Country of ghosts

Like the little boy in the movie "The Sixth Sense," wherever I go in Israel
"I see dead people." Israel's Jewish population is ca. 6 million, as many
as were murdered in Europe in the Holocaust by the combined forces of Nazi
hatred and Christian indifference.
Millions of Jews were murdered over the centuries in continual pogroms,
massacres and wars. This was as true in Muslim areas as it was in Christian
Europe. In both places onerous taxes were placed on Jews in order to limit
and reduce the population. In Russia, under the Czars a deliberate policy
of poverty was enforced on the Jews, they were not allowed to work outside
the "Pale of settlement" and many professions were forbidden to them. In a
notorious statement the infamous anti-Semitic Church Minister Pobedontsev
said in 1881, "Government policy is designed so that one third of Jews will
emigrate, one third will convert and the remaining third will die."
In Germany and France there were strong Government-sponsored policies to
convert Jews to Christianity as well as parallel moves in Islamic states.
This was especially successful in Germany where in every generation a large
proportion of Jews converted, many out of necessity in order to obtain jobs,
but many in order to merge into the "superior" majority. It has been
estimated that 25% of Germans today have some "Jewish blood" in them as well
as a similar percentage in Spain, where many were forcibly converted in
order to avoid death or the expulsion in 1492 (the so-called conversos).
In many of the countries where anti-Semitism was rife there was a minority
of self-hating former Jews who had converted and regarded their former
co-religionists as a threat to their acceptance by the society at large. In
fact, these converts often regarded the Jews coming from Eastern Europe,
mainly Polish Jews, as inferior and adopted very anti-Semitic attitudes
towards them. How else were they to show the people they wished to be
accepted by that they shared their prejudices. The famous German-Jewish
industrialist and politician Walther Rathenau declared in 1915 "I have no
other blood than German, I share nothing with the Jews." Of course, this
did not stop Germans hating him when he became German FM, and he was
assassinated by ultra-nationalists soon after. As Theodor Herzl said in
1896 "we have honestly endeavored everywhere to merge ourselves in the
social life of surrounding communities...in vain are we loyal patriots...If
we could only be left in peace, but I think we shall not be left in peace."
It is tragic that Jewish liberals and left-wing socialists were very
concerned for the suffering of the working class, but not at all concerned
about the suffering of the Jews. On the contrary, they played into the
hands of the anti-Semitic lower classes by constantly attacking "Jewish
capitalists," being blinded to the consequences of their prejudices.
Ferdinand Lasalle, Jewish founder of the German Labor movement, following
the example of Karl Marx, said "I do not like the Jews at all, I even detest
them in general.." If this attitude did not have a pathological core, that
we know popularly as Jewish self-hatred, it is difficult to understand
otherwise. These attitudes resulted in greater alienation from the Jewish
community the more liberal the society superficially appeared to become.
In Israel since independence it is estimated that ca. 30,000 Jews have been
killed in combat and by terrorism. Perhaps it will someday stop, but it
doesn't seem likely.
It is estimated that around the end of the Biblical period there were ca. 10
million Jews living in the Middle East. With natural increase it is
estimated that today that would have resulted in a Jewish population of ca.
200 million. In fact, as we know there are barely 13 million Jews in the
world today, nearly half of them in Israel and most of the rest in the USA.
Given the rate at which Jews in the diaspora are rushing to inter-marry,
resulting in a decrease in the world's Jewish population, there is little
likelihood that the number of Jews will ever reach the pre-WWII population
of some 16 million.
So is it any wonder that wherever I go in Israel I see dead people. But, I
also see live Jews too.