Antisemitism

[Fenris]

I've never been able to relate to Numbers 23:9 more than right now. Balaam describes the Jewish people: "Behold, a people who dwells alone, and will not be reckoned among the nations."

Right now I feel like the world is divided into just Jews and gentiles. And most of the gentiles harbor implacable hatred towards the Jews. And they're not afraid or ashamed of it; they're proud of it. It's not just the terrorists, Hamas, Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad, all the others, or their paymasters in Iran; or all the people rallying in support of them on the streets of western countries; of the centers of higher learning, hosting professors who hate Jews, or their students who lap it up; or the leaders of countries, both unfree and free, who insist that Israel stop protecting itself; or the UN, which has hosted so many incidents of hatred; or of the people on the street who don't hate Jews but also won't step outside of their comfort zone to protect any either.

There are just 16 million of us in the world. 0.2% of the world's population. A tiny speck of light in the darkness. And we're surrounded by barbarian hordes. They're at the gates.

I have never felt so alone.

[Sojourner]

We're living in the last days, fenris, and we know things are going to get ugly. However, we also know from prophets like Ezekiel and Zechariah that God will make a short work of the nations that are gathered against His people. Take heart. God doesn't promise us a smooth journey, but He does promise a glorious destination at the end of it.

[Watchman of Naphtali]

There are people who are labeled, or self labeled , Christian that are not Christian .

Unfortunately bad Christians have existed through history and into the present day. Their bad behavior doesn't make them "not Christian" anymore. There are also bad Jews, bad Muslims, and bad atheists.

true Christians have received the Holy Spirit through faith in Jesus (Galatians 3:14); and the love of God through the Holy Ghost (Romans 5:5).

"Christians" who hate the Jewish people do not fall under that category.

[Fenris]

We're living in the last days, fenris, and we know things are going to get ugly. However, we also know from prophets like Ezekiel and Zechariah that God will make a short work of the nations that are gathered against His people. Take heart. God doesn't promise us a smooth journey, but He does promise a glorious destination at the end of it.

I don't doubt it. Still this is a most unpleasant experience. Abraham stood alone, the world's sole monotheist. And now, almost 4000 years later, his descendants, the Jewish people, stand virtually alone. So little has changed. I am completely disappointed in the peoples of the world.

[RabbiKnife]

I’ve never had much faith in the peoples of the world…..

Except to do whatever feels good to them regardless of cost or harm to others

A bunch of crabs in a bucket

[Fenris]

I’ve never had much faith in the peoples of the world…..

I hear. I'm just relaying the feeling of how isolated many Jews feel right now.

[Oscar_Kipling]

Have any of you considered not talking about it anymore? Perhaps not bringing up anything related to race, ethnicity, nation of origin, or the color of one's skin will resolve anti-Semitism among other things.

Edit: This question is open to anyone and everyone, so please feel free to respond.

[Fenris]

Have any of you considered not talking about it anymore? Perhaps not bringing up anything related to race, ethnicity, nation of origin, or the color of one's skin will resolve anti-Semitism among other things.

Well this right here is the dumbest thing I've seen on the internet in a while, and that's saying something.

It's not Jews who bring up their Jewishness. It's antisemites who bring it up. Jews just want to go about their business and be left alone.

[Fenris]

Yeah this sums up my feelings pretty well.

In the Wake of Oct. 7, More and More Jews are Going Tribal

Jews feel cheated by the world. At the lowest moment of modern Jewish history, when we could have expected a sea of global sympathy, we got the opposite.

David Suissa

I can’t recall a time when so many Jews have become so tribal. I don’t mean the quaint MOT (member of the tribe) kind of tribal. I mean the more hardcore, unapologetic now-it’s-only-us kind of tribal.

I felt it in a palpable way the other night at a gathering of highly sophisticated LA Jews. These looked like the kind of knowledgeable people who would embrace the universal side of Judaism and would have no problem criticizing Israel.

And yet, there was little universalism going on that night. Rather, there was a sense of alarm that Jews have reached a dangerous low point and must stick together if they are going to get through this.

Later that night, I tried to put my finger on where this renewed sense of tribalism is coming from.

My gut feel is simply that Jews feel cheated by the world. At the lowest moment of modern Jewish history, when we could have expected a sea of global sympathy, we got the opposite. We got attacked.

We feel abandoned. We feel alone.

This has brought many Jews closer together, to the point that we have no problem putting our own people first. Our message: “Now that we’ve seen your despicable reaction to Oct. 7, dear world, many of us have concluded that we have little to gain by trying to be nice. We’re better off sticking to ourselves and joining our collective fight for survival.”

I never thought I would actually write those words, because “worrying about the world” is hard-wired into Jews. We must be nice, we must contribute, we must not cause trouble, lest they turn against us.

But while we still value that universalist impulse, it’s been superseded by one hard fact: We lost 1400 Jewish souls, massacred in the most brutal and barbaric way possible, and much of the world still turned against us.

The signs are everywhere. The head of the FBI says antisemitism is at historic levels. The ADL reported a 400% increase in Jew hatred. A headline from this morning on I24News: “Pro-Palestinian protesters worldwide call for Israel’s elimination.” Jew hatred across college campuses has become an epidemic. It’s hard to keep track of it all.

Besides the hatred, though, there’s something almost worse: the viciousness. Watch any video of protesters yelling, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” or “We don’t want no two states, we want all of it” or “Globalize the Intifada.” These are not protestors chanting and marching with nobility and conviction.

These are haters screaming in a frenzy of fury, a fury that is threatening and intimidating. You can see a good example from last night with wild protestors at the gates of the White House. The rage was truly scary. No wonder so many Jewish college students are feeling unsafe.

Many Jews have noticed this ugliness and are wondering: “If the haters are treating this like a war, shouldn’t we?”

The good news is that there are still plenty of Jewish supporters out there, and we should express our gratitude to those outside the Jewish community who have shown our community both empathy and solidarity. Tribal or not, we need them as allies.

The problem is that the haters make most of the noise.

The result is that on the streets and campuses of the world, and on social media platforms that reach hundreds of millions, the optics are clearly on the side of demonizing the Jews. Needless to say, the haters have been using Israel’s justified war against Hamas as a convenient cover for their hatred.

More and more Jews, however, are refusing to get sucked in by the old anti-war talking points. As much as they care for the lives of innocent civilians, they have come to understand two things: One, Hamas is murdering their own people, and two, crushing Hamas is a matter of survival. As even Bernie Sanders conceded today on CNN, “I don’t know how you can have a ceasefire, a permanent ceasefire, with an organization like Hamas, which is dedicated to turmoil and chaos and destroying the state of Israel.”

It is this hard, brutal reality that has turned many Jews inward. In a sense, Jews of the Diaspora have caught up to their brethren in Israel. Talk to virtually any Israeli today and they’ll tell you the same thing: If we don’t crush Hamas, we may not survive. A leftist, peacenik friend from Israel captured his dilemma this way: “I hate being tribal, but that’s the reality now.”

But here’s the great irony—crushing Hamas goes beyond the tribe. For one thing, it will improve the chances of normalizing relations with Saudi Arabia. How? Because no Arab country wants to make an alliance with a weak Israel. Israel’s military might, especially against a common enemy like Iran, is the #1 benefit it has to offer.

Crushing Hamas is also good for the Palestinians. Ever since Israel evacuated the Gaza Strip in 2005, the biggest enemy of Palestinians has been Hamas. The terror group has stolen billions in humanitarian aid to build weapons of war instead of schools. So when you hear people call Gaza an open-air prison, you can respond that it is Hamas who are the jailors, and that eliminating Hamas will benefit Palestinians as well as Israelis.

At the moment, however, all of that is secondary.

What is primary is that many Jews around the world feel under siege. They feel cheated. They feel scared. They feel abandoned. And they see their brothers and sisters in Israel in a war of survival.

Faced with such chronic hostility, these Jews have decided they have little choice but to stick together, at least for now, and go tribal.

[Oscar_Kipling]

Have any of you considered not talking about it anymore? Perhaps not bringing up anything related to race, ethnicity, nation of origin, or the color of one's skin will resolve anti-Semitism among other things.

Well this right here is the dumbest thing I've seen on the internet in a while, and that's saying something.

It's not Jews who bring up their Jewishness. It's antisemites who bring it up. Jews just want to go about their business and be left alone.

hmm, That is a good point the anti-Semites are unlikely to stop identifying jewish people. similarly I would think that ignoring direct threats and attacks on your lives is too much to ask, but have you considered ignoring all other forms of antisemitism in the hopes that it will go away if you stop talking about it or bringing it up?

[Fenris]

have you considered ignoring all other forms of antisemitism in the hopes that it will go away if you stop talking about it or bringing it up?

Antisemitism has been around for more than 2000 years. It's going to magically disappear if I pretend it doesn't exist?

You're already in a hole. Stop digging.

[Oscar_Kipling]

have you considered ignoring all other forms of antisemitism in the hopes that it will go away if you stop talking about it or bringing it up?

Antisemitism has been around for more than 2000 years. It's going to magically disappear if I pretend it doesn't exist?

You're already in a hole. Stop digging.

That is a good point, antisemitism has been around for a very long time and that should definitely be taken into consideration. Along that line have you ever considered just not ever bringing up historical antisemitism like the holocaust or medieval Christians murdering Jews and so on? Can you imagine how frustrating it might be for people to hear about antisemitism committed by long dead peoples of the past?

[Fenris]

That is a good point, antisemitism has been around for a very long time and that should definitely be taken into consideration. Along that line have you ever considered just not ever bringing up historical antisemitism like the holocaust or medieval Christians murdering Jews and so on? Can you imagine how frustrating it might be for people to hear about antisemitism committed by long dead peoples of the past?

Are we really having this conversation? Did someone here take crazy pills?

Hamas didn't enter Israel and slaughter 1400 Jews because Jews were talking about the Holocaust or medieval Christians. There aren't giant rallies going on in support of Hamas because Jews were talking about the Holocaust or medieval Christians. Jewish students aren't being harassed on college campuses because of how frustrating it might be for people to hear about antisemitism committed by long dead peoples of the past.

[Oscar_Kipling]

Hamas didn't enter Israel and slaughter 1400 Jews because Jews were talking about the Holocaust or medieval Christians. There aren't giant rallies going on in support of Hamas because Jews were talking about the Holocaust or medieval Christians. Jewish students aren't being harassed on college campuses because of how frustrating it might be for people to hear about antisemitism committed by long dead peoples of the past.

So, your contention is that while some people might assert that antisemitism today is a reaction by people that are frequently being confronted with the accounts of antisemitic deeds and attitudes of their predecessors, but in reality their deeds and attitudes stem from their own antisemitic ideology and they themselves are the actual wellspring of the hatred and bigotry that perpetuates antisemitism as opposed to any Jew or other observer that points out antisemitism in the past or present? Have I understood you correctly?

[Sojourner]

So, your contention is that while some people might assert that antisemitism today is a reaction by people that are frequently being confronted with the accounts of antisemitic deeds and attitudes of their predecessors, but in reality their deeds and attitudes stem from their own antisemitic ideology and they themselves are the actual wellspring of the hatred and bigotry that perpetuates antisemitism as opposed to any Jew or other observer that points out antisemitism in the past or present? Have I understood you correctly?

That's a long, rambling sentence, even for you.

Are you honestly suggesting that Iran, Hamas, Hezbollah, and all other antisemitic people hate Jews because they're tired of hearing them whine about past injustices? These people think Hitler had the right idea, and believe the world would be a better place if all Jews were exterminated. Israel is facing a clear and present danger today as a result of people who hate Jews because they're Jews--not because of anything related to the past.