Mayor Mamdani has been encouraging New Yorkers to take to the streets to support the Palestinian cause and protest the fact that Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, will soon be coming to the United Nations.
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Two weeks before Mamdani started this effort to stir up an antisemitic mob, the Wall Street Journal published an essay about Germany forgetting the holocaust that Germans gave to the world in the name of National Socialism.
To civilized people’s horror, the cry “Never again”—a promise that Jews would never again be the targets of a mindless, genocidal, antisemitic policy—is being overwhelmed by the return of an ancient practice: Wannabe demagogues scapegoating the Jewish people as they seek power. The fact that young people’s knowledge about the Holocaust, and even their belief in its reality, is fast fading helps these demagogues.
Nor are the 21st-century antisemitic demagogues coming up with new ideas. They’re just recycling old ones. All the way back in 1945, the then-king of Saudi Arabia (Abdul Aziz Al Saud) was already contending that a restored Nation of Israel, which was the Jewish dream for almost 2,000 years that was kept alive through continued Jewish residency on the land, and a practical goal since the 1880s, was nothing more than a dangerous response to the Holocaust. He even added the now-embraced myth that the Arabs on that land, recent refugees from other parts of the Muslim world, had the real historical claim:
Aboard the U.S.S. “Quincy” (Suez Canal), 14 February 1945
The President asked His Majesty for his advice regarding the problem of Jewish refugees driven from their homes in Europe. His Majesty replied that in his opinion the Jews should return to live in the lands from which they were driven. The Jews whose homes were completely destroyed and who have no chance of livelihood in their homelands should be given living space in the Axis countries which oppressed them. The President remarked that Poland might be considered a case in point. The Germans appear to have killed three million Polish Jews, by which count there should be space in Poland for the resettlement of many homeless Jews.
His Majesty then expounded the case of the Arabs and their legitimate rights in their lands and stated that the Arabs and the Jews could never cooperate, neither in Palestine, nor in any other country. His Majesty called attention to the increasing threat to the existence of the Arabs and the crisis which has resulted from continued Jewish immigration and the purchase of land by the Jews. His Majesty further stated that the Arabs would choose to die rather than yield their lands to the Jews.
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His Majesty stated that the hope of the Arabs is based upon the word of honor of the Allies and upon the well-known love of justice of the United States, and upon the expectation that the United States will support them.
The President replied that he wished to assure His Majesty that he would do nothing to assist the Jews against the Arabs and would make no move hostile to the Arab people. He reminded His Majesty that it is impossible to prevent speeches and resolutions in Congress or in the press which may be made on any subject. His reassurance concerned his own future policy as Chief Executive of the United States Government.
His Majesty thanked the President for his statement and mentioned the proposal to send an Arab mission to America and England to expound the case of the Arabs and Palestine. The President stated that he thought this was a very good idea because he thought many people in America and England are misinformed. His Majesty said that such a mission to inform the people was useful, but more important to him was what the President had just told him concerning his own policy toward the Arab people.
Even as people are still working to right the wrongs of the Holocaust—e.g., correcting stolen real estate titles and returning stolen art—the Mayor of New York, once America’s most Jewish city, is laying the groundwork for another one.
And of course, for those who are inclined to say, as people did in the 1930s, “I don’t like the Jews much either so I’ll see how this plays out,” Pastor Martin Niemöller’s famous words should serve as a reminder that it never plays out well…for anyone:
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First they came for the communists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a communist
then they came for the socialists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a socialist
Then they came for the trade unionists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a trade unionist
Then they came for the Jews
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Jew
Then they came for me
And there was no one left
To speak out for me
Image created using AI.
John L. Smith is a pseudonym.