Yesterday’s rally against anti-Semitism gathered about 20 thousand people in Paris. The initiative to hold it was taken by more than ten French political parties. This action, as well as several others throughout France, should serve as a response, according to the organizers, to the desecration of about a hundred graves at a Jewish cemetery in eastern France that occurred a few days earlier. “No to anti-Semitism and hatred!” - read the protesters’ posters. Do you think it will work? Will there be less hatred?
Interesting thing. The desecration of graves happened anonymously, while the rally of indignation was completely open, with the full support of more than ten parties. Anti-Semites, who make up about a quarter of the population in France, were forced to act at night, anonymously, drawing swastikas on Jewish graves and risking being caught by the police. Meanwhile, the fighters against anti-Semites were given the main square of the city and all TV channels in the city broadcasted their demonstrations. Do you think anti-Semites could take to the streets of Paris with posters saying “Jews, get out of France!” in a group of twenty thousand people? And yet in France, according to the Anti-Defamation League’s estimate, this is every fourth person, that is, more than 16 million people. Where is their square? Where is the television broadcast?
You might ask, don’t I condemn anti-Semitism?
But not because I feel sorry for Jews and their graves.
Xenophobia or aggression towards “outsiders” from an evolutionary point of view is in many situations “useful and determined by social organization,” according to ethologists. We wouldn’t survive as a species if we couldn’t distinguish between friends and enemies. And the more differences there are, the higher the likelihood of being classified as enemies. In other words, “don’t stand out, and no one will touch your graves.” Jews, with their culture with a centuries-old history and a very arrogant religious position of chosenness, automatically attract the attention of those looking for someone to settle scores with. As Agent 117 remarked in the French comedy of the same name, commenting on the Holocaust, “the Jews are guilty too” - black humor not devoid of some sense.
So what to do? Stop considering oneself a Jew, stop wearing yarmulkes and performing brit milah to avoid attracting attention? Or maybe finally rid oneself of guilt for the killing of Christ, as recently done by Pope Benedict XVI? Will that solve the problem? No, it won’t. It’s not about yarmulkes, circumcision, or Christ. The problem is that we need someone to hate. If there are no Jews, there will be Blacks, Russians, Ukrainians, Tatars, deaf-mutes, punks, or who knows who else.
Maybe then ban anti-Semites from having their own opinion and openly expressing it, as Germany does, for example? We have the police after all! Let’s throw all 16 million French people in jail - let each of them sit and think whether it’s worth doubting the chosenness of their Jewish neighbor. Will that solve the problem? No, it won’t. Despite all the police measures, anti-Semitism in Europe has been growing in recent years.
The solution to the problem, in my opinion, is not in protecting one from the other, not in strengthening security at Jewish cemeteries, not in prosecuting those who deny the existence of the Holocaust, and not in abandoning one’s culture to avoid being beaten outside their own home, but in breaking down the information barriers between warring parties. After all, we are not “fighting” a group of criminal marauders, but a quarter of the country’s population. This war cannot be won with tanks and machine guns. This is not a war, it’s a lack of mutual understanding. Jews don’t understand the claims of anti-Semites, and anti-Semites don’t understand who Jews really are. Or maybe they don’t want to understand, as shown in the recently released series “Fauda.”
If those who draw swastikas on graves could openly ask questions to representatives of the local Jewish diaspora, and they would openly answer them without hiding behind laws against anti-Semitism, most people would lose interest in drawing swastikas. Simply because “the devil is not as black as he is painted.” Jews are not as terrible as they seem to Borat and radical right-wing fighters “liberating” the French people. On the other hand, not all anti-Semites have swastika tattoos on their bald heads - most of them don’t even visually differ from their Jewish neighbors.
Therefore, I categorically condemn anti-Semitism, not out of pity for the Jews, but out of regret for our common fate. The fate of fools doomed to throw stones and slogans at other fools on the other side of the barricades.
Or maybe it’s someone’s plan?
Translated by ChatGPT gpt-3.5-turbo/42 on 2024-04-20 at 17:41
