The Jewish Demon and the Global Pogrom

It is happening again.

But like never before.

The Jew is being demonized.

He has been demonized most effectively in the Arab world for decades.

However, what is worthy of note is the growing demonization of the Jew in the Western world, and most specifically via its media and elected officials.

Demonization of the Jew is nothing new. It has been occurring on and off for millennia, with almost exclusively tragic and fatal consequences for the Jewish populations of the locale in question. Demonization invariably leads to a “pogrom.”

A pogrom can be defined as the mass persecution and killing of Jews by local mobs, often with local officials at the very least not interfering and at the worst actively participating. Pogroms are usually spontaneous in the sense that there is no prior planning or organization. The social group and the communication system are in place and it is this structure that is spurred on simultaneously by either a charismatic figure, some troubling news, or both. From that point forward, the mob mentality takes over and it is very difficult to stop until its energy has been expended and its victims lie dead.

What is novel about the demonization this time around are its breadth, diversity and complexity. Multiple groups, nationalities and philosophies are purveying this message. It is global. It is spread instantaneously around the world via Internet, satellite and cable transmissions. It is seen and absorbed in parallel by hundreds of millions of people at the same time. Within minutes of any Israel-related event, CNN, BBC and other news purveyors have spread the information far and wide, often with their own biased opinion and commentary.

What is disturbing is that the Jew is now perceived negatively almost everywhere. There is really no place for the Jew to escape to, and certainly not quickly or in mass – except for Israel perhaps. Spanish Jewry was able to escape its Christian inquisitors by fleeing to Moslem lands where the leadership welcomed them. In later centuries Western European Jews fled to welcoming Poland and Russia. By the time of the Holocaust, most ‘friendly’ countries were less embracing and generally accepted only ‘quotas’ of Jews if at all. Today, it has become dangerous to pray in a Turkish synagogue, or walk in the streets of Paris. There have even been growing incidents of virulent anti-Semitism in US and Canadian neighborhoods. Abe Foxman of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) recently discussed the results of a poll the ADL had conducted. In the poll 43 percent of Americans felt that Israel was a threat to world peace. This is not as high as the 59 percent of Europeans who felt the same way, putting Israel in the most dangerous slot by their calculation. Nonetheless, Foxman, a Holocaust survivor who has been monitoring anti-Semitism for decades, stated that anti-Semitism is at a higher level than he ever expected to see. The connection between anti-Israel sentiments and anti-Semitism is clearly growing, and it is not clear where else safe haven may be found these days.

Many Jews rest comfortably in the belief that in their host country they will never be attacked for being a Jew. However, history has shown repeatedly that this is rarely the case. From the expulsion of Jewry from Israel two thousand years ago until World War II, in almost every single country where Jews reached the highest levels of power, influence and recognition, the host country eventually turns on the Jewish population and attempts to exile them, exterminate them or both. Right before the rise of Hitler, Jews held the most prominent positions in German society. They were leaders in political, professional, military and academic circles. Recall also that Germany was a democracy that brought Hitler to power.

Thanks to modern media and global communication, the next wave of ‘Jew-clearing’ will most likely be swift, synchronous, brutal, and will be led by various levels of society, groups and nations.

It will start with a ‘trigger event’, most likely some Israel-related occurrence that will offend the world and by association put Jews in a worse light. Media commentators and elected officials will further state the ‘alieness’ and improprietary nature of the Jew. They may not go so far as to call a Jew an enemy of the state, but it will become clear.

Various groups will pick up on this call and respond accordingly. Arab and Moslem locals will intensify their harassment and vandalism. Neo-Nazis and White Supremacists will issue a call to arms. Left-wing liberals and Right-wing conservatives will call for new laws or perhaps even emergency orders to deal with the ‘Jewish problem.’ Religious groups will renounce and delegitimize the Jewish nation.

In our modern era, all of this will take a week. And it will be global.

Then there will be another ‘trigger event’. It will not matter what the event is. It may even be fabricated. But everyone will be waiting for it. And once the media and the various government officials give the cue, everyone will know what to do.

This is not a conspiracy. This is not planned or orderly. It is merely history and human nature repeating itself in its inexorable and often unstoppable fashion. However, thanks to modern technology, telecommunications and worldwide demographics, the impact of this ‘super-pogrom’, which always followed a natural progression in the past, will be magnified a thousand times. It will make Krystalnacht seem like a birthday party.

It will start with mass looting of Jewish homes and places of worship and business. The security guards for synagogues and the evacuation of Jewish schools because of threats will be meager defense against determined attacks. However, as in all pogroms in Jewish history, matters will get ugly quickly. Jews will be killed yet again, solely because they are Jewish. This violence will be perpetrated by gangs and mobs from nearby communities as well as greedy, envious and opportunistic neighbors. All of this will be just the first twenty-four hours.

The next day government forces will step in and round up the remaining Jews for their own protection. Their assets will be frozen or confiscated, again for their own protection, but also to investigate the activities of potential enemies of the state. Martial law will be declared in all affected areas. Eventually the survivors may be released, but they will be jobless, penniless and homeless. This is not unique to the Jewish world. This occurred to Americans of Japanese origin, who were interned in camps during World War II and it is happening today to Muslim Americans that are being held without due process. In times of federal stress, civil liberties are quickly discarded.

The world knows that there is one hope and haven today for the Jew and this is also what is unique about the upcoming pogrom of our time – this time, as opposed to the past 2000 years, there exists an independent Jewish state. However, this is the reason that the enemy of the Jew is trying so hard to dismantle and destroy Israel, by any and all means at its disposal.

European power-brokers are sparing no effort or expense to find ways to influence Israel, whether externally via threats and sanctions, or internally via their left-wing puppets, to continually retreat from the Palestinian Arab threat. Arab countries, including Egypt and Saudi Arabia are biding their time, with their brand new and well-stocked American supplied armies, to rise to the next rallying call of the Arab Jihad against the Jewish state. The threat of a nuclear conflict also looms on the horizon.

The worldwide pogrom against the Jews will most likely coincide with the pan-Arabian attack against Israel. Not only will it potentially occur on the same week or day, but will probably start within the same hour.

The difference though between the Diaspora Jew and the Israeli Jew, is that the Diaspora Jew has little protection. He cannot seriously fight back. He will become a victim among innumerable victims.

This has happened every time since the 2,000 year exile of the Jew and it will happen again, irregardless of how enlightened, cultured, moral or disciplined the host country and population are. Typically those Jews that most identified with the host country were the most surprised to be persecuted or killed by their life-long friends and neighbors. They were still claiming that it would all be resolved as they were marched to the gas chambers.

The Israeli Jew on the other hand, while facing significant odds and an enemy that not only wants to kill him personally but to destroy the entire country – has always survived and triumphed in the modern history of the region.

One interesting statistic that may give some perspective -- throughout all its painful wars and terrorist attacks, from 1948 until today, Israel has lost approximately 19,000 of it sons and daughters. These are the soldiers and civilians who fought, resisted, lived and suffered over the course of more than half a century to ensure the survival, growth and success of the Jewish people in its ancestral and biblical homeland. In comparison, at the height of the operation of the Auschwitz concentration camp, 19,000 Jews were killed – every single day.

At the start of the coming pogrom, and in the immediately preceding days, there will no longer be any possibilities of escape. Jews will then not have the time to cash out, transfer, flee or really save ones possessions, valuables or loved ones from destruction.

The truly scary thing about the upcoming pogrom is that it can start at any time. All the pieces are in place.

It can start tomorrow.

It is happening again.

But like never before.