Britain is going through one of the most anti-Jewishly tinged periods of its history

[scandal 951]

http://haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1162358.html

Last update - 03:47 12/04/2010

The Holocaust can happen again, warns top anti-Semitism scholar

By Raphael Ahren

The photograph on the jacket cover of Robert Wistrich's new book on anti-Semitism shows two fog-shrouded train tracks that careful observers will recognize as leading to Auschwitz. But for Wistrich, one of the world's leading historians of anti-Semitism, this image is not only a look at the past.

While depicting Auschwitz as the culmination of where extreme Jew-hatred can lead, the photo is also meant to hint at the ubiquitous threat of anti-Semitism - what Wistrich calls a "future of uncertainty." Indeed, the British-Israeli scholar seems to suggest that while the worst is, perhaps, behind us, there may yet be another genocide just around the corner.

"We are in an era once again where the Jews are facing genocidal threats as a people," the author of the recently published "A Lethal Obsession: Anti-Semitism from Antiquity to the Global Jihad" said during an interview in his Jerusalem office. "We have not been in that situation for quite a while. And maybe this is the first time since the Shoah that [Jews] feel that this is palpable."

Wistrich, who heads Hebrew University's International Center for the Study of Anti-Semitism, a nonpolitical research center, is referring to the threats against Israel emanating from the Muslim world, especially Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. "Sixty-four years after Auschwitz, the politics of genocidal anti-Semitism and the indifference that made it possible are still with us," he writes at the end of the book.

Yes, Jews said the same thing after Israel's wars in 1967 and 1973, Wistrich acknowledged. Yet he maintains the current threat is much more serious: There are people who seek the Jews' extinction and aren't shy about their intentions.

"It's not a matter of speculation, are we interpreting it right or wrong - they say it in such a brazen, open way," he said. "It cannot be a mistake."

Wistrich, who is 65 and moved from Britain to Israel in 1980, pays special attention to the first decade of the 21st century. "I think that the graph of anti-Semitism significantly exploded in this period," in terms of the volume and the aggressiveness of anti-Jewish hostility, he said. He said his analysis was based on "a substantial amount of data" he accumulated.

Weeks before a Jewish Agency study made headlines earlier this year for calling 2009 the worst year for anti-Semitism since the end of World War II, Wistrich reached the same conclusion. (However, Wistrich says it was the worst, in terms of both violent and non-violent incidents, only since 1982, which he said was the first year accurate statistics about anti-Semitic incidents became available.)

No joke

In addition to studying statistics, a historian also "has to have a feeling beyond what is quantitatively analyzable," he said. Expressing such "feelings" sometimes make Wistrich sound more like a politician or an activist than a scholar. Indeed, while virtually all reviews of "A Lethal Obsession" praised its attention to detail and richness of sources, some have called it sensationalist. One reviewer wrote that the book reminded him of the famous one-liner: "What's a Jewish telegram? 'Start worrying: Letter follows.'" But this is no joke for Wistrich, who insists there is indeed good cause for concern.

"We're way beyond the monitoring phase," he said. "We have to act, we have to mobilize opinion, we have to enlighten people about the gravity of the threat. The way I see my own contribution here as a scholar is that I have mapped it all out in a way that has never been done before and made the danger crystal-clear. Nothing is determined, there is no fatality about this unless we close our eyes and shut our eyes. And then indeed, the worst scenario could materialize."

"A Lethal Obsession" devotes a substantial chunk of its 1,184 pages to global jihad and contemporary expressions of anti-Semitism. Naturally, however, the Holocaust is another central theme of the monumental work, although only two chapters are exclusively devoted to Nazi Germany.

"Probably in as many as in 20 out of 25 chapters, the shadow of Nazism and its different manifestations and legacies - both in an earlier period and the postwar era - and the central themes and metaphors that belong to Nazi anti-Semitism are continuously evoked," Wistrich explained. "For instance, in the chapters on Muslims and anti-Semitism there are constant parallels, analogies, and also sometimes differences, which are analyzed. The reader is constantly aware [of the Holocaust], in the sense that the cover evokes: There is a menacing cloud, this obscure but rather threatening fog - and of course, we do know it ultimately leads to Auschwitz. But it also may lead into an indefinite and infinite future of uncertainty. That sense of ominous threat is there all the time and it's inextricably linked with what I call genocidal anti-Semitism, of which the overwhelmingly dominant prototype is Nazism."

British xenophobia

For Wistrich, anti-Semitism isn't just a matter of dry theory. Having grown up in England as the son of Polish immigrants, he says he felt "the brunt of British xenophobia." He estimates that roughly 90 percent of the teachers in the grammar school he attended in the late 1950s and early 1960s were classic anti-Semites. "There were two teachers, who, though they fought against Nazi Germany in World War II, were in fact Nazi-like anti-Semites who truly hated the Jewish people," he recalled.

In the mid-'60s, the climate changed in Britain and it became less accepted to display one's anti-Semitism in public, Wistrich said. But an anti-Israel movement arose after the Six-Day War and the Yom Kippur War, "on a larger scale than people realize today." In 1980, Wistrich left the U.K. and moved to Israel. "I wanted to make my choice a free choice, and not feel like I'm leaving the country because it's too hot," he said. "That wasn't the case in 1980. But I could see enough of what was emerging under the surface."

Wistrich believes his prediction was right. "In Britain, all the taboos that exist in polite society are long gone when it comes to Israel and the Jews," he said, adding that anti-Semitic comments are a daily occurrence, "whether it's at dinner tables, in academia or in the churches." While politicians are less apt than those less in the public eye to publicly display the same kind of animosity, anti-Semitism is widespread even among political leaders, he said. "When I look at anti-Semitism in Britain, I feel it's always been underestimated by people outside the country," said Wistrich. "Having lived with it, I would say it is structurally almost built in to British life and culture."

While the U.K. isn't necessarily the worst country in Europe, Wistrich called it "one where it's become, over a number of years now, an inhospitable climate for any self-respecting Jewish person who feels even the most minimal identification with Israel. And even if they don't, it's becoming an inhospitable and unpleasant environment where you have to constantly justify your identity. Britain is going through one of the most anti-Jewishly tinged periods of its history."

If the statistics are accurate and anti-Semitism is stronger than ever, what can we expect for the future?

"It is almost certainly unrealistic to imagine that we could eradicate anti-Semitism," Wistrich said. Although, there have been periods during which Jew-hatred has seemed to be relatively dormant, he said, "it's always there beneath the surface."

"But we can live with that," said Wistrich. "The Jewish people have always been able to live with that, and there is no reason why everybody has to love the Jews."

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

There is a ton of Antisemitism here too. I've heard some crazy messed up stuff from people.

[scandal 951]

There is a ton of Antisemitism here too. I've heard some crazy messed up stuff from people.

There is. But attitudes in Europe and the UK are much harsher than in the US.

This while still within living memory of the Shoah in Europe.

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

There is. But attitudes in Europe and the UK are much harsher than in the US.

This while still within living memory of the Shoah in Europe.

It's my personal observation that anti-Semitism is very prevalent among non-white Americans. White Americans either don't open up to me (probably true) or simply don't suffer envy/resentment to the same extent.

[_Simpson_ 250]

There is a ton of Antisemitism here too. I've heard some crazy messed up stuff from people.

Why is that important in this situation? I dont see the point of bringing this up.

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

Why is that important in this situation? I dont see the point of bringing this up.

Important? It isn't.

[scandal 951]

Why is that important in this situation? I dont see the point of bringing this up.

Um, because it's an article about the ever-present danger of antisemitism throughout the world?

Or did you not read the OP?

[_Simpson_ 250]

Important? It isn't.

No its not because there very notion of this article is ridiculous and should be discredited from the get go. I am surprised that instead of laughing off the idea of this author's opinon you instead wanted to point out ant-sentitism in america, I cant help but to think huh what??? Title - The Holocaust can happen again, warns top anti-Semitism scholar... ridiculous.

Um, because it's an article about the ever-present danger of antisemitism throughout the world?

Or did you not read the OP?

and did you not read what the author was suggesting???

Edited April 12, 2010 by _Simpson_

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

No its not because there very notion of this article is ridiculous and should be discredited from the get go. I am surprised that instead of laughing off the idea of this author's opinon you instead wanted to point out ant-sentitism in america, I cant help but to think huh what??? Title - The Holocaust can happen again, warns top anti-Semitism scholar... ridiculous.

and did you not read what the author was suggesting???

When the attitudes that paved the way for the Holocaust then, exist now, then it is hardly a stretch.

[_Simpson_ 250]

When the attitudes that paved the way for the Holocaust then, exist now, then it is hardly a stretch.

Whats a stretch is to imply that Britain could resort back to the ways Nazi Germany.

[scandal 951]

and did you not read what the author was suggesting???

Oh, I read it. He's somewhat alarmist, certainly, as was noted in the article. That doesn't make him wrong.

Today, Yom Hashoah, with Passover just behind us, seems like a fitting day to quote this:

Bchol dor vador, omdim aleinu l'chaloteinu, v'hakadosh baruch hu, mazileinu me'yadam.

In every generation, they stand ready to destroy us, and the Blessed one redeems us from their hands.

Hitler is but the ugliest station on the line that has led from Laban to Egypt to Amalek to Philistines to Haman to Greeks to Romans to Crusaders to the Spanish Inquisition to the Pogroms and Blood Libel and the Protocols of the Elders of Zion to Emile Zola to the Holocaust and to the hatred of today in Europe and the Islamic World. We ignore the haters and those who preach death and destruction to Jews and Israel at our own peril. They are real and they mean business.

[Peikko 1,575]

Personally, I have never met an anti semite in the UK. Apathetic towards judaism? Yes, lots of that. I suspect this is more related to Philips and the perception that Israel is not blindly supported no matter what actions they take but that is a guess.

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

Personally, I have never met an anti semite in the UK. Apathetic towards judaism? Yes, lots of that. I suspect this is more related to Philips and the perception that Israel is not blindly supported no matter what actions they take but that is a guess.

Interesting you felt the need to "guess" given that you have access to the same Internet I do. All you had to do was look it up.

In reality, the "perception" of anti-Semitism has more to do with things like this:

Sir Jonathan said that the mood had changed after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centre in 2001. His daughter, who at the time was studying at the London School of Economics, “had gone to an anti-globalisation rally which quickly turned into a diatribe against Israel and Jews. She came home weeping and said, ‘Dad they hate us’. I never expected that to happen in the 21st century,” he said.

“There had been after the Holocaust a kind of taboo and that began to break. Within 24 hours of 9/11 people said it was ‘Mossad wot done it’.

“Then the anti-Semitism went viral and it became very worrying. There started to be synagogue desecrations, cemetery desecrations and Jews attacked on the street. We had a rabbinical student who was on the top floor of a bus in Stamford Hill quietly studying the Talmud. Somebody stabbed him many times — he was lucky to live. The guy who was convicted said, ‘Israel is persecuting us so I decided I had to persecute him’.”

Mark Gardiner, of the Community Security Trust, said that the number of attacks in January — 250 — was double the highest previous monthly total and the level had stayed well above average. Figures began to be compiled in 1984. “We have repeatedly seen a surge of anti-Semitic attacks every time there is turmoil in the Middle East,” Mr Gardiner said. “It’s a ridiculous situation that British Jews should feel vulnerable in relation to a conflict thousands of miles away.”

[Peikko 1,575]

Interesting you felt the need to "guess" given that you have access to the same Internet I do. All you had to do was look it up.

In reality, the "perception" of anti-Semitism has more to do with things like this:

Sir Jonathan said that the mood had changed after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centre in 2001. His daughter, who at the time was studying at the London School of Economics, "had gone to an anti-globalisation rally which quickly turned into a diatribe against Israel and Jews. She came home weeping and said, 'Dad they hate us'. I never expected that to happen in the 21st century," he said.

"There had been after the Holocaust a kind of taboo and that began to break. Within 24 hours of 9/11 people said it was 'Mossad wot done it'.

"Then the anti-Semitism went viral and it became very worrying. There started to be synagogue desecrations, cemetery desecrations and Jews attacked on the street. We had a rabbinical student who was on the top floor of a bus in Stamford Hill quietly studying the Talmud. Somebody stabbed him many times — he was lucky to live. The guy who was convicted said, 'Israel is persecuting us so I decided I had to persecute him'."

Mark Gardiner, of the Community Security Trust, said that the number of attacks in January — 250 — was double the highest previous monthly total and the level had stayed well above average. Figures began to be compiled in 1984. "We have repeatedly seen a surge of anti-Semitic attacks every time there is turmoil in the Middle East," Mr Gardiner said. "It's a ridiculous situation that British Jews should feel vulnerable in relation to a conflict thousands of miles away."

No, that is not in the least bit interesting, I didn't 'feel the need' to guess, I guessed because I am not really that interested in something that is not widespread in UK society. I know that it is not widespread in UK society despite the machinations of the likes of Melanie Philips who would persuade otherwise simply because she has a specific agenda of her own.

That is not to say there are not any people in the UK that hold abhorrent views, quite clearly there are but holding such views does not equate to being in a position of influence, nor does it mean that people holding these sort of views are likely to win big gains in the coming election, no more than the BNP or UKIP will. The UK is flawed, like every society, but it is not about to turn into a den of iniquity where it is unsafe to live unless you are an Anglo Saxon christian white man.

[Usui Takumi 1,562]

I've never really witnessed any antisemitism in the UK. On the other hand I noticed almost everyone had a dislike for Poles....in the same way Americans show a dislike for Mexicans.