by Rabbi Avraham Krieger
The U.S. administration should not
have been surprised by the heinous actions of Frazier Glenn Miller, Jr., who
murdered three people in Kansas City in cold blood, just because he thought they
were Jewish. Miller had never hidden his anti-Semitic views, nor was he ever shy
about expressing his opinions, which advocated harming Jews.
Miller was a proud, card-carrying
member of the white supremacist group Ku Klux Klan, and as such he had incited
to the murder of Jews his entire life. To remove any doubt as to his intentions,
Miller committed his thoughts to paper in his book "A White Man Speaks Out"; he
headed a white supremacy group in his hometown, gave interviews to known
anti-Semitic media outlets and -- absurdly -- was a write-in candidate for the
U.S. Senate in the 2010 general election. Needless to say, he never refrained
from inciting anti-Semitism and xenophobia.
The Kansas City murder was not the
act of a madman lashing out against civilized society. It stemmed from a belief
shared by too many individuals, who are unfortunately given free license to
express their opinions, using the American government's weakness to their
advantage.
Anti-Semitism has been spreading
right before our eyes, metastasizing in democratic European nations, where
far-right movements are gaining power and winning parliamentary seats, as the
have in Hungary and Greece.
Many times the radical opinions
expressed by anti-Semites are protected by the democratic nature defining public
discourse in their society, despite the fact that their teachings defy the very
principles of democracy by negating the existence of anyone
different.
This has afforded us a glimpse of the
many ways in which anti-Semitism now masks itself. For example, at times,
anti-Semitism will take on the form of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, using
it to justify anti-Israel boycotts and political diatribes worldwide. Other
times, anti-Semitism will take the shape of liberalism, demanding the barring by
law of the rite of circumcision or the practice of kosher slaughter.
It is, however, important to discern
the legitimate criticism leveled at Israel over policy issues from
anti-Semitism. Israeli diplomacy must therefore adapt its response to the
various "masks" disguising anti-Semitic elements and employ all the tools at its
disposal to denounce any expression of anti-Semitism worldwide.
I believe Israel has a moral
obligation to stand firm and seek ways to prevent any harm from coming to Jew
worldwide, exercising the principle of mutual guarantee and preventing
anti-Semitism from rearing its head, as we have seen it do over the past few
years.
Silence or halfhearted censure of
this phenomenon have proven ineffective and it is up to the Israeli government
to actively pursue ways to fight those who incite the annihilation of Jews,
without hesitation or apology.
Rabbi Avraham Krieger is director of the
Shem Olam Institute for Education, Documentation and Research on Faith and the
Holocaust
Source: http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_opinion.php?id=8137
Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.
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