While I still have faith in the humanity and essential goodness of the vast majority of the American people, the illogic of those who would see us – the Jewish people – as did Germany under Hitler is mind numbingly inexplicable.
What makes this even more perplexing is that this kind of perverse thinking is coming out of young people who are supposed to be the best and brightest among their collegiate peers in top universities like Columbia, Cornell, and Brandeis.
Equally perplexing is the exposure of antisemitism on the part of Elon Musk - one of the most successful achievers and entrepreneurs in the world! More about him later.
Not that any of this means that we are on the precipice of another Holocaust. We are not. Even though antisemitic incidents have increased to what seems like unprecedented numbers it nevertheless represents small minority of the American people. Although it is surely a lot louder and more intense than ever.
What is most troubling to me is where the antisemitism is coming from. It is not from typical extremist right wing sources like White Supremacist’s or Neo Nazis. Although still around and are often violent they are not the ones expressing it now. It comes from the exact opposite direction. The progressive left where many of our young people in academia reside politically these days. People that believe they are promoting social justice for the oppressed peoples of the world. Most affected right now are Palestinians in Gaza. Whom they see being oppressed by a colonialist occupier, Israel. Whose military might is supplied by the US. The see daily images of death and destruction. And they believe Hamas body count of 12,000.
These young people have joined Hamas supporting Palestinians protesters in the belief that they have a legitimate grievance against Israel. Not realizing that chants of ‘Free Palestine - from the river to the sea’ is a call for the extermination of the over 8 million Jews that live in Israel. And yet they accuse Israel of genocide.
They either aren’t aware or ignore the real source of Palestinian misery. Which is the Iran backed and supplied Hamas. It is well established that Hamas uses their people for the dual purpose of being human shields - or in the alternative - becoming martyrs if they are killed that way. It is mind-numbingly shocking that there is not the slightest recognition of that reality by young people who are supposedly the brightest among their peers. Can it be that they are at the core actual antisemites?
Then there is Elon Musk. One of the most recognizable names on the planet. Usually in a good way. I used to believe this quirky individual was all about achieving good for mankind while getting incredibly wealthy along the way. (Musk is currently the richest man in the world!)
But then, from CNN, this happened:
Agreeing with an antisemitic post on his social media platform X, Elon Musk endorsed the claim that Jewish communities push “hatred against Whites.”
An X post Wednesday afternoon said: “Jewish communties (sic) have been pushing the exact kind of dialectical hatred against whites that they claim to want people to stop using against them.” The post also referenced “hordes of minorities” flooding Western countries, a popular antisemitic conspiracy theory.
In response, Musk said: “You have said the actual truth.”
When someone like this agrees with a nonsensical antisemitic canard like that, it can only increase antisemitism . Is is reminiscent of another innovator and industrialist from 100 years ago - Henry Ford. Who disseminated an antisemitic pamphlet entitled Protocols of the Elders of Zion. It promoted a ridiculous conspiracy theory about Jewish ‘elders’ conspiring to subjugate White Christian America and ultimately the entire world.
Is history repeating itself?
Hard to say. But it clearly has the ominous overtones of Ford's antimerism. That said it was gratifying to see the following from AP:
IBM, NBCUniversal and its parent company Comcast, and EU among others have pulled advertizing for X
I would remind readers that Musk is not the first prominent personality ty that revealed his deep seated negative sentiments about the Jewish people. Remember Kanye West? (He suffered a similar negative PR fate that Musk seems to be getting now.)
What does all this mean? Not sure. Still, I am gratified to see the corporate and near universal government response to it. Which was to quickly condemn it and dissociate from it But in my view there is still cause for concern. It seems the Holocaust may not be the ‘Never again’ moment we all thought it was.