Who are the major inciters of antisemitism today?

You might wonder who are the major inciters of antisemitism in the world today. Some of you may be surprised at the answer: It is the governments of the United States and Israel.

After the brutal murder of the young Israeli couple last week in Washington DC, CNN reported that US President Trump said,

 These horrible DC killings, based obviously on antisemitism, must end NOW! Hatred and radicalism have no place in the USA.

PM Netanyahu said,

We are witness to the terrible cost of the antisemitism and wild incitement against the State of Israel.

It appears that there are no limits to hypocrisy in our Orwellian world!

Trump is the biggest promoter of hatred and Republican radicalism in the world! During the last presidential campaign,  he said that “the Jewish people” would be partially to blame if he loses in November, escalating his persistent campaign-trail criticism of Jewish voters. Trump has regularly spoken about American Jews as if Israel is their country, rather than the United States. At a White House Hanukkah party in 2018, Trump said Vice President Mike Pence and second lady Karen Pence go to Israel, and they love your country. They love your country. And they love this country” — the implication being that “this country” is distinct from “your country.”

His many antisemitic statements are well-known. His campaign against antisemitism at major American universities is a ruse. In fact, it is fostering more antisemitism as most people see it for what it is: a blatant attack on higher education. In a recent poll, most American Jews fear that Trump is indeed promoting hatred of Jews.

In a report in JTA last week, it was noted:

About half of American Jews describe President Donald Trump as antisemitic, while only a minority think his campus crackdown is reducing antisemitism, according to a new survey. The survey of Jewish registered voters, conducted by the polling firm GBAO Strategies, found that 52% of respondents say the word “antisemitic” describes the president very or somewhat well.

As far as the Israeli government goes, its leader is well known in Israel and around the world as a major inciter to hatred of just about everyone who disagrees with him: the courts, the attorney general, the media, the left, and on and on it goes. He and his fellow extremist ministers are guilty of wild incitement every day, almost every hour,  against Palestinians, Muslims, Christians, and many fellow Jews — leftists, judges, journalists and more. They specialize in promoting hatred of Israel (the Jewish state) and therefore of Jews by their extremist immoral statements, which are broadcast every hour around the world.

Let me give you some examples:

From my perspective, not a gram of aid should be allowed in—not just to Hamas, but to the Gaza Strip. As long as we have hostages there, and as long as Hamas rules Gaza, they should have no water, no food, nothing. Let them starve to death as far as I’m concerned… There are no innocents in the Gaza Strip.– MK Ohad Tal, Religious Zionism [the extreme right-wing political party, led by Bezalel Smotrich]

The government should also order the bombing of the aid stocks that accumulated in Gaza in huge quantities during and before the ceasefire, along with the complete shutdown of electricity and water. – National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir

There will be no withdrawal from the territories we have captured, not even in exchange for the hostages… Israel’s goal is to destroy everything that’s left of the Gaza Strip. We are conquering, cleansing, and remaining in Gaza until Hamas is destroyed. – Bezalel Smotrich, Finance Minister

We are destroying more and more homes, and Gazans have nowhere to return to. The only inevitable outcome will be the wish of Gazans to emigrate outside of the strip. – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

Revenge!! Revenge is a value!! This is the only way to defeat the terrorists of evil, the rapists, and the cruel terrorists who torture. Keep giving account to international justice, they will hate Israel anyway. Our obligation is to get revenge on the enemy, defeat it and bring it to its knees. The commander in chief thinks that revenge is not a combat value, and that is a problem. Combat without mercy, occupy the north of the Strip and military control in Gaza, this is how (only) we break the victory mindset of Hamas. I have said this from day one! – Likud MK Talli Gotliv  [one of the craziest, most outlandish and outspoken Likud politicians]

Every child, every baby in Gaza is the enemy. The enemy is not Hamas. We need to occupy Gaza and settle it so that not a single Gazan child remains there. There is no other victory. – Former Likud MK Moshe Feiglin on Channel 14 (the pro-Bibi, Fox News style television station in Israel.]

On top of all this, Israel’s minister for Diaspora Affairs and Combatting Antisemitism, Amichai Chikli, is perhaps the biggest fomenter of antisemitism in the government today. He allies himself with far-right neo-Nazi political parties in Germany and other countries in Europe. He even accused Pope Francis, of blessed memory, of fostering antisemitism, when it is he who is fostering anti-Israel sentiment around the world, which he and his partners in the government, and in some Jewish establishments abroad,  then label as anti-Semitism. Very clever trick, but too transparent.

This is, of course, a great historical irony. The state of Israel was established as a refuge for Jews who suffered antisemitism wherever they lived. Now, under this extreme-right government, the statements and actions of its “leaders” are the major cause of so-called antisemitism in the world. The Christians no longer accuse us of killing Jesus, and the Muslims are mostly angry at the actions of the Jewish state. In fact, there is a great deal of Jewish-Christian and Jewish-Muslim Dialogue in our world today, based upon our common values of our humanistic religions and our joint needs to preserve social harmony and protect the planet.

Most of the people and states in the world are not, in fact, antisemitic. But they are horrified by the policies and actions of Netanyahu’s ruthless and reckless coalition, which has turned Israel into a pariah state. Most sane people in this world want this war to end, want the nightly bombings (massacres) of innocent civilians to stop, and want the starvation of a whole society to cease. These actions are causing most of the antisemitism among many students and faculty at universities around the world these days and among Western governments who can no longer stomach it. If the war would end — and Israel would begin to treat Palestinians fairly and work towards a fair diplomatic solution to the conflict — so-called antisemitism (which is really anti-Israeli policies) would decrease dramatically.

In the meantime, if Israel’s fanatical ministers and members of the Knesset, including and especially the Prime Minister, could refrain from their daily inciteful statements, which are succeeding all too well, this would also reduce hatred of the Jewish state somewhat in the short term. In the longer term, they need to be replaced by reputable and responsible leaders in the upcoming elections in Israel.