ANTI-SEMITISM – AN IDEA WHOSE TIME SHOULD BE GONE!

Much has been written of late by various blogs regarding the growing incidence of anti-Semitism throughout the world and, most particularly, easily found on many of the leftwing liberal blogs.

Our world is not quite 62 years from the discovery of the full extent of the unbelievable horror of the Holocaust and yet, here we are once again, venturing into such distasteful and hateful territory.

The leader of Iran proclaims that the Holocaust never happened. And yes, we may consider him a lunatic, but he is a lunatic who is also head of a state with nuclear ambitions!

Hamas and Hezbollah have made no secret of their intentions vis-à-vis Israel – they intend to wipe Israel off the map and drive all Israelis into the sea thus claiming the land that is once-again fertile due to the hard work and sacrifice of the Israelis over the past 60 years or more.

Anti-Semitism is rife in France, due at least in part to the vast increase in immigration of Muslims, but also due to the fact that, to put it quite bluntly, the French really don’t like or approve of anybody but themselves.

Anti-Semitism has again become a force in the American Democratic Party as well. However often she may deny it, I believe Dick Morris’ assertion that Hillary Rodham Clinton is anti-Semitic or has, at the very least, uttered anti-Semitic comments. Certainly the rhetoric emanating from the Lamont campaign in Connecticut is despicable and inflammatory, as is the nonsense coming out of Virginia’s Senatorial campaign.

Adolph Hitler committed suicide nearly 62 years ago. Even if he hadn’t, was not enough damage done during his regime when over 6 million Jews (and uncounted numbers of Catholics, and other non-conforming types that Hitler found unacceptable by his twisted reasoning) died? Do we not remember the pogroms in Russia prior to the Russian revolution and the endlessly discriminatory treatment of Jews after the revolution in the former Soviet Union?

I thought – I hoped – we were past all of that. The Second Vatican Council radically changed the Catholic Church’s relationship with the Jewish people when it issued the Nostra Aetate declaration in 1965, which cleared Jews of responsibility for the death of Jesus, renounced its traditional claim that Jews had been rejected by God, condemned anti-Semitism and called for “mutual understanding and respect” between Catholics and Jews. As Pope, John Paul II would turn these words into actions.

So why are we now here at this point in our history? I don’t know. What I do know is that anti-Semitism is ugly and dangerous and just plain wrong. And for the modern Democratic Party, so famously self-advertised as the party of “inclusion”, their current rhetoric and actions are endangering one of their most important constituents: the American Jew.