Why is it so many Israelis are afraid of another Holocaust?
On the eve of 2007's Holocaust Memorial Day, a poll showed that 37 percent of Israel's youth feel another Holocaust is possible.
The poll on anti-Semitism was conducted among Israeli youth by the Anti-Defamation League.
First, a little demographics and history of some things you may not know about the Jewish people:
There are give or take 13 million Jews in the world. Most are located in certain regions: 5.6 million in Israel, approximately 5.5 million in the U.S.A., over a million in Eastern Europe and Russia, less than half a million in Latin America, 600,000 in France and about the same number in the other remnants of the former British Empire: England, Australia, South Africa, so on. While the Jews of the wider Middle East, Ethiopia, Central Asia and India are distinct and are very important to the world's cultural and ethnic diversity, they are very small in number... a whopping majority of the world's self-identified Jews are in the U.S.A. and Israel. And in the U.S.A., a country of 300 million people, that 5.5 million is a very small number, as a percentage not much larger than the self-identified Native American/Alaska Native population.
For Judaism being considered a major world religion, having abou 15 million people out of over 6 billion people is illustrative. The world religions that Judaism compares with in numbers are Jainism (5 million) Zoroastrianism, and so on.
I also bring these numbers and comparisons up becuase if you're a Jewish person, you're maybe 3 generations removed from the Shoah. The odds of your being descended from someone who, in 1930-1948, lived in Eastern Europe, the Middle East or what became or was the Soviet Union are undeniably huge. Relatively safe harbor for the Jewish people of the Maghreb (North Africa) were destroyed in the wave of persecutions during World War II and the creation of the state of Israel, Stalin moved around all the peoples of Russia and the Soviet Union; (you'll find Polish people in the 'Stans and Siberia even today) even though not all Jews are from Europe, almost all are connected to great upheaval about 60 years ago. As the government of Israel--like those governments of oh so many Middle Eastern, (Lebanon, Egypt, Iran) Western (U.S.A., Russia) and Asian (China, Japan, Indonesia, India, the 'stans, Sri Lanka) nations--grows ever more violent, backward, isolated rom its neighbors, and the global community, and reactive, its people know they are not in a good place as a nation.
While the history of the world itself is one of relative religious bigotry and persecution, Jews did find occasional tolerance in the Arab and Muslim countries, at least, tolerance by the standards of the day. Persecutions, pogroms, massacres and expulsions (i.e. England and Spain) were less common than in Europe (particularly Northern Europe) but for the last sixty years, anti-Semtism in the Mid-east cycleed from outright hatred down to indifference or neutrality here or there. Israel stands against waves of damnable anti-Semitism.
The only viable Jewish community in the Arabic world, barring Israel/Palestine is that in Tunisia, with 2,000 Jews. You may remember hearing they were targeted by terrorists not that long ago when Djerba's El Ghriba synagogue was bombed. The Jewish community in Morocco is still extant, but scattered and few in number; they'll need a miracle to survive the next two decades. Iraq's is fucked, as would be Iran's should Bush, Blair or Olmert attack (Such boundless perversity for an Anglo or Jew to condemn thousands upon thousans of Armenians, Jews, Kurds--people who have been slaughtered enough--to death by bombing or political persecution justified by "liberating" Iran... boundlessly perverse are some of our world leaders.)
While there is anti-Semitism across the planet, the Arab world's relations with Israel are obviously more important than, say, those of the Philippines or South Africa's. Chicken or egg arguing is not of interest to me, because I'm not trying to excuse the crimes of any party here. Yes, Israel feeds the hatred against it when it employs repressive, bigoted policy. But Israel lives in fear of its neighbors while it's neighbors fear and hate Israel. The blame goes back so far, switching hands so many times the tally becomes rather pointless. Something must be done simply out of rational self-interest to assuage neighbors and further diplomacy, because diplomacy can save lives.
Most of the Jewish people, like peoples across the world who have faced genocide and present-day prejudice, hatred, and existential threat, realize they are few and far between, at least comparatively. So in the sea of choices, the path of least resistance points to: Fortress Israel.
And that is what we've seen for the last few years.
We are seeing neo-Roman walled outposts built in the West Bank, with the postmodernism and 21st century touch of water resources being added into the seizure. An Israel increasingly militarized among its own and its neighbors, diplomatically, governmentally, and waging more conflict. It is so bad that this is currently being done by the new Kadima party, which was built on Ariel Sharon's declining hope for his country's self-atonement and a new beginning with its neighbors, now managed by Ehud Olmert. Kadima is not one of Israel's particuarly right wing parties. Nor is Likud. And some of the more blatantly left-wing parties are nationalist to the extent of being against peace with Palestinians and Arabs. Those that are most peaceful hold several posts in the Knesset at best.
But is this type of Israel, a walled island surrounded by heavily armed, poor and angry Arab political factions, where the right-wingers are a blend of Bush, Putin and Chiraq, and many of the liberals really aren't interested in changing the situation with Palestine, tenable? I don't think so. And as the survey said, many Israeli youth are pessimistic about their own security.
It would have been interesting if the survey was broken down along religious lines. I have a feeling that the anxiety [in an authoritarian sense] would run higher among Haredi or Modern Orthodox, but that's just a guess, and perhaps it's secular and reform Jews who are more afriad of their neigbors inflicting damage. 62 percent said of the Israeli teens surveyed said, "there was no way another Holocaust would take place", and "one percent said they were not sure". So what's here interesting is not the prevalence of fear so much as the lopsidedness of opinion.
Israel is in a hard place because, while political diversity has a much greater outlet than we do in the States, parliamentary style government/liberal democracy grant much influence to strong minorities. (Though, since only half of our coutnry votes and Bush was elected with a 24% evangelical bloc, we technically do too). Even if secularism is increasing among youth, the hard core of Haredi and Orthodox Jews, like our Evangelicals, Conservative Catholics and Protestants here, will be present and powerful at least for our lifetimes, barring catastrophe, and they, like our own "right-wingers" contain social conservatives, racists, ultra-nationalists, authoritarians and those merely averse to change.
But change in Israel is inevitable, simply because the cycle of massive spending, death, alienation is unsustainable. Isreal could get a lot worse before it gets better, but it certainly will not stay the same, not with Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Syria and Saudi Arabia each in their own dire straits, to say nothing of the U.S. and the ever-evolving E.U. Is the driving force for Israel's next generation greater fear than they have now? Does Isreal have more right-wing government, more authoritarianism, more reactionary government, more Netanyahu's and Olmert's to look forward to?
I do see this type of governance as the easy way out as far as preventing necessary change; who is benefitting? The more rightwing and militaristic Israelis dig their heels in and refuse to listen, the more I think they're endangering their own children's future. What I can say is this: I worry for the future of the Jewish people. I hope Israel's youth can find the courage to repair a broken world.