Ruth R. Wisse (Wall Street Journal) - The Iranian regime is currently the world's leading exponent of anti-Jewish racism. Whereas Adolf Hitler and Reinhard Heydrich had to plot the "Final Solution" in secrecy, using euphemisms for their intended annihilation of the Jews of Europe, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei tweets that Israel "has no cure but to be annihilated." Iran's leaders, relishing how small Israel is, call it a "one-bomb state," and until the time arrives to deliver that bomb, they sponsor anti-Israel terrorism through Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other militias. This is the first time the U.S. will have deliberately entered into a pact with a country committed to annihilating another people - a pact that doesn't even require formal repudiation of the country's genocidal aims. Because the most repressive and aggressive regimes continue to organize against the Jews, the Jewish people have become the "true north" of toleration and concern for human rights. Those who defend the Jews are necessarily on the side of peace and brotherhood, those who attack them invariably on the side of evil. "Death to the Jews!" is a call to arms against Western liberal democracies; that is why in Iran the cry is often accompanied by "Death to America!" Americans intent on stopping Iran are not against the president. They believe that America stands for humanity's better nature. The writer, a former professor of Yiddish and comparative literature at Harvard, is the author of Jews and Power (Schocken, 2007).
2015-07-31 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive