Lessons learnt after October 7
A year after the October 7 massacre of Israelis in 2023, what have we learnt? For Jews in the diaspora, there have been several lessons.
Julie Nathan
Antisemitism
After the Holocaust, expressions of anti-Jewish hatred were forced underground in the Western world. We hoped it would forever be banished from our lives. But we knew it was still there as hate propaganda and violence against Jews continued after 1945, albeit at lesser levels than in previous centuries. We believed we were of a generation, post WW2, that could live our lives, relatively safely, in the West without fear or dread of being targeted because we were Jewish. Since October 7, there has been an explosive surge in anti-Jewish hate and violence across the world. We now know that the rabid beast of anti-Jewish hate has been unleashed and is prowling the streets from London to New York, Toronto to Sydney.
Authorities
It was thought that liberal democratic countries would provide protection from acts of hate and violence against Jewish minorities. That has generally been the case – up until October 7. But we learnt a new lesson, the hard way – that in the 2020s Western world, many governments are choosing to appease extremist elements within their countries, and globally, rather than stand firm on principle and act against anti-Jewish vilification and threats. We learnt that we cannot rely on our governments to protect us from harm by anti-Jewish racists. We learnt that too often the police are either unable or unwilling to act to curb hatred on the streets. We now know that the Jewish community has been pushed aside and left undefended by many governments and police, while they try to appease the extremists.
Societal Structures
We thought that others with influence and power would stand against anti-Jewish racism. We thought journalists and the media would investigate and provide facts and proper context in their news stories, but instead, much journalism became advocacy for a cause, ignoring or downplaying anti-Jewish racism and condemning Israel, omitting relevant facts, distorting stories, showing bias. We thought human rights and anti-discrimination bodies would support us, instead they not only turned their back, but in some cases employed people who were hostile to Jews. We saw that universities defended vilification and threats towards Jews in the name of robust free speech, or perhaps it was out of cowardice, unwilling to tackle hate and instead choosing appeasement. We saw much of the arts and culture scene turn into a festival of anti-Jewish hate. We now know that the basic structures of the society are falling and many either allow, or cheer on, the extremists to continue their destructive path.
Progressive allies
While there is no ‘Jewish position’ on politics, many Jews have been active in civil rights movements, rallying for equality, opposition to racism, sexism, and in support of other progressive causes. It was done because it was the right thing to do. Now that Jews are under attack, our so-called ‘progressive allies’ have not only abandoned us, but often are at the forefront leading the attacks against us. They spuriously claim it is not because we are Jews, but because we are Zionists, who support the continued existence of the one and only Jewish state in the world, the state of Israel in the Jewish national ancestral homeland. We now know that our former allies, faux-friends, were not anti-racists after all.
Convergence of Extremes
We now see a much clearer convergence of the extreme Right, extreme Left and extreme Islamist. They propose that the “only solution” to the problems of the world is violent “revolution”. The propositions by these extremists have as their ultimate aim the elimination of Jews from the world.
The neo-Nazis promote “White Revolution is the Only Solution” (as seen in National Socialist Network posters over the years). ‘White Revolution” is linked with the ideas of “Race War” and “White Genocide” . The latter is the false belief that there is a global conspiracy orchestrated by “the Jews” for the express purpose of decimating the European races. Hence, “Race War” is used in the acronym GTKRWN (“Gas The Kikes, Race War Now”), as a signal that “the Jews” (derogatively referred to as “kikes”) are the prime enemy, and are the ones to be targeted and annihilated in order to win the “Race War.”
The anti-Israel movement, encompassing both the extreme Left and Islamists, promotes “There is Only One Solution: Intifada Revolution” (as seen in their chants and placards). ‘Intifada’ is a call to violence against Jews in Israel and beyond as enacted with the murder of Jews through bombing buses and cafes, shooting and stabbing Jews in the streets, and other methods of killing. The aim is to drive out or kill the Jews to make the Arab Islamic world Jew-free and restore Arab Islamic dominance and supremacy from Morrocco to Iraq.
While the extreme Left seeks to impose an internationalist totalitarian ‘socialist utopia’, the Islamists seek to impose a theo-fascist state, and eventually a world-wide caliphate, using violent jihad as the main means of conquest. Just as Hamas, Hezbollah, Houthis and at the head, Iran, all have ideologies to murder and annihilate Jews from the world, so to do Islamists in the West. In the streets, their war chant of “Khaybar Khaybar ya yahud, jaish Muhammad soufa ya’oud” (“Khaybar Khaybar oh Jews, the army of Muhammad will return”, referring to a massacre of Jews by Muslims at Khaybar in 628 CE) is used as a war-cry to threaten and attack Jews in Western cities, a precursor to a global massacre of Jews.
Western Civilisation
Western civilisation is one of the great civilisations of the world. Although not perfect, it has developed into one of the freest and most humane societies in the world. Many of the values and ideals of Western civilisation derive from the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible): brotherhood of humanity; the sanctity of human life; the dignity of each person; individual conscience; social responsibility; individual rights; equality before the law; a vision of a society founded on justice; and universal peace as an ideal. These Judaic values have been adopted by the Western world through democracy, liberalism, human rights and the rule of law. These are values to be cherished, upheld and defended.
October 7 brought into sharp focus an increasingly polarised world-view – of Western civilisational values versus anti-democratic values, the latter belonging to the extreme Right, extreme Left, and extreme Islamists. The anti-Jewish, anti-Western, anti-democratic forces are aggressively taking their battle for supremacy into the heart of the West. We see quite a few weak Western governments and institutions, perhaps not understanding what is at stake, buckling at the knees, either in appeasement or in fear of the anti-democratic forces, whether Islamists or Leftists, on the streets in their cities and in the institutions of their countries, undermining and corroding the fabric of Western civilisation.
Conclusion
With the beast of anti-Jewish hatred unleashed, with many governments not protecting Jewish communities as they should, with many people of influence turning their backs, with progressive allies not standing with Jews as they should, with the far Left and Islamists openly defending or celebrating the massacre of October 7 and promising more, and with anti-Western and anti-democratic forces invigorated by October 7, the situation looks dire. Despite the ongoing trauma of October 7, and despite the abandonment and betrayal of Jews by many, the lessons we have learnt have grounded us.
We also learnt that there are many other people who are standing with Jewish communities around the world in the name of decency, humanity and shared values. We know there are some governments, politicians, police, media, human rights bodies, progressives, and many ordinary fellow-citizens who stand with Jewish communities in our common struggle against hate and violence, and the threats facing our liberal democratic societies.
The global Jewish community has faced many dire and deadly foes over the millennia, and several genocidal enemies. As Mark Twain wrote in 1899: “The Egyptian, the Babylonian, and the Persian rose … the Greek and the Roman followed… and they are gone… other peoples… have vanished. The Jew saw them all, beat them all… All things are mortal but the Jew; all other forces pass, but he remains.”
And so too, in this current dire situation, the global Jewish community will remain and will prevail. And the barbarism of anti-Jewish hate will be defeated, again.
Julie Nathan is the Research Director at the Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ), and since 2013, the author of the annual ‘ECAJ Report on Antisemitism in Australia’.
