At his historic inauguration, President Barack Obama said: “To the Muslim world, we seek a new way forward, based on mutual interest and mutual respect. To those leaders around the globe who seek to sow conflict, or blame their society’s ills on the West – know that your people will judge you on what you can build, not what you destroy.”
While intended for Muslims overseas, these words also challenge American Muslim leaders.
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Badly mauled on the military front, Hamas succeeded beyond its wildest dreams in unleashing global anti-Semitism and poisoning discourse in the public square that leave cracks in the edifice of Western civil society that must not go un-repaired. Suddenly anti-Jewish violence has become accepted as legitimate resistance.
In Amsterdam, the streets near Anne Frank’s hiding place resounded with calls of “Gas the Jews”; from Madrid to Montreal, from London to Melbourne protesters– often convened by professional “anti-war activists”– proudly pumped placards “Israelis are Nazis” and “Kill the Jews.” In Los Angeles protesters beneath a swastika’d Israeli flag with the slogan “Upgrade to Holocaust 2.0.”
Synagogues are torched in France, and desecrated by armed thugs in Venezuela. Principals in Denmark tell Jewish parents their children are unwelcome because they will offend Muslims.
German police removed an Israeli flag from an apartment to appease a mob. In Rome from whose streets Jews were hauled off to Auschwitz, come calls to boycott Jewish businesses.
A London Starbucks is attacked-following a British website’s call to “Boycott, shut-down, graffiti, disrupt – whatever – Gaza needs our solidarity. Take action now…” And in Chicago, the vandalizing of four synagogues on the Sabbath by Hamas sympathizers generated no public outrage.
The world is eager to help rebuild Gaza. But who will step forward to deconstruct the tower of Babel of hate that has mainstreamed virulent anti-Semitism not seen in six decades?
Not Bill Moyers. He asserts that Jews and Arabs possess a built-in compulsion towards murder and mayhem: “When the ancient Israelites entered Canaan, their leaders urged violence against its inhabitants…so God-soaked violence became genetically coded.”
Moyers also equates Hamas’ ethos with Israel, blind to Israel’s commitment to uphold the sanctity of individual life, while defending itself against an enemy that celebrates death.
In Los Angeles, Salam Al-Marayati, executive director of the Muslim Public Affairs Council, upbraided Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Sheriff Lee Baca for publicly backing Israel’s right to defend herself against Hamastan.
“They are local politicians playing international politics,” who don’t understand the bigger picture, Al-Marayati insisted. “Militarism fuels extremism, and religion becomes a vehicle for resistance.”
Tragically, people like Al-Marayatti apparently cannot fathom the idea that these Americans are not just playing politics when they support Israel. They have made a moral judgment about good and evil, about putting the blame squarely on Hamas’ shoulders for the death, suffering and misery on both sides of Gaza’s blood-soaked border.
America’s abhorrence of hate speech has taken a body-blow from Hamas apologists. Once society becomes inured to genocidal rhetoric, we will see escalating verbal violence against immigrants, gays and others.
Calls for genocide that are not immediately and universally condemned will inexorably lead to a weakening of the bonds that are the underpinnings of America’s unique social fabric.
President Obama told a hopeful nation: “For we know that our patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness. We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus – and non-believers… [and] believe that the old hatreds shall someday pass.”
Our president’s vision can only prevail if the hate that Hamas so skillfully seeks to export to our shores is rejected by every American, including her Muslim leaders.
Rabbi Abraham Cooper is associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center. Rabbi Yitzchok Adlerstein, is director of Interfaith Affairs for the Simon Wiesenthal Center.
