Leonid Goldin | Old Hatred in a New Setting

Are they ashamed of their wicked deeds? No, not in the least…

Jeremiah 6:15

Without Sense, Without Shame or Conscience

About 15 years ago, on my way to the Brooklyn Museum, near the house where Senator Chuck Schumer lives, I saw a noisy anti-Israel demonstration with slogans calling for freedom for Palestine. Such events no longer surprise New Yorkers, but there was something unusual here: the protesters were Jews; they enthusiastically supported a Palestinian activist speaking in hysterics and demanded that the senator stop providing aid to Israel.

Schumer is primarily occupied with fighting Trump and sabotaging every decision and action of the government. Schumer is the leader of a party that has nurtured within its ranks everything alien to the history and values of American civilization. But he cannot count on the support of progressive anti-Semites seeking to change the face of the country. Most likely, in the next election, Ocasio-Cortez or someone like her will end his career. Following Mamdani’s victory, this would be a logical turn of events. Demographics, generational change, and the liberal ideology that dominates education, the media, and culture—and suppresses dissent—are working in favor of the new Democratic leaders and activists. But for now, Schumer serves for anti-Semites as a symbol of Jewish control and domination, and his apartment and office are suitable venues for expressing their sentiments.

The protests demanding an end to military aid and cooperation with Israel are not being carried out by isolated degenerates and outcasts, but by Jewish organizations seeking to speak on behalf of all American Jews. Recently, in Midtown Manhattan, police arrested about 100 Jewish demonstrators demanding a halt to arms sales to Israel. They attempted to break into Schumer’s office and block traffic and pedestrian movement. Among the participants were well-known cultural figures and local politicians. Posters and chants from the crowd supported Jewish Senator Bernie Sanders’ resolution to stop funding arms purchases for Israel. More than 85% of Democratic senators voted in favor of this resolution.

The entire anti-Trump and anti-Israel camp screams to the heavens about the suffering of Palestinians, Lebanese, and Iranians, but not a word is heard about what could save them from these calamities—the destruction of Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iranian fanatics. Supporting terrorist organizations is prohibited and punishable by law, yet supporters of anti-Israel terrorists are portrayed as fighters for civil rights and freedoms.

The most prominent roles in anti-Israel Jewish protests are played by J Street, Jewish Voice for Peace, If Not Now, as well as the ultra-Orthodox group Neturel Karta, which believes that Israel—created by godless Zionists before the coming of the Messiah—should not exist.

In addition to the protests outside Schumer’s office, Jewish activists have drawn attention by occupying Grand Central, marching on Crown Heights, blocking bridges and streets, and staging actions at Columbia University. Many participants wear “Not in our name” T-shirts, kippahs, and tallits; Hasidim are dressed in Orthodox attire. Most participants are young people; they resist the police and view arrest as a heroic act. A fifth column of anti-Semites, in the full sense of the metaphor. A stark testament that there are no limits to intellectual and moral decline.

Will they grow up, come to their senses, understand? There is little hope. Bernie Sanders, 85 years old. A veteran of high-level politics. Mentor to a generation of young progressives. An immigrant from Poland; most of his family perished in the Holocaust. “Ethnic cleansing and war crimes in Gaza,” “War with Iran is reckless.” Initiator of bills against military aid to Israel. George Soros, 96 years old. Survivor of the Holocaust in Hungary. Major donor to the Democratic Party and many anti-Israel organizations, including Palestinian ones. Critic of the “Israeli occupation.” Jeremy Ben-Ami, 64. Founder of J Street. His grandfather was one of the first residents of Tel Aviv; his father fought in Israel’s War of Independence. “Gaza is a moral catastrophe for Israel and the Jewish people.”

The list goes on; it includes many Jews well-known both in the country and around the world, whom one cannot accuse of lacking experience or knowledge. Jews are actively involved in Obama’s deep state. Ram Emanuel, former head of the Obama administration, congressman, mayor of Chicago, and ambassador to Japan, calls for an end to military aid to Israel—the preface to his presidential campaign.

The education system has created an intolerant environment for Jewish students and faculty who express sympathy for Israel. Administrative measures cannot resolve the issue. Here, the ratio of conservatives to liberals is 1 to 10. In 25 years of teaching in America, I have not met a single Republican among my colleagues. Under these conditions, most Jews feel powerless and remain silent, but quite a few have joined the prevailing sentiment.

“It depends on the context,” was Harvard President Claudine Gay’s response at a congressional hearing when asked whether it was acceptable to call for the genocide of Jews at her university. Her colleagues from the Ivy League responded in the same vein. People with such a worldview are at the helm of the bastions of Western civilization. Guy lost her job not for condoning anti-Semites, but for plagiarism. The Trump administration’s attempts to deport the instigators of anti-Semitic protests have been unsuccessful. Harvard found a solution: Alan Garber became president, a new figure in the history of court Jews. For now, under Trump, the atmosphere has calmed down, but in essence nothing has changed.

The most resolute defender of Jews in Congress, Elise Stefanik (a Catholic), has just published a book in which she shows that the political culture of prestigious universities is rotten to the core. But with such a stance, she will not run in the next congressional election and has abandoned her bid for governor of New York.

Jews play a very prominent role in America’s mainstream media, but political correctness, conformity, and camouflage are necessary conditions for preserving one’s career. A journalist—whether Black, Latino, or Asian—is generally consistent with  their identity, while a Jew is expected to rise above their nature and history. “Even though I am Jewish, I have the right to criticize Israel.” No one will take that right away, but the right to defend Israel is under threat.

Here is the position of Thomas Friedman, a leading figure in American journalism and a columnist for The New York Times: “I really don’t want to see Bibi Netanyahu or Donald Trump politically strengthened by this war, because they are two awful human beings…” Article after article strikes the same tone.

I have not seen any articles where Ruhollah Musavi Khomeini, Yahya Sinwar, Hassan Nasrallah, Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, and their associates were assessed in such terms. In the speeches of these leaders and their followers, in party platforms and in education, on billboards in the streets, the slogans read: “Death to America, death to Israel, curse the Jews, victory to Islam.” This is what the “peaceful,” “innocent residents” who celebrated on October 7 are raised on and live by, but the reader sees a different picture and a different cause of their suffering.

What would satisfy the famous journalist Friedman, the prophet of globalism and liberal democracy, Obama’s favorite? America and Israel’s defeat in war, heavy casualties, economic collapse, and deepening civil division? Such Jews have no pity not only for Israel but also for their own country. Friedman’s prophecies about the triumph of globalism and liberal democracy—utopian and long forgotten—are of no interest, but his take on Israel is in high demand.

Masha Gessen, an immigrant from Moscow, from a family that survived the Holocaust. A columnist for The New York Times and The New Yorker, and the author of many books. She became famous as an LGBT advocate, a non-binary person with three adopted children, and asks to be referred to as they/them. An anti-Zionist, she accuses Israel of war crimes. She compares Gaza to Nazi ghettos.

From her latest article in The New York Times:  “Genocide in Gaza with unprecedented clarity”; “President Trump doesn’t just announce genocidal intentions on social media: he advertises his plans to take over sovereign countries, he brags about kidnapping a head of state, he flaunts his disregard for human life…”

Masha is a well-known journalist, editor, and professor, and it’s not my place to tell her how to live or write. But I can’t help but wonder: how does she envision her own fate as a Jewish woman in a same-sex marriage—neither “he” nor “she,” in an unconventional appearance—if she were to live among those she defends? Options: public flogging, long-term imprisonment, forced marriage for re-education, honor killing, the death penalty. There are no other options. How is such a psychology of self-hatred and destruction possible?

After a year of brutal torture, Hamas executed the brigade commander, the notorious terrorist Mahmoud Ishtivi, for homosexuality. Gay Ahmad Abu Marhi was beheaded; the video was posted on social media. Lynchings and reprisals are common. What liberal rights and freedoms can we speak of where Sharia customs and laws reign supreme?!

It is incomprehensible how queer communities, subcultures, freaks, nonconformists, and other minorities can support those whose thinking and way of life are based on intolerance and hatred, elevated to a cult by ideology and upbringing.

Israeli and American Jews live in different galaxies. Israelis live in terror and under rocket fire; Americans sit in front of their TVs and on social media. For Israelis, the current war is a matter of existential threat and survival; for Americans, it’s about stock market trends, gas prices, and a reluctance to complicate their lives with overseas problems. 93% of Israelis support a war with Iran, while 60% of American Jews oppose it. Only 20% of Israeli Jews believe the creation of a Palestinian state is possible; among American Jews, more than half do.

Today, 60% of Americans express a negative attitude toward Israel; last year it was 53%, and in 2000, 30%. Among respondents under 50, the majority in both parties feel this way. 56% of Americans believe that a war in Iran is more in Israel’s interest, while only 29% believe it is in America’s interest. Apartheid, colonization, discrimination, war crimes, illegal settlements, ethnic cleansing, and genocide—these terms form the core of media discourse and reflect prevailing public sentiment.

Why again?

Once, a neighbor—a theology professor and editor of a Catholic magazine—told me he didn’t understand how Jews had built their worldview around the Holocaust, a symbol of death. The question surprised me; I don’t understand how Christians have built their lives on the crucifixion of Christ. “Never again” is not a cult of tragedy, but an expression of hope that the past will not repeat itself. Yet the Holocaust has not faded into historical memory; it reminds us not through museums and memoirs, but through the everyday lives of Jews.

A critical amount of misery, conflict, hopelessness, and negative energy has accumulated in the world, and as always in history, the most ancient hatred—which has never truly disappeared—has been revived and multiplied. The Jewish state’s existential security and even its right to exist are rejected, or it is demanded to make suicidal concessions.

Biblical accounts of the land granted by the Almighty to the Jews are no argument for the enemies of the Jews.  But in modern history, more than a hundred new sovereign states have been created, most involving territorial redistribution and mass resettlement, usually not voluntary. After the victory over fascism, Germany lost vast territories, 14 million Germans became refugees. Major geographical and demographic changes occurred in Asia and Africa. In Sudan, Congo, Afghanistan, Syria, Somalia, Ethiopia, Myanmar, and Yemen, there have been humanitarian tragedies, mass killings, rapes, and looting.

The collapse of the USSR led to major geopolitical shifts, mass migration, wars, and a new Cold War. Following the breakup of Yugoslavia amid Western military intervention, six states emerged; Serbia lost its historic territories, and interethnic conflicts resulting in mass casualties continue unabated. Wars between Shiites and Sunnis have led to hundreds of thousands of casualties and millions of refugees. There are over 40 million Kurds in the world; they are Muslims and have been fighting for independence for over a century, facing repression in Iran, Syria, Iraq, and Turkey—a shared religion offers no salvation.

But the focus of global attention is on Israel, its right to exist and ensure its security; its army would not have fired a single shot or taken a single step beyond its borders if it were not for life under constant threats and terror. Yet even October 7th convinces few.

The Pope speaks about the war in Iran: “No cause can justify the shedding of innocent blood.” Moralists declare that we cannot emulate those who disregard laws and humanitarian norms. So take it upon yourselves to rein in and punish fanatics and terrorists; show the whole world how to act according to your rules. This is a utopia, and it will never happen. Your support inspires Israel’s enemies to commit new crimes. If the civilized world lived and fought according to your directives, fascism would be the victor.

… A sad sign of the times: in the recent past, Holocaust Remembrance Day was an important national event, widely covered by the media. In New York, at Park East Synagogue, government officials, diplomats from many countries, UN leadership, and city officials would gather. Nothing of the sort happened this year. Yet the Holocaust, genocide, and crimes against humanity are constantly invoked in rhetoric about the situation in Gaza, Lebanon, and Iran.

On the eve of Holocaust Remembrance Day and the anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, J Street organized another rally demanding the immediate imposition of strict conditions on arms sales to Israel—even bulldozers fell into this category. The American Zionist Organization declares: “J Street is an enemy of the Jewish people.” There is no other, more accurate definition, but the Zionist Organization, the staunchest defender of Israel and fighter against anti-Semitism, is an outcast among American Jewish organizations, and its membership has declined fivefold since 1939.

An Attempt at Diagnosis

How should we characterize the thinking and actions of Jews against Israel? As always and everywhere, it depends on whom you ask, who the judge is, and what their convictions are. J Street has over a thousand rabbis and cantors. Most are Reform, but there are also Orthodox. Jewish anti-Israel groups are contributing to a plague-like pandemic. Continuing a suicidal tradition, there have always been apostates, court Jews, false messiahs, self-haters, and useful idiots among the Jews.

There has not been such a glaring confrontation between the positions of various Jewish groups since the time of the Jewish Wars, when the Sicarii used terror against Jewish collaborators. The result of the conflict was the destruction of Jerusalem and the Second Temple, the fall of Masada, and a million dead. Many Jews did not understand their situation and the threats looming on the eve of the rise of fascism in Europe, but at least they did not participate in marches and rallies in support of the Nazis, nor did they seek to justify them.

In Israel, despite all the conflicts and contradictions, there is an understanding of reality; in Europe, anti-Semitism has dispelled illusions, but the self-awareness of American Jews is in deep crisis. There are no good choices, but it is clear that the most dangerous threat to American Jews is the anti-Israel, anti-Semitic wing of the Democratic Party and left-liberal ideology. And the saddest thing is that 70% of Jews support this party.

Liberal American Jews still hope for enlightenment, good deeds, friendly gatherings, compromises, and agreements. Reform synagogues invite politicians who are openly opposed to the Jewish state to speak about plans to build peace and friendship, and they are met with thunderous applause.

Liberal Jews do not see what times we are living in, nor do they hear for whom the bell tolls. Many are literally devil’s advocates and act as defenders of the enemies of the Jews. Candace Owens, a rabid anti-Semite and the prominent figure in the media today, calls the Israeli army a gang of genocidal murderers, claims that Jews control the government, and that they cannot be trusted. But when she found herself on trial for defaming the French president’s wife, her lawyer was a well-known Jewish attorney.

Much has been said and written about why American Jews are liberals. The main theory: they have suffered greatly, understand the suffering of others, and are ready to help the oppressed and the disenfranchised. But there are other explanations, not quite so complimentary. Psychiatrist Professor Thomas Langner recently passed away at the age of 102. In the 1970s, he and a large group of colleagues conducted a long-term study titled “Mental Health in Midtown Manhattan,” an area with the highest concentration of Jews in Manhattan. It turned out that only 18.5% of residents could be considered psychologically well-adjusted.

Since then, the psychiatric manual has been revised many times; statistically, many who were once considered abnormal have become normal, but, on the other hand, the notion has taken hold that “normal” simply means not fully examined. Michael Savage published the bestseller *Liberalism Is a Mental Disorder*, whose central idea is self-destruction and the destruction of the social order. No other ethnic group has such a high proportion of liberals as the Jews, and they are proud of it. One might also add that Jews lead the way in seeing psychologists, and that following Freud, there is an disproportionately high number of Jews among psychologists. Be that as it may, the situation regarding judgments and choices is clearly problematic.

I live in Midtown East.  I regularly see and hear the noise and fury of the big city at the UN and in the surrounding areas. I hold Brodsky in high regard, but “It’s better to live in a remote province by the sea”—that’s not for me. I’ve lived and worked in other neighborhoods where there are few or no Jews; it’s definitely worse there, which is why people pay much more for a good neighborhood.

In East Midtown are the famous Reform Central Synagogue and Temple Emanuel, where the Jewish elite clings to illusions of solidarity, unity, joint action, and high-profile resolutions, new lectures, books, and films about Jewish history and the Holocaust. Tried and tested for decades, the results are plain to see. Having lost in the media, education, politics, and public opinion, Jews stand alone; a hundred times more people attend the continuous anti-Israel protests than the counter-protests, and the active participants are those whom  Jews have helped the most.

There are also extremist sentiments within Jewish circles, calls to create illegal armed self-defense groups following the example of Meir Kahane, Irv Rubin, Isroel Yakov, and Mordechai Levi. This is an unproductive and dangerous precedent, and recent legal actions against Beitar and Jewish Defense League have shown that the police and the FBI will be the first to learn of such intentions and plans. They will not stand on ceremony, they will not be hailed as heroes, they will receive no support, and they will create an even more hostile environment for Jews.

The government is trying to control organized anti-Semitic groups. But the situation is out of control when, under conditions of free speech and liberal legislation, anti-Semitism has begun to be capitalized on and monetized. Not only bloggers and podcasters, but also prominent politicians, journalists, producers, lawyers, professors, and artists are growing their audiences and boosting sales through anti-Semitic conspiracy theories.  It’s not necessary to receive money from Soros or Qatar. Hatred and ignorance are demonic forces, and they often contradict biblical commandments.

As always and everywhere, anti-Semitism is used to divert attention from real problems to fictitious and conspiratorial ones. Let them talk about Israel, the Jewish lobby, and conspiracies, but not about the insane enrichment and power of the corporate-financial elite, about the plight of the middle class, which is threatened with extinction, or about the transformation and loss of the country’s historical character and its values.

In attempts to identify the origins of anti-Semitism, the entire arsenal of rational and irrational explanations has been exhausted. There are no fewer obscurantist and conspiracy theories than academic ones. In my view, at its roots, in essence—it was the Jews who brought into the world the concept of monotheism, the belief in one God. In pantheism and paganism, life was easier and more joyful. The gods of Mesopotamia, ancient Egypt, Rome, Greece, Hinduism, Taoism, and the pagans were by no means flawless in their behavior and morality; they could be appeased, outwitted, or replaced with other gods.

The God of the Torah is perfect, a strict judge who rewards and punishes justly. Man is weak, sinful, and must make great efforts to enter the kingdom of God. The morality and commandments of the Torah have had a radical influence on universal human values and norms. Neither believer nor atheist can avoid them. The Torah gave man free choice, but took away arbitrariness and unbridled will, establishing strict boundaries and responsibility. 613 mitzvot that must be fulfilled! It is difficult to live with such responsibility. Everyone is guilty, everyone is a sinner! And all of this in the unity: the one, all-seeing, and almighty God, the Bible, the commandments, and the Jews.

The Torah repeatedly states that the Jews are the chosen people, and according to the prophets, a light unto the nations, a guide on the path; “The Word of the Lord from Jerusalem.” Christians and Muslims acknowledge the Torah, but these key assertions generate much resistance and hostility. Secular Jews feel uncomfortable; to them, this sounds like a claim to supremacy and leadership. Not everyone will grasp that this refers to the highest and heaviest responsibility, elevated to the very meaning of existence.

Christ is a Jew, the King of the Jews, the Son of God; the mission of the Savior has been entrusted to him, yet his fate is the greatest tragedy. “Take this cup from me,” he says on the eve of his execution, “but not as I will, but as you will.” One can see that the life and death of Christ are an archetype and paradigm of the destiny and historical fate of the Jews.

In 1966, in the conservative and highly influential magazine *Commentary*, Irving Kristol, one of the fathers of neoconservatism, wrote: “Jews are the canaries in the coal mine of history.” These birds are the first to sense the explosive smell of carbon monoxide. Jews are an indicator, a warning of catastrophe. The condition of the Jews is an indicator of a health of civilization. In a healthy environment, the canary sings; in a sick one, it suffocates. The metaphor reflects biblical ideas; similar concepts were expressed by Talmudists and Kabbalists.

Alone with Everyone

In 1996, Samuel Huntington published his seminal book *The Clash of Civilizations*. This concept was pioneered by Bernard Lewis, the foremost expert on Islam. Huntington and Lewis believed that the future is determined not by economics and interests, but by civilizational values and cultural differences. Major types of civilization cannot coexist in convergence; conflicts and clashes are inevitable. The sources of contradictions and antagonisms are not colonialism, inequality, class struggle, or the Jews. The existential challenge facing Western civilization stems from its freedom and achievements; in Lewis’s words, “They hate us for what we are, not for what we do.”; “We may lose. Europe may already be lost.” Today, this is no longer a hypothesis.

Bernard-Henri Lévy sees the main threat not from outside, but from within: the West is in self-denial; barbarism has crossed the borders and is already within, and those who open the gates to it call it progress. Levi does not limit the problem to mass immigration to the West of people from another civilizations; he speaks of the betrayal of the elites, nihilism, and the loss of meaning and purpose.

Kristol, Huntington, Lewis, Levi are Jewish, and their national origin gives critics cause to argue that their views reflect messianism and Jewish eschatological thought. But ideas about the clash of civilizations are also developed by rnew ight-wing conservatives, most notably Steve Bannon and Alexander Dugin. Bannon has practical ideas, while Dugin has metaphysics and messianism. They are followers of René Guénon, Karl Haushofer, and Carl Schmitt.

In their worldview: idealism versus materialism, land versus sea, order versus chaos (modernity, liberalism, “progress”); friends or enemies, civilizations are always in conflict. Jews make up a tiny fraction of the world’s population, yet they receive disproportionate attention in the categories of good (authentic Jew) and bad—liberal (enemy, destroyer).

Dugin has written a hundred volumes, knows a dozen languages, and has been translated all over the world; in the West, he is portrayed as the Kremlin’s Rasputin and “Putin’s brain” . This portrayal is false; he is acceptable to the authorities only for his anti-Western, anti-liberal agenda, but his main geopolitical idea of uniting Russia with Islam and China would lead Russia, with its low birth rate, to demographic and spiritual absorption by such allies. To fail to understand this, to ignore it, one must be a fanatical zealot.

After the end of the Cold War, the liberal ideology of Francis Fukuyama, Thomas Friedman, and Fareed Zakaria prevailed in America—an ideology proclaiming the end of history of wars and antagonisms, and the worldwide triumph of globalism and democracy. Today, globalism is manifested primarily in growing contradictions and conflicts, and liberal democracy faces a greater threat than it has since Lincoln’s time. The word “fascism/nazism” has entered the everyday lexicon of news and discourse, and the word “anti-Semitism” has reached a historic high.

Anti-Semitism has taken on a global scale, crossing the borders of countries and continents, but the challenges and threats to Western civilization are so significant that it will be necessarily think, speak, and write about issues more important than street protests, freedom of speech on university campuses, oil prices, and Trump’s psychological state. Relying on anti-Semitism has never provided an opportunity to evade real contradictions.

In 1946, Jean-Paul Sartre wrote in “Reflections on the Jewish Question”: “Anti-Semitism is not a Jewish problem. It is our problem… Anti-Semitism is a refusal to think.” Punishment for refusing to think is inevitable. “But the Lord has not given us a heart to understand, nor eyes to see, nor ears to hear.” (Deuteronomy).

The bacchanalia of anti-Semitism will end sooner than it appears today in news reports, expert commentary, and statements by the authorities. It will be supplanted by real challenges and problems, of which there are a great many. Real life shatters illusions, clears the mind, calls demons by their names, and teaches better than television and computers, academia, or the synagogue.

… It’s hard to find anything pleasant in the news or on the street, but sometimes it happens. A few days ago, we were returning from a concert, and as we got off the bus 57 in Manhattan, the driver—who looked Latino—unexpectedly asked: “What do you think of Trump and Israel?” This now-familiar question, almost always a provocation, has caused me to end my teaching career and relationships with many acquaintances, and to lose hope in common sense and conscience. If I answered honestly, I would most likely hear the typical reaction of a New York voter, whether an enlightened liberal or a minority activist.

It was the last stop, the bus was empty, and I replied, “With respect and gratitude.” My companion exclaimed enthusiastically, “Yes, Trump and Israel are fighting against the evil of the world; we Christians must support the Jews—they gave us the Bible and Christ…” Why isn’t he the Pope?! A Puerto Rican bus driver understands God’s will and the world better than the Supreme Pontiff of the Universal Church. It was my most interesting and pleasant encounter in recent years. And it happened in Midtown Manhattan!