Figure 1.- |
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Anti-Semitism was of course not just a German phenonemon, although the NAZIs took it to horific levels. There ws considerable informal abti-Semitism in America even after World War II, but for a time the NAZI phenomenom made anti-Semitism and other forms of hatred and prejudice unacceptable to most people in
America and Europe. Many are concerned that today there is a resurgence of anti-Semitism. This is certainly true in the Muslim world, but it also appears to be true
even in Europe. Here both a growing Muslim population and right-wing nationalists continue to embrace anti-Semitism.
After the World War II, anti-Semitism declined, a trend based on having witnessed what anti-Semitism can lead to. Anti-Semitism was of course not just a German phenonemon, although the NAZIs took it to horific levels. There ws considerable informal abti-Semitism in America even after World War II, but for a time the NAZI phenomenom made anti-Semitism and other forms of hatred and prejudice unacceptable to most people in America and Europe.
Many are concerned that today there is a resurgence of anti-Semitism. Some believe that anti-Semitism has become a growth industry around the world, including Europe.
In the Arab world fired by the Palentinian-Israeli conflict, anti-Semitism has become a uesful scapegoat for Arab leaders who have poorly managed their countries. [Timmerman]
The growth of anti-Semitism is certainly true in the Muslim world, but it also appears to be true even in Europe. Here both a growing Muslim population and right-wing nationalists continue to embrace anti-Semitism. We had noted a number of incidents in Europe including attacks on Jewish cemetaries. A French reader tells us that accounts of anti-Semitic incedents in France are exagerated by the medua. He describes two rececent incidents in 2004. One was an incidennt in which "a Jewish women in a train was attacked by six men, including blacks and Arabs. What horror! The media prominently covered this incident. Government officialsdenounced this racist attack. This incident brough on indignation in Israel and
France was traited as a anti-Semetic country. A few days later, the criminal investigation determined that the Jewish woman had made up the incident." Another incident involved a fire at a Jewish school in Paris. Our French reader writes, "The media again prominently covered the event as a racist attack. A few day later the criminal police found the guilty party. It was a former employee who was Jewish and had a problems with this school."
Anti-Semitism has not disappeared in America, but it is not widespread or is it considered acceptable among the great majority of Americans. One sector of the population which continued to harbor anti-Semrtic feelings are Black Americans, curiously the sector of the population that has experiecened decrimination in its most brutal form. Another major development has been the Fundamentlist Ptotestant embrace of Israel. One of the mainstays of anti-Semtism in America was the Fundamentlist churches of the South. The Klu-Klux-Klan which terrorized Blacks after Civil War Reconstruction also promoted hated of Jews and Catholics. This was an enduring legacy even after the decline of the Klan. Even in the 1960s, Jonn Kenbedys Catholocism was a major political concern, especially in the South. Somehow the Fundamentlists in the South have beginning in the 1970s enbraced Israel. This is a process that I do not yet fully understand.
Timmerman, Kenneth R. Preachers of Hate: Islam and the War on America (Crown Forum, 2003), 370p.
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