search
Vladimir Minkov

Unconventional thoughts – on the roots of and fighting anti-Semitism

Just recently the UN General Assembly discussed rising anti-Semitic violence worldwide and what might be done to curtail it. Bernard-Henri Levy who is an outstanding French philosopher presented there his analysis of the roots of anti-Semitism – see at

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bernardhenri-levy/against-the-new-anti-semi_b_6526364.html

He stressed that the justification for anti-Semitism have been changing in the course of history. After the adversaries of the State of Israel realized it cannot be defeated militarily, the justification for Anti-Semitism has shifted again – from blaming the Jews to blaming the State of Israel. Bernard-Henri Levy says:

“Today’s anti-Semitism says three things…

  1. The Jews are detestable because they are assumed to support an evil, illegitimate, murderous state. This is the anti-Zionist delirium of the merciless adversaries of the re-establishment of the Jews in their historical homeland.
  2. The Jews are all the more detestable because they are believed to base their beloved Israel on imaginary suffering, or suffering that at the very least has been outrageously exaggerated. This is the shabby and infamous denial of the Holocaust.
  3. In so doing, the Jews would commit a third and final crime that could make them still more guilty, which is to impose on us the memory of their dead, to completely stifle other peoples’ memories, and to overshadow other martyrs whose deaths have plunged parts of today’s world, most emblematically that of the Palestinians, into mourning. And here we come face to face with the modern-day scourge, the stupidity, that is competitive victimhood.

Anti-Semitism needs these three formulations, which are like the three vital components of a moral atomic bomb.”

Thus, the justification for anti-Semitism is changing but the anti-Semitism itself is unchangeable. If it is so, the “officially” proclaimed reasons for anti-Semitism are just a “fig leaf”, and something else is the true hidden reason. What may it be, and why it is so stable that it has not passed away in the course of history?

Our Jewish answer is confused and can be summarized in the following way: we are good people like everybody else and we don’t see any justification for anti-Semitism and the hate against us the Jews; we are asking the others to fight anti-Semitism since we can do nothing on our own.

However the others – whose who don’t like us the Jews – know what is the reason for their disliking. One of them defined it clearly and precisely as can be seen in a paper “Western Intellectuals are Openly Anti-Semitic” by Giulio Meotti at

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/14735#.VMUcnP7F9LA

“… De Man, the most esteemed and beloved of the American critics of literature , during the Second World War wrote 169 anti-Semitic and pro-Nazi articles for newspapers and magazines. …

De Man described the Jews as “pollutants” … he praised the Nazi invasion of Belgium as the “impeccable behavior of the highly civilized invader”….

Speaking of “Western intellectuals”, De Man wrote:

“That they have been able to safeguard themselves from Jewish influence in a domain as representative of culture as literature is proof of their vitality. We would have to give up hope for its future if our civilization had let itself be invaded by a foreign force. By keeping, in spite of Semitic interference in all aspects of European life, an intact originality and character, it has shown that its basic nature is healthy. Furthermore, one sees that a solution of the Jewish problem that would aim at the creation of a Jewish colony isolated from Europe would not entail, for the literary life of the West, deplorable consequences. The latter would lose, in all, a few personalities of mediocre value and would continue, as in the past, to develop according to its great evolutionary laws”.”

Thus De Man representing the “western intellectuals” described the roots on intellectual anti-Semitism in the following way:

  • The Jews are a foreign force, a sort of “Fifth column” in Western Civilization
  • The Jews are interfering in all aspects of European life
  • The Jews should be expelled from Europe into an isolated colony (It looks like a Jewish state in Palestine might be a perfect solution for the pre-WWII “western intellectuals”).

That is a true spiritual faith of European anti-Semites. If it is a spiritual faith, you cannot fight it by denouncing it – you should fight it by defending and promoting your own faith.

We the Jews together with good Christians, and these days there are many of them, have to fight anti-Semitism by defending and promoting in all available public forums the following faith-based principles:

  • We the Jews are not a foreign force in Western Civilization – we the Jews are the very foundation of Western Civilization. The moral/spiritual principles of this civilization are the moral/spiritual principles of the Torah (Bible) originated at the Mount Sinai over three millenniums ago.
  • We the Jews are indeed interfering in all aspects of European (and not only European) life – but not for corrupting it but for preserving and advancing the moral/spiritual foundation of Western civilization.
  • Yes, after WWII many of us were “expelled” into the newly created State of Israel – but we are there not for the purpose of isolating ourselves from Western Civilization – we are there for the purpose of defending and advancing Western Civilization.

Our leaders have to do all that!

About the Author
Vladimir Minkov graduated from the Naval Engineering Academy in the former Soviet Union, served in the Soviet Navy and there received his Ph.D. At the end of 1970s he immigrated to America where democracy and the Judeo-Christian spirituality of this country made it possible for him to actively defend both his scientific and spiritual ideas. In the USA he has found the place for his scientific public work in the spiritual realm of One God and Torah.
Related Topics
Related Posts