International Holocaust Day and It is personal

There is stench of antisemitism in the air that drifts across the globe, both physically and virtually. It is sometimes direct, but most of the time it appears  in the guise of anti-Israel rants. It is a vicious rhetoric taken straight out of the Nazi playbook. We are not talking about criticism of Israeli  government policy. This antisemitism is a carefully crafted endeavor that appears to the uninformed as “truth”,  but in reality it is  the “Big Lie”  about Jews, Israel and their “evil” attempts at world domination.

European nations and many of their leaders and governments directly or indirectly support this hatred by inaction or devious means. Their continual assertion of half-truths and hatred of Jews once again creates an atmosphere that hasn’t been known since the beginning of World War II. Across the entire Muslim world the media are the spokespersons for blood libels against Jews often quoting the Koran for their inspiration and support for the de-legitimation of Jews and Israel.

There are also Jews who use the fact of being born Jewish  to  criticize  and even support the de-legitimization  and ultimate destruction of Israel as a Jewish State.  Some of them are well known and others are simply lost souls who have a need to cover up their self-loathing. These folks often become the “house” Jews for all kinds of organizations that incite and create scenarios about the Jewish State that would not be tolerated by any other country in the world. Most egregiously, the  United Nations and its affiliates continue to present an endless diatribe about the Jewish State  that defies reason. From the leadership on down this corrupt institution has lost its way and is now  the voice of Jew hatred and propaganda for the antisemites of the world.

Today we are on the threshold of a global catastrophe once again with Iran as the leader and instigator of global terror. We are close to allowing by default the total destruction of the world by an unwillingness to see the truth as it  unfolds. The world governments cower to fanatics and dictators in order to buy their oil and exploit their markets. But at what price?

Israel stands today as the canary in the mine shaft.  But we will not go away. Actually, the world can not afford for us to disappear. We provide, in spite of all our shortcomings, light to the world in the form of  moral imperatives, as well as innovations  that alleviate human suffering .

In my meditations I struggle whether to keep silent and enjoy my personal blessings or to speak out or even shout out  from the roof top  the dangers that are at our door. In some ways, this struggle seems like  Jacob’s struggle with the angel  (or maybe his own self), on the direction he needs to take in his life. After Jacobs all- night episode, he does not give up struggling, but  instead  gets a blessing and his name is changed forever to Yisrael, which means, among other things, “to struggle with G-d”.

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