A Thousand of Them
When Yitzhak Rabin was swept into office last June, he promised to slow the growth of settlements, get the peace talks back on track, shore up relations with the U.S., and rearrange the national priorities. For the most part, Rabin has been as good as his word. As a result, relationships with the Bush administration have warmed, and the $10 billion in loan guarantees sought by the Israelis have been granted. Many who have delayed emigrating to Israel from Eastern Europe and Russia for economic reasons will be encouraged to make aliyah as a result of the infusion of funding to create opportunities for employment.
For all of Prime Minister Rabin’s commendable intentions about making meaningful efforts toward peace, the way is fraught with danger, and few in Israel are deluded into thinking that their mortal enemies will cease and desist efforts to destroy the Jewish state. Islamic groups, such as Hamas, reject all talks with Israel contending that all of historic Palestine is Islamic “trust.” “And,” as reported in Newsweek August 3, 1992, “bolstered by Saudi funds, it has become a fearsome force in the territories. In Gaza, its support may be as high as 30 percent.” Hamas’ belligerence is framed in a slogan smeared on walls: “PALESTINE IS FOR HIM WHO STRUGGLES, NOT FOR HIM WHO HAGGLES.” In an attempt to derail the first round of peace talks during Rabin’s tenure as prime minister, Hamas launched an attack on Israel from Jordan. Three terrorists were killed.
Israel’s deep longing for peace and security, as reflected by the dramatic shift in governments, is emblematic of that of Jewry in many parts of the world, who are witnessing dark shadows of the past rise once again. Figures reflecting the rise in anti-Semitism confirm the fact that Israel’s enemies are not confined to the Middle East. A Jerusalem Post report quotes Jewish Agency Chairman Simcha Dinitz: “[There has been] a 35 percent rise in anti-Semitic incidents around the world in 1991 compared to the previous year. Figures indicated almost 1,900 such incidents in 1991.”
U.S. hate mongers are in the forefront of those dedicated to Jewry’s destruction. Last June, two leaders of the “White Aryan Resistance” were expelled from Canada after inciting “Skinheads” and neo-Nazis in a two-hour-long “rally.” Following their meeting in Toronto, three synagogues were spray painted with such slogans as “Die Jews,” “Hitler Lives,” and “Arabs Rule.” Unfortunately, they were sent back to their place of origin, the United States.
The resurgence of the Klan in America is an ominous signal that the sagging economy and political alienation felt by thousands of people in the U.S. may provide a new stage for age-old animosities. “Reported hate crimes, from the painting of swastikas on synagogues to racially motivated murders, have steadily risen over the past four years; cross burnings alone doubled in 1991. Klanwatch, a monitoring group based in Montgomery, estimates that there are now 346 groups, up from 273 in 1990” (Time, July 6, 1992).
Following in the wake of David Duke, his successor, Grand Wizard Thom Robb, intends to make political power the instrument that will deliver America into the hands of white supremacists. Robb’s concept of a “white nation” is based on Christian Identity theology, anglo-Israelism, which fantasizes that Europeans and Americans are the real Israel—God’s true Chosen People. The aim of the reconstituted KKK is political respectability. This was the avowed tactic of David Duke, who realized that the Klan’s nefarious designs could better be implemented in business suits than in white sheets. Mr. Robb makes a chilling prediction that should be a source of concern for every thinking American: “Louisiana has one David Duke. We plan to give America 1,000 of them.”
Last week my wife and I watched a TV documentary based on William L. Shirer’s book The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. As we witnessed the revolution of the Nazi movement from a cadre of street goons and buffoons to the packed stadiums filled with adoring vassals of a barbarous madman, we wondered, How could a people so enlightened, so in touch with the horrors of war, allow it to happen—to themselves join the blood feast? Could such monstrous machinations ever be seen in America? Indeed they can. And, tragically, we may be witnesses of their beginnings.
