The 21st Century Krystallnacht – It’s Okay to Hate Jews Now
Six months into the Israeli war against Hamas and a lot has transpired, much of it measured in human tragedy. But one of the most surprising outcomes of the October 7 Hamas massacre, despite the knowledge and awareness of their inhumane treatment of the victims and hostages, is the immediate and public embrace of antisemitism. It’s not limited to certain places or groups of people, either. It’s occurring on a worldwide scale.
Sexual Torture Is “Resistance”
After more than five months, Hamas supporters continues to excuse the actions by Hamas as “resistance” and save their condemnation for Israel alone. Even in the mainstream news, there is little or passing mention of the fates of the hostages, nor mention of how Hamas hides behind women and children in these expressions of support. There is also little mention of Hamas hiding combatants, arms and even hostages and under schools, hospitals and mosques, nor of children supposedly killed by the IDF in what would normally be innocent, non-militarized locations.
That’s not to say that there aren’t many casualties from the military actions of the IDF, because there are and that fact must be acknowledged. According to Hamas reports (the accuracy of which is unknown at this time), the number of dead Palestinian is up to 30,000, 12,000 of them children. That’s a great tragedy – and an atrocity. The IDF’s estimates are very different, however, with much fewer civilian casualties. The exact figures are not certain at this point. The IDF claims that the civilian-to-combatant death ratio is less than 2:1, which is magnitudes below the normal ratios of 6-to-1 or higher civilian-to-combatant death ratios in previous wars.
Hamas Killing Palestinians, Too
However, there are also reports from Palestinians themselves that Hamas is killing Palestinians, particularly women and children, if they attempt to leave an area that the IDF has warned in advance will be attacked. Hamas does so for the propaganda value of parading dead Palestinian children in the news cycle because it serves their purposes of blaming Israel for more atrocities. It wouldn’t be the first time that Hamas has killed Palestinians, according to Amnesty International, they’ve been doing so since at least 2014.
But these and other dreary facts only underscore the reality that no matter what or how many atrocities are perpetrated against Jews, Israelis, foreigners or even Palestinians, political support for Hamas and for a “free Palestine,” comes with an equally visceral condemnation of Israel and the Jewish people living not just in Israel, but anywhere and everywhere. In other words, for many Palestinian supporters around the world, a Hamas-level of hatred in the form of a broad and comprehensive antisemitism is completely justifiable.
Sadly, it’s also popular.
The post-October 7 anti-Semitic response has been particularly prevalent in Europe. Of course, Jew-hatred isn’t new there, particularly in Eastern Europe and Russia. That region’s history is stained with centuries ofcultural anti-Semitism, religious persecution and officially orchestrated pogroms. A 2011 study found that “cities where medieval anti-Semitic violence occurred saw higher deportation rates of Jews after 1933 and were more likely to see synagogues damaged or destroyed in the 'Night of Broken Glass’ in 1938, and their inhabitants wrote more anti-Jewish letters to the editor of the Nazi newspaper, Der Stürmer.” For good or for ill, cultural traits, customs and beliefs can and do persist for centuries among peoples. Among some European cultures, cultural traditions of antisemitism are among those traits that have been passed down through the centuries.
But again, it’s not the existence of antisemitism per se that’s surprising, but the overt and high level of public display of it that’s a recent development in the post-Nazi Germany era. This same point applies to modern America and other English-speaking and Western nations; it’s rising to significant and concerning levels in France, Germany, Austria, and in Latin America, particularly in Brazil.
In America, for example, it was just a few years ago that anti-Semitism was viewed as an ugly flaw in human nature, as all bigotry is. In Britain, antisemitism is now mainstream. Yes, all human beings, to one degree or another, are tribal in nature are far from perfect in thoughts or deeds. That said, for many years in the post-war West, antisemitism wasn’t present in everyday life and it certainly wasn’t in the open and defended.
But that’s no longer true.
We’re now seeing a new level of global public expression and acceptance of antisemitism manifesting as public condemnation of Israel in countries near and far. We’re also seeing the call for the elimination of Jews as a people becoming normalized to a great number of national and global institutions worldwide. Just as it was in the 1930s in Germany and the establishment of Nazism, in Gaza and in the minds Palestinian supporters around the world, the elimination of all Jews is the organizing principle for the establishment of a Palestinian state.
The Global Democratization of Antisemitism
To put it the language of millennials, anti-Semitism has “gone viral.” According to the Diaspora Ministry, the World Zionist Organization and the Jewish Agency, the number of anti-Semitic events around the world increased by six-fold from October to December of 2023. In the U.S., the anti-Defamation League (ADL) documented 3,283 anti-Semitic incidents between October 7, 2023, and January 7, a 360% increase over the same time in the prior year.
At this writing, Hamas still holds an estimated 130 or so hostage taken from the attack, leaving their relatives in a constant state of deep anxiety over the fate of their loved ones in the hands of such brutal killers. But even the simple act of a relative or supporter posting a photograph of a hostage is met with hate and contempt. There are numerous videos of people stripping photographs from walls and light posts in NYC, London, Paris, Rio de Janeiro, Melbourne and other major cities around the world. Such actions have become so common that it’s hardly newsworthy at this point.
At the same time, we see the massive street rallies of Islamic populations and non-Muslims numbering in the tens of thousands in those same cities, celebrating Hamas, calling for the destruction of Israel, the death of Jews–all Jews–with absolutely no concern for the more than victims of the attack or the remaining hostages. The focus is on Israel’s response in Gaza, with people shouting “from the river to the sea...” and demanding a ceasefire by Israel, regardless of the hostages’ situation. This dark shadow that’s spreading over the world is nothing less than the democratization of antisemitism.
It is apparent that the October 7 attacks are the 21st century version of Krystallnacht, when, on November 9-10, 1938, Nazi Germany made overt persecution of the Jews official, open policy of the state and its institutions. We are seeing the same thing today, even from elements within the Biden administration who threaten to “punish” Israel if they don’t agree to a cease-fire and the preservation of Hamas, while Hamas still holds Jewish hostage.
Such a development has staggeringly bad implications for the world.
