“Jews all over the world pay the price”

In a comprehensive analysis entitled “Hatred of Jews, everywhere” following the terrorist attack on a Hanukkah celebration in Sydney that left 15 people dead, editor Christina Neuhaus looks at the increasingly open and aggressive anti-Semitism in our society in the Neue Zürcher Zeitung. When anti-Semitism costs lives, there is great horror everywhere. At the same time, hatred of Jews is widely tolerated.

In Sydney, a Hanukkah party begins on the beach – and ends in a bloodbath. Fifteen dead, around forty injured, shots fired before the first candle could even be lit. The perpetrators: father and son, apparently with an Islamist motive, “in the name of IS”. Almost at the same time, according to Neuhaus, but in a completely different league of escalation, a culture war in pink glitter packaging is taking place in Switzerland: Nemo is returning the ESC trophy. As a protest against Israel being allowed to take part in the next Eurovision Song Contest. In her article, the NZZ editor also mentions a third element: a Frenchman with North African roots is said to have planned an attack on the ESC in Basel – specifically targeting Jews. He was arrested and later deported to France, where he was released.

These three stories, Neuhaus emphasizes, are not to be equated: “Killing people is a capital crime, returning a trophy a year and a half after a victory is a bit cowardly at best. But deep in the sediment of history, there is a thread that connects the events: Anti-Semitism.” Not as a marginal phenomenon, not as a relic, but as something that is just rising up again, dressing itself anew and appearing frighteningly normal. And she quotes the writer Charels Lewinsky, who said in the NZZ: “Anti-Zionist and anti-colonialist anti-Semitism is rampant today. But ultimately it is often the same old hatred of Jews. And it is once again socially acceptable, or rather demonstratable.”

Since the beginning of the Gaza war, writes Christina Neuhaus, anti-Semitism has been everywhere. The classic right-wing radicals have been reinforced by hatred of Jews from Islamist milieus and by a left-wing radicalized protest culture that believes it is morally right. The social democrat who accuses Israel of committing a Holocaust in Gaza and the near-star who returns his trophy are convinced that they are on the right side of history, Neuhaus notes, concluding her analysis with the words: “Jews all over the world are paying the price.”

To the article in the Neue Zürcher Zeitung: Neue Zürcher Zeitung – E-Paper