Anti-Semitism at Your Door

If you live in or near New York City you would have had the opportunity to attend a performance at the Metropolitan Opera of "The Death of Klinghoffer." Recall that Leon Klinghoffer was a 69 year old disabled American Jew who had taken a cruise with his wife Marilyn. In 1985 they were on the ship Achille Lauro when it was hijacked by members of the Palestine Liberation Front. These terrorists shot and killed Klinghoffer and then threw his body and his wheelchair overboard.

The October 22, 2014 New York Times had a review of the opera done by Anthony Tommasini. Said Tommasini: "This opera tries to explore what drove these Palestinians to take that ship and murder its most vulnerable passenger." Said Klinghoffer's two daughters, who issued their own statement regarding this opera: "It presents false moral equivalences without context, and offers no real insight into the historical reality and the senseless murder of an American Jew."

But that's the point. For the left there are always moral equivalencies - because they have no sense of good and evil. Those are religious concepts, and the left tends to lack a religious foundation. You want to know why the Palestinians do what they do? Because it is what they believe.

Go back to the 1920s when Arabs massacred Jews in the land of Palestine, then under the British Mandate. Or World War II when the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem supported Hitler. Or to 1947 before the UN voted for partition of the Mandate area, creating a Jewish state and an Arab state - when the Arabs said they would never accept the existence of a Jewish State.

You want to know why such an opera is acceptable in polite society? Because the Palestinians are perceived to be the underdogs, and the underdogs are always right and can do no bad. Isn't that why Obama and Kerry ask nothing in return from the Palestinians when they give hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars to people who murder and attempt to murder innocent Jews? Then the Palestinians reward the murderers with money, and name schools and parks after their "martyrs." And then Obama rewards them some more.

In her 10/24/14 column, Caroline Glick notes numerous incidents of anti-Semitism at AEPi frat houses across the country. AEPi is the Jewish fraternity. Swastikas were painted on the AEPi house at Emory University. Glick notes that recently AEPi members from across the country put up a video on You Tube documenting various assaults and batteries against their members. The University of Arizona AEPi president was violently attacked while trying to stop a large group from entering their house. He suffered a skull fracture and bleeding on the brain and a concussion.

The Jewish director of a community center had attended an exhibition game between the Brooklyn Nets and the Maccabi Tel Aviv team in Brooklyn. Afterwards, while walking with his two young sons, they were accosted by a group of people yelling "your people are murderers." The director was punched in the face and sustained a broken nose. There are plenty of other incidents mentioned in the Glick article, but you get the point.

At many colleges and universities across this country you will find groups such as The Muslim Student Association, Students for Justice in Palestine, Direct Action for Palestine and Adalah and others. Are we nearing a point in time when Jewish students need to hide their Jewishness in order to feel safe on campus? Should they not wear their kippah (skull cap) in public? Are we now like Europe where Jews in major cities are told exactly that? They are told not to wear any Jewish-identifying garments in public; and to not linger outside Jewish places of worship.

Glick notes how in September of this year hundreds of protestors interfered with longshoremen who were to offload cargo from an Israeli ship. The ship was forced to unload its cargo in Los Angeles. Glick notes that none of the protesters were arrested.

Glick suggests supporting groups that help students on campus, such as StandWithUs, CAMERA, and the Zionist Organization of America and other similar groups. She believes Jewish lawyers should start filing lawsuits against groups that interfere with the speech and religious rights of Jewish students. (Personally, I might suggest making a complaint to the office of the Attorney General Eric Holder, Civil Rights Division. But let's be honest, if you are not black he's not likely to care.)

I am proud of, and thankful for, my Christian friends (and the millions of Christians whom I do not know) who are extremely supportive of Israel. Because today, anti-Semitism often takes the form of anti-Zionism and anti-Israel advocacy. And I remind my fellow Jews of that famous quote from 2000 years ago by Hillel: "If I am not for myself, who will be for me?...And if not now, when?"