By GREG SARBER
There has been a recent outbreak of antisemitism around the world in reaction to Israel’s attacks on the Hamas terrorist group in Gaza. People seem to forget that Hamas started the conflict by brutally murdering 1,200 Israeli citizens on Oct. 7, but by responding in a way that some say is too harsh, Israel has been accused of genocide.
This conflict is between the Israeli army and Hamas, but Hamas is using Gaza civilians as human shields, which has resulted in the deaths of many civilians caught in the crossfire.
Well-meaning people around the world have been upset by the civilian deaths and are protesting for peace in the region. In this respect, the deaths of innocent civilians has allowed Hamas to win the war of public opinion and is sparking an anti-Israel backlash resulting in a rise of antisemitism around the world.
We could see this recently during the finals of the Eurovision singing contest in Malmo, Sweden. One of the contestants, a woman named Eden Golan, was from Israel. Over 10,000 agitators gathered outside the theater to protest against her inclusion and against the actions of the Israeli military. A police convoy was required to escort the Israeli contestant through the angry crowd so she could sing.
There is a large Muslim immigrant population in Malmo, and they appear to have made up the majority of the crowd. The protestors carried Palestinian flags and anti-Israel signs, including one advocating for the complete elimination of Israel.
Fortunately, the contest was conducted safely with no injuries to any of the contestants, but antisemitism was on display not only outside, but within the theater.
One contestant in the competition, a gender-confused woman from Ireland named Bambi Thug, issued a statement saying that she cried in sadness when the Jewish girl made it to the competition finals and hoped that the Israeli competitors would be banned from next year’s competition.
Notably, the Irish contestant identifies as both sexually queer and non-binary, whatever that means, and sang her song to a satanic-themed musical score. I guess we shouldn’t be surprised to hear antisemitic bigotry from a Satan-worshiping sexually confused individual.
It was not just a fellow contestant who was opposed to Eden Golan’s participation in the competition. One judge was aligned against her because of her nationality and religion. Golan won the popular vote from 14 of the 37 countries in the competition, but the judges made the final ruling of the winner, choosing someone else.
Despite instructions for the judges to be impartial, one of them released a statement later saying that he intentionally voted against the Jewish singer because of what was happening in Gaza. He said, “In my opinion, Israel should not have been allowed to participate in the competition and I could not vote for her.”
Antisemitic/Pro-Palestinian protests are also happening on college campuses here in the United States. Ignorant young Americans are taking over college campuses to protest the deaths of innocent civilians in Gaza, but by placing all the blame on Israel, they are forgetting Hamas’s part in creating this situation. For some reason protesting the actions of the Israeli military has somehow become hatred for Jews.
This week, protestors walked out of the graduation ceremonies at Duke University when comedian Jerry Seinfeld started to give the commencement address. Seinfeld is not an Israeli citizen and does not represent the Israeli government in any way, his only crime is to be a Jewish person living in America, but that was enough to earn the condemnation of the Palestinian supporters in this time of rising antisemitism.
Another sad example of antisemitism happened in California last week in a public school. This incident happened in the Berkeley school district, where about 60 students from the Martin Luther King middle school, led by two vice principals, marched to a Jewish community center that houses a preschool for young children.
Like something right out of Nazi Germany in the 1930s, these Berkeley kids and their vice principals protested outside the Jewish school shouting at it with bullhorns. I am sure the young preschool kids inside were traumatized. This behavior from middle school officials and students is unacceptable. The fact that two school administrators enabled this protest should result in their termination. What kind of country are we in when tormenting young Jewish children because of their religion is not only tolerated but encouraged?
I can understand that people are upset by the deaths of civilians in Gaza and who think by protesting they might bring attention to the issue to help bring peace to the region. They need to realize that being antisemitic is not the same thing as supporting peace and their protests have resulted in a rise of global antisemitism. To students of history, these incidents have a familiar ring to them. The Nazi programs against Jewish people in the 1930s started with protests, similar to the ones this weekend in Malmo and outside the Berkeley Jewish Center. It continued with breaking windows in Jewish businesses on Kristallnacht, and it escalated with prohibiting the free movement of Jews in Europe, until finally came the atrocities of the concentration camps.
The world seems to be traveling down that same path today and I have to say that I am ashamed that Americans are tolerating this antisemitic behavior.
I can think of one example from the past to illustrate bravery in the face of antisemitic tyranny. Take a close look at the picture at the top of this page. I have used it before. It is an image of a large crowd of German citizens giving the Nazi salute back in 1936.
If you look closely, near the middle of the photo there is one man with his arms crossed, refusing to salute the Nazis. He was a German citizen by the name of August Landmesser. He wasn’t Jewish and he was brave enough to speak out against the Nazi persecution of the Jews in his country. Unfortunately, because of his beliefs, Landmesser and his wife ended up being arrested by the Nazis and later dying in a concentration camp during WWII.
Most Americans are good decent people. We should be brave like August Landmesser and stand up against the antisemitic tyrants. If we are meek like the citizens in Germany in the 30s and allow the tyrants to have their way, we will lose our country to them, which will end badly for all of us.
Greg Sarber is a board member at Alaska Gold Communications, parent company to Must Read Alaska.
