Jewish World Review Nov. 19, 2003 / 24 Mar-Cheshvan, 5764
Jack Kelly
All that stands between the
Jews and another Holocaust is the United States of America
http://www.NewsAndOpinion.com |
"Today, we can say these little people are the root of all evil," said Mikis
Theodorakis of the Jews.
The composer of the music for "Zorba the Greek" was flanked by two Greek
cabinet ministers when he made this statement. Neither took issue with what
he said.
Theodorakis has lots of company in his anti-Semitism. In a recent poll
conducted by the European Union, 59 percent of respondents said Israel is
the greatest threat to peace in the world. More than Iran. More than Iraq.
More than North Korea.
Palestinians are the world's favorite underdogs, beloved of liberals in
North America, European politicians of every stripe, and Islamofascists the
world over.
A factual case for Palestinian persecution is hard to make. They have their
own statelet, and would have their own state, if they were willing to forego
murdering Israelis. Arabs living in Israel have rights and liberties Arabs
in Egypt, Syria, and Saudi Arabia can only dream of.
There has never been an Arab state called Palestine. Prior to 1967,
Palestinians were either Jordanians or Egyptians. They are ethnically,
culturally, religiously and linguistically indistinguishable from their Arab
neighbors.
Kurds would seem a more logical candidate among Muslims for the world's
sympathy. Kurds have a different ethnicity, a different language, a
different cultural tradition from the Arabs and Turks who have oppressed
them for lo these many centuries.
If not the Kurds, how about the Chechens? In each of its sieges of the
Chechen capital of Grozny, the Russians killed many times more Chechens than
the total number of Palestinians who have died in clashes with Israeli
security forces. And though Palestinians have a measure of self government,
Chechnya remains under Russia's thumb.
But the number of the world's opinion leaders who give a damn about the
Kurds or the Chechens wouldn't fill a telephone booth. Palestinians are
loved because they are the only people on the planet who can, with any
degree of plausibility, claim to be oppressed by Jews.
Hatred of the Jews has been the most durable political idea of the last
2,000 years. Jews have been hated by Christians and Muslims, by fascists and
communists, by Europeans and Arabs and Africans and Asians. Jews are hated
by illiterate peasants and by college professors. Jews are hated by people
who think they are better than Jews, and by people who fear they are
inferior to them. Jews have been hated for maintaining their identity in the
societies in which they live, and for trying to assimilate into them. Jews
were hated when they had no state, and because they now have one.
It's hard to understand why. Hitler wasn't Jewish. Neither was Stalin or Mao
or Pol Pot or Idi Amin. Saddam Hussein isn't Jewish. Neither is Osama bin
Laden or Kim Jong Il or Fidel Castro. Attila the Hun wasn't Jewish. Neither
were Caligula or Genghis Khan or Ivan the Terrible. There have been a lot of
mass murderers in the last 2,000 years. None have been Jewish.
Jews didn't start World Wars I or II, or the Korean War, or the Vietnam War.
Jews weren't responsible for starvation in the Ukraine in the 1930s, or
genocide in Rwanda in the 1990s. It wasn't Jews who flew airplanes into the
World Trade Center and the Pentagon, or who put nerve gas in Tokyo's
subways. Yet Mikis Theodorakis can say: "these little people are the root of
all evil," and few will contradict him.
Of the world's 6.3 billion people, only 12 million are Jewish. By contrast,
there are nearly 1.3 billion Muslims, who rule 57 countries which contain
most of the world's oil reserves. Yet Mahathir Mohammed, the "moderate"
Muslim leader who just retired as prime minister of Malaysia, can claim that
"Jews rule the world by proxy," and few will contradict him.
Iran is building a nuclear weapon, for the expressed purpose of annihilating
Israel. Other Muslim nations applaud the effort, while most Europeans look
the other way. Jews are hated in the world today to a degree not seen since
the Nazis goose-stepped onto the world stage. All that stands between the
Jews and another Holocaust is the United States of America.
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JWR contributor Jack Kelly, a former Marine and Green Beret, was a
deputy assistant secretary of the Air Force in the Reagan
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