Wednesday, September 24th 2014

Like many Jewish families, mine has been distressed by the rise in malignant Anti-Semitism of the sort chronicled today in the New York Times. The excellent in-depth report by Jim Yardley cites the virulent intensity of the hatred directed at Jews in France, Germany and other European nations. The report is particularly welcomed because the authoritative newspaper of record is viewed with suspicion by many American Jews. For historic reasons, and now mostly because of paper's willingness to criticize Israel's unlawful occupation of Palestine, many Zionists have smeared the NYT's ownership as self-hating Jews. Anti-Semitism is a disgusting, low-down and dirty phenomenon that has plagued the planet for millennia. Its purveyors must be confronted and routed from the ranks of decent, civilized people. But those of us who refuse to recognize how the Gaza War and the 47-year long occupation of Palestine is exacerbating this most recent incarnation of that age-old instinct are self-denying Jews.