A Conversation About Anti-Semitism

William R. Mann

“The smallest minority on earth is the individual. Those who deny individual rights cannot claim to be defenders of minorities.” Ayn Rand

This is an article about anti-Semitism, though the reader might think it wanders a bit. It springs from a correspondence I recently shared with my friend, Joan Swirsky, who encouraged me to submit it for publication.

I have been wondering, lately, how it is that racism is seen lurking behind every utterance and act of the Obama opponents. Contrast this with the actions and statements of the opponents of Israel in this country, who are legion in deed if not in word. Do they not consider the very survival of Israel the larger problem today with the Middle East exploding? Is the US still committed to defending Israel? What happens if America does not? Have we simply altered U.S. National Interests, or has creeping and growing anti-Semitism in the Middle East and elsewhere taken root in America as well? Are we edging closer to betraying our best ally in the Middle East? We hear a lot about cultural racism. I think the big problem today is an insidious, cultural anti-Semitism being played out daily in the White House and being cloaked as U.S. Foreign Policy. So, what is there to learn about anti-Semitism? As portrayed in the 1947 film, “Gentleman’s Agreement,” this very pernicious form of bigotry goes beyond skin color, epithets, and ethnicity. That classic film stars Gregory Peck, a writer who poses as a Jew in order to find out about anti-Semitism. He learns more it than he expects. He learns that his secretary hides her Jewish identity by changing her name. Other Jews simply go along to get along. He notices commonly held attitudes that are incredibly hateful. Even the high-minded Liberal folks who hired him turn out to be bigots within the hush-hush of their private conversations. These attitudes persisted in 1947 despite the Holocaust of WWII. For perspective consider that the Nuremberg criminal trials for the major Nazi conspirators had just finished in 1946. Incredible! Do you see, similarly, how easy it is for a national conscience to renege on promises? So it is today as the Obama White House deals with their “Jewish problem.” The White House plan to “throw Israel under the bus” must be executed piecemeal so as not to alarm anyone. They must be discrete: Death to Israel by a thousand paper cuts. Shush! ...Quiet ... Let’s not talk about it.
Contrast this to racial problems in “post-racial” America

Contrast this to racial problems in “post-racial” America. There is always a big deal made about even a whiff of racial bigotry in Obama’s “post-racial” America. Every utterance of disagreement with Obama is dissected and called racism by the Mainstream Media. And, while they’re at it they capriciously add any number of adjectival enhancements: redneck, Republican, Conservative, Southern, bigot, homophobe and others. In their minds, it all fits together. How dangerous is the media’s path? If this kind of journalism is acceptable, then what chance do practicing Jews have in the world today when identified with the now-vilified Israel? In the foreign press today, Jews are frequently described as racist, murderous, treacherous, etc. Not an eyebrow is raised in the Liberal-collectivist worldview when Hamas launches missiles against Israel. The murder of an Israeli family barely makes a headline! Consider this incredible rising tolerance for Islamic barbarism; Jews, religious or not, are at risk worldwide. Christians will readily note that persecutions of Christian believers are way up as well. A Jew’s odds of religious and cultural persecution and attack are far worse than practicing Christians. It is a serious problem.

It is easy, popular and dramatic in the MSM for race-baiters to throw around racist epithets and accusations against individuals, Fox News, and conservative Talk Radio hosts. It gets Obama sympathy points in polls. But it should also tweak our conscience and inspire us to oppose it every time race cards are played. Fox News hosts and Talk Radio folks like Sean Hannity go so far as to invite accusers onto their shows so they can make their case. The race-baiters usually make their charges and accusations with absolutely no evidence, and wind up looking as blindly ignorant as their ideology. To them, those who disagree with their premises are the real racists, the new Klan in blue pinstripe suits.

Have you not heard? President Obama has replaced Reverend Jeremiah Wright with Reverend Jim Wallis of Shiloh Baptist Church in Washington, D.C. This man gets away with making objectionable statements about race, Israel and our governmental structure from the pulpit to his flock without raising eyebrows. I don’t wonder what his position is on Israel—he speaks against Israel. And President Obama does not see anything odd about this man’s rhetoric? What does that say about Obama? The Reverend Jim Wallis is also a member of President Obama’s “faith council.” Did you know that? He has been variously described as a spiritual adviser to the President, a liberal theologian, a socialist activist, and a supporter of collectivist causes that parade as “social justice.” Social Justice, in case you did not know, is code for Marxist Liberation Theology. Pope John Paul II roundly denounced Liberation Theology as being decidedly un-Christian. Reverend Wallis has described the U.S. as “the great captor and destroyer of human life.” If he thinks about Jews, like the Reverend Jeremiah Wright and Louis Farrakhan do, I wonder what influence he has on the President’s thinking. Considering Obama’s recent missives against Franklin Graham, I think I can guess.

Because of the MSM’s lack of scrutiny, aided by an army of sycophant supporters, Wallis [like Wright, Jackson, Sharpton, and Louis Farrakhan] fan the flames of separatism while claiming to want a post-racial society. They engage in personal destruction of their opponents by appealing to baser instincts. All the while, they blame the Jews and the white race. They purposely reignite old controversies and reopen old wounds by saying that the old scores were never settled. In my thinking they have become what they claim to be fighting against. What deceivers! Trying to form a Judeo-Christian conscience from such beliefs is simply unhinged and incoherent. These Pastors claim to be Christian, yet espouse erstwhile support and sympathies for the radical Islamic causes, for Palestinian Intifada, for Hamas, Hezbollah, and the deconstruction of Israel and the US Alliance with Israel. In short, one may legitimately ask whether these men are anti-Semites. This is the second of this coin. This form of anti-Semitism is particularly virulent because it carries with it the seeds of genocide. Anti-Semitism is on the rise in Europe. It is also on the rise in America. A check of multiple sources on the Internet easily verifies this. I have discovered in my lifetime that anti-Semitism is not monolithic. It comes in many flavors.
Rise of Black anti-Semitism

So whither the rise of the rise of Black anti-Semitism? Is the jealousy, resentment, and hatred of Jews by many Blacks different from White anti-Semitism? The Black experience in America has been a difficult one. Indeed, Lincoln himself wondered whether America, post slavery, could adapt after this dark chapter of American History. But, I believe that most American Blacks have chosen to move on, claiming full citizenship, and work at integrating into society like every other group of Americans. [There were many slaves and indentured servants of other races as well, many of them in the North.] Some, like many white folks, reject educational and self-improvement opportunities and don’t seem to want to move forward. Still others choose to side with the likes of Wright and Farrakhan and Wallace and espouse a very different vision of America. This latter group very carefully disguises their hatred, they resentment, and complaints against the American system that gives them this freedom to speak. Our President also falls into this latter category despite his statements to the contrary. Modern Black anti-Semitism seems to me to be a virulent mix of old stereotypes and newer Arab ones that blame America and Israel for their backwardness and poverty. If the Whites are oppressors and the Jews [in their eyes] run the banks and industry, then it is easy to believe the Big Satan-Little Satan nonsense.

White anti-Semitism is born of the lies of those who came from Europe where 19 centuries of anti-Jewish enculturation runs deep. Indeed, Christian culture for centuries highlighted the complicity of Jewish politicians who colluded with the Romans to kill their Jesus. Well, the Romans died out after 500 years, but the Europeans still had the Jews to kick around [... just like the Democrats do their bogeymen, Herbert Hoover and Richard Nixon, only far more visceral]. The European Continent, perhaps more than the British, display this deep seated resentment, if not outright hatred. Despite the Holocaust of WWII, Europeans are returning in large numbers to this vomit of anti-Semitism. In America, the constant drumbeat against Israel and the self-interested positions of many Left-Liberal, pro-Arab Jews has cause a real problem for the Truth!

But for the Jew in America and around the world, the views are divergent and different. Most Christian leaning Americans have no problems, but many still harbor resentments. Allow me to explain my own limited observations. I, as a Gentile and a Catholic, have heard and seen anti-Semitism all of my life in America and it has not gone away. It has not progressed in a positive direction like race relations had before Obama. I hear the comments and see the attitudes. In reaction to this, I think many American Jews live in a strange denial. They deny their heritage trying to make the problem go away; but it won’t, not in this way. Others betray their own people like quislings, accommodating and siding with those who would destroy them as if the Jews were the ones at fault. Some, perhaps searching for salvation or sanity go to Israel as a Pilgrim; but find little solace and sometimes a different form of discrimination in Israel itself, where the Israeli Left is as virulent as our own leftists. Then there are those who sound off against anti-Semitism bravely. I may have missed a faction or two, but suffice it to say that American Jews are as factionalized as the Gentile population, yet still there is this nagging anti-Semitism.
American anti-Semitism grows in America

American anti-Semitism grows in America because too many Americans see Jewish people who look and talk like them, but somehow strangely have some key to survival and success that they don’t have. They do not understand the culture, the drive, the hard work ethic, but instead resort to lazy anti-Semitic stereotypes. It is not so much hatred as it is, “Why are Jews so special?” or “Why do Jews always seem to get the breaks?” or “Why can’t I have some of what you Jews have?”

Ironically, Americans did once upon a time have everything that the Jews have and know. Over the last Century many have simply given themselves over to the god of modernity and to the evil spiritual forces of gain, envy and jealousy. Gentiles, by and large, do not understand either the nature of Judaism or the exclusiveness of its foundation and survival. Jews, themselves, do little or nothing to remedy this insufficiency on the part of Gentiles, so the problems remain widespread. Confident and erudite Christians, I think, get it. What that means, to “get it” is a different discussion.

As discussed, there are some supposedly Christian sects that are hostile to Judaism. There are also select Christian sects who see the salvation of the Jews a necessary “conversion challenge,” or see Israel only as a necessary entity required to be present for the coming final apocalyptic struggle with Satan and his minions. I also know of certain Protestant Pastors and Catholic Priests who have more than a wee smidgen of theologically anti-Semitic views. I think these views are not unlike those views that say that America and the Constitution are evil because we once tolerated slavery, or killed the Indians, or had a Manifest Destiny, or that we are a Shining City on a Hill.

Obama wants Israel out of the Big Picture. He likely has deep Muslim influences and roots due to his Indonesian upbringing and his associations with Wright, Farrakhan, et al. I believe this despite his protestations that he is a Christian. Americans are in broad disagreement with these ideas and plans, but for other reasons. Jews have bled and died for this country as have Christians, Native Americans, Asians, Mexicans, and others who joined our Armies as a path to citizenship, and other non-religious Gentile groups. The Muslims have scant such history in America that I can discover. The Muslims, have not wanted to integrate and be part of the freest country ever. They, like Obama want to transform it. Suspicions of Muslim leanings and anti-Semitism are of his own making. Judging from Passover and Christian Holy Week comments, Obama certainly knows more about Islam and less about either Christianity or Judaism. President Obama thinks: Passover recalls the bondage and suffering of Jews in Egypt and the miracle of the Exodus, but Obama says its message is seen in Muslim uprisings. Huh? And regarding the Resurrection of Christ Obama said, “Nothing beats scripture and the reminder of the eternal.” Double Huh?

I clearly see Jewish frustration about what Obama and his circle of associates are trying to do to Israel. American Jews must focus and educate others about the contributions Jews have brought to America from its very inception. American Gentiles must be taught and learn the history of the Jewish People. Americans Gentiles must be taught and learn the importance of Israel to history and to the world. All else in this frustrating process seems to me to be dross. Education about modern Israel can overcome this onslaught of Islamic propaganda. But it must join with a broader strategy by all of us to identify with the total process of righting the sinking American ship of state. These goals, it seems to me, are tied together. Why? Because Judeo-Christian theology believes in life, not death, and the individual, not the collective.

The real problem is Islamo-Fascism and it determination to isolate and wipe out the individual in order to create their collective. Islam is a collective. To achieve this, you must first wipe out Judaism, Christianity, and other free thinkers. Focus on survival. The Jewish People have much to teach and to share. I am but a rude and crude soldier and officer with a thin veneer of manners and civility. But I support the oath I swore to our Constitution to defend freedom and the country we love. I hope Jewish and Christian Americans are united and making ready for what is headed our way.

William R. Mann Most recent columns

William R. Mann, is a retired Lt. Colonel, US Army. He is a now a political observer, analyst, activist and writer for Conservative causes. He was educated at West Point [Bachelor of Science, 1971 ]and the Naval Postgraduate School [Masters, National Security Affairs, 1982]. He currently resides with his wife in Pensacola, Florida. William can be reached at: wr_mann@cox.net