By Alex Gordon
HAIFA, Israel — The massacre of October 7, 2023 led to a dramatic rise in antisemitism worldwide and an awareness among Israelis of their identity as Jewish people.
This pogrom led to an explosion of antisemitism on a global scale. The volcanic lava of antisemitism descended on Israel, on North and South America, on South Africa, on Australia and on Europe. The hurricane of antisemitism has swept across five continents out of six. Jews in Israel and the Diaspora experienced the tragedy of the pogrom, typical of the sad history of the Jewish people.
In many places around the world, anti-Jewish demonstrations have erupted, with participants calling for the destruction of Israel and the Jews. Their slogans read “From the river to the sea, Palestine must be free” (free of Jews, that is, as the Nazis put it, judenfrei – in German, an area free, “cleansed” of Jews). They call for the destruction of Israel from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea.
The new wave of anti-Semitism is being broadcast on the old frequency on which the proponents of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion called for the destruction of the Jews: “the Jews own the world to which they have no right.”
In the October 7 massacre, Hamas terrorists shouted that they were killing Jews, not Israelis. In their view, Jews had taken possession of a country that only Muslims have a right to own. The surge of antisemitism in Israel and around the world occurred when the largest anti-Jewish pogrom since the Holocaust occurred. The epidemic of antisemitism that swept through millions of people proved once again the relevance and eternity of antisemitism and the incurability of this contagious disease.
The late Jonathan Sacks, former chief rabbi of Britain, writer, politician and philosopher, said that being Jewish means “living with a constant sense of the history of the Jewish people.” Beginning October 7, 2023, the Jews of Israel and the Diaspora, who had previously seen themselves as Israelis, Americans, Australians, Britons, French, Germans and so on, felt themselves as Jews. Jewish history invaded their lives with a hurricane of antisemitism. The October 7, 2023 massacre turned out to be an event that united millions of Jews.
Before the October 7 massacre, anti-Semitism and anti-Jewish pogroms seemed to Israelis to be events of the distant past. They were perceived as phenomena described in old history books, lying on bookshelves and categorized as solved problems. The massacre in Israel and the world’s reaction to it demonstrated that antisemitism is not a phenomenon of yesterday’s world, but a threat to today’s Jews, Israelis and Jews of the Diaspora.
The Simchat Torah holiday war established many significant historical phenomena:
1.Anti-Jewish pogroms are possible in Israel.
2. Democratic countries have not defeated anti-Semitism.
3. Islamic terror is an idea, but nevertheless, it can and must be defeated on a global scale, for it claims to subjugate the entire world to it.
4. The importation of Muslims from the Middle East and Africa into Europe has made European democracies more vulnerable to the security of Jews and non-Jews.
5. An attack on Israel invites an attack on the entire Jewish people.
6. The Jewish history of pogroms continues during the existence of Israel.
7. The aspirations of Diaspora Jews to live only the history of their countries, outside of Jewish history, are illusions.
8. The story of the Simchat Torah holiday massacre evokes the same reaction as the Holocaust, the same people claiming and asserting:
a) The October 7 massacre did not happen, the Holocaust did not happen. Unlike the Nazis who hid their crimes, Hamas terrorists not only do not hide them, but instead spread the film of their atrocities around the world: The movie shows people being burned alive, children beheaded, fetuses cut from their mothers’ wombs, women raped and murdered, and executioners having fun documenting their atrocities;
(b) The victims of the massacre are exaggerated; the victims of the Holocaust are exaggerated.
(c) Jews deserved the October 7 massacre because they want to own Muslim Arabs, Jews deserved the Holocaust because they want to own humanity – nothing newer and more original than the Protocols of the Elders of Zion” exists in the history of antisemitism.
9. The history of the Jews is not only contained in old dusty tomes, but also the reality of modern civilization.
10. Diaspora Jews are eager to prove that they are far from colonialism, but from the Middle East come accusations of colonialism against the entire Jewish people.
U.S. Jews may fiercely fight for the rights of Indians, people of color, racial, national, and sexual minorities, but they will always be perceived by antisemites as a minority claiming the rights of this or that local majority.
There are analysts who believe that the history of Israel, and Jews in general, is divided into two periods: before and after October 7, 2023. They are referring to the sobering up of Israelis following the Hamas massacre. However, this is a false division. If we use this division to better understand the situation, we will find that the veil of illusion has fallen from our eyes, that the number of supporters of peaceful coexistence between Israelis and Palestinian Arabs decreased dramatically after October 7, that the sea of illusions of peace between Israelis and Palestinian Arabs has become so shallow that it is easy to see the huge stumbling blocks to peace and the high barriers of hatred separating war and peace.
After October 7, one can take down the bowdlerized pictures of peaceful coexistence, annul slogans like “peace now” and recognize the ugly and futile reality of war for and against the state of Israel, for and against the Jewish people. Antisemitism continues to live a full-blooded life.
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Alex Gordon, a native of Kiev, Ukraine, is a professor emeritus of physics at the University of Haifa and the author of 10 books.