1. Anti-Semitism is now rearing its head in the world, even in countries that were considered safe. It is an open secret that anti-Semitism does not overlap with economically lower and poorly educated segments of the population, nor is it limited to conservative, religious, fascist and other groups; It also appears among societies that define themselves as liberal, secular and democratic. Our eyes see how, in the name of liberal values, quite a few of those who advocate human rights are willing to throw Israel under the wheels of radical Islamist murderousness and support a final solution such as "From the river to the sea, Palestine will be liberated," which means genocide.
The new anti-Semitism was probably born with the spread of emancipation and the Enlightenment movement in Europe. Masses of Jews left their way of life and converted to Christianity, or at least assimilated into society without emphasizing their ethnic affiliation. They quickly integrated into the institutions of government, law, economics and academia. If the old anti-Semitism could be explained in terms of religious hatred, murder of God, etc., as well as in social terms of seclusion, differences in custom and dress (hatred of the other), then the process of secularization and assimilation of European Jews was supposed to moderate and eradicate the phenomenon. This is not what happened; The greater the contribution of Jews to society, the more they integrated and gave up distinctive external features, the greater the anti-Semitism.
Documentation: 7th Brigade fighters attack Hamas infrastructure in Gaza // Photo: IDF Spokesperson
For the most part, the explanations for the phenomenon are taken from the rational field. Even the myth of Jesus' crucifixion and the "murder of God" in which the Jews were accused is a "rational" reason for the phenomenon, since if this is what the Jews did, they should be punished, especially in light of the "fact" that God also punished them for being scattered and humiliated throughout the world. But how does anti-Semitism continue to pervade the heart of secular Europe, which has been freed from the shackles of religion, superstition and other mystical matters?
2. It can be said that Europe was born into the Christian myth, certainly post-Renaissance Europe. In the last two thousand years, the most important myth in European culture and consciousness has appeared in the form of a crucified Jew. Even if for the masses it was the image of their God, the image restored the central act of Christianity and from there to European culture: the crucifixion of the King of the Jews, the Messiah whom the Jews rejected. The educated Christian knew about the Jewish origins of Jesus; He was born into Jesus, raised on his knees, matured before Him and died before the Cross. Even if he were not religious, he could not escape his images scattered on almost every street.
It is worth thinking again about the hidden meaning of the Christian myth: a crucified Jew! Wasn't traditional anti-Semitism a "repetition" of the religious trauma bequeathed to a European with his mother's milk, that is, an attempt to realize here and today the status of crucifixion, the desire to be present in the traumatic and transcendent moment that is the essence of the Christian faith, and in which faith alone is the key to the believer's personal salvation?
3. The story of the new anti-Semitism is more fascinating, since the Jews who left the ghetto for a new life as (almost) equal citizens emerged from the "role" assigned to them, at least from the point of view of Christian theology – that is, a dead-living nation, demonstrating in its vile existence the righteousness of Christianity and serving as human material for realizing the myth of crucifixion through the violence used against it – and returned to history.
At that stage of history (emancipation and acceptance of some civil rights), it can be said that the Jews sought to descend from the cross and live among those who saw them only through the religious prism: crooked on the cross and not living among them. Indeed, in the moments of national crisis experienced by the European nations, each with its own storms, anti-Semitism rose and returned to the heart of the public discourse and sought to return the Jew to the cross. If we dig deeper, we will say that there is a deep desire to restore the founding myth of European culture.
But the Jews who descended from the cross did not return to it, which led to an intensification of measures against them, until the final outbreak of World War II: the Holocaust. Even earlier, since the mid-19th century, with the disappointment over the fruits of the Enlightenment and emancipation that did not come to fruition, and due to the jealousy of European nationalism that arose in the "Spring of Nations," the recognition began to take shape that the solution to the problem of the Jewish people must lie outside of Europe.
Standing up for our lives
4. Although most waves of immigration were directed at North America, the Jewish fate was changed by those caught up in the Zionist movement. Zionism was the completion of the process of descending from the cross of the Jewish people. And not just a descent from the cross, its profound significance was active action to change Jewish destiny. Moreover, the military resistance of the Jews, for their political freedom in the Land of Israel, was the continuation of the demythologizing, according to which the Jew is no longer willing to be crucified, but stands for his life and fights to prevent it.
In this respect, the establishment of the State of Israel had far-reaching psycho-theological significance: Jesus not only descended from the cross, but wrapped himself in a prayer shawl and returned home to his land. Now he holds a weapon to prevent further crucifixion. The existence of a Jewish state is a disruption of this ancient myth. Hence the automatic opposition of parts of the European intelligentsia not only to Israel's actions, but to its very existence to the point of supporting movements that seek to destroy them as well. After all, Hamas and its ilk are continuing the old historical work that has never ended.
And even if the authority of religion has dissipated, the myths that have fed European peoples for thousands of years have not dissolved. They are firmly immersed in the collective (unconscious) memory, and from there float and rise in various and strange covers. This is similar to Freud's role in dreaming: the unresolved traumas that threaten to overwhelm consciousness are repressed into the unconscious, but they repeatedly surface and rise to consciousness through symbols in the dream.
Old-New Antisemitism
5. If the UN today represents the ancient term "family of nations" ("families of the earth," in the language of Genesis), then the constant wholesale denunciation of Israel – only it of all peoples – in all UN institutions is a political expression of the old-new anti-Semitism. Only once has the UN done something for the good of our people. About two years after its establishment, most of the countries that were members at the time voted to divide the country into a Jewish state and an Arab state (today this would not pass). The Arabs did not accept the offer and started a war, but for us it was the fulfillment of the dream of generations: the establishment of an independent Jewish state in the ancient homeland.
It is hard to avoid the thought that we "merited" this because for six years, just before the founding of the United Nations, we fulfilled in the most terrible and complete way our "role" as victim and immigrant. The truth is that Israel was not established because of the Holocaust, but despite the Holocaust; But the fact is that for a moment we received empathy from countries that have not returned to support us since.
Even after October 7, in the face of the unimaginable atrocities committed by Hamas terrorists against our daughters, children and babies, the Jews returned for a moment to their traditional "role" as the "Lamb of God." The historic change in our fate is that we quickly came to our senses and embarked on a war to eradicate evil from the world, and this is already hard to accept: Jews defending themselves and refusing to be crucified again. Strange.
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