is hardly an open discussion of anti-Semitism, without the participants scrambling to uncritically condemn it as utterly evil. Anybody suspected – or worse - publicly accused of anti-Semitic views or activities, becomes automatically – without trial and conviction – a societal leper. He can kiss his job and career good-bye, and will loose, more often than not, most of his friends and family, in many cases even his freedom.[1]

In spite, or maybe because of its taboo nature, there is a lot of confusion about what exactly constitutes anti-Semitism. Part 1 of this essay tries to break through the taboo and examine the various aspects of anti-Semitism and what lead to its taboo nature. The upcoming Part 2 and Part 3 will provide a detailed description of today’s anti-Semitism and undertake a comprehensive ethical analysis of anti-Semitism, covering both victims and perpetrators, acts of anti-Semitism and the response to it. In particular, it will tackle one of the trickiest question in the anti-Semitism debate, the question of who is the victim and who the perpetrator. The author is conscious of the fact that by doing so, he will attract bitter criticism of those sections of the community that – for one reason or another - are the most interested in maintaining the taboo.

Origins of European Jewry

European anti-Semitism cannot be understood without knowledge of the origins of European Jewry. There are two distinct ethnical and linguistical Jewish groups in Europe, the Sephardic[2] and Ashkenazi Jews[3].

Sephardic Jews

The Sephardic Jews are the direct descendants of the Roman days’ inhabitants of Palestine. Their ancestors were part of the Jewish ‘establishment’ that left Palestine after the failed Jewish uprise against the Roman occupation in the first century around 70 A.D. They eventually settled in the Southern Spanish province of Andalusia where, for many centuries, they had a privileged position under Moorish rule. Sephardic Jews still speak today a medivial Andalusian dialect.

Historic Spanish and Portuguese anti-Semitism

While Christian zealotism was most likely a factor, Spanish and Portuguese anti-Semitism has its main cause in the resentment against the Jewish role in the century long Moorish occupation of the Iberian peninsula. Jews were considered to be traitors and collaborateurs. After the final defeat of the Moors in 1492, the ‘Catholic Kings’ gave the Sephardic Jews the choice to either leave for the (Spanish ruled) Netherlands, convert to Christianity or die. Since most Jews picked the easy option of simply pretending to have converted, a common way of testing their religious allegiance was to make them eat a stew cooked out of pork and seafood, both forbidden ingredients under Jewish religious rules.[4]

Throughout the centuries, Spanish and Portuguese anti-Semitism – as elsewhere - continued to be motivated by a mix of religious and socio-economical reasons. In spite of pretending to be Christians, numerous Jewish families secretly adhered to their Jewish beliefs as so-called crypto-Jews, often ‘sacrificing’ their eldest son by making him become a Catholic priest, to protect his family. Many crypto-Jew priests had prominent roles in the Spanish inquisition, which provided them with a powerful tool to fight against their enemies. They were also massively over-represented amongst the financers of the genocidal slave and spice trade, flourishing in both Spain and Portugal.

Ashkenazi Jews

Middle and Eastern European Jewry has its roots in the ethnic Turk tribes from Mongolia who invaded Europe under their Hun King Attila and eventually settled in the area of today’s southern Russia and Ukraine, where they formed the biggest and most powerful European kingdom of the Middle Ages, Khazaria. In the 8th century, the Khazarian kings decided to import thousands of rabbis to set up Talmud schools and convert the entire population to Judaism. This purely commercial decision enabled the Khazars to trade with both Christian and Muslim neighbours and dominate the extremely profitable trade between Europe and Asia, paying for the largest standing army of the Middle Ages. Ironically, Khazaria was eventually destroyed in the early 13th century by a second wave of Mongolian invaders under Genghis Khan, leading to many Ashkenazi Jews ending up in Southern and Middle European countries like Italy and Germany.

Historic Western and Middle European anti-Semitism

Western and Middle European anti-Semitism is widely considered to have its origin in the Middle Ages, where sporadic pogroms often coincided with the departure and the return of Christian crusaders, due to a mixture of religious zealotry and resentment against the high interest charged by Jewish money lenders involved in the financing of the campaigns. Killing the Jewish money lenders under the pretext of Jewish responsibility for the death of Jesus was obviously a convenient way of getting around repaying ones debts.

Right through to the19th century, anti-Semitic feelings and pogroms tended to be triggered by reports of unethical Jewish business practices, counterfeiting of coins, and ritual killings of Christian children on Passah, also known as the ‘blood libel’[5]. While the veracity of those allegations is widely disputed, there is agreement that they were frequently used as a pretext to avoid repaying Jewish money lenders.

Historic Eastern European anti-Semitism

Eastern European Jews tended to be far less integrated in local societies than Jews in Western and Middle European societies. This was largely due to bigger concentrations of Jewish populations, which brought the Yiddish[6] speaking Ashkenazi Jews in more prominent contrast to the local Catholic or Orthodox Christian Slavic populations. This was particularly true for the strictly Orthodox Tsarist Russia with a deeply rooted mistrust for the descendants of her Khazarian arch-enemies.

German post-WWI anti-Semitism

Contrary to popular beliefs, German anti-Semitism after World War I was mainly motivated by resentment against the perceived responsible of ‘International Jewry’ under leadership of the Rothschild banking dynasty for Germany’s loss of World War I and the humiliating conditions of the Versailles Treaty. However, the resulting misgivings often resulted in the application of popular 19th century social-Darwinist teachings[7] on European Jews.

The Hitler government worked closely with international Zionist groups on a large-scale emigration programme for European Jews, psychologically aided by the increasingly hostile behaviour of the German government towards Jewish citizens. These groups were even allowed to maintain training camps featuring Zionist flags, preparing emigrants for a life in Palestine.

Nazi time Germans greatly resented the hostility of international Jewish groups and blamed them for the Western allieds war effort against Germany. This resulted in the perception amongst many Germans that European Jews were hostile aliens who could be interned and forced to support the German war effort.

Post WWII anti-Semitism

While most historians and politicians agree on pre-World War II anti-Semitism, the situation is far less clear cut for the time after World War II. While Jewish and pro-Israel lobby groups tend to liberally apply the label of anti-Semitism, there seems to be very few cases of racially motivated acts of anti-Jewish behaviour. Many cases of vandalism and terrorist attacks against Jewish synagogues and cemeteries turned out to be false flag operations of Zionist groups such as Mossad, designed to revive war time memories of Nazi persecutions and coerce Jews to ‘take refuge’ in the Jews-only state.

In today’s use of the term, any criticism of Jews or the Jews-only state is widely considered to be anti-Semitic. In particular, any mentioning of the slightest doubt with respect to the veracity of the mainstream narrative of the Jewish Holocaust or any suggestion of Jewish responsibility for certain aggressive aspects of US foreign policy or the events of September 11 are widely considered to be tell-tale signs of anti-Semitism. The same applies to anyone giving the slightest credibility to alleged conspiracy theories such as ‘New World Order’, ‘Illuminati’ or – worst of all – the infamous ‘Protocols’.

Jewish Power

The skinner-box like automatism with which any criticism or suggestion of any wrong doings is perceived to be anti-Semitic, has as much to do with Jewish power[8] as it has with a bad conscience with respect to a perceived inaction of the world in response to the Jewish Holocaust. Jewish control over most of Western mainstream media and investment capital has resulted into a situation where it is impossible to have a successful career in politics, science, media, entertainment or the corporate arena if there is even the slightest suspicion of ‘anti-Semitism’. Given the generous use of the term, it is no wonder that there is wide-spread fear amongst most Westerners, especially in Germany and the US, to do, say or even think anything that might attract that deadly label.

Muslim anti-Semitism

Given the unqualified support by the vast majority of Jews for the Zionist entity, the civilian and human rights abuses against the Palestinian people and the unqualified US sponsored contempt for numerous UN resolutions with respect to the Palestinian refugees’ right of return, there are strong misgivings amongst Muslims all over the world towards Jews in general and the Jews-only state in particular. Not surprisingly, these misgivings are wide criticised in the Jewish controlled Western media as anti-Semitism.

What makes these ill fellings different from most Western countries, is that they are not hampered by any bad conscience about the Jewish Holocaust, in fact, there is wide-spread scepticism amongst many Muslims regarding the veracity of the mainstream narrative. The recent Holocaust conference organised by the Tehran government, providing a platform of discussion for over 60 Holocaust revisionists is a clear expression of this scepticism and refusal to give in to Jewish pressure.[9] This is even more notable, since for the first time since World War II, an entire government, not just some maverick historian, has dared to challenge the mainstream narrative of the Holocaust.

The Walt-Mearsheimer Effect

In addition to the headache caused by the Tehran conference, last year’s high profile study of Harvard and Chicago University professors Walt and Mearsheimer on the inappropriate influence of pro-Israeli lobbies on US foreign policies drew attention to the indiscriminate Jewish use of the label of anti-Semitism as a political weapon[10]. The long-term effect of this study remains to be seen. Anecdotal evidence suggests however, that Jewish lobby groups have become more careful with the application of the term, and frequently resort to alternative labels such as ‘conspiracy theory’.

Summary

The mere existence of a powerful taboo such as the one surrounding the political term of ‘anti-Semitism’ is already a strong indication for the urgent need of a rigorous examination of its use. By avoiding such an examination, we are allowing powerful interest groups to abuse the term for their selfish political aims in a less than ethical manner. The recent Tehran conference breaking the Holocaust taboo and the debate started by the Walt-Mearsheimer study on the influence of the pro-Israel lobby have started a process that will hopefully lead to a rational debate on this important matter.

Footnotes

[1] There are hundreds of cases of imprisonment each year in over a dozen of countries, most notably Germany and Austria, on the grounds of 'hate crime', referring to written or verbal statements made with respect to Jews or the Holocaust.

[2] Sephardic, adj (Hebrew) Spanish

[3] Ashkenazi, adj (Hebrew) German; given the fact that almost 90% of today's Jews are Ashkenazi, i.e. ethnic Turk, the term 'anti-Semitism' doesn't make a lot of sense. However, since the focus of this essay is not so much the term itself, but the actions and attitudes it describes, the author decided - for simplicty reasons - to stick with the commonly used term.

[4] Pork stew with cockles or clams is still today a national dish in both Portugal and Spain.

[5] The infamous term ‘blood libel’ is frequently used by Jewish lobbyists to discredit any suggestions that Israeli official might have been involved in any murderous activities.

[6] Yiddish is a medivial German dialect mixed with Turk and Hebrew words. For speed and logistical reasons, the ethnic Turk Huns didn’t bring their women along when invading Europe, forcing them to ‘source’ women from the local Germanic tribes. Those women then passed on their own language to the fruits of those ‘marriages’.

[7] English social-Darwinism, which puts European races above populations of European colonies, was instrumental for the dehumanisation of non-European people, necessary for the moral justificiation of their suppression and exploitation.

[8] Paul Eisen, http://www.ziopedia.org/content/view/380/58/

[9] Fredrick Töben, http://www.ziopedia.org/content/view/2799/58/

[10] Jeffrey Blankfort, http://www.ziopedia.org/content/view/566/58/

Andrew Winkler is the editor/publisher of Sydney based dissident blog ZioPedia.org and founder of 'Jews Anonymous'. He can be contacted on editor@ziopedia.org. See also his articles There is no such thing as a 'good Jew', The phony Palestinian prisoner strike, Terror - The Signature Smell of Zionism, "I have a dream", Not Guilty By Reason of Insanity?, Dare to care, My Jewish Problem, Antisemitism is a good thing, About flat-earthers and revisionists, Human spirit is not for sale (and can't be shot), Treating cancer with painkillers, A Thankyou to all Starbucks customers, For Evil to Prevail, The bigger picture and The Last Taboo on this site.

Source: ZioPedia.org