Anti-Semitism in the 20th Century
God chose the Jews to be hated? This is the gist of David Prager's article in the LA Times. My Jesuit schooling has taught me much about the Jews being the chosen people, but never that their centuries of terrible persecution at the hands of the Romans, Catholics, Protestants, Muslims, Nazis, Communists, etc. is because of their status as God's chosen people.
My main concern with the article lies in a two smaller points:
"However, as almost always happens, too many dismiss anti-Semitism as the Jews' problem or even the Jews' fault, when in fact it [anti-Semitism] is the most accurate predictor of an evil that humanity will have to fight"
An interesting conclusion when taken by itself as over the 20th century anti-Semitic behavior by a nation or group of people has been a precursor to a wider conflict (Nazism, Communism, extremist Muslim terror).
However when Prager states the "evil that has targeted the Jews since the mid-20th century" he lists the UN's numerous resolutions about Israel and the entire Muslim world as on par with the evils of Nazism and Stalin.
How can (on the rare occasion) reasonable resolutions passed by the UN (condemnation of the Sabra and Shatila massacre for one) or the acts of Muslims as a whole compare to the millions of Jews murdered by the Nazis or the pogroms of Tsarist Russia and the persecution by Stalin?
A grouping like this, either the product of shoddy writing or a deliberate attempt to mislead, serves to trivialize the horrors committed against the Jewish people, and to debase all legitimate criticism of Israel as just another example of anti-Semitic behavior.
My main concern with the article lies in a two smaller points:
"However, as almost always happens, too many dismiss anti-Semitism as the Jews' problem or even the Jews' fault, when in fact it [anti-Semitism] is the most accurate predictor of an evil that humanity will have to fight"
An interesting conclusion when taken by itself as over the 20th century anti-Semitic behavior by a nation or group of people has been a precursor to a wider conflict (Nazism, Communism, extremist Muslim terror).
However when Prager states the "evil that has targeted the Jews since the mid-20th century" he lists the UN's numerous resolutions about Israel and the entire Muslim world as on par with the evils of Nazism and Stalin.
How can (on the rare occasion) reasonable resolutions passed by the UN (condemnation of the Sabra and Shatila massacre for one) or the acts of Muslims as a whole compare to the millions of Jews murdered by the Nazis or the pogroms of Tsarist Russia and the persecution by Stalin?
A grouping like this, either the product of shoddy writing or a deliberate attempt to mislead, serves to trivialize the horrors committed against the Jewish people, and to debase all legitimate criticism of Israel as just another example of anti-Semitic behavior.
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