Shortly after the second world war when the world saw the true horrors of the nazi death camps, we thought anti-semitism had finally been wiped out for good.
But, now 7 decades and 3 generations later we see how wrong we were.
Today, people throughout Europe frustrated with government or the establishment or the wealthy, once again, blame their problems first on immigrants and then on the age-old scape goat the Jews.
What does it say that the second leading candidate for president in France’s last election was Marine Le Pen - the far-right daughter of a renowned anti-semite? Or that the leader of the Labor Party in Britain and possibly the next prime minister Jeremy Corbyn is an outright anti-semite?
And in Germany where the straight-arm nazi salute has been banned since 1945, we watched something last month that we never thought we’d see in that country again. Neo-Nazis marching through the streets of Chemnitz and Dortmund reaching out their arms and screaming hatred towards Jews and attacking a Jewish restaurant and the police - because they are not instructed in what to do - did nothing !! It reminds us of 1938 when the police stood by on Kristallnacht while Jews were beaten, store windows smashed and over a thousand synagogues burned to the ground.
Europe in 2018 is not Europe of 1938. But it’s because what happened 80 years ago was so horrific, we monitor it constantly.
German police reaction must be forceful - there should be zero tolerance for Nazis in germany today.
The United Nations was created out of the ashes of World War II. It was built on the broken bones of the Jewish people. So, what does it mean that the UN singles out one - and only one country for condemnation - over and over again and that one country is the only Jewish state on earth, israel. Listen to these numbers, but remember there are many more like it.
Between 2012 and 2015 the UN General Assembly adopted 97 resolutions criticizing countries 83 out of those 97 were against Israel. 83 out of 97!
Between 2009 and 2014 UNESCO passed 47 resolutions of condemnation: 1 against syria - where over half-a-million human beings have been slaughtered, and all the rest - 46 - against israel. This makes a mockery of UNESCO. It makes a mockery of the UN.
Audrey Azoulay the new head of UNESCO is making great strides correcting this and we applaud her for what she’s doing but after decades of bad behavior at UNESCO, its reputation cannot be cleansed overnight. Especially when this virus of anti-semitism still runs throughout the entire body of the UN.
Here in the UN, Iran - against all the rules in the UN charter - promises to destroy a member state, Israel, and the UN says nothing. It does nothing. It is silent. From the UN to the German police once again we hear only silence. The Jewish People learned the lesson of silence. We learned that lesson the hard way. What has to happen before the UN and the governments of Europe finally react? Nazi salutes attacks on Jewish restaurants and synagogues, Jews murdered - this must stop now!
This is our response - we will never be silent again.
The newest form of anti-semitism is hatred of Israel. We hear people say I have no problem with Jews only Israel. A perfect example of this the BDS movement, which stands for the boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel. Remember BDS does not seek peace it seeks the elimination of Israel, yet polilticians look the other way and won’t call BDS what it really is.
The World Jewish Congress was created in 1936 to warn the world about the dangers coming out of Nazi Germany. The world ignored that warning and 60 million human beings died and an entire continent was almost destroyed.
Please, do not ignore my warning today.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on October 3, 2018
© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2018