I’m going to preface this by saying that this is not the blog post I wanted to write today. No, I had something much more fun in mind, something related to something I enjoy talking about (writing and Star Wars, to put it in brief.) Later this week, we get back to talking about fun stuff, including my Galaxy Ascendant series.
So you may have seen this news story shared around lately. If you’re Jewish, I guarantee you have. To summarize it in brief, a Polish village revived a tradition to hang,beat, & burn an effigy of Judas Iscariot, and said effigy was made to look like a Hareidi Jew. Also some Poles are mad at the US ambassador to sharing Pesach (Passover) greetings with Jews while not doing the same for Easter at the same time (those greetings were saved for Sunday).
We’re being told we should be very angry about this, and to direct that anger at Poles and Poland. I’m breaking with most Jews, including even many on the broad “right,” with whom I generally agree with on most issues when I ask why in the world should I care?
Before you (potentially) let emotions dictate your reaction, hear me out. Currently, we are seeing Yair Lapid, co-head of Israel’s second largest political party, going on and on about “Polish hatred of Jews.” (For now we’ll ignore the fact that he personally despises Hareidi Jews, who the effigy looks most like.) He is calling on Prime Minister Netanyahu to “condemn” this.
Someone please explain what business the prime minister of Israel has condemning something done in some random, unimportant town in Poland (something not government organized sanctioned)? It’s very clear that this is yet another attempt by leftist Jews to force a rift between Israel and its Visgerad Group allies, all nationalist, overall right-leaning countries who are our natural allies against the leftist and anti-Israel European Union and against Islam. A small little nationalist block of allies is forming, and it scares the left, so they attack. We’ve seen this before, with the mountain out of a molehill made of Poland’s Holocaust law, and and with something so insignificant I can’t even recall precisely what it was with Hungary. Every time, Lapid is front and center, of course.
Setting that larger political agenda aside, however, let’s return to this specific incident. Is it antisemitic? Yeah, I think so. Is it representative of all Poles, or of the Polish state? No, I don’t think so. Is it our business to police them? Of course not.
There are many Jews who cannot forget what happened in Poland during World War II, and who do not wish to forgive the Polish people, or even to move on from that, understanding that the Poles alive today are not those people. I can understand that approach, but it’s also fundamentally flawed. As I already said, you cannot tarnish the reputations of people today with people back then; it’s intellectually dishonest. Do Poles have some sort of genetic predisposition to Jew-hating, as some claim? I personally don’t think so, but if you do, conduct a proper study, somehow, and prove it. The fact is that Poland in Israel are allies today. Whether that’s simply because we share enemies or not is immaterial. Antisemitism does exist, and I am by no means saying we must completely ignore it all, nor am I saying we should forget the past. But have some perspective, please!
There are millions of people out there in the world who genuinely want us dead, and who actively try and realize that goal. However much the Poles in this irrelevant village might despise us, they do not fall into that category, so far as I can tell. Therefore, I do not care. Focus our fire on the real enemy, even if it’s inconvenient because of their religion or the color of their skin.
People need to stop reacting emotionally to things like this. Yes, it’s bad, and I don’t seeing it, but as far as problems go, as far as threats to the Jewish people go, it is as irrelevant as the village it took place in. Understand that much of the outrage you’re seeing around this is manufactured by the Left, by the Israeli “deep state,” by Jews trapped in the exile mindset, specifically to undermine Israel’s alliances and weaken its position in the international arena just when it needs to be at its strongest.
Another thing worth mentioning here before we conclude is that, if you accept the condemnation of Poles as a whole over this one tiny incident, then by that logic you must accept the attacks made on Jews for the actions of a few who do not represent us all. I do not people can or should be judged in that way, this I reject this line of thinking. As should anyone else capable of thinking critically and being objective. It is a dangerous game to play, and as the benefits to playing it are non-existent, it is something that I advise no one to play, especially Jews.
But that’s just one Jew’s opinion.
Writing, Ascendant 