Confronting Antisemitism

Even more important than the actions to be taken by the American government in response to the attack of September 11, is understanding the nature of the undeclared enemy. Most wars carry the signature of their belligerents. The present attack was launched by enemies who deny their involvement and try to conceal their identity. Fighting such a war requires, above all, intelligencebut intelligence in every sense of the word: not only a better network of informers and operatives, but also a sounder grasp of the political nature of the adversary. All clues lead to the Middle East, which is also where our understanding would have to begin.

The apologists for the attack on America supply one overriding motive for Arab ragethey say America is being punished for its support of Israel, which is held responsible for the conflict in the Middle East. Human intelligence cannot take this claim at face value. How can Israel, which occupies one-sixth of one percent of the lands called Arab, be responsible for the political dissatisfaction of 21 Arab countries? How can the 13 million Jews in the worldalmost 5 million fewer than they were in 1939!be blamed for the problems of the 250 million Arabs, who have brotherly ties to one billion Muslims worldwide?

And yet there is a measure of truth to the Arab allegation that the Jews are responsible for their misery: their obsession with the Jews and with Israel indeed retards their progress and poisons their life. The original refusal of the Arab countries to accept the partition of Palestine as voted by the United Nations on November 29, 1947 became the cement of a politics of denial, rejection, and blame that has held together the Arab world, and exemplified its attitude toward the democratic West. The Arabs denied Jews their right to their ancestral homelanda right many times more obvious than, say, that of the Hashemite King to Jordanand then blamed the Jews for denying the Palestinians their homeland. Arab governments sacrificed the Palestinian Arabs to a fate of refugees so that they could hold Israel responsible for their displacement and misery. The politics of blame is incompatible with any mature assumption of political responsibility, and the pursuit of such politics over the past 54 years has created the infrastructure for terrorism unleashed.

We have seen a version of this same political scenario before. Antisemitism was the common coin of Europe from the end of the 19th century to the end of World War II, reaching from France in the west, through Germany and Central Europe, to Poland, Russia, and Ukraine. Hannah Arendt identified antisemitism as the common denominator of fascism and communism, but it also inspired many nationalist parties, until Hitler channeled its energy to consolidate the Third Reich. The use of the Jews as a political target was symptomatic of a fear of democracy in all its aspectsindividual rights, a competitive economy, and the freedoms of an open society. Because antisemitism was directed against the Jews, it didnt overly concern most other people. Some even thought that letting off steam against the Jews might alleviate frustration, or organize protest, or serve some other positive aim. But blaming the Jews was only a symptom of the refusal to adapt to enlightenment and emancipation. The relative ease and success in attacking the Jews turned antisemitism into the most popular ideology of modern Europe.

Of all the European political ideologies, antisemitism is the only one to have taken root in the Middle East. (Hitler succeeded in destroying the Jews of Europe, even though he failed in all his other ambitions.) Arab leaders rule autocratically, claiming to know what is best for their peoples, and to stay in power they must try to explain why they do not bring about the improvements that they promise. Whereas rulers could once control their populations without communicating directly to the masses, the modern world requires telling the people why they should accept the regime that is being imposed upon them. Israel, a tiny polity with a magnified image, is the answer to an autocrats political predicament. Problems with public health? Israel is polluting the water supply. Homeless refugees? Israel usurps Arab lands. Restless youth? Israels democracy is a satanic influence. The deflection of so much political dissatisfaction and so many real and escalating social problems into aggression against Israel eventually reaches fanatical proportions, fueling apocalyptic scenarios of destroying the Satan, and the protector of Satanthe United States.

But as Benjamin Netanyahu pointed out in his book on terrorism of 1995, the United States is the larger agency of change, the most powerful democracy in the world, and the real target for which Israel is but a practice range. There are those who believe that if the United States were less supportive of the state of Israel, the aggression of Arab and Muslim extremists would evaporate. Quite the contrary. Israel has been the front line of democracys defense, and its perceived weakening quickens their ambition. It is highly probable that the daring attack on America was inspired by Israels appeasement of terrorism in 1993, when it rewarded Arafatuntil then, the worlds leading terroristby placing him in charge of the Palestine Authority. The terrorists calculated that if terror tactics could persuade Israelis to make such unheard-of concessions, then America will surely also lose its nerve if terror is brought within its shores.

If the Arabs cite Israel as the main cause of their extremism, it means that their extremism can only be halted once they change their attitude to Israel. The present threat will not diminish until the Arab world begins to adapt to the process of democratization that the West has been undergoing for a few hundred years. The first requirement of such adaptation is self-accountability, and the essential sign of such self-accountability will be the ability to accept the reality of a Jewish state. The fuel of antisemitism is more explosive even than the jet fuel that brought down the World Trade Center. The longer it is accommodated or encouraged, the greater the danger to the worlds leading democracy. Once we understand that, we will better know what is to be doneand what isnt. The example of Europe in the 1930s is a blueprint of what happens when antisemitism is ignored.

Professor of Yiddish Literature and Professor of Comparative Literature Ruth R. Wisse is co-faculty advisor of the Harvard Salient and is author of the book, If I Am Not for Myself: The Liberal Betrayal of the Jews.