RUTHFULLY YOURS

The days of victimizing Jews without fear of retribution, revenge or retaliation are over.

Just ask Hamas. Iran. Or Hezbollah. Oh, and while we are at it, let’s remind the anti-Semites who have stormed classrooms and campuses at our nation’s colleges waving banners that call for the eradication of Israel.

Eight months after the most bloodthirsty assault on Jews since the Holocaust, and despite unimaginable obstacles placed in its way – lately by the Biden administration, which is refusing to deliver desperately needed weapons – Israel, smaller than the state of New Jersey, continues to act as the tip of democracy’s spear. This nation is now defending the entire West, and our shared values of freedom, against well-funded aggression, terrorism and barbarism.

That means you, too, Europe. Rather than a “thank you,” countries in Europe area falling all over themselves to recognize a fictitious, corrupt and lawless “Palestinian State,” whose reason for existence is terrorism. No surprise that Germany witnessed an April 13^th demonstration in Hamburg, where more than a thousand people marched through the streets to demand that the country become an Islamic caliphate, complete with sharia law.

And then there are individuals who recognize the outrage of the October 7^th attack. Actress Patricia Heaton reminding the world:

“You could see that body cam footage from Hamas where they were gleefully murdering people, and I was astonished and horrified, and then I looked around, assuming that the churches would also be horrified and outraged, and I wasn’t hearing anything. It was like crickets. So, I posted on my Instagram, ‘If you had been a German during World War II, don’t you hope that you would have been a German who stood by your Jewish neighbors and hid your Jewish neighbors?’ Well, today is your opportunity, and I still believe that.”

For the new Axis of Evil in the 21^st century, Russia, China and North Korea, it is the United States and Israel that are standing in the way of their global domination. In their view, if Israel can be damaged in a propaganda war, so much the better.

Cynically, they seem to be using antisemitism not out of any deep conviction, but just to disrupt their adversaries in the West. Russia has been promoting antisemitism for decades. It was Russia that created the ferociously libelous forgery The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, still the effective anti-Semitic “Bible” in many Middle Eastern homes, along with Hitler’s manifesto, Mein Kampf.

It was the Russians under the Soviets, the historian Guy Millière reminds us, who targeted Israel as an ally of America and a proxy of the West, turning against Israel by fabricating and then actively supporting a Palestinian “cause” that sought to become a veil of legitimacy for terrorists to hide behind.

The other country orchestrating Jew-hate is China, which in recent years has moved from being a good friend to Israel – possibly for a port on the Mediterranean in Haifa and for extracting high-tech intelligence — to now demonizing the country. This is being successfully done on its wildly popular app, TikTok, which, in the United States alone, has approximately 150 million users –or roughly half the US population of 336 million — especially among youths aged 18-24.

According to Danielle Pletka at the American Enterprise Institute, “no platform has pushed anti-Semitic tropes, anti-Israel propaganda, and false narratives as aggressively as Chinese-owned TikTok.”

No surprise that the latest generation of college students are being fed anti-Semitic propaganda. But they don’t need to go online. Many of their professors have become participants in protests and what Soviet spymasters use to call their dupes, “useful idiots.”

To their credit, several billionaires, such as Bill Ackman, Ken Griffin, Robert Kraft, John Huntsman Jr., Leslie and Abigail Wexner, Len Blavatnik and Ross Stevens, among others, have withdrawn tens of millions in gifts to their alma maters. Harvard alone has reportedly lost more than $1 billion in donations in the war on antisemitism.

It must be so galling to many is that that Jews, who make up less than 1% of the world’s population, rather than remain victims relying on victimhood and handouts, chose instead to accept sand dunes, deserts and malaria-ridden swamps and declare the State of Israel. And it was here where they fought against five invading Arab armies trying to destroy it on the day of its birth, and then, through hard work, managed to turn it into a thriving technology power and proud democracy. But here is the message for the rest of the world that has historically been indifferent to pogroms, inquisitions, the Holocaust and the October 7^th massacre: Jews are no longer playing the victim. If you attack us, we will not take it lying down.

Lawrence Kadish serves on the Board of Governors of Gatestone Institute.