'Antisemitism: History and myth': Greek Orthodox Christian examines antisemitism - review

Now an author, blogger, and political commentator, he is best known for his writings on Islam and jihadism, both of which he often critiques adversely. Spencer argues that violent jihad has roots in Islamic scripture and history, a claim that has made him a controversial figure.

“Despite, or perhaps because of, the sickening brutality of the Oct. 7 massacre, that attack unleashed expressions of hatred for Jews that, like the attack itself, had not been seen since the demise of Adolf Hitler’s Thousand-Year Reich,” he writes.

Many, he says, “immediately tried to shift the focus and portray the Palestinian Arabs of Gaza as victims, and Israel as the aggressor against whom virtually any action was justified.”

As a result, on Oct. 25, 2023, Reuters reported that “antisemitic incidents in the United States rose by about 400% in slightly over two weeks since war broke out in the Middle East.”

So, Spencer explains, “undertaking this investigation, for me, has been a matter of simple justice. In the aftermath of Oct. 7, Jews have been targeted… and claims that they are enemies of humanity and of all that is good have become mainstream… The record needed to be set straight for anyone who was willing to see the truth.”

He sets about his task by devoting the first part of his book to what he terms the “wellsprings” of modern antisemitism. He goes back to biblical and pagan sources for the earliest examples of irrational antisemitism, but then moves on to one of its central motivations for centuries – that the Jewish people bear the guilt for having killed Jesus.

“The charge of deicide became the central and most enduring Christian indictment of the Jews,” Spencer writes, “and the basis for countless pogroms throughout history. Yet of all the charges that haters of the Jews levy against them, this core allegation is one of the strangest, weakest, and most curious of all.”

He explains the anomaly. According to Christian theology, “Christ’s death was sacrificial, as he bore the weight of all human sin on the cross. Because of that, and in light of his resurrection, his crucifixion is… the basis for the redemption of the world.”

Then how, asks Spencer, can his death also be categorized as an act of supreme criminality? In short, since the very essence of Christianity is that he died on the cross to redeem humanity, how can his death also be a sin that the Jewish people can never expiate?

IN THIS first part of his book, Spencer traces how Christian venom toward Jews played out in the Western world – the blood libels and the resulting pogroms; the expulsion of all Jews from England, France, and Spain; the massacres of Jews during the Crusades; and the inbuilt antisemitism of the Protestant Reformation, as exemplified by Martin Luther.

As for the rise of the Nazis, Spencer maintains that “there wouldn’t have been as many National Socialists in Germany had it not been for centuries of Christian antisemitism that ensured that Hitler’s scapegoating and demonizing of the Jews would find a receptive audience.”

He records the more recent efforts of the Roman Catholic church to turn its back on antisemitism.

In 2000, Pope John Paul II issued an appeal for reconciliation: “The Church utterly condemns antisemitism and every form of racism as being altogether opposed to the principles of Christianity. We must work together to build a future in which there will be no more anti-Judaism among Christians or anti-Christian sentiment among Jews.” There was a similar movement in the Orthodox Church.

“Amid this conciliatory atmosphere,” writes Spencer, “it was easy to think that Christian antisemitism was a thing of the past, an ugly relic of history, now consigned to its dustbin. This was, however, not the case… As opposition to Israel steadily entered the mainstream in the West, and antisemitism once again became fashionable after Oct. 7, the ugliest features of Christian antisemitism began to reappear.”

SPENCER THEN turns his attention to perhaps the main source of Jew hatred in the modern world – fundamentalist Islam. In tracing its origins, he quotes from a 2005 article by the German historian Matthias Kuntzel, who wrote: “Antisemitism based on the notion of a Jewish world conspiracy is not rooted in Islamic tradition, but rather in European ideological models. The decisive transfer of this ideology to the Muslim world took place between 1937 and 1945 under the impact of Nazi propaganda.”

Nevertheless, the author maintains that antisemitism is deeply embedded within the Quran and Islamic tradition. “The Quran’s treatment of Jews, is consistent and unambiguous: those who do not accept that Muhammed is a prophet and become Muslims are untrustworthy schemers,” he writes. In Islamic tradition, he says, Muhammed states that “the Jews are those who Allah is angry with.”

He concludes the first part of his study by examining the impact of the French Revolution on the Jewish people, followed by the comparatively benevolent Napoleonic era. It was a short-lived respite, for France was to witness the notorious Dreyfuss affair less than a century later, while the intervening period saw the rise of Marxist communism in Russia, to be followed by Nazism in Germany – both essentially antisemitic.

IN THE second part of his study, Spencer examines six major charges leveled against the Jewish people: The Talmud is immoral; Jews condone immorality; the blood libels; Holocaust denial; the Jews control the world; Israel is the most hated state in the world. He deals with each in detail, providing the origins and history of the allegations, together with convincing evidence disproving each one.

He places the most recent antisemitic charge to emerge – that Israel is deliberately engaged on a policy of genocide in Gaza – in the section dealing with allegations about the State of Israel, where he also deals effectively with the modern “white colonialist” charge as well as the older “apartheid state” accusation.

He also refutes the current “occupation” charge. He points out that in 1922, the League of Nations granted administrative control over Palestine to Britain, in line with its Balfour Declaration, with the aim of establishing in Palestine a national home for the Jewish people.

The preamble to the League’s Mandate states: “Recognition has thereby been given to the historical connection of the Jewish people with Palestine and to the grounds for reconstituting their national home in that country.”

Spencer describes how, after Israel’s 1948 War of Independence, Egypt occupied Gaza, and Jordan occupied Judea and Samaria, renaming the areas the “West Bank” in 1950.

“Israel won back those territories in the Six Day War of 1967,” he writes, “but that was actually ending an occupation, not starting one: the only international law governing sovereignty over those territories stipulated that they were to be part of a national home for the Jewish people.”

So, from whom was the land stolen? he asks.

In the final analysis, Spencer simply has to acknowledge that: “Old lies never die, and new lies build on old ones. Any action that a Jew takes in any field… can be used as evidence of a vast Jewish plot against the non-Jewish world. Yet whenever these charges are exposed to rational evaluation, they fall apart.”

He points out that: “After Oct. 7, hating Jews has once again become fashionable and accepted. Yet it is no more rational or justified in the America of today than it was in Berlin in 1933, or in medieval Baghdad… it is one of the world’s longest-standing and foremost injustices.”

Its origins, development, manifestations, and inherent iniquity are all here, for those who want to know and are prepared to find out. 