Scapegoating of the Jews Rising in the 21st Century

Photo by Juanma Clemente-Alloza on Unsplash

In the West, children are introduced to the history of the Second World War, typically starting in late primary school. The lesson that gains crucial focus when learning about the Second World War in school is of course the Holocaust. The gravity of the event is not apparent to children at first, as teachers must present the information to young minds in a careful manner, but as students advance in age and grade level, more information about the brutality and cruelness of the Holocaust is revealed. On the college level, students are not only reminded of the horror of the event but are taught extensively about the mechanisms and history of hatred that led to the destruction of millions of Jews in Europe.

Ever since 1945, Westerners were told to uphold the value of “Never Again”, meaning that never again in the West will we support and conduct a genocide, never again in the West will we tolerate Jew hatred. Not only would we not tolerate it, but we would also actively fight against it.

On the left and on the right, politically we were unified throughout the West on the idea of what took place in the Holocaust was utterly disgusting. In the 1990s and early 2000s, antisemitic attacks even saw their lowest rate. It seemed that the work for the recognition of the value of Jewish lives and their rights, furthered by different activist groups worldwide, politicians in the West, and polite society was working.

The trend of antisemitic attacks exacerbated in 2023, with the outbreak of the war between Israel and Hamas. After the kidnapping, slaughtering, and rape of young Jews at the Nova music festival in Israel by Hamas terrorists on October 7th, the Israeli state responded fiercely with mass bombing campaigns on Gaza and the West Bank. The brutality of this war, which has also turned into a genocide of the Palestinian people, has sparked mass outrage and division in the West and parts of the East. Due to the obvious conflict, many have dived into the history of how the Israeli state came to be, discovering how Palestinians have been occupied and turned into a persecuted class in an apartheid society. Numerous Westerners are also now hyper aware of the U.S.’s (and other Western nations) political and financial involvement with Israel, with many claiming that Israel controls America.

Instead of rallying behind the lesson of the Holocaust, simply saying never again will we support genocide anywhere and hold the political authorities in Israel and politicians in the West accountable for what is happening in Palestine, people have regressed into blaming Jews once again for the ills of society. The people who are antisemitic, online and offline, are typically not rebuked, as they hide their racism behind seemingly moral justifications such as being against the murder of Palestinians, being against AIPAC lobbying, being against Israel (allegedly) funding pedophiles like Epstein, and being against colonialism. Those who may disagree rarely speak up, as they fear being accused of being on the wrong side and being complicit in genocide. Those who justify their blatant antisemitism or hatred of Israel are uneducated hypocrites. They may seem politically or academically inclined on the surface, but in fact, their hyper fixation on Israel is revealed as vapid when one is aware of the complexities of political reality.

One of the most overly hypocritical points brought up is AIPAC lobbying. Being against lobbying is highly justified, but critics mainly discuss AIPAC lobbying, with popular sites such as AIPAC Tracker being used to sway how people vote for elected officials in the U.S. It is true that AIPAC lobbying is significant, but many do not talk about lobbying done by other foreign interest groups like China, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE. They also ignore the massive amounts of money Qatar spends on campaign lobbying and on universities in the U.S. All of these states are also complicit in genocidal campaigns, yet it is rarely discussed. Even on the AIPAC Tracker site they excuse Qatar’s spending, by stating Israel outspends them (by falsely combining Israel and AIPAC together), instead of calling out all kinds of lobbying as wrong. Not to mention, AIPAC is not even Israeli, but a U.S. domestic lobbying group, which spends far less than other problematic domestic lobbying groups.

Another lie constantly spread is that Israel is the primary state in the MENA region that causes mass violence and upset because it does not belong. This is entirely untrue and even overshadows some of the largest atrocities happening in the region right now such as the genocide in Sudan (which is partially funded by the UAE), the genocide of Druze and other communities in Syria, the subjugation of citizens in states like Iran and Afghanistan. This region is complex in terms of history, identity, and politics which one cannot begin to fully comprehend, especially those who are not studying it.

The purpose of this article is to not excuse the actions and sentiments of Israel, or even some radical Zionists, but to call out the hypocritical and anti-intellectual behavior that is leading to the growth of antisemitism. We are already starting to see the violent repercussions of such rhetoric, such as the Bondi Beach Massacre in Australia, the Temple Israel Synagogue Attack in Michigan, the Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation Synagogue Attack in Manchester, amongst smaller acts of violence such as the physical harassment of Jewish students on university campuses like Harvard and Columbia.

A society that actually cares about morality and justice would stand against these actions and tell the full truth about the complexities of history and politics in the East and not once again use the Jews as scapegoats. Until then, we cannot honestly say Never Again.