c. 2006 Religion News Service

(UNDATED) Politicians and pundits speak of “swing voters” who decide close elections.

There are “swing nations” who make choices about their political alignments _ take Italy, which was aligned with the U.S., Britain, France and Russia in World War I. Twenty-five years later, Italy joined the Axis powers of Germany and Japan during World War II.

Then there are “swing peoples,” who have little choice when powerful historical forces place them within one grouping or another. Jews are a graphic example of such a people.

In 1095, Pope Urban II called for a European Christian military campaign to retake the Holy Land _ especially Jerusalem _ from the “infidel” Muslims. “God wills it!” was Urban’s rallying cry at the start of the First Crusade. At that moment in history, many Christian leaders, both religious and secular, lumped the despised Jews in with the hated Muslims.

While the Crusaders believed Muslims illegally occupied sacred Christian lands, Jews were perceived as the perfidious “murderers of Christ.” The religiously driven Crusades _ all eight of them _ were considered a “just war.” Warriors were promised a potent combination of financial gain and eternal salvation for battling in the Crusades.

Like many extremist movements in history, the Crusades took on a distinct existence, sometimes at odds with the original struggle to “liberate” the Holy Land. While traveling to Jerusalem, Crusaders murdered, raped and forcibly converted thousands of Jews in Europe in a lethal campaign of violence.

Some Christian leaders sought to protect Jews, notably Pope Calixtus II, but with little success. In the German city of Trier, the Catholic bishop was forced to hide from the thugs who proudly wore a red cross on their uniforms as they slaughtered the innocent.

When the Crusaders captured Jerusalem in 1099, they burned the city’s mosques and synagogues. It is estimated between 20,000 and 30,000 Jews were killed in the Holy City whose Hebrew name contains the word for “peace.” Muslims, led by Saladin, reclaimed Jerusalem 80 years later. It was the beginning of the end for the Crusaders in the Holy Land.

Neither Jews nor Muslims have forgotten the murderous Crusades. The Jewish victims _ revered as martyrs _ are remembered each year during Yom Kippur services. Muslims celebrated the “mujahid,” the Islamic warrior who fought a successful holy war against the Europeans.

Today, Jews, without their consent or choice, are again a swing people, this time allied with Christians because Islamic zealots link the despised Jews with the hated Christians. Like the earlier Crusades, 21st century Islamic extremism has taken on a life of its own that even includes killing fellow Muslims. Like the Crusaders, Islamic terrorists, including suicide killers, are promised immediate entry into heaven.

The modern mujahid combines ugly verbal attacks with physical assaults upon the “infidel Crusaders” in Iraq, Afghanistan, the U.S., Britain, Spain and a host of other countries.

Today’s mujahid spews special venom upon the Jewish state of Israel.

At the December 2005 International Book Fair in Doha, Qatar, 65,000 books were available from publishers in 17 Arab ands Muslim countries. Many books vilified the West, the United States, Israel, Christianity and Judaism.

Such books brand Jews as the cause of all the world’s problems, deny the Holocaust and promote the idea of a worldwide Jewish conspiracy. Others describe America as a terrorist nation intent on world dictatorship.

Nine hundred years ago, the lineup was Christians against Muslims and Jews. Today it’s Muslims against Christians and Jews. A score card isn’t needed to identify the “players” and the two “teams.”

KRE/JL END RUDIN

(Rabbi Rudin, the American Jewish Committee’s senior interreligious adviser, is the author of the recently published book “The Baptizing of America: The Religious Right’s Plans for the Rest of Us.”)

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