The "Oldest Hatred" (Mark Steyn Looks At Mankind's Enduring Hatred Of The Jew Alert)

National Review ^ | 1/10/2009 | Mark Steyn

[goldstategop]

In Toronto, anti-Israel demonstrators yell “You are the brothers of pigs!”, and a protestor complains to his interviewer that “Hitler didn’t do a good job.”

In Fort Lauderdale, Palestinian supporters sneer at Jews, “You need a big oven, that’s what you need!”

In Amsterdam, the crowd shouts, “Hamas, Hamas! Jews to the gas!”

In Paris, the state-owned TV network France-2 broadcasts film of dozens of dead Palestinians killed in an Israeli air raid on New Year’s Day. The channel subsequently admits that, in fact, the footage is not from January 1st 2009 but from 2005, and, while the corpses are certainly Palestinian, they were killed when a truck loaded with Hamas explosives detonated prematurely while leaving the Jabaliya refugee camp in another of those unfortunate work-related accidents to which Gaza is sadly prone. Conceding that the Palestinians supposedly killed by Israel were, alas, killed by Hamas, France-2 says the footage was broadcast “accidentally.”

In Toulouse, a synagogue is firebombed; in Bordeaux, two kosher butchers are attacked; at the Auber RER train station, a Jewish man is savagely assaulted by 20 youths taunting, “Palestine will kill the Jews;” in Villiers-le-Bel, a Jewish schoolgirl is brutally beaten by a gang jeering, “Jews must die.”

In Helsingborg, the congregation at a Swedish synagogue takes shelter as a window is broken and burning cloths thrown in; in Odense, principal Olav Nielsen announces that he will no longer admit Jewish children to the local school after a Dane of Lebanese extraction goes to the shopping mall and shoots two men working at the Dead Sea Products store; in Brussels, a Molotov cocktail is hurled at a Belgian synagogue; in Antwerp, lit rags are pushed through the mail flap of a Jewish home; and, across the Channel, “youths” attempt to burn the Brondesbury Park Synagogue.

In London, the police advise British Jews to review their security procedures because of potential revenge attacks. The Sun reports “fears” that “Islamic extremists” are drawing up a “hit list” of prominent Jews, including the Foreign Secretary, Amy Winehouse’s record producer, and the late Princess of Wales’s divorce lawyer. Meanwhile, The Guardian reports that Islamic non-extremists from the British Muslim Forum, the Islamic Foundation and other impeccably respectable “moderate” groups have warned the government that the Israelis’ “disproportionate force” in Gaza risks inflaming British Muslims, “reviving extremist groups”, and provoking “UK terrorist attacks” — not against Amy Winehouse’s record producer and other sinister members of the International Jewish Conspiracy but against targets of, ah, more general interest.

Forget, for the moment, Gaza. Forget that the Palestinian people are the most comprehensively wrecked people on the face of the earth. For the past sixty years they have been entrusted to the care of the United Nations, the Arab League, the PLO, Hamas and the “global community” — and the results are pretty much what you’d expect. You would have to be very hardhearted not to weep at the sight of dead Palestinian children, but you would also have to accord a measure of blame to the Hamas officials who choose to use grade schools as launch pads for Israeli-bound rockets, and to the UN refugee agency that turns a blind eye to it. And, even if you don’t deplore Fatah and Hamas for marinating their infants in a sick death cult in which martyrdom in the course of Jew-killing is the greatest goal to which a citizen can aspire, any fair-minded visitor to the West Bank or Gaza in the decade and a half in which the “Palestinian Authority” has exercised sovereign powers roughly equivalent to those of the nascent Irish Free State in 1922 would have to concede that the Palestinian “nationalist movement” has a profound shortage of nationalists interested in running a nation, or indeed capable of doing so. There is fault on both sides, of course, and Israel has few good long-term options. But, if this was a conventional ethno-nationalist dispute, it would have been over long ago.

So, as I said, forget Gaza. And instead ponder the reaction to Gaza in Scandinavia, France, the United Kingdom, Canada, and golly, even Florida. As the delegitimization of Israel has metastasized, we are assured that criticism of the Jewish state is not the same as anti-Semitism. We are further assured that anti-Zionism is not the same as anti-Semitism, which is a wee bit more of a stretch. Only Israel attracts an intellectually respectable movement querying its very existence. For the purposes of comparison, let’s take a state that came into existence at the exact same time as the Zionist Entity, and involved far bloodier population displacements. I happen to think the creation of Pakistan was the greatest failure of post-war British imperial policy. But the fact is that Pakistan exists, and if I were to launch a movement of anti-Pakism it would get pretty short shrift.

But, even allowing for that, what has a schoolgirl in Villiers-le-Bel to do with Israeli government policy? Just last month terrorists attacked Bombay, seized hostages, tortured them, killed them, and mutilated their bodies. The police intercepts of the phone conversations between the terrorists and their controllers make for lively reading:

“Pakistan caller 1: ‘Kill all hostages, except the two Muslims. Keep your phone switched on so that we can hear the gunfire.’

“Mumbai terrorist 2: ‘We have three foreigners, including women. From Singapore and China.’

“Pakistan caller 1: ‘Kill them.’

“(Voices of gunmen can be heard directing hostages to stand in a line, and telling two Muslims to stand aside. Sound of gunfire. Sound of cheering voices.)”

“Kill all hostages, except the two Muslims.” Tough for those Singaporean women. Yet no mosques in Singapore have been attacked. The large Hindu populations in London, Toronto, and Fort Lauderdale have not shouted “Muslims must die!” or firebombed Halal butchers or attacked hijab-clad schoolgirls. CAIR and other Muslim lobby groups’ eternal bleating about “Islamophobia” is in inverse proportion to any examples of it. Meanwhile, “moderate Muslims” in London warn the government: “I’m a peaceful fellow myself, but I can’t speak for my excitable friends. Nice little G7 advanced western democracy you got here. Shame if anything were to happen to it.”

But why worry about European Muslims? The European political and media class essentially shares the same view of the situation — to the point where state TV stations are broadcasting fake Israeli “war crimes.” As I always say, the “oldest hatred” didn’t get that way without an ability to adapt: Once upon a time on the Continent, Jews were hated as rootless cosmopolitan figures who owed no national allegiance. So they became a conventional nation state, and now they’re hated for that. And, if Hamas get their way and destroy the Jewish state, the few who survive will be hated for something else. So it goes.

But Jew-hating has consequences for the Jew-hater, too. A few years ago the poet Nizar Qabbani wrote an ode to the intifada:

O mad people of Gaza,

a thousand greetings to the mad

The age of political reason

has long departed

so teach us madness

You can just about understand why living in Gaza would teach you madness. The enthusiastic adoption of the same pathologies by mainstream Europe is even more deranged — and in the end will prove just as self-destructive.

[Max in Utah]

An antitdote to the anti-jewish types here with their Pat Buchannan style apologies for the jew haters was written by Mark Twain, “Concerning the Jews”.

Concerning the Jews

.

I am quite sure that (bar one) I have no race prejudices, and I think I have no colour prejudices nor caste prejudices nor creed prejudices. Indeed, I know it. I can stand any society. All that I care to know is that a man is a human being--that is enough for me; he can't be any worse.

[FelixFelicis]

>>To be fair, it’s understandable that so many would hate a people group that has from its inception claimed to be set apart and chosen by God to the exclusion of all others - especially in Old Testament times when this meant completely wiping out other groups in “their” land. You can’t do this and expect to be popular (even if it is in fact right).<<

1) I don’t know a single Jew who goes around bragging about his or her “chosen” status in public.

2) Even if they did, I can’t think of a single Jewish organization that’s trying to kill, harm, or persecute people for being “unchosen.” (Unlike certain killers of infidels who come to mind.) IMHO, people should believe what they want as long as they don’t use it as an excuse to harm others.

It’s hard to comprehend how the brutal form of “unpopularity” Jews have been subject to is in any way “understandable.” Your comment sounds alarmingly like, “They brought it on themselves.”

[mountn man]

You need to brush up on current events.

The Palis are nothing more than the mutts to the Arab world. The Palis without support from outside Palestine don't have the wherewithal to destroy Israel.

Its Hamas, with Iranian and Syrian support and backing, that attacks Israel.

The Palis don't attack Israel because they have some grand design of controlling the ME.

The Palis stayed in Israel when Jordan, Syria, and Egypt attacked Israel. They were promised the entire area. Instead Jordan and company were defeated, and gaza and the area were spoils of war.

Israel allowed the Palis to stay, even though they were, and have been hostiles.

The Pali issue for the rest of the Arab world, isn't about "helping" their Arab brother. It's about inciting hatred and unrest. As long as there is an Israel, the Arabs will use the Pali issue as a flash point for hostilities. Creating whatever ill they can imagine.

There is coming a major war in the ME when most of the Arab Muslim nations, lead by Russia and Iran will attack Israel. This coalition of nations will be utterly destroyed, and it will take 7 months to bury the dead. Meanwhile, Israel will survive and thrive.

How can a tiny nation of 6 million oppress the entire Islamic world of 1.2 billion?

If Israel is as evil as some claim, why hasn't it nuked all the nations it is supposed to hate?

Why does Iran with 65 million want to destroy Israel, a nation of 6 million? Yeah, 6 million are really holding down 65 million. And Israel has used nukes repeatedly on Iran. /sarc>

[thirst4truth]

It seems obvious to me that most Isreal haters, most of the left, even a vast majority of the Jewish people are unbelievers. There will be no peace until He returns and kicks some well deserving ass.

John 15:18 If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you

15:19 If ye were of the world, the world would love his own; but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.

[knews_hound]

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[goldstategop]

I meant Judah, the son of Jacob. I mixed up the House Of David to whom Judah swore allegiance with his descent from Jacob. There was only one left and that's the way its been ever since. The northern kingdom of Israel was so engulfed by paganism it died not so much from the Assyrian conquest and dispersion of its population as much as from cultural suicide. It killed itself first. That's how civilizations principally die. Judah managed to escape that fate and that's why Israel is back in the news again in our own time.

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus

[NonValueAdded]

Thank God for Mark Steyn, one of the few shining stars in a very dark 2009 future.

[Rummyfan]

Hatred of Jews is irrational. The only way you can explain it is to read the Bible. If they are God’s chosen people then everybody who hates God will hate them, too. Their warmest friends among Christians are those who believe what the Bible says; God will bless those who bless the Jews and curse those who curse His people.

Here Here!! The instances of irrational hatred, on the part of followers of mad mo, cited by Mark Steyn are truly frightening and indicative of where things on the Continent are headed.

[calex59]

To be fair, it’s understandable that so many would hate a people group that has from its inception claimed to be set apart and chosen by God to the exclusion of all others - especially in Old Testament times when this meant completely wiping out other groups in “their” land. You can’t do this and expect to be popular (even if it is in fact right).

To be fair? You cite something that happened thousands of years ago and say to be fair this must be mentioned as a cause of Jewish hatred? When is the last time you saw Jews, any Jews, trying to wipe out other religions, or any people period regardless of religion?

Now, to be fair, tell me when is the last time you saw Muslims trying to wipe out a religion, or any people for that matter?

Can't come up with an answer? Let me help you. The Jews have never tried to wipe out anyone within recent history(say for the last 1000 years). OTH, muslims have constantly tried to wipe out Jews and Christians down through history and they continue to this day. Now, based on that evidence, and to be fair, which group of people do you actually think deserve to be hated?

Another clue, the murderous muslims are the group to be despised and hated. The mystery is why aren't they?

[Rummyfan]

jews would vote hamas before conservative

Maybe current events will serve as a wake-up call for some of them....

[Rummyfan]

Or perhaps because the standard of living and achievements in eduction, science, business, and most all fields of endeavor in Israel puts all Muslim nations to shame.

I think a lot of it is envy... Israel has come farther in the sixty-odd years of its existence than most of the Arab nations have in the last two hundred.

Why is that I wonder.....

[maica]

Thanks for posting Mark Twain’s observations of the Jews.

[Gritty]

Thes Muslim fanatics hate infidels as much as Jews. Jews are merely the first in line for elimination.

[AmericanVictory]

It is frightening and it is a great truth that Jews are the canary in the mine for Christians. If they were wiped out we would be next.

[Mrs. Don-o]

"[Jews are a] group that has from its inception claimed to be set apart and chosen by God to the exclusion of all others - especially in Old Testament times when this meant completely wiping out other groups in “their” land.

I question whether this is relevant to modern-day Israel. The Zionist founders of Israel were secular. They did not establish a claim to the land as a consequence of obedience to God or on the presumption that God guaranteed their claim.

As I understand the history (somebody correct any significant errors or omissions here, please) the original early-20th-century Zionists bought land. In other words, they established ownership of properties the same as anybody else would.

Then after WWI, the British and the League of Nations came to have a role in administering the former Ottoman provinces. After WWII, the British decided to give these territories independence, so they divided up their Mandate territory into Israel and Jordan.

So the Jews got a right to Israel, first by purchase and then by the lawful British Mandate agreement. They got the right to be a nation a third way, too, by succesfully defending it and by developing it into a state where everybody (including Israeli Muslim Arabs and Christian Arabs) could vote, serve in elected or appointed office, and take part in the benefits of civil society, all on an equal and secular basis.

Whatever the historic basis is for today's widespread antisemitism, it's ~not~ caused by Jews talking like or acting like they're an exclusive elite of God's Chosen People.

See what I mean?

[Will88]

The question “why do they hate the jews” presupposes that the hater is rational. The better question is why is islam a religion of violence.

That is a good question, but answering that won't tell us why their greatest and oldest hatred is still reserved for the Jews. I think it all started with Mohammed and the Jews of Medina, who refused to recognized him as a prophet, and refused to join his earliest followers. Downhill from there.

[Arguendo]

Agreed. I wasn’t really referring to current hatred of them (which stems from lots of things, not the least of which is jealousy), but really offering an explanation for why—as Steyn claims—hatred of Jews may be the oldest hatred.

[Arguendo]

Agreed. I wasn’t really referring to current hatred of them (which stems from lots of things, not the least of which is jealousy), but really offering an explanation for why—as Steyn claims—hatred of Jews may be the oldest hatred.

[Ciexyz]

Another good one from Steyn.

[Eva]

Thanks for the history lesson, that was interesting. I’m sure that I had heard it before, but it seems new when you hear it in the context of what is happening, now.