by Baron Bodissey
Full disclosure: I am not a Jew. I am a practicing Christian, non-evangelical,
from a background of tolerant Protestantism. I read eclectically,
am well educated, and consider myself an intellectual. And
I stand with the Jews.
Many historians date the beginning of the Holocaust to November 9th,
1938. On that date the Nazi government launched a pogrom against
the Jews, killing hundreds and arresting many more. Synagogues
were torched, Jewish shops and homes were looted and destroyed,
and Jews were shipped off to concentration camps. That night of
major violence came to be known as Kristallnacht,
in reference to the shattered glass found on the sidewalks in
front of Jewish businesses all over Germany. A few days later new
laws were passed by the Nazi government, effectively banning all
economic activity by Jews and removing what few civil rights
remained to them. It was a big step down the road that led
through the gates of Auschwitz and Treblinka to the Final
Solution.
Does the West stand on the
threshold of a new Kristallnacht?
The alarming spread of anti-Semitism across the globe is ominous
evidence of a new cycle of hatred.
-- then it is time to prepare for a new and more widespread Kristallnacht.
Anti-Semitism is virtually everywhere, even in such formerly safe
havens of the Anglosphere as the USA and Australia.
Around the world, but especially in the Middle East, countries
which once boasted large and vibrant Jewish communities are now
emptying themselves of Jews. Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Syria,
and Iraq once were homes for Jews. Now there are virtually none;
they have left their homes and their cultural roots to resettle
in Israel or America. There had been Jews in Yemen since at least
the second century, taking on many of the cultural
characteristics of the Muslims around them and contributing to
the civilization of Yemen while retaining their Jewish identity;
now they are gone.
The "World Community", as exemplified by the UN,
regards violence against Jews to be of no importance. The UN
passes dozens of resolutions condemning Israel, the most
notorious being Resolution
3379 (1975), which declared that "Zionism
is a form of racism and racial discrimination." All Israeli
actions towards the Palestinians are censured, including the
building of a wall to protect innocent Israelis against suicide
attacks. But in all the years of the UN’s existence, not
one resolution has been passed against those who have promised to
annihilate the "Zionist entity".
Anti-Semitism was already established on the nationalistic Right.
More alarming are the notably virulent strains now reappearing on
the
Left. During Hitler's time, many of the Old
Bolsheviks were Jews; Bolshevism was considered "revolutionary
Jewish politics" and was reviled as such on the Right. But
in the Soviet Union persecution of Jews flared sporadically and
the purging of "rootless
cosmopolitans" was the duty of the
Party. Now, with the euphemistic equation Zionism=Racism,
the very existence of Israel has been called into question. An
anti-Zionist might say, "I am only against Zionism, not
against the Jews," but that is merely a new and disingenuous
cover for Jew-hatred.
The mushroom cloud over Tel Aviv is the dream of the enemies of
Zionism.
In their reaction to conservatives by those on the Left, a new
term has developed: "Neoconservative" is a code
word for "Jew". A neocon who
supports Israel is thus an agent of the Zionists. I am, in fact,
one of their unwitting dupes as I write this, since I
stand with the Jews.
Is the rich and fertile culture of "The West" even
conceivable without the Jews? In every enterprise open to them
Jews excel. They are over-represented in the highest reaches of
the arts and sciences, and in the academy; despite historical
obstacles and discrimination, they are to be found among the
greatest mathematicians and physicists, composers and musicians,
historians and novelists. Examine the masthead of a magazine, the
credits for a movie, or the members of a university faculty, to
see the contributions of the Jews.
Beyond those achievements, the greatest gift of the Jews to
Western Civilization has been the Law. The Jews brought us the
idea that a man stands accountable before his Creator, Who will
sit in judgment over him; that the Law is just and eternal, and
that obedience to it is a moral and righteous act. Christianity,
especially as developed by Saint Paul, was responsible for the
spread of this new idea of law and the individual throughout the
West. Still, it is in essence a Jewish idea. Christ's
revolutionary message urged a return
to the Law as originally understood by the Patriarchs. In its
earliest years the gate to Christian conversion opened onto
Judaism first. And today a Christian views the just society as a
fulfillment of the Law, the Jewish Law of which Christianty is a
New Covenant.
So while the halls of justice in Christendom may accord with the
architecture of the Greeks, and may boast inscriptions in Latin,
the justice handed down within them is the justice of the Hebrews.
I stand with the Jews.
The Laws of the Jews form
the moral and ethical core of Western Civilization.
Without them we would be a hollow culture, subject to the whims
of polytheism and prone to the fads of nihilism. They are the
backbone of what makes us civilized; we repeal them at our own
peril.
Whether or not it is 1933 (or 1936, or 1938) all over again, it
is time for the West to make a stand. Before
the shards of glass cover the pavement in front of Jewish
businesses in the new Kristallnacht;
before laws are passed
restricting the rights of Jews; before
whole families are shot and bulldozed into mass graves; before
the mushroom cloud rises over Tel Aviv -- Western Civilization
must stand up and be counted. We must say, with the Jews, "Never
Again."
I stand with the Jews.
19 February 2007