These are two views on antisemitism which I noted down to publish. They were made as comments on Israpundit. I will place them under the category “antisemitism defined”.
The remarkable wisdom of Anne Frank
A Classic Attempt to Attribute Anti-Semitism to Happenstance
In his book Why the Jews? author Dennis Prager cites a glaring example of an attempt to sell the public on the idea that there is nothing Jewish about anti-Semitism:
On April 11, 1944, in an observation that demonstrates an uncanny wisdom that far surpassed her age, Anne Frank wrote in her diary:
Anne Frank knew why/Who has made us Jews different from all other people? Who has allowed us to suffer so terribly until now? It is God Who has made us as we are, but it will be God, too, Who will raise us up again.
Who knows — it might even be our religion from which the world and all peoples learn good, and for that reason and that reason alone do we now suffer. We can never become just Netherlanders, or just English, or representatives of any other country for that matter. We will always remain Jews.
Anne Frank made a point of stressing that Jews have something of special value to give to the world, and that is precisely what the world has resented, and that is why people have persecuted Jews. Anne Frank identifies anti-Semitism as a hatred of Jewishness, a loathing altogether different from the bigotry or racism that other peoples experience.
Yet, Dennis Prager points out, when Anne Frank’s story was reconstructed by Lillian Hellman into a Broadway play, her words were completely changed. “Why are Jews hated?” asks Anne. “Well, one day it’s one group, and the next day another. . . .”
On Broadway, audiences were made to believe that Anne Frank felt that Jews have been hated just as any other people has been hated. Producers capitalized on the integrity of an Anne Frank to promote the view that there is nothing Jewish about anti-Semitism.
Comment by yamit82 — August 20, 2009
The dishonesty of today’s antisemites
People are only called antisemitic when they are
Israel haters plaintively wail that just because they oppose the Jewish State does not mean they are anti-Semitic.
Of course it does.
There are 212 countries.
One is Jewish.
They only want to eliminate one country.
The Jewish country.
Quite the coincidence, eh bubby?
There are 56 Islamic countries.
If I support dismantling just 56 of the 212 countries – the Muslim ones – might that be construed as Islamophobic?
Wouldn’t our liberal friends cry “Racism” and stagger across the room like Fred Sanford, clutching his heart and calling to his dear departed Elizabeth?
Anti-Semites are not just malicious…they are dishonest and gutless.
I actually prefer the Farrakahn variety of Jew hater to the Obama model – at least Farrakahn doesn’t cravenly pretend to tolerate Hebrews.
Comment by ayn reagan — August 21, 2009
4international 