The most discussed subject in the Jewish world today is the continuously increasing antisemitism. After a respite following the defeat of the Nazis and the discovery of the extent of their atrocities in the Holocaust, Jew-hatred has again become the panacea for the world’s ills. As striving to excel in their chosen activity is a Jewish character trait, many Jews are found in the upper strata of the arts, entertainment, intellectual professions and even politics. That makes it appear as if Jews dominate or control those fields and hence the countries in which they live, and that generates the classic historical antisemitism.
But now, another type of this prejudice has emerged, using criticism of the policies and actions of the State if Israel and Zionism, the age-old Jewish ambition to return to Zion, as a pretext to cover for Jew-hatred. Several Western countries have found it necessary to create a post in their government specifically to deal with the anti-social effects of antisemitism.
Because this topic has in recent decades become the subject of academic study, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem in conjunction with the US Embassy and Israel’s Diaspora Affairs Ministry has held a seminar titled: “New Tools in Combating Antisemitism.”
It would be illusionary to believe that this disease can be eradicated in our time by rational argument or even education about the consequences to which antisemitism can lead. That can only be a beginning of a very long process of eliminating this scourge.
We must learn from the systematic antisemitic indoctrination of the Germans, where the poison has still not been cleaned out, that like a remaining cancer cell that has been missed, it is again developing into a dangerous phenomenon. The same is the case with our close neighbors, the Palestinians. They have taken a leaf out of the book of Joseph Goebbels, the Nazi propaganda minister, who said: “If you repeat a lie often enough, people will believe it, and you will even come to believe it yourself.”
So we should be under no illusion that we can come to terms with the Palestinians at any time soon. Like all the other previous plans, Donald Trump’s Deal of the Century ended up in the dustbin of history.
There is no doubt that the Abraham Accords, which were negotiated under Trump’s presidency, will forever be his legacy. It not only changed the Middle East, but also led to an important and successful trading bloc in which Israel plays a leading role.
While president, Trump decided to fill the long-vacant post of US Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism. His successor, President Joe Biden, has also realized the importance of such a position and appointed to this post with the rank of ambassador the well-known and respected lawyer, historian and pro-Israel activist Deborah Lipstadt. Biden nominated her on July 30, 2021, and she was confirmed and then sworn in on May 3.
"We have to understand that antisemitism is a conspiracy. It is a prejudice like other prejudices; if a Jew does something wrong – that’s how Jews are. If he does something right, he is one of the good ones. However, it is also a conspiracy theory, and that’s what makes it unique: the idea that Jews use their wealth, their power and their smarts – their malicious and evil smarts – to wreak havoc on the world."
Deborah Lipstadt
Lipstadt's seminar speech
Lipstadt was the keynote speaker at the Hebrew University seminar on July 5. The event was moderated by Yossi Gal, vice president of the university, who introduced US Ambassador Thomas Nides. He began by heaping praise on Lipstadt for the way she executes her task.
“Someone asked me what’s the difference between antisemitism and debate? I have no problem when members of Congress or public officials want to debate the topic of Israel, about foreign assistance, the Iron Dome, or Israel’s relationship with the Palestinians, I’m fine with that, it’s democracy. You don’t have to agree with that, but if you cross the line between debate and antisemitism, we have to put our foot down.
“I’m a liberal guy, a Reform Jew, but I am a classical Jewish guy, not as religious as some of my Jewish friends, but I care deeply what it means to be a Jew, what you need to be to give back as a Jew, and what are the points to speak on as a Jew,” Nides said. “You can be pro-Palestinian and be pro-Israel. There is no reason why you can’t be both, but when your Israel position is about Jews, about their behavior, about what they do, that’s a line you cannot cross. We need to determine where speech and First Amendment rights cross the line... I am not going to keep my voice quiet when I believe that someone has crossed the line. That we cannot tolerate. When we see it, we better stamp it out!”
In her address, Lipstadt expounded on the various furtive as well as blunt methods used for seeding and disseminating antisemitism. She talked about the origins and effects of antisemitism, and methods of countering it:
“We have to understand that antisemitism is a conspiracy. It is a prejudice like other prejudices; if a Jew does something wrong – that’s how Jews are. If he does something right, he is one of the good ones.
“However, it is also a conspiracy theory, and that’s what makes it unique: the idea that Jews use their wealth, their power and their smarts – their malicious and evil smarts – to wreak havoc on the world. In contemporary terms, to destroy white Christian culture by flooding Europe with black and brown people or Muslims,”
Lipstadt said proponents of this conspiracy theory say, “These people are not smart enough to be doing this on their own. There has to be someone behind the scenes, someone who knows how to do their evil work without getting caught.” The people behind the scenes, needless to say, are in their minds, Jews.
She gave examples of how Jew-haters try to prove that “Jews participated in their own destruction.”
She said that antisemitism is ubiquitous, free-flowing and emerges everywhere. Unlike other forms of prejudice, antisemitism “comes from every place on the political spectrum. It is not Right, Left, Center. It comes from Muslims, Christians, atheists and Jews.
“Often antisemitism morphs into anti-Israel [feelings]. But sometimes it is not antisemitic – it may be wrong, unfair or unjustified. I would urge that we are careful about this because if you call everything antisemitism, no one pays attention, or worse – they dismiss you. We should not call them antisemites but what they do is antisemitism. I don’t know what’s in their hearts. We have to be careful and judicious.”
Lipstadt then spoke about her recent first foreign trip as special envoy to Saudi Arabia, where Jews lived before Islam was born.
“Although the deputy foreign minister proudly said: ‘I come from a city with Jewish history, Medina,’ for too many decades the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was a great exporter of Jew-hatred,” Lipstadt said. “I found that things have changed dramatically. I talked with young people who seemed willing to come to terms with the geopolitical conflict [in Israel], and the fact that antisemitism is something separate. This was an important first step. There is a willingness to continue these conversations. This was only my first trip to Saudi Arabia.... I think there is room to move things forward. There is a change afoot in this region.”
Among the other speakers were Diaspora Affairs Minister Nachman Shai, Jonathan Greenblatt, national director and CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, and Noa Tishby, who serves as the Israeli government envoy for combating antisemitism.
Shai talked about the new form of antisemitism “characterized by delegitimization of the State of Israel and double standards for Jews.”
Tishby proposed the formation of a task force involving Meta, Google, Amazon and Apple, modeled on the Global Counterterrorism Forum. “Online delegitimization of Israel is a new, hip, social-justice cause,” Tishby said. “It is now, in certain circles, the norm.”
Greenblatt spoke about the alarming increase in antisemitic incidents around the world. He noted that there were more than 2,700 antisemitic hate crimes in the US alone last year, almost triple the number from 2015. He argued that the Abraham Accords were a key step in combating antisemitism.
“The Abraham Accords are so important because they were people-to-people-driven diplomacy,” he said. ■