Pajamas Media | by Abraham H. Miller
A Republican win in an historic Democratic congressional district in New York and an art exhibit canceled, after public outrage, at a children’s museum in Oakland, California, seem to be unrelated events.
But the relationship between these events would be apparent to anyone who took note of the claim of Svein Sevje, Norwegian ambassador to Israel, that the lives of Norwegian children slaughtered by a crazed fanatic were worth more than the lives of Jewish children slaughtered by Palestinians. Or anyone who observed that, this month, the government of Turkey conspicuously separated Israeli passengers arriving at the Istanbul airport, had them strip searched, held them incommunicado for ninety-minutes, and then released them without explanation.
For Jews, it is the 1930s all over again. We are living in the early days of the garden of beasts, although this time the appellation is not about one country, but about much of the world.
The various campaigns against Israel have long ago crossed the line from legitimate criticisms of a state’s policies to demonizing the Jewish people. The signs are everywhere, from the rhetoric of the good people at the local “peace and justice” brigade, to the flagrant anti-Semitism at our colleges and universities. These institutions have decency and sensitivity codes to protect every identity group, but find anti-Semitism the one hate speech protected by the First Amendment.
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