The Causes of Anti-Semitism - Term Paper Example

The Causes of Anti-Semitism The Causes of Anti-Semitism Introduction In general when it comes to Jewish people, they are viewed with suspicion all over the world; we can observe with clarity that from Canada to Chile in the Americas, from Europe all the way across Asia to Japan, in Africa and all over the Islamic and Arab world, most individuals have a hatred for the Jewish people. There are always reasons why people as a whole and in particular as a race are hated. While some of these reasons are centuries old, the Jewish people have not realistically speaking done much to address the reasons for this hatred in our present times. A surprising fact is that even in the United States, whose government has taken it upon itself to support whatever the policies the Jewish people in Israel adopt irrespective of whether these policies are morally and legally right or wrong towards the Palestinian people. In a nationwide survey that was conducted in 2002 by the Anti-Defamation League, the results show that the number of American with anti-Semitic feelings have increased and this has raised concerns about the increasing undercurrent of the Jewish hatred in the United States. (Anti-Semitism on the rise in America) Background When we try to analyze the reasons for this deep rooted anti-Semitism, we can clearly pin-point them because the Jewish people are different to other people; they are looked at with suspicion because of the tremendous clout they wield over the world economy and the influence they have over the only remaining super-power of the world, the United States; furthermore throughout the ages they have also been blamed for having their hidden agenda to take advantage for their selfish motives and at all costs fair and unfair to dominate in the Middle East and specially to subdue the Palestinian people perhaps to someday annihilate them from the face of the earth somehow. Because of the geographical positioning of Israel surrounded by neighboring states towards whom they are hostile and who in turn are hostile to them and the fact that even after Israel was created more than six decades ago, continuous conflict exists because of the parasite like mentality of the Jewish people through which more and more Palestinian land is grabbed by them. All these factors when combined together have contributed in the Jewish people being seen as aggressive people with whom the world had sympathized because of the suffering the endured during the holocaust who now are treating the very people on whose land they have forcibly created their country as unjustly as they had been treated during World War II. These are the perceived reasons with many of them real and many of them to some extent exaggerated that causes the strong anti-Semitic feeling towards the Jewish people as a whole. The Israel/Palestinian Factor In the 2002, the Socialist Equality Party of Britain held a public meeting in which Israel’s ruling Likud Party adopting a resolution to never accept a Palestinian State came up for discussion. With this matter being discussed in a first world country, the intentions of the Jewish people are internationally being recognized and their hidden agenda is gradually being exposed to the world. The continuously unfolding of human tragedy in the Occupied Territories and subjecting the Palestinians to sustained military attacks that has claimed uncountable number of innocent lives is only increasing the number of ordinary people becoming suicide bombers and terrorists out of the frustration of not getting justice from anywhere. The Palestinian political parties such as the PLO, Hama, Islamic Jihad come into being and are considered to be extreme because in the first place came into being and prosper because of the atrocities being committed on the Palestinian people whose desperate situation epitomized squadrons of suicide bombers. If these people were not so desperate pushed over the edge, why in their right minds would they opt to lay down their lives by blowing themselves into bits and pieces and indiscriminately kill innocent civilians even if they were Jewish. There are reasons for every action and none for reasons of the insane, and in no way can we assume the Palestinian suicide bombers to be insane when they see no other alternative but to die for the very survival of their people. The response of the Israeli government to justify smashing up the economic, social and political infrastructure of the Palestinian people is therefore a purely retaliatory action to avenge the suicide bombers and more specifically to destroy their family homes as a deterrent warning to future would be suicide bombers. Unfortunately the Jewish people do not realize that when they take away everything individuals have including their dignity, they automatically become the most dangerous people who have nothing more to fear about. The propaganda for finding a resolution by the Israeli government therefore appears to be hollow because since its creation if sincere efforts for a resolution had ever been made, by now the Middle East would have been a more developed and prosperous place to live in. Perhaps if the United States tax-payers were not to foot the bill for the continuous aggressive mentality and policies of the Israeli people, there would since long have been some peace but the pact with the devil has already been made, and let us hope that the devil someday does not drag the United States into a situation where the final world war could start. While the Israeli government and the Jewish people frantically engage in attempts to convince the world that it is the Palestinians who seek to destruct the State of Israel but it seeks peace with them while they attempt to expel every Palestinian from the West Bank and Gaza so as to integrate them into a Greater Israel. A second alternative they have is to create Palestinian ghettos surrounded by Israeli army and cut off from each other under the direct authority of a puppet regime answerable to Israel and its sponsor, the United States. This fact is perhaps the world’s worst kept secret yet the world allows Israel to conduct itself as if it were fighting a legitimized war with its sophisticated attack armory against stone throwers and outdated small arm holding desperate people. During the tenure of Sharon’s presidency, repeated provocative campaigns were mounted by him to derail the Oslo Agreement of 1993 that pledged for the creation of a Palestinian State and his visit to the Temple Mount in 2000 was the final nail in the Oslo Agreement coffin. Instead of dealing with fairness with Yasser Arafat as a leader of the Palestinian people, he virtually made him a hostage in his offices and insisted that the world view him as a Palestinian Osama bin Laden and a “terrorist and murderer”. Since then Sharon has been on record to promise the world that he would “use iron fisted tactics to wipe out Palestinian terrorism, and that he will not dismantle a single Jewish settlement in the territories” and “the Jordan Valley will remain forever under Israeli sovereignty. When I talk about the Valley, I don’t just mean a narrow strip but the eastern security strip whose western border is the ridge of hills west of the Allon Road.” And simply put, Sharon proclaimed Israel’s control over the entire West Bank while refusing any Palestinian control over East Jerusalem. Since long Israel has lost all moral authority and has endangered the Jewish people more by portraying them as anti-Semitics and the existence of their country based on brutality that arouses the indignation of all fair-minded people of the world. The international standards, morality and legitimacy that was once enjoyed by Israel is therefore lost and on almost daily basis articles are written and speeches made to by pro-Zionist forces complaining of renewed anti-Semitism, while no effort is made as to why so much bad feelings have emerged towards them. Instead, due to the control of the media by the powerful Jewish lobbies, the entire righteous people who speak out or be critical of Israel and the Jewish people including world politicians and leaders besides the Arab world and all Muslims are branded as anti-Semitics. However, it is to be noted that after the post World War II which had dampened the natural anti-Semitic views of the Europeans because of the guilt they felt over the Holocaust is fast waning out and a day will come when openly the world will in unison be forced speak out against the injustices of the Jewish people. Just as in World War II where millions of Jews suffered, in our modern times the Jews as if to avenge this suffering are making the Palestinians pay the price with interest and vengeance. The Merchants of Venice have once again come to collect their “pound of flesh” as we everyday see the telecasting of Palestinian houses being bulldozed, besides the men, women and children too shot and bodies being crushed beneath the rubble caused by Israeli air, naval, artillery and tank fire. Instead of voluntary reconciliation with the Palestinians and their neighbors it seems that Israel and the Jewish people not being satisfied with the land occupied forcefully occupied by them have future plans to build a Jewish empire that they can tyrannically rule. During the first twenty years of Israel’s history their democratic party’s intentions were to expel the Palestinians and subdue their democratic rights while portraying the Jewish people as the champions of democracy. With a pre-decided methodology they implemented their Zionist project and after the 1967 war, openly built their state by the brutal subjugation of an invading force with openly expansionist and militaristic plan that appears to have the blessing of the United States, who on the other hand portray themselves as the champion advocates for the spreading of democracy world-wide. Unfortunately for the world and specifically for the Middle East, the bold leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner Yitzhak Rabin who had been one of the main architects of the Oslo Accord had his life cut short not by a Palestinian but by a Jewish assassin’s bullet. His co-prize winner, Shimon Peres now ineffectively appears as an apologist politician unable to bring any fruition to the Oslo agreement. With the only remaining super-power, the United States government and not its people, appearing to be hand-in-glove with the Jewish people’s Israeli agenda and as Chomsky had once quoted Moshe Dayan who more than three decades ago had told the Israeli cabinet to clarify to the Palestinians that, “we have no solution, you shall continue to live like dogs, and who ever wishes may leave” and Chomsky further notes “when challenged, he responded by citing Ben-Gurion, who said that ‘who ever approaches the Zionist problem from a moral aspect is not a Zionist’”. It is an accepted fact that the fate of the Middle East will be what the United States decides it to be, however, an alternative if the Jewish people become more extreme and if more anti-Semitic feelings are aroused would by through the buildup of battalions of the worlds working class forcefully bringing a fair conclusion to the festering Middle East problem not wanting to be resolved by Israel and the Jewish people. (The Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the dead-end of Zionism) Jewish People Being Different From the historical point of view, ever since the destruction by the Babylonians in the year 586 BC of King Solomon’s Temple, also called the First Jewish Temple of Jerusalem that was built in the 10th Century BC, which functioned as a religious place for worship and sacrifices in ancient Judaism, the Jewish people thereafter had to spread out all across the world. However, they were not welcome in any of the countries they went to and for centuries were prosecuted everywhere including in Europe. One of the main reasons for this was their physical appearance and the garbs they wore as one of the requirements of their religion. This made them stand out differently from other people as a negative frightfully type of people viewed with much suspicion. (Solomon’s Temple) Prosecution of Jewish People In many countries the Jewish people have done very well for themselves because of their drive and hard work and the fact that they bond together to help each other within their own communities. This is one of the factors that make other people view the Jewish people as being selfish and they are eventually hated and considered as being a manipulative people who with their hidden money take advantage of every situation that comes their way to profit the maximum. A good example of the Jewish people as being mean and vengeful people can also be taken from Shakespeare’s “Merchant of Venice” where a Jew money lender is portrayed as a person who manipulative creates a situation where he demands his “pound of flesh” disregarding the consequences this unjust act might bring. Thus in a way the Jewish people are often persecuted because of their ability to do overwhelmingly well in societies. Besides these facts the Christian people also blame the Jewish people for the atrocities meted out to their messiah Jesus Christ and his crucifixion on their behest by the Romans. (Anti-Semitism) In a similar situation, in Germany when a brilliant but insane Austrian painter by the name of Adolph Hitler took over the control of his country, he was able through his mesmerizing and hypnotic abilities as well as his charismatic oration powers to en-mass convince the German people that for all of Germany’s socio-economic woeful problems it was the Jewish people who were to be blamed for. Millions of Jews, men, women, children and the old and young therefore were massacred in the most inhuman conditions during the holocaust. To further his evil designs, Adolph Hitler attempted to almost entirely wipe out the Jewish race from the map of Germany and even from those countries under the control of Germany during World War II. Furthermore during the time of the Spanish Inquisition towards the end of the 14th Century there was a wave of violent anti-Judaism feelings and during the pogroms of 1391and thereafter, uncountable numbers of Jews were massacred and their synagogues destroyed. While many of the Jews were forcibly converted to Christianity but since some of them were suspected on not being sincere to their new religion, the Alhambra Decree of 1492 was enacted which ordered all the Jews to leave Spain. The Spanish Inquisition brought a reign of terror throughout Europe for the Jewish people as it was responsible for the impoverishment, exile and death of their countless numbers with the motive being to profit by their exile. From these two examples we can assess that the Jewish people were prosecuted because of anti-Semitism and political reasons. These anti-Semitic feelings continue even today as we observe Jews even now being prosecuted in various countries in Asia, Africa and other continents from where they are forced to flee and settle down in Israel. (ADL 1 & Spanish Inquisition) Major Findings in United States The major findings in America indicate that anti-Semitic feelings have risen with the most widely believed stereotype reason being, “Jews have too much power in the U.S.” The polls for this study showed that 17% of Americans were extremely anti-Semitic while 35% were in the in-between category not completely prejudice free in their feelings and attitudes towards the Jewish people. This trend shows that only 48% of the American people were prejudice free towards the Jewish people and therefore theoretically we can state that more then half the people even in the United States have anti-Semitic attitudes. These feelings to great extent are based on the anti-Israel feelings and for the first time so much negative attitude has been exhibited out of concern that the American Jews influence the United States Middle East policies to tilt excessively towards Israel. There are many communities in the United States whose majority members assert that, "Jews dont care what happens to anyone but their own kind." and "Jews were responsible for the death of Christ." (Anti-Semitism on the rise in America) Major Findings in Britain Senior politicians from Israel have also warned of the wave of anti-Jewish racism that is spreading in British universities and lecturers have also been accused of influencing anti-Semitism in campuses through their threats of boycotting Israeli universities. Moreover, there has been an increase in Jewish undergraduate students falling victim to anti-Semitic abuse and attacks with dons from Israeli universities fearing that they would be boycotted by British academies. An inquiry by the British Parliament confirmed that a brick was thrown in a Jewish student’s window with a poster pasted on his door stating “slaughter the Jews” and in another instance a knife was stuck on the door of another student. More worrying were the MP’s conclusions to the inquiry which found that Jewish students felt greatly threatened and the conflict in Lebanon had heightened the tensions with some student unions proposing boycotts of Israeli goods. Furthermore a lecturer’s union had passed a motion through which two of Israeli universities were boycotted while another union voted in May of last year for the widespread boycotting of Israeli universities and academics because they condemned the apartheid policies being adopted against the Palestinian people. (Israeli minister warns of anti-Semitism spreading through UK universities) Jewish Belief and Practice at the Present Time Remarkably the Jewish people are unaware in present times of the need to comply with the social laws of the Torah which guarantees their security, survival and high living standard in Israel because just before and during the formative years of Christianity, the core laws which prevented them from exploiting other people were bypassed and the whole social system was abrogated and in effect annulled. These changes were so drastic that their process was recorded in the “Talmud” where it is confirmed that the law had become like two different laws. However the establishment of the day succeeded to hide these facts so well that the memory of the original Jewish religion law faded away. During the process of these changes in the Jewish religious beliefs and practices there were many who did not agree and there were others who formed their own communities to follow the fair and just social legislation as per the original social order advocated and this seems to have been the reason for the beginning of the Christianity religion. In reality it is the Jewish people who do not observe in the present times the social laws prescribed by the Torah and therefore inevitably suffer from prosecution and anti-Semitism. Hence for the Jews to avoid these negative anti-Semitic feelings they will have to go back to the truth of the Torah and put it to practice under our modern living conditions so that justice and peace prevails. If the original laws of the Torah are not adhered to then surely the world will become an uninhabitable place for humans to dwell upon. (Manfred Davidmann, Causes of Antisemitism) Conclusion While Israel as a country remains under the constant scrutiny of the international community and the various media forums including web sites condemning this state, some of the media and web sites directly attack the Jewish people as a whole. With the setting of this dangerous precedent where in a generalized manner the anti-Semitic feelings towards the whole Jewish race is being exhibited and so many people hating, the Jewish people require to look at themselves and become a better people before it is too late. The State of Israel and the Jewish people by being unjust have not done their own cause any good by giving the Palestinian people, their immediate neighbors and the world genuine reasons to legitimately hate them. With the State of Israel giving the world a platform to attack the Jewish people for being racist and practicing apartheid, we still have to consider that all people in every community and race are not bad. However, it is a pity that these people are not raising their voice in unison against the injustices being done so that the policies of their country changes for the better and a ray of real hope dawns not only on the Palestinians but also on the Israeli people so that our new generations do not have to experience the everyday violence of the Middle East that ours and our past few generations have been witnessing. With Israel not showing an iota for accommodating the Palestinians as human being with whom not only they, but their future generations will have to live side by side and instead of mending fences, compromising and rebuilding amicable relations they keep on aggressively letting blood be shed shedding at the center from where the three major religions of the world begun. Instead the land of the true God and a place of worship and peace has been turned into a land of false modern day architects and planners of violence and hatred. Works Cited: Anti-Semitism (Accessed: May 27, 2007) http://www.vexen.co.uk/religion/antisemitism.html Anti-Semitism on the rise in America (Accessed: May 27, 2007) http://www.adl.org/PresRele/ASUS_12/4109_12.asp Israeli minister warns of anti-Semitism spreading through UK universities (Accessed: May 27, 2007) http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/article-23370158-details/Israeli+minister+warns+anti-semitism+is+spreading+through+UK+universities/article.do Manfred Davidmann, CAUSES OF ANTISEMITISM (Accessed: May 27, 2007) http://www.solbaram.org/articles/antisem.html Solomon’s Temple, from Wikipedia the free encyclopedia (Accessed: May 27, 2007) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solomons_Temple Spanish Inquisition, from Wikipedia the free encyclopedia (Accessed: May 27, 2007) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_Inquisition The Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the dead-end of Zionism, 16 May 2002, Socialist Equality Party public meeting in Britain (Accessed: May 30, 2007) http://www.wsws.org/articles/2002/may2002/meet-m16.shtml Read More