According to Yehuda Bauer, when someone threatens global genocide against the Jews, you should take them seriously.
Very seriously.
The Israeli professor and historian, considered one of the world’s foremost authorities on the Holocaust and anti-Semitism, is concerned about the much-reported rise in European anti-Semitism. But he’s far more worried about the radicalism he sees as becoming endemic across the Muslim world.
“This modern radicalism threatens, for the first time since the Holocaust, a genocide against the Jews — explicitly. Quite explicitly,” said Bauer, reached on his cell phone “somewhere in Louisiana” in the midst of a national speaking tour.
“This is not something that’s hidden or expressed in roundabout, vague terms. It’s quite clear. ‘Kill the Jews wherever you can find them.’ There is opposition to that within the Muslim world. In other words, this is also part of an internal Muslim argument, where more moderate Islamic groups and tendencies are threatened by those radicals.”
Bauer’s tour lands him in Northern California next week, with an appearance at U.C. Davis on Wednesday, Jan. 12, and at the Osher Marin Jewish Community Center the next day.
Calls for genocide are part of the larger movement for a worldwide theocratic state, according to the Hebrew University professor.
“For instance, in Palestine, Hamas and Islamic Jihad don’t want a Palestinian national state. They want Islamic rule, which is something quite different. They want it as part of Islamic world rule,” he said.
It would be “a rule by clerics everywhere in the world. Democracy would be considered to be a blasphemy and a heresy. God has already said all that is needed as far as legal developments are concerned. Any kind of participatory democracy would mean ordinary people are deciding what would happen rather than God.”
If the thought of global Islamic theocracy doesn’t exactly breed confidence, Bauer brings more bad news when he notes that U.S. activity overseas is driving more and more Muslims to embrace such a worldview.
The war in Iraq has created a “breeding ground” for Islamic fanaticism, a situation Bauer admits “did not take me at surprise at all, I must admit.”
While not unconcerned about European anti-Semitism, Bauer admitted that “many people exaggerate” the situation.
He broke European anti-Semitism into three veins: Traditional right-wing neo-Nazis, whom he relegated to a minor position; North African Muslims residing, primarily, in France who scapegoat Jews as one of their ways to protest against French society, which they reject; and, finally, the “anti-Semitism of the chattering classes.”
Bauer is most concerned about the third form, the anti-Semitism of intellectuals and media figures.
“It’s not that professors go out in the streets and kill Jews. It’s just a situation where every Jew is made responsible for any action the government of Israel happens to do,” he said.
“They are critical of Israel, and so are many Israelis, but Europeans are not anti-Israel in any kind of violent way. That may change if some of these intellectuals get more influence.”
Bauer admits he often sees things pessimistically, but if he must err, he prefers it be on the side of caution.
“I could talk about the half-filled glass rather than the half-empty one. But I prefer to talk about the half-empty glass because that is a danger. Half-full is a prospect.”
Yehuda Bauer will speak at 4 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 12, in 100 Hunt Hall, U.C. Davis. Admission is free. He will appear at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 13, at the Osher Marin JCC, 200 N. San Pedro Rd., San Rafael. $20 general admission, $10 students. (415) 444-8000.