Amphisbaena

The two women in the foreground are from a scene in “Mooz-Lum*,” written and directed by Qasim Basir, in which the Muslim youth are about to be attacked by racist thugs. The young woman on the right is preparing to surrender by removing her headscarf. The image clearly echoes the iconic picture in the upper left of an eight-year-old Jewish newsboy surrendering to Nazi stormtroopers in the Warsaw ghetto of Poland, in 1943 as Hitler’s “Final Solution” was carried out. Anti-Islamic prejudice, police harassment, and hostility was stoked by the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as the brutality of rightist outfits like ISIS and the expansionist drive of the Iranian Islamic Republic. Despite the demagogic rhetoric of some populist politicians this actually pales in comparison with the spread of anti-Semitic violence.

Also in the background is news footage of a “white power” demonstration led by Frazier Glenn Miller, whose camouflage jacket and head are partially visible. Miller is a Missouri Klan leader and FBI informant who gunned down three people at a Jewish Community Center in Lakeland, Kansas, in 2014.

Inset in the bottom foreground is security footage from inside the store which was the scene of the anti-Semitic attack on a Parisian Kosher market by ISIS terrorists in 2015 in the aftermath of the Charlie Hebdo massacre.

Jew-hatred is deeply rooted in capitalism. In periods of economic crisis, like now, scapegoating Jews gains significant traction.

While Islamophobia has gained recent traction spurred on by demagoguery of a few American politicians and widespread intolerance in Europe in response to the refugee/immigration crisis and several highly publicized terrorist attacks, anti-Jewish violence accelerated faster in the past decade according to the Anti-Defamation League. Anti-Semitism has manifested itself not just on the political right, but alarmingly also emerged among some student and left-wing activists and is especially evident on campuses following October 7 as hundreds rallied to celebrate and defend Hamas’ bloodletting and Jew-hatred. Violent attacks on Jews defending Israel’s right to exist as a refuge for Jews have been carried out near the Berkeley campus in California.

A notable case several years ago that would prove to be a harbinger of things to come, involved Joy Karega an assistant professor at Oberlin College, who like many supporters of the Boycott, Divest, Sanctions campaign (BDS), a front for Hamas, has repeated anti-Jewish conspiracy theories.(Karenga was ultimately fired for violating academic ethics.) These nostrums do not serve the cause of Palestinian rights or advance understanding of their legitimate grievances. The majority of Israelis, whether Jew or Arab, face problems similar to working people in every other country rooted a systemic crisis.

In the name of Palestinian rights, BDS campaigners and pro-Hamas thugs have falsely

equated Israel with South Africa under apartheid. (As has the ANC government of South Africa, which has degenerated since the days of Nelson Mandela–but that’s subject for another day.) They claim Israel, like the United States, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and South Africa are (white) European Settler-Colonial States. This assertion is completely false. Jews have lived in Israel for millennia. Most Jews are not white. A big percentage of the Jews currently living in Israel have been forced to leave areas where they lived for centuries in the Arab countries in the Middle East and northern Africa as well as former Soviet republics and Asia by a rising tide of organized anti-Jewish violence. Israel exists as a refuge for Jews. It has a right to exist and has a right to defend itself.

Just as dangerous as the BDS campaigns of the past are calls for a cease fire today. Hamas and its backers call for a cease fire hoping to gain breathing space to regroup and repeat October 7. A cease fire was in effect on October 7. Hamas violated it sending death squads into Israel for the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust! No Cease Fire!

By weakening Hamas, Israel’s military campaign is opening political space for Palestinians to resist and beat back the bloody and corrupt dictatorial rule of Hamas. Today the IDF is the best defender not only of Israel’s right to exist, but also of Palestinian rights.

While there is inequality and discrimination within Israeli society, Israel remains the most open and democratic society in the region. Many Arabs are Israeli citizens, who participate in the democratic process and hold elective posts. Arab Israelis were among the first to respond to resist and repel the October 7 Hamas pogromists.

To Jews fleeing real persecution in other parts of the world, Israel offers a home when there is no other place to go. This is true whatever one thinks of its rulers or their policies. The Jewish people worldwide have still never recovered their numbers from their losses during the Holocaust. Among the reasons Israel exists is the main imperialist powers, the U.S., Britain, France, Canada, and Germany do not open their doors to Jewish refugees fleeing persecution.

Particularly dangerous are notions that ISIS is a conspiracy concocted by and a tool of the CIA and Mossad. In debates on several college campuses, the objectivity and loyalty of Jewish students was first challenged by self-styled supporters of Palestinian rights. Today it’s turned into thug attacks on supporters of Israel’s right to exist by Hamas- and Iranian-inspired Brown Shirts. Meanwhile the real blame for the many thousands of deaths and terrible humanitarian situation facing Gaza’s population is fully on Hamas’ doorstep. The blood of both Palestinians and Jews is on Hamas’ hands, ALL OF IT!