Antisemitism by omission: new, real & dangerous
The primary victory of the mayor of the most anti-Jewish, the more zionist and the most terrorist pro-terrorist candidate was welcomed by the silence (and in some cases support) of the main democratic political personalities. This represents an increasing form of anti -Semitism which has not been sufficiently exposed and condemned.
During the Iranian War, Ayatollah Khamenei asked its soldiers to target civil districts in Tel Aviv, Haifa and other Israeli cities. A Beersheba hospital was bombed. These are war crimes, but the so-called human rights organizations that complain very each time Israel kills a civilian used by Hamas as a human shield, has remained relatively silent concerning Iranian war crimes against Jewish and Israeli civilians.
Where are Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, doctors without borders and other groups who claim to support universal rights, when the Jews and Israelis are the victims of war crimes? This is symptomatic of more omnipresent fanaticism.
Anti -Semitism has taken a new mechanism: the deliberate incapacity to defend the rights of Jews by groups which correctly denounce attempts to suppress rights – discourse, academic freedom and assembly – African -Americans, gays, transgender people and other minorities. But they remained silent in the face of growing discrimination against the Jews and the violations of their most fundamental rights.
When the Jews gathered in Boulder, Colorado. The response of aclu and civil freedoms to this attempt to suppress their freedom of expression was, to say, disappointing. Imagine if the same violence had been directed against a demonstration by blacks, gays, transgender people or other minority groups.
The murder of two young people participating in a reception in a Jewish museum in Washington did not trigger the kind of indignation of these groups as we would expect if these young people attended a black or gay event.
Likewise, although there was general public indignation in the face of the attempt to burn the residence of the Jewish governor of Pennsylvania in Passover, there were few comments of the rights groups.
This double standard is itself a manifestation of anti-Semitism. This reflects an attitude of many in the so -called community of human rights that Jews – as a group – are oppressors and, as such, less authorized to have violations of their priority rights.
In some respects, this new manifestation of the oldest prejudices in the world is even more threatening than manifest anti -Semitism, because it is silent, passive and difficult to detect and call.
The FBI and internal security have just published an opinion on anti -Semitic threats against Jewish and Israeli targets. Today, Jews are subject to more anti -Semitic acts and expressions than they have been since the Holocaust. Anti -Semitism increases faster than other prejudices.
More importantly, the trajectory is in the wrong direction: because anti -Jewish fanaticism – often masking as anti -zionism – tends to be the greatest among university students and other young people, it is likely to persist and influence future policy, the university world and the media.
The silence of these groups is ironic because the Jews have played a decisive role in promoting civil freedoms and human rights. The Jews played a decisive role in the civil rights movement in the South in the 1960s (I know because I was there). The Jews were at the forefront of the Movement of Civil Liberties, with many – including me – at the National Aclu Council. Now these concepts have been on on their heads, and fanaticism against the Jews has been widely ignored by these groups.
More specifically, the Jews were subjected to a double standard invite: attacks, verbal and physical, which would never be tolerated against blacks, gays and other minorities are not only tolerated, but often justified when they are directed against the Jews.
Even those who argue that it is an antianism and not anti -Semitism and that the first is legitimate, must recognize the double standard against Israel and Zionism. When groups of rights and freedoms ignore the rights of Jews and Israelis, it is also a form of standard double bigotry.
It is therefore a call to all those who consider themselves defenders of human and civil rights and freedoms. Prioritize the rights of those who are most discriminated against today and are probably even more discriminated against tomorrow: Jews and Zionists. Only you – in particular non -Jews – can reverse this dangerous and immoral trend. Good people of all history must unite to protect the rights of Jews with the same vigor as Jews have shown in the defense of the rights of others.
Dershowitz’s latest book is “the preventive state: the challenge of preventing serious damage while preserving essential freedoms”.
