When memory fails

Trevor Phillips, a British ‘specialist’ in racism, confronts some uncomfortable truths about racial stereotypes. ‘Jews are rich and own the world!’, the same old story, the same old myth.  He mentions the Rothschilds who, in reality, are small compared to the huge Protestant and Catholic banks of America, Europe, and now of Asia; oh, I almost forgot about the Vatican which owns so many properties that they could welcome thousands of migrants!!!

‘Damn those rich Jews!’   That is why the great majority of the six million who were killed by the Nazis were poor.  That is why the hundred and sixty thousand Ethiopian Jews, who are also dirt poor, are being integrated more or less successfully into Israeli society. They are still being rescued from their native country and brought to Israel – All the opposite is true of the millions of African slaves whom the Europeans and the Arabs have forcibly displaced and sent to the Americas and to Arabia. 

That is why so many Israelis struggle to pay their rent; the few billionaires here, according to that guy, would also control the world. 

The Jews have been the ‘People of the Book’ for thousands of years – here we are in 5,781, according to the Jewish calendar (even if that number is debatable, the Jews are a pretty old folk) -, and they keep reading and studying.  Actually, that is their first religion, from the Bible to Einstein’s relativity formula, to Karl Marx’s ‘Das Kapital’, to Freud’s studies in psychoanalysis, to Magnus Herschfeld’s advocacy of homosexual and transgender rights – his institute was destroyed by the Nazis and his books were burnt -, and finally, the names of all the cities and places mentioned in the Bible and whose ruins are still visible in Israel.   Is that not the proof that Israel is the home of the Jews? 

It is, of course, the Jews’ fault if 4000 years ago (or more) they have given the world Abraham, with his monotheism, Moses, with his moral code, Jesus, an enlightened rabbi (whose real name is Yehoshua; he was MADE a Christian, after his death), the Torah which the Christians and the Muslims (both sects of Judaism) have ‘taken’ from them, distorting the scriptures by mistranslating the Bible to suit their goals and to impose their ’new’, religion.  These are the two religions whose leaders have converted billions of people by the sword, while Judaism remains a non-proselytising faith.  There is an Italian phrase: Traduttore, traditore  (‘translator = traitor’), which I believe is at the root of antisemitism.

This is probably why the guy starts mentioning the Jews at the very beginning of his presentation.  But he really doesn’t know why he put them at the beginning … the beginning of the history of the West?  He is just repeating the lies that millions of Jew haters have perpetuated.  I personally have Jewish acquaintances who live in the poorer sections of London and Manchester – actually my own in-laws.  Are these people transparent to this guy?  So no, it is NOT an unsettling truth, it’s been there for millenia.  As the French say ‘Il a découvert l’Amérique’, meaning, ‘oh, what a discovery!’

So, it is the Jews’ fault if they work harder than many other groups, it is their fault if they succeed and created Hollywood and Broadway, with their up- and downsides?  It is their fault if they continue being innovators.  It is their fault if Israel has maybe the largest number of scientists and researchers per capita in the world.  And yes, there are thieves, swindlers and corrupt people among them too.   They are the only ones the Judeophobes choose to remember, stigmatizing the whole Jewish Nation. 

The Jews have given so much to a world dominated by Christianity and Islam, and that is why they are so hated.  This happens in families and among friends.  If you give and keep giving, they will start resenting you, and soon jealousy creeps in, then, eventually hatred.  Psychology 101.  And to think that there are just 15 million of them!   Wow, what noise they make, and how often they are singled out!  Not even humanity’s worst enemies have that privilege! 

The great Indian and Chinese civilizations have accepted and admired the Jews throughout their history, because, like them, they have had a continuous, uninterrupted culture for thousands of years, not so with the ancient Greek, Roman, Arab and Ottoman empires, which have all disappeared.  I am also happy to say that most Black Africans, unlike an increasing number of African-Americans, like the Jews and are happy to collaborate with Israel.  No ethnic group has been ill-treated for so long – not even my dear Black African brethren and sisters, not even them, and god knows that they have suffered and are still suffering; look at all the tribal wars, in Rwanda, Burundi, Nigeria, Mali, Sudan, Ethiopia, and in my beloved Congo … where mass rapes and killings are still being perpetrated. 

Antisemitism, or better said, Judeophobia has been a ™ from time immemorial, so much so, that there are Jews in the diaspora, and even here in Israel, who think that to be antisemitic is cool and trendy, and they embrace it.  Israel being a democracy, they are free to vilify it.  To each his own!