Jews living abroad are also suffering as Israel battles Hamas in the Gaza Strip and prepares to fight Hezbollah in Lebanon. According to a report released by the Ministry of Diaspora, the World Zionist Organization and the Jewish Agency, 2023 saw a significant 235% jump in anti-Semitic incidents worldwide compared to the previous year. Of these, 46% of violent anti-Semitic incidents occurred in the United States, followed by the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Canada, Australia, and other countries.
It was recently reported that anti-Semitic attacks in France have nearly quadrupled in 2023 compared to 2022 since Operation Iron Sword was declared after the October 7 massacre. The Council for Jewish Institutions in France (CRIF) said there were 1,676 anti-Semitic acts last year, compared to 436 the previous year, 24 French newspapers reported. They claimed that almost 60% of those acts were attacks involving physical violence, threatening words, and threatening gestures. Alarmingly, almost 13% of anti-Semitic acts last year took place in schools, most of them in middle schools.
This is not just France. Aaron Keyak, the State Department’s deputy envoy for monitoring and combating anti-Semitism, warns in a briefing with the American Bar Association that anti-Semitism is on the rise in China following the October 7 massacre of Israelis by Hamas. did. “Anti-Semitic tropes are circulating in the media and online that Jews control the United States through deep U.S.-Israel ties, control banks and media, and influence government leaders,” Keyak said. said.
According to the BBC, the Community Security Trust recorded 89 incidents of “anti-Semitic hate” between October 7 and 10. This is more than a fourfold increase compared to the 21 anti-Semitic incidents recorded during the same period last year. Sadly, the plight of Jews in Germany is not as good as in France or England. The Simon Wiesenthal Center has expressed anger at the recent Rosa Luxembourg Conference in Berlin, which was reported by the German daily newspaper Der Tagesspiegel. Shockingly, the incident became a platform to justify violence against Jewish and Israeli women and to express support for Hamas under the guise of free speech. Not only did it fail to unequivocally condemn Hamas’s terrorist acts, but it also justified the terrorist group as integral to “socialist class consciousness.”
Sadly, even in the Golden Medina, the land of the free and the home of the brave, things are not much better. Anti-Semitic incidents in the United States have skyrocketed in the three months since the October 7 massacre in Israel, with preliminary data from the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) showing that the number of incidents rose between October 7 and January 7. The total number of cases reached 3,291. This represents a 361% increase compared to the same period last year, when there were 712 incidents.
Blood libel is back in full swing.
In response to these statistics, bloody libel accusations are once again in full swing around the world. ADL recently reported: “Since the October 7 massacre by Hamas and the subsequent Israeli military action in Gaza, some anti-Israel voices in the Middle East, Europe, Australia and the United States have used cartoons and social media posts to condemn Israel has stolen organs from murdered Palestinians in Gaza, claiming that “child murder” is Israel’s preferred “ritual” and that infants are its “favorite targets.” Some posts depict Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ingesting Palestinian blood, while others use images of bleeding babies to bring charges of blood libel. are making up. ”
As the situation continued, a group of young Armenians marched through the city of Yerevan. They were reported to have paid their respects to a monument erected in honor of Gargin Nzhde, a collaborator of Germany’s Hitlerite regime who recruited ethnic Armenians for special Nazi missions during World War II. There is. Their website claims: “We must storm the streets with the slogan ‘Armenia for Armenians’ and show the world that the masters of Armenia are only pure Armenians.”
This came after Armenia’s only synagogue fell victim to three separate arson attacks. ASALA, an Armenian terrorist organization with close ties to the Palestine Liberation Front, an affiliate of Fatah, has supported two previous arson attacks, praised Hamas and Hezbollah after the October 7 massacre, and threatened to attack Rabbis and Israelis.
Local authorities in Armenia did nothing to protect local synagogues, even claiming that ASALA no longer existed. Last November, a former advisor to the Armenian Armed Forces filmed himself claiming to support Hamas and Hezbollah in killing Jews, saying: “I will scream to the whole world about the just killing of Jews.” .
Another prominent Armenian political scientist, Vladimir Poghosyan, argued that Jews had no right to exist. I say this as someone who has been in intelligence all my life and has conducted operations at the Mossad level and beyond. ” He added that Israel is lucky that it does not support Hamas or Hezbollah. “If my intelligence had worked for Hamas or Hezbollah, only 1,000 of your people would not have been killed. I consider the destruction of your entire people an act of supreme justice. Masu.”
As Israelis, we cannot turn a blind eye to anti-Semitism occurring abroad while we are at war at home. We should not abandon the Jews of the diaspora, and we must ensure that local governments do something to protect local Jewish communities in the US, France, UK, Armenia, and other countries with high rates of anti-Semitism. There should be political pressure to do so.
There is a political price to be paid for failing to act against acts of anti-Semitic violence, and the Israeli government must make this clear, especially at such a critical juncture in our country’s history. Should. We should also express admiration and respect for countries without a history of anti-Semitism, such as Japan, Azerbaijan, and Micronesia.
The author is a prominent Middle East scholar and commentator.