For a long time, many Jews believed antisemitism had survived mostly as a residue.

Embarrassing residue. Fringe residue. The sort of thing muttered by men with swastika avatars or shouted outside synagogues by extremists who still seemed, reassuringly, outside respectable society.

The Holocaust belonged to history books, museums, memorials, and our grandparents’ nervous systems. “Never Again” may not have meant Jews were fully accepted everywhere, but it suggested Western civilization had at least learned to recognize its oldest hatred before it metastasized again.

Then came the past two years.

Not merely the protests or the slogans or even the violence against Jews across Europe and North America. Hatred itself is ancient. Jews are familiar with hatred.

What has been startling is the speed with which educated people — journalists, activists, academics, cultural institutions, and ordinary readers who consider themselves rational and humane — have shown themselves willing to believe almost anything about Jews, and particularly about Israelis.

Not criticism. Not accusations of military wrongdoing. Those are legitimate subjects of debate in any democracy, including Israel.

Something deeper and older.........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)