The Doctrine of the Strong Jew

By Victor Rosenthal

Today is International Holocaust Remembrance Day. It was established by the United Nations, the most important representative of the enemies of the Jewish people in the world. In its 2005 declaration to establish the annual event, the UN condemned “all manifestations of religious intolerance, incitement, harassment or violence against persons or communities based on ethnic origin or religious belief, wherever they occur.” The hypocrisy of the UN, which has engaged in intolerance and incitement against Israel and condoned violence against her since her victory in the 1967 war – an attempt by the Arabs to repeat the Nazi genocide against the Jews –  needs no elaboration.

Historian Benny Morris says that the Turks perpetrated a “30-year genocide” against Christians – Armenians, Assyrians, and Greeks – murdering between 1.5 and 2.5 million between 1894 and 1924. If the UN were consistent, there would be an international day marking this genocide as well. But of course it wouldn’t do this, nor would it take action against the increasing persecution of Christians and other non-Muslims in the Middle East.

Israel, where the majority of the survivors of the Holocaust and their descendants live, has Yom haShoah on 27 Nissan, which falls in April or May on the civil calendar. We don’t need another day of remembrance, and especially not one established by the UN.

I am sure that whoever had the idea to do this had only good intentions. But it serves no worthwhile purpose.

As I’ve written, Holocaust education for Jew-haters just tends to encourage them. It provides ideas and examples, as well as vicarious satisfaction. And for those who don’t hate us, the emotional catharsis provided by crying over the horrors of 75 years ago helps them keep their eyes shut to what is happening today.

We are not going to bring back our murdered grandparents (and great-grandparents, by now), with international observances. We are also unlikely to reduce antisemitism, particularly the kind that comes dressed up as anti-Zionism, by explaining that any kind of racial or religious hatred is reprehensible. Everyone knows this by now, except that their particular hatred is justified.

It doesn’t help improve the worldwide situation of the Jews or other persecuted minorities. The message transmitted by most international observances is that the Nazis killed a lot of people for bad reasons. They murdered Jews for racial reasons, and several million Poles and other Slavs for what could be called “national” reasons, and massacred Russian POWs because they were Russians. They also “euthanized” disabled and mentally ill people, and murdered thousands of Roma, homosexuals, and others. Killing people for reasons like these, says the UN, is wrong. Don’t do it, says the UN.

But the connection to current events seems to be missing. Antisemitism and anti-Zionism everywhere are as bad or worse than they were at any time since the end of WWII. The Iranian regime continues to make genocidal threats on an almost daily basis. The Palestinian Arabs, are taught by their dual regimes in Gaza and the Palestinian Authority that murdering Jews is not just permissible, it’s admirable. The PA in effect pays a bounty for dead Jewish civilians, and refuses to stop doing soeven when threatened by its largest donor.

In Continental Europe and Britain, anti-Jewish attitudes – especially centered on Israel – are more pervasive than ever, while a study of antisemitic violence from 2005-2015 found that violent incidents are most likely to be perpetrated by Muslims. In the US, serious violence is more likely to come from neo-Nazis or “white nationalists” like the one who invaded a Pittsburgh synagogue and murdered eleven people inside. But especially on college campuses, increasing Jew-hatred tends to be linked to anti-Israel attitudes popular with Muslim or extreme left-wing students and faculty. There also seems to be a greater prevalence of black antisemitism, including violent incidents, although it might just be that it has been noticed more by the media in recent months.

I have a theory about Jew-hatred. An important component of it is contempt for Jews as physical beings. Antisemites think of Jews as powerful in occult ways, but they also see us as weak, not capable of asserting ourselves physically and fighting back. The more a Jew tries to behave in an ingratiating way, the weaker he looks, and the more the antisemite hates him. So a good way to reduce antisemitism is to fight the enemies of the Jewish people aggressively. This works in the schoolyard with antisemitic bullies, but it also works in the realm of geopolitics, where it is called “establishing deterrence by disproportionate response,” or The Doctrine of the Strong Jew.

Recent history shows that when the doctrine has been properly applied, it’s been successful. Other approaches, such as restraint, appeals to common interests (we really don’t have any with our enemies), payment of tribute, or appeasement are certain to fail, with unpleasant practical consequences, as well as bringing about an increase in antisemitism. One advantage of applying the doctrine is that not only does it teach your immediate enemy a lesson, not only does it broadcast to the world in general that acting on one’s Jew-hatred doesn’t pay, but it strikes a blow against one of the ideological pillars of Jew-hatred, the image of the weak Jew.

Of course you need to win your battles. Starting fights that you will lose is not a good idea, as Ehud Olmert found out in Lebanon in 2006. But the alternative approach – taking the stance of the Weak Jew – is guaranteed to make the situation worse. Oslo, the withdrawal from South Lebanon, the withdrawal from Gaza, the policy of restraint in the face of Hamas’ arson balloons – all of these are examples of the Weak Jew. On the other hand, Netanyahu seems to have adopted the Strong Jew Doctrine toward Iran.

So let’s go back to International Holocaust Remembrance Day. Although I doubt it, supposing that the idea was to actually reduce antisemitism, and make another Holocaust less likely. Then I can think of a much better use to put all the money that will be expended on this exercise.

Give it to the one organization that, over the years, has been the most effective of all in fighting antisemitism: the Israel Defense Force.

January 28, 2019 | 5 Comments »

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  1. The recent increase in antisemitic incidents in Brooklyn confirm’s Vic’s thesis that antisemites think of Jews as physically vulnerable. Antisemites aare cowards who believe that Jews won’t fight back and that there are no consequences to for assaulting them. They are cowardly bullies.

    Two Jewish men violently beaten in Crown Heights
    Two Jewish men violently beaten by a gang in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn. Two of the attackers caught.

    Crown Heights (illustration)
    Crown Heights (illustration)
    Two Jewish men were violently beaten by a gang in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn on Tuesday night.

    According to the Crown Height Info website, the beatings occurred a few minutes after 1:00 a.m. on President St. between Albany and Troy Ave., when the gang of three began targeting Jewish men on the block.

    Their first victim, an older man, was pushed to the ground before being pummeled mercilessly with punches and kicks to his face and body. The beating, caught on video, only ended when the three suddenly broke away and fled.

    A few minutes later, the gang targeted a second, younger man, who put up a fight, screaming for help and struggling with them.

    Witnesses and victims immediately called 911 and Crown Heights Shomrim, who were both there in moments.

    As they canvassed the area looking for the gang, a group matching the description of the gang was located. When the NYPD stopped the group, they attempted to flee. Two were caught, while the third escaped.

    Shomrim, working with the police, were able to bring both victims to the 71st precinct where they positively identified their attackers.

    The NYPD Hate Crimes Task Force will be investigating the assaults.

    Just two weeks ago, an Orthodox Jewish teenager was assaulted by a group of black teens in Crown Heights.

    Last week, a Jewish woman walking in Crown Heights was punched by a black male who then ran off.

  2. “Burglars?” the people who invaded this synagogue and destroyed it could have made a fortune if they had stolen the Torah scrolls, which fetch a high price on the black market. Instead, they vandalized them with scribbles (obscene?) and crossings-out, or tore them to shreds. Hatred, not profit, was the motive of the vandals.

    By calling the desecration a “burglary” and the vandals “burglars,” YNet exhibits the tendency of so many Jews, even in Israel, to deny or minimize antisemitism. These are not strong Jews but mentally very weak ones.
    From YNetnews:

    Burglars break into Jerusalem synagogue, desecrate Torah scrolls
    Burglars broke into a synagogue in the Kiryat Yovel neighborhood of Jerusalem overnight Monday, tearing open the ark that houses the holy Torah scrolls and throwing the contents to the floor. Police are investigating.
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    “We arrived this morning for prayers and saw the synagogue had been turned completely upside down,” said Yisrael Levy, the synagogue’s gabbai (warden).

    “We do not know who broke in, there are no cameras around the synagogue,” he said.

    Kiryat Yovel break-in
    Kiryat Yovel break-in

    Jerusalem Mayor Moshe Lion condemned the vandalism of the synagogue, saying it harked back to times when Jewish religious artifacts were routinely desecrated.

    “This is a serious incident that brings to mind dark periods for the Jewish people,” Lion said. “We cannot let such crimes happen today. I am certain that the Israel Police will quickly get their hands on the criminals.”

    Kiryat Yovel break-in
    Kiryat Yovel break-in

    “The heart recoils in horror at the disgraceful sight of Torah scrolls unfurling at the hands of villains inside the synagogue,” said Israeli Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef.

    “Every Jew who holds honoring the Torah dear to his heart will spend a day in silent Torah study to (restore) the honor of the Torah that has been desecrated,” the rabbbi said.

    President Reuven Rivlin also condemned the break-in, and expressed his confidence that the perpetrators would soon be caught.

    “Difficult and painful images this morning from the Kiryat Yovel synagogue,” the president wrote on Twitter. “I am certain that the Israel Police will soon catch the (criminals) and bring them to justice.”

    The burglary was condemned by a series of ultra-Orthodox lawmakers, including Interior Minister Aryeh Deri of Shas, who rushed to the site on Tuesday morning.

  3. According to the American Jewish website VozNeis, the Israeli police have arrested three Arab suspects for the horrible desecration and near total destruction of a synogogue and it Torah scrolls in Jerusalem. No other Jewish newspaper in the U.S. and none in Israel has reported this development. Worse yet, the Israeli police said that they considered the crime “criminal” not “nationalistic” in motivation. As if “nationalistically” motivated crimes were not criminal. And what possible motives could anyone have for such a crime except hatred for Jews?

    Jerusalem – Three Arabs Arrested On Suspicion Of Desecrating Jerusalem Synagogue
    The Scene of the synagogue that was vandalized last night by Unknown assailants at Kiryat Yovel neighborhood in Jerusalem, on January 29, 2019. Photo by Yonatan Sindel/Flash90 The Scene of the synagogue that was vandalized last night by Unknown assailants at Kiryat Yovel neighborhood in Jerusalem, on January 29, 2019. Photo by Yonatan Sindel/Flash90
    Jerusalem – Three Arabs were arrested on suspicion of involvement in the desecration of a synagogue in the Kiryat Yovel neighborhood of Jerusalem Tuesday evening.

    According to Channel 2, police believe that the incident was criminally motivated rather than nationalist in nature.

    The break-in took place in the Kiryat Yovel neighborhood on Monday night. Worshippers arrived on Tuesday morning and found the Torah scrolls, prayer books and other Jewish artifacts strewn all over the floor.

    A hole was cut in the side of the ark that housed the Torah scrolls in order to remove them.

    The synagogue, called Siah Yisrael and populated mainly by immigrants from France, does not have any security cameras.

    The attack was condemned by both of Israel’s chief rabbis and other religious leaders, the president and prime minister and lawmakers.

    The vandalism comes days after attacks on two synagogues in the central coastal city of Netanya. The Netan Ya Reform congregation was flooded on Saturday night when unknown vandals forced open a window and placed a hose through it with the water running.

    The water was ankle deep throughout the building when it was discovered on Sunday, and had ruined prayer books, furniture and building infrastructure, according to the Jerusalem Post.

    On Saturday night, prayer books were burned at the McDonald International Shul in Netanya, an Orthodox synagogue on McDonald St., and the words “Hail Satan” were painted on a wall.

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    Vandalized Shul Now ‘Uninhabitable’
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  4. Recent Outbreaks of antisemitic vandalism against synagogues inside tend to support Vic’s view that antisemites see Jews as physically weak. Even antisemites within Israel or in the disputed territories seem to believe this

    Why are synagogues in Israel being vandalized?
    Torah scrolls in Jerusalem synagogue desecrated after two synagogues were vandalized in Netanya on Saturday night.

    Torah scrolls strewn across the floor after the vandalism of a Jerusalem synagogue
    Torah scrolls strewn across the floor after the vandalism of a Jerusalem synagogue, January 29th, 2019. (photo credit: Courtesy)
    An act of synagogue vandalism rocked Jerusalem Tuesday morning after two synagogues were similarly desecrated in Netanya less than 48 hours before.

    These acts have manifested themselves in different forms, with Torah scrolls being ripped out of shrines, damaged and thrown on the floor; graffiti being sprayed on synagogue walls reading “Hail Satan”; and entire prayer rooms being flooded, all raising questions about the motives behind the spiteful acts.

    The latest attack, labeled an “antisemitic pogrom,” took place on Monday night when vandals ransacked a Jerusalem synagogue, the third time in 48 hours a synagogue was vandalized.
    The Siah Yisrael synagogue, located in the Kiryat Hayovel neighborhood of Jerusalem, was broken into and its ritual objects, including a Torah scroll and prayer books, were destroyed. Photos from the scene showed Torah scrolls strewn across a floor full of dirt and dust, and a hole was cut into the side of the ark from which the vandals extracted the scrolls.

    Foreign Press Police Spokesman Mickey Rosenfeld said that the act “happened during the night,” and that it looked like the perpetrators “came prepared.”

    “Police are looking into whether this was a criminal act or if there were other motives,” Rosenfeld said, referring to a nationalistic background.

    On Tuesday night, police arrested three men, alleged to be the perpetrators of the Jerusalem desecration, but they were released soon after.

    Earlier, politicians and religious figures decried the vandalism, calling on the police to do everything in their power to find those who carried out the attack.

    “I am shocked at the desecration of a synagogue in Jerusalem,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement. “The police must immediately find those responsible in order to bring them to justice.”

    President Reuven Rivlin bemoaned the “difficult and shocking pictures that came out of the synagogue” on Twitter.

    Jerusalem Mayor Moshe Lion said that this was “a shocking case of the desecration of a synagogue and destruction of Torah scrolls, [and was] reminiscent of dark times of the Jewish people; we will not allow crimes like this to occur in our time.”

    Sephardi Chief Rabbi of Israel, Yitzhak Yosef, was “horrified” at the “terrible disgrace,” and called on authorities to “leave no stone unturned” in their search for the perpetrators.

    On Saturday night, two additional synagogues were vandalized in Netanya.

    The MacDonald International Shul, popular with English-speaking retirees and one of the centers of Anglo life in the coastal city, was defaced with “Hail Satan” graffiti, along with a pentagram and an upside-down cross that were spray painted on the synagogue walls. Prayer books were also burned.

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    David Woolf, a member of the MacDonald synagogue, said that the community was not alarmed, even though acts of vandalism occur regularly.

    “We assume that it was local kids, and not anything beyond that,” Woolf said.

    However, members of another synagogue that was vandalized on the same night appeared more concerned.

    Unknown perpetrators climbed over the locked fence of the Kehillat Natan-Ya Reform congregation on Saturday night, destroyed plants in the garden and inserted a garden hose through a barred window of the synagogue after forcing a window open.

    Rabbi Edgar Nof, the congregation’s rabbi, told The Jerusalem Post that the hose must have been on for an estimated 14 hours, flooding the synagogue and damaging the infrastructure, as well as to the furniture and prayer books.

    “The water was ankle high when they discovered the vandalism,” Nof said, adding that just the extraction of the water cost NIS 14,000 alone.
    A women’s group was supposed to meet in the synagogue on Sunday morning, but was met with water gushing out of the building when congregants opened the door, a member of the group said.

    Michael Tucker, a committee member of the reform congregation, dismissed the idea of the vandalism being a prank by some youths.
    “They climbed over a high fence to do this,” Tucker said, adding that there have been a slew of acts of minor vandalism in the past weeks. Tucker said that he believes that the incident is related to the fact that the congregation is Reform.

    “Rabbis need to get together and do something about this,” he said. “On the day that the world is commemorating International Holocaust [Remembrance] Day, Jews are doing this to other Jews. It’s awful.”

    Rosenfeld said that no arrests have been made in connection with the Netanya synagogues and that the investigation was ongoing.

    Netanya has seen several attacks on synagogues in recent months, including Beit Israel, a Masorti (Conservative) synagogue which was vandalized on four separate occasions in May 2018, with windows smashed and other property in the building damaged.

    With no arrests made and no publicized information on the nature of the perpetrators, it remains unclear whether the acts of vandalism are the result of Jewish in-fighting between secular and religious, or Orthodox and Reform Jews, or whether the vandalism is altogether different and has a nationalistic motive.

    “If this would happen in the States there would be much bigger outcry,” Nof said.

    The Netanya Police department said it did not want to comment on the case.

  5. Excellent analysis by Vic Rosenthal.

    Even fighting hard and losing a battle against oppressors of the Jewish people is less bad than not fighting at all. The Jews were severely crushed by the Romans during their great revolts of 66-70 and 132-35. But this was followed by the reign of the Antonine emperors of Rome, who were by and large friendly to Jews. During this period the Mishnah was written, and Judah Ha-Nasi presided over a reinvigorated and reimpowered Sanhedrin (roughly 160-300 C.E.).