts being committed by Jews. It is the Israeli Zionist who has supported the acts of war against an impotent population, a war to ensure that Israel is truly a Jewish state. This has been their goal since 1948 but is not the goal of many Jews worldwide.
There is another dynamic at work here. Both anti-Semitism during WW2 and Islamophobia today serve the ruling class well. As Fred Goldstein, in his article in Worker’s World points out, “These are the ruling-class forces that turned to fascism and anti-Semitism in the 1930s and used the Jewish people as scapegoats. The capitalists backed the fascists when they needed scapegoats to direct mass hostility toward the Jews because capitalism was crumbling during the Great Depression. At the same time, the fascists wiped out the trade unions and all forms of working-class organization.”
Goldstein continues, “As part of this Islamophobic campaign, Netanyahu, Hollande, Merkel, Cameron and Obama want to draw an equal sign between the bloody fascism of the right wing and its genocide against the Jews on one hand and the desperate resistance and profound anger of the Muslim people against the overwhelming armed might of world imperialism, which is trying to subdue the entire Middle East, western Asia and most of the world.”
The goal of the ruling class today is both the military occupation of the Middle East and control of the gas and oil in that part of the world. As someone I know recently said, “What is our oil doing under their sand?” Also prevalent is the movement toward fascism both in the U.S. and many European countries in order to fight terrorism (Islamists) and keep these countries secure. Too many people are willing to compromise their liberties and freedoms in order to feel more secure, without acknowledging that continued military action by Western countries in the Middle East is proving to be the major threat to us. Europe and the U.S. are providing Islam with a legitimate major motivation to strike back at us.
We cannot ignore the role of Israel in the U.S. capitalist, imperialist program and agenda. Israel is the only Euro-friendly country in the Middle East and often acts out strategies that will achieve U.S. goals. That is why the U.S. continues to support and protect Israel with $3.5 billion every year, as well as extra military aid when needed.
Dave Alpert has masters degrees in social work, educational administration, and psychology. He spent his career working with troubled inner city adolescents.
The west has been brainwashed to believe that only Jews are touched by antisemitism. It would be a service to human kind if David Alpert’s definition came into widespread use.
“Anti-Semitism is the targeting, brutalizing and exploiting of people physically, socially, economically, and politically, and endorsed by those in power, for no other reason than they are Jewish (Hebrew), Assyrian, Phoenician, and Arab.”