Hear O Israel

When I told family and friends I was coming to Argentina for a year, I was often told - sometimes jokingly - to watch out for anti-Semitism. I was advised that I might want to take off my Jewish star and not be so forthright about my heritage. This is, after all, the place where Eichmann was found.

I shrugged off the warnings. I have long thought fears of anti-Semitism are exaggerated. For me, anti-Semitism was something of the past.

Of course, the Middle East is plagued with virulent Jew-hatred, but this never really concerned me. Should we really be so surprised or offended that the Palestinians burn Israeli flags? And the Egyptians who claim that the Jews were behind 9/11? Well, there are always conspiracy theories. The Iranian president thinks Israel is a stinking corpse? He has to inspire hatred against Israel or the Iranians might realize the corruption in his own government.

Last night, however, I learned that the anti-Semitism so prevalent in the Middle East is not just about Israel.

I was watching "TVR," part informal news program, talk show, and comedy. The first part of the show was the "Subject of the Week" - the bailout. This show, however, said barely anything of substance about the financial issues. Instead, it basically said that the bailout was a cushion for wealthy, greedy investment bankers who messed up. It lampooned Bush in a faux-interview and song that essentially stated he gambled with his foreign and economic policy as if it were a game. I'm all for political satire, especially satire that mocks President Bush, but this news section was so shallow that it seemed not only anti-Bush but anti-American as well.

The next section of the news was what I found most disturbing - clips of a recent Argentinean Nazi rally. Hundreds of men gathered in Buenos Aires raising their right hands in Heil Hitler fashion extolling the Nazi party - "Death to the Yankees, Jews and Marxists!" One reporter asked a protestor why he was against the Jews. His response? We're Catholic. We're Argentinean. Essentially, in the words of James Baker, "F the Jews."

I think all Jewish kids have nightmares about the Nazis when they're little. But this was the first time in my life that I felt real fear of anti-Semitism. This protest was not organized by fundamentalist Muslims in Cairo, or a rogue group of white supremacists in suburban Illinois. This was a large, organized group in the Argentinean capitol - the center of the capitol, no less.

What worries me most is the specific groups that these Nazis oppose - Yankees, Jews and Marxists. The Arabs tie the Yankees to the Jews, and during the Cold War, some tied the Marxists to the Jews, but to tie the Jews to both? If it weren't so dangerous, it'd be laughable.

So what are these Nazis really targetting? My opinion: the upper-class and its wealth.

The U.S. has lost pretty much all of its fanbase, but it's in the poorest countries that anti-Americanism is at its peak. Groups like al Qaeda channelled Muslim poverty and anger into a brand of Islam fundamentally opposed to the "imperialism" of the U.S. The U.S. is far from perfect and I do believe that we have caused a number of problems around the world. The anti-Americanism of the Middle East, however, is not simply frustration with our invasion of Iraq; it is largely blind hatred for everything American. Al Qaeda preaches against the excesses of everything about America's "imperialism" - from its stance on Israel to McDonalds. "And by the way," Al Qaeda adds, "hate the Jews also."

Argentina is nowhere near as corrupt or undemocratic as countries like Iran or Syria, but it still has its problems. As I wrote in other blog posts, many Argentineans are disappointed or embarrassed by their country's instability. I don't find it so surprising that some of those disgruntled Argentineans, rather than demonstrating for domestic political reform, turn their anger against America as well.

Of course, however, they don't stop with America. They go on to Marxists and Jews. Why Marxists? Hitler hated Marxists. Why Jews? Partly because Hitler hated the Jews. But I also think its because the Jews are always associated with power, money and the upper-class. "Power and money" says America. "Power and money multiplied by 10 since the beginning of time" says Jews.

American Jews often think that the anti-Semitism of the twenty-first century comes from anti-Zionist ultra left-wing, intellectual circles. This is true to an extent. The majority of the pro-Palestinian academics are indeed liberals. But I believe firmly that being anti-Israel is not inherently anti-Semitic, and that the majority of these liberal intellectuals are not anti-Semitic. Many of them are Jewish themselves.

That is not to say that anti-Semitism is a thing of the past, as I used to think. After watching disappointed Argentineans turn to anti-Semitism in their frustration with Argentinean policy that has absolutely nothing to do with Judaism, I now realize that widespread American anti-Semitism is still a very real possibility in the very near future.

Which brings me to Sarah Palin. I should begin by saying that I don't think Sarah Palin herself is at all anti-Semitic. I think when she expressed strong pro-Israel sentiment at the debate it was honest - shallow, but honest. The way that Sarah Palin has transformed John McCain's campaign in the last few weeks, however, shows me that Palin's rhetoric could very well lead the country down a path towards anti-Semitism.

Those who are anti-Semitic are not only resentful of the wealth of the upper-class. Al Qaeda made all things at all related to America, Israel or Judaism sinister.

In her own way, Sarah Palin has done the same to all things Democratic or liberal. Sarah Palin has created her own bizarre form of class warfare and turned it into culture warfare. Sarah Palin claims to represent ordinary, middle-class Americans, but she doesn't focus on the minimum wage, unionization, or middle-class tax breaks. (Maybe that's because she doesn't actually believe in these things).

No, Sarah Palin has made this election about the way that Barack Obama sees the world and the way that "we" see the world. When Barack Obama infamously said that voters who are tired of ineffectual government cling to guns and religion, he was essentially describing McCain's newest campaign strategy. Palin has turned this election into Joe Sixpacks and Hockey Moms vs. the East Coast blue states, progressives, secularism, the well-educated, the city-slickers and the "elitists."

There is no group that fits all of those categories better than American Jews.

If this kind of political speech continues past November, America's partisanship will reach far beyond the current ugliness in Congress. Obama began his national political career with a speech about the unity of all Americans in spite of our differences. Palin has not only torn America apart; she has torn it apart by inspiring fear of this Maybe-a-Muslim Obama (and yes, I know that she has never explicitly said anything so offensive, but let's not beat around the bush. Her stump speeches are really about one thing - an uppity black man who pals around with terrorists). When fear takes hold of a candidate's platform - unfounded fear, based on the opposition's race, heritage and acquaintances instead of his policies - we have entered dangerous territory.

We have entered the same territory that allowed Hitler to pin Germany's problems to the Jews; the same territory that allows Ahmadinejad to pin Iran's problems on the Jews; the same territory that allows Arab and African immigrants in France to pin their problems on the Jews; the same territory that allows a disgruntled, Argentinean minority to pin their problems on the Jews.

Palin's combination of Islamophobia and resentment of the liberal groups is particularly deadly because those groups point directly at American Jews. It won't be long before Joe Sixpack makes that connection.