c. 2000 Religion News Service
(Rabbi Rudin is senior interreligious adviser of the American Jewish Committee.)
(UNDATED) The Arab-Israeli conflict in the Middle East frequently appears as a political battle that merely requires Western-style compromise from both sides. In the past it was easy to believe the central issue was where to set the border between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, or to focus on the peace process.
While such questions are obviously important, they never represented the ultimate reality of the conflict. But the recent Middle East violence has graphically stripped away the thin veneer many American and European leaders had conveniently placed upon the conflict.
Now the world is witnessing something else _ deep hatred and loathing for Jews and Judaism from the “Arab street,” the general populace, going far beyond geo-political questions or the various positions of moderate Arab leaders.
The growing evidence is everywhere.
The trashing of Joseph’s Tomb, a Jewish Holy Place near Nablus _ the biblical Shechem _ and the reported desecration of Jericho’s ancient synagogue by Palestinians mark an ominous escalation. Attacks upon revered sacred space dangerously up the ante and strike at the heart of Jewish religious sensibilities.
On Oct. 13 Ahmad Abu Halabiya, a member of the Palestinian Authority’s Fatwa Council and former acting rector of the Islamic University in Gaza, delivered a fiery sermon at the Zayed bin Sultan Aal Nahyan Mosque in Gaza. His lengthy sermon was broadcast live on official Palestinian Authority television.
An excerpt from his address reveals that the real enemy is not simply Israel, but Jews, and their Christian friends in Europe and America: “They are the ones (Jews) who must be butchered and killed, as Allah the Almighty said: `Fight them: Allah will torture them at your hands, and will humiliate them and will help you to overcome them, and will relieve the minds of the believers.’ … Allah, deal with the Jews, your enemies and the enemies of Islam. Deal with the crusaders, and America, and Europe behind them.
“Allah the almighty has called upon us not to ally with the Jews or the Christians, not to like them, not to become their partners, not to support them, and not to sign agreements with them. Allah said: `O you who believe, do not take the Jews and the Christians as allies, for they are allies of one another. Who from among you takes them as allies will indeed be one of them.”’
“… The Jews are the allies of the Christians, and the Christians are the allies of the Jews, despite the enmity that exists between them. The enmity between the Jews and the Christians is deep _ they are against you, O Muslims.”
Tragically, such inflammatory sermons and others like them have provided religious validation for the increasing number of anti-Jewish attacks that are taking place far from the Middle East.
Three days after the Gaza sermon, British Jewish leaders called for the prosecution of Islamic militants for distributing leaflets urging the death of Jews.
The Board of Deputies of British Jews said it had intercepted anti-Semitic leaflets in London, Manchester and Birmingham as a direct result of the recent Middle East violence.
“The final hour will not come until the Muslims kill the Jews,” one leaflet said.
“(The leaflets) are illegal and absolutely unacceptable in our society,” said Board President Jo Wagerman. “Unless stopped now, this will inevitably lead to violence.”
The Board of Deputies has increased security measures to provide protection for Britain’s 300,000 Jews. Guards have been placed around United Kingdom synagogues to prevent violent attacks.
Anti-Jewish attacks have intensified in Germany and France. A Dusseldorf synagogue was burned, and in Lille, large stones were hurled through a synagogue’s stained glass window. Graffiti appeared in two small towns near Nanterre containing the words, “Death to the Jews!” And a Jewish school was firebombed in St. Ouen, a Paris suburb.
In the United States, where many people still believe such things can’t happen, synagogues in Riverdale, N.Y., Harrisburg, Pa., and Milwaukee were physically attacked. A suspicious fire destroyed part of a Syracuse, N.Y., synagogue, and bullets were recently fired in Chicago at Rabbi Avrohom Brownstein while he was in his car. Fortunately, the rabbi was not hurt.
Synagogue burnings, physical attacks upon Jews, and anti-Semitic propaganda. It all sounds so familiar. Did we learn nothing from the 1930s and 1940s?
DEA END RUDIN
