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A Lethal Obsession: Anti-semitism from Antiquity to the Global Jihad
In this unprecedented work two decades in the making, leading historian Robert S. Wistrich examines the long and ugly history of anti-Semitism, from the first recorded pogrom in 38 BCE to its shocking and widespread resurgence in the present day. As no other book has done before it, A Lethal Obsession reveals the causes behind this shameful and persistent form of hatred and offers a sobering look at how it may shake and reshape the world in years to come.
Here are the fascinating and long-forgotten roots of the “Jewish difference”–the violence that greeted the Jewish Diaspora in first-century Alexandria. Wistrich suggests that the idea of a formless God who passed down a universal moral law to a chosen few deeply disconcerted the pagan world. The early leaders of Christianity increased their strength by painting these “superior” Jews as a cosmic and satanic evil, and by the time of the Crusades, murdering a “Christ killer” had become an act of conscience.
Moving seamlessly through centuries of war and dissidence, A Lethal Obsession powerfully portrays the creation of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, the fateful anti-Semitic tract commissioned by Russia’s tsarist secret police at the end of the nineteenth century–and the prediction by Theodor Herzl, Austrian founder of political Zionism, of eventual disaster for the Jews in Europe.
The twentieth century fulfilled this dark prophecy, with the horrifying ascent of Hitler’s Third Reich. Yet, as Wistrich disturbingly suggests, the end of World War II failed to neutralize the “Judeophobic virus”: Pogroms and prejudice continued in Soviet-controlled territories and in the Arab-Muslim world that would fan flames for new decades of distrust, malice, and violence.
Here, in pointed and devastating detail, is our own world, one in which jihadi terrorists and the radical left blame Israel for all global ills. In his concluding chapters, Wistrich warns of a possible nuclear “Final Solution” at the hands of Iran, a land in which a formerly prosperous Jewish community has declined in both fortunes and freedoms.
Dazzling in scope and erudition, A Lethal Obsession is a riveting masterwork of investigative nonfiction, the definitive work on this unsettling yet essential subject. It is destined to become an indispensable source for any student of world affairs.
Here are the fascinating and long-forgotten roots of the “Jewish difference”–the violence that greeted the Jewish Diaspora in first-century Alexandria. Wistrich suggests that the idea of a formless God who passed down a universal moral law to a chosen few deeply disconcerted the pagan world. The early leaders of Christianity increased their strength by painting these “superior” Jews as a cosmic and satanic evil, and by the time of the Crusades, murdering a “Christ killer” had become an act of conscience.
Moving seamlessly through centuries of war and dissidence, A Lethal Obsession powerfully portrays the creation of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, the fateful anti-Semitic tract commissioned by Russia’s tsarist secret police at the end of the nineteenth century–and the prediction by Theodor Herzl, Austrian founder of political Zionism, of eventual disaster for the Jews in Europe.
The twentieth century fulfilled this dark prophecy, with the horrifying ascent of Hitler’s Third Reich. Yet, as Wistrich disturbingly suggests, the end of World War II failed to neutralize the “Judeophobic virus”: Pogroms and prejudice continued in Soviet-controlled territories and in the Arab-Muslim world that would fan flames for new decades of distrust, malice, and violence.
Here, in pointed and devastating detail, is our own world, one in which jihadi terrorists and the radical left blame Israel for all global ills. In his concluding chapters, Wistrich warns of a possible nuclear “Final Solution” at the hands of Iran, a land in which a formerly prosperous Jewish community has declined in both fortunes and freedoms.
Dazzling in scope and erudition, A Lethal Obsession is a riveting masterwork of investigative nonfiction, the definitive work on this unsettling yet essential subject. It is destined to become an indispensable source for any student of world affairs.
1200 pages, Hardcover
First published November 10, 2009
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July 25, 2021
A vast tome revealing and analyzing the shocking reality of Jew-hatred today. Dissects and explores the roots of this frightening and revolting phenomenon.
The author abundantly shows how it is a dangerous myth that anti-Semitism can only come form the far-right and points out that people who believe this falsehood are caught in a seventy year time warp. Similarly there is a bizarre idea propagated by the left and liberals that people of Third world origin such as Blacks and Muslims cannot be anti-Semitic and that anti-Semitism is a purely White phenomenon-this is clearly preposterous to any logical and honest person.
In this large volume, Wistrich captures the venom and records for our use and vital understanding about how all the ills of the world today are blamed by Islamists and the radical left on the tiny state of Israel, which is demonized and blood libeled , Israel's people are repulsively labelled as Nazis and accused of all manner of blood libels and their murder justified, ultimately resulting in what the author refers to accurately as a ' a warrant for genocide'.
This book exposes the intensity of the culture of genocidal hatred extant in the media, mosques and universities today, to name a few of the sources.
The three totalitarian ideologies that have caused so much death and destruction in the last century, Communism , Nazism and Islamism have all taken Jew-hatred and the new anti-Semitism, Israel hatred to the heart of their ideology.
The Soviet Union from the 1960s demonized the Zionist movement and the Jewish State as bent on world domination and controlling the economies of the major Western capitalist states, and working for the enslavement of the Arab world and other Third World peoples. This propaganda has outlived communist rule in the USSR and is the staple diet of the Western Left and various parts of the Third World (such as Venezuela, Cuba and South Africa).
Witrich pulls no punches in showing the horrific scope of today;s manifestation of the world's oldest hatred. If you substitute the word 'Jew' for 'Zionist' you will see little difference between Leftist/Islamist propaganda and Nazi propagnda of the Hitler era.
After all the Nazis aimed for the eradication of the Jews of Europe, the anti-Zionists aim for the eradication of the Jewish State and the ethnic cleansing of the levant of all Jews. Israel accounts for 40% of world Jewry and is the largest Jewish community in the world. The destruction of Israel would certainly lead to the death or displacement of five million Jews, so in point of fact anti-Zionism amounts to very little difference to Nazi anti-Semitism.
Wistrich explores Israel-hatred in Europe, the Third World and the Islamic world and none of it makes for a pretty picture.
Witrich condemns the sheer hypocrisy of left-wing Israel-haters " The same radical left that foams at the mouth at the very mention of Israel/Palestine has little difficulty in closing it's eyes to the religious and gender apartheid in Islam, the murderous crimes of such Communist leaders as Stalin, Mao and Pol Pot, not to mention the mass murders in Africa from Idi Amin in the 1970s to Rwanda over a decade ago and Sudan today. While real massacres are ignored, a huge propaganda effort continues to be invested globally in pillorying Israel as a perpetrator of genocide. This far transcends the Left since it also involves the United Nations, the Arab states, the Muslim world, non government organizations and parts of the Western media who black out Israeli victims of suicide bombers"
Most leftwing and liberal anti-Zionists in the West often mask their hostility by a highly selective humanitarianism that sees only Palestinians as worthy of compassion. And the modern extreme left don't only want to appease Muslims . they chant 'We are all Hamas now' and they have a vicious rage against Israel and desperately want to see all Jews uprooted from Israel, a judenrein Middle East.
Witrich disproves many lies and myths about the conflict including that Israel resembles Apartheid South Africa, and that the Zionists collaborated with the Nazis prior and during the Second World War.
He dissects anti-Israel prejudice in Britain and explores the venomous rantings of the likes of anti-Jewish/anti-Israel intellectual and political bigots such as George Galloway, Jenny Tonge, Robert Fisk, John Pilger and Tam Dalyell. He also quotes those brave and lone voices such as Melanie Philips and Julie Burchill who have stood up to this hatred.
Julie Burchill explaining why she left the highly noxious Guardian for the more balanced The Times explained that as a non-Jew she observed a 'quite striking bias against Israel...which for all it's faults is the only country in that barren region that you or I, or any feminist, atheist, homosexual or trade unionist could bear to live under".
Burchill points out that anti-Americanism and anti-Semitism are the only forms of prejudice that still unite left and right. She expressed her revulsion at the "slime of hypocritical hatred"
Their are frightening and revealing chapters on the Red-Green Axis in Europe and the repulsive phenomenon of Jewish elites who have dedicated their lives to hatred of and determination to harm the Jewish State, such as Noam Chomsky, Norman Finkelstein, Lenni Brenner, Michael Neumann and Jacqueline Rose. In recent years Finkelstein who has openly praised Hamas and Hezbollah and condoned their terrorism against Israeli civilians has become 'the go to Jewish-icon for Islamists, neo-Nazis Holocaust deniers, and deluded leftists determined to believe that demonic Israel is the source of all their woes".
Denial of the Holocaust is another mainstay of Islamic Jew-hatred and Israelophobia.
In exploring Arab and Islamo-Fascist Jew-hatred Wistrich traces the history of Hitler's close ally and collaborator Mufti Haj Amin Al Husseini , Arafat, the PLO, Nasser, Hamas , Hezbollah and the IslamoNazi Khamenei/Ahmadinejad regime in Iran.
Shocking examples of this bottomless venom include the statements of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah that one of the central reasons for the creation of Hezbollah has been the violent eradication of Israel "That is the principal objective of Hezbollah...As we see it this is a cancerous state and the root of all the crises and wars and cannot be factor in bringing about a true and just peace in the region". The roots of anti-Zionist hatred in the Muslim world lie with the resentment of the Jews becoming equals that the Jewish State of Israel meant as the Jews had always been a despised and subservient minority, The idea of a state-no matter how small-in the heart of Arab Islam, ruled by Jews, was too much to bear, and the insult was compounded by the defeats the lowly-regarded Jews had dealt the Arabs after the many Arab attacks on Israel and the Levantine Jews before that.
There is a revealing Chatterton on the current globalization of Jew =hatred and its roots.
Not only is the world War II collaboration between Hitler and the mufti covered bu so too is the post-World War II collaboration of the Nazis with the Arab regimes of Egypt an Syria.
Egyptian anti-Semitism was much influenced in Nasser's time by the Nazis who had been given refuge in that country especially after 1953. These Nazis worked on the anti-Zionist propaganda network as well as on building up weapons of mass destruction and Nasser's ruthless secret service.
One of the most notorious of Nasser's Nazis was Johann von Leers who translated the Elders of the Protocols of Zion into Arabic and became a political adviser and propagandist for the regime, eventually converting to Islam and adopting the name Omar Amin. Others included Loiuis Heiden, formerly of the Reich Security Main Office, who under the name of Louis al Hadj translated Meim Kampf into Arabic.
The spiritual guide to Hezbollah sheik Muhammad Husayn Fadallah has said that even if all Jews in Israel converted to Islam they would still have to leave or die, as their 'blood is tainted with the crimes of Zionism'
Hamas and Hezbollah leaders have both expressed praise for the 'noble acts' of killing 'Zionists' ESPECIALLY they have noted WOMEN and children.
In 2002, Muhammad Tantawi, chief Mufti of Egypt and sheik of Al Azhar has declared that Muslims must return to the teachings of Islam "in order to fight against Allah's enemy and to cleanse the sacred ground of the Jews."
Tantawi issued a fatwa in 2002 stating that assassins should be considered as martyrs especially of Jewish women and children were killed in the attacks.
The author disproves the myth that Jews were well treated and prospered under Islamic rule through the centuries and actually points out that the tradition of the yellow badge that Jews were forced to wear by the Nazis during the Holocaust, originated in Baghdad, and has been revived in Iran today.
In fact the real reason for Arab rage against the concept of a sovereign Jewish state in the Middle East is rooted in the fact that the Arab Muslims had dominated Jews and kept Jews in a subordinate and downtrodden Dhimmi position for so long, that the idea of Jewish sovereignty, of Jews being equal to Muslims was anathema and an insult to Arab pride.
There had always been a Jewish population in Palestine, mainly urban, which was wretchedly poor and treated as dhimmi or second class subjects.
These Jews (mainly in Jerusalem) "had to pass Muslims on the left side, because that was the side of Satan. They had to yield the right of way, step off the pavement to let the Arab go by above all to make sure not to touch him as this could provoke a violent response. In the same way anything that reminded the Muslim of the presence of alternative forms of worship had to be avoided so synagogues were placed in humble, hidden places and the sound of Jewish prayer was carefully muted"
The last two chapters detail the Iranian Islamo-Nazi regime and the goals and ideology of the late Ayatollah Khomeini and the Iranian supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad today,and Ahmadinejads's repeated vows to wipe Israel off the map and his nuclear weapons programme being built with the express purpose of doing so.
It is worth concluding with the words of scholar Mathias Kuntzel that "Just as Hitler sought to 'liberate' humanity by murdering Jews, so Ahmadinejad believes he can ;liberate' humanity by eradicating Israel"
The author abundantly shows how it is a dangerous myth that anti-Semitism can only come form the far-right and points out that people who believe this falsehood are caught in a seventy year time warp. Similarly there is a bizarre idea propagated by the left and liberals that people of Third world origin such as Blacks and Muslims cannot be anti-Semitic and that anti-Semitism is a purely White phenomenon-this is clearly preposterous to any logical and honest person.
In this large volume, Wistrich captures the venom and records for our use and vital understanding about how all the ills of the world today are blamed by Islamists and the radical left on the tiny state of Israel, which is demonized and blood libeled , Israel's people are repulsively labelled as Nazis and accused of all manner of blood libels and their murder justified, ultimately resulting in what the author refers to accurately as a ' a warrant for genocide'.
This book exposes the intensity of the culture of genocidal hatred extant in the media, mosques and universities today, to name a few of the sources.
The three totalitarian ideologies that have caused so much death and destruction in the last century, Communism , Nazism and Islamism have all taken Jew-hatred and the new anti-Semitism, Israel hatred to the heart of their ideology.
The Soviet Union from the 1960s demonized the Zionist movement and the Jewish State as bent on world domination and controlling the economies of the major Western capitalist states, and working for the enslavement of the Arab world and other Third World peoples. This propaganda has outlived communist rule in the USSR and is the staple diet of the Western Left and various parts of the Third World (such as Venezuela, Cuba and South Africa).
Witrich pulls no punches in showing the horrific scope of today;s manifestation of the world's oldest hatred. If you substitute the word 'Jew' for 'Zionist' you will see little difference between Leftist/Islamist propaganda and Nazi propagnda of the Hitler era.
After all the Nazis aimed for the eradication of the Jews of Europe, the anti-Zionists aim for the eradication of the Jewish State and the ethnic cleansing of the levant of all Jews. Israel accounts for 40% of world Jewry and is the largest Jewish community in the world. The destruction of Israel would certainly lead to the death or displacement of five million Jews, so in point of fact anti-Zionism amounts to very little difference to Nazi anti-Semitism.
Wistrich explores Israel-hatred in Europe, the Third World and the Islamic world and none of it makes for a pretty picture.
Witrich condemns the sheer hypocrisy of left-wing Israel-haters " The same radical left that foams at the mouth at the very mention of Israel/Palestine has little difficulty in closing it's eyes to the religious and gender apartheid in Islam, the murderous crimes of such Communist leaders as Stalin, Mao and Pol Pot, not to mention the mass murders in Africa from Idi Amin in the 1970s to Rwanda over a decade ago and Sudan today. While real massacres are ignored, a huge propaganda effort continues to be invested globally in pillorying Israel as a perpetrator of genocide. This far transcends the Left since it also involves the United Nations, the Arab states, the Muslim world, non government organizations and parts of the Western media who black out Israeli victims of suicide bombers"
Most leftwing and liberal anti-Zionists in the West often mask their hostility by a highly selective humanitarianism that sees only Palestinians as worthy of compassion. And the modern extreme left don't only want to appease Muslims . they chant 'We are all Hamas now' and they have a vicious rage against Israel and desperately want to see all Jews uprooted from Israel, a judenrein Middle East.
Witrich disproves many lies and myths about the conflict including that Israel resembles Apartheid South Africa, and that the Zionists collaborated with the Nazis prior and during the Second World War.
He dissects anti-Israel prejudice in Britain and explores the venomous rantings of the likes of anti-Jewish/anti-Israel intellectual and political bigots such as George Galloway, Jenny Tonge, Robert Fisk, John Pilger and Tam Dalyell. He also quotes those brave and lone voices such as Melanie Philips and Julie Burchill who have stood up to this hatred.
Julie Burchill explaining why she left the highly noxious Guardian for the more balanced The Times explained that as a non-Jew she observed a 'quite striking bias against Israel...which for all it's faults is the only country in that barren region that you or I, or any feminist, atheist, homosexual or trade unionist could bear to live under".
Burchill points out that anti-Americanism and anti-Semitism are the only forms of prejudice that still unite left and right. She expressed her revulsion at the "slime of hypocritical hatred"
Their are frightening and revealing chapters on the Red-Green Axis in Europe and the repulsive phenomenon of Jewish elites who have dedicated their lives to hatred of and determination to harm the Jewish State, such as Noam Chomsky, Norman Finkelstein, Lenni Brenner, Michael Neumann and Jacqueline Rose. In recent years Finkelstein who has openly praised Hamas and Hezbollah and condoned their terrorism against Israeli civilians has become 'the go to Jewish-icon for Islamists, neo-Nazis Holocaust deniers, and deluded leftists determined to believe that demonic Israel is the source of all their woes".
Denial of the Holocaust is another mainstay of Islamic Jew-hatred and Israelophobia.
In exploring Arab and Islamo-Fascist Jew-hatred Wistrich traces the history of Hitler's close ally and collaborator Mufti Haj Amin Al Husseini , Arafat, the PLO, Nasser, Hamas , Hezbollah and the IslamoNazi Khamenei/Ahmadinejad regime in Iran.
Shocking examples of this bottomless venom include the statements of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah that one of the central reasons for the creation of Hezbollah has been the violent eradication of Israel "That is the principal objective of Hezbollah...As we see it this is a cancerous state and the root of all the crises and wars and cannot be factor in bringing about a true and just peace in the region". The roots of anti-Zionist hatred in the Muslim world lie with the resentment of the Jews becoming equals that the Jewish State of Israel meant as the Jews had always been a despised and subservient minority, The idea of a state-no matter how small-in the heart of Arab Islam, ruled by Jews, was too much to bear, and the insult was compounded by the defeats the lowly-regarded Jews had dealt the Arabs after the many Arab attacks on Israel and the Levantine Jews before that.
There is a revealing Chatterton on the current globalization of Jew =hatred and its roots.
Not only is the world War II collaboration between Hitler and the mufti covered bu so too is the post-World War II collaboration of the Nazis with the Arab regimes of Egypt an Syria.
Egyptian anti-Semitism was much influenced in Nasser's time by the Nazis who had been given refuge in that country especially after 1953. These Nazis worked on the anti-Zionist propaganda network as well as on building up weapons of mass destruction and Nasser's ruthless secret service.
One of the most notorious of Nasser's Nazis was Johann von Leers who translated the Elders of the Protocols of Zion into Arabic and became a political adviser and propagandist for the regime, eventually converting to Islam and adopting the name Omar Amin. Others included Loiuis Heiden, formerly of the Reich Security Main Office, who under the name of Louis al Hadj translated Meim Kampf into Arabic.
The spiritual guide to Hezbollah sheik Muhammad Husayn Fadallah has said that even if all Jews in Israel converted to Islam they would still have to leave or die, as their 'blood is tainted with the crimes of Zionism'
Hamas and Hezbollah leaders have both expressed praise for the 'noble acts' of killing 'Zionists' ESPECIALLY they have noted WOMEN and children.
In 2002, Muhammad Tantawi, chief Mufti of Egypt and sheik of Al Azhar has declared that Muslims must return to the teachings of Islam "in order to fight against Allah's enemy and to cleanse the sacred ground of the Jews."
Tantawi issued a fatwa in 2002 stating that assassins should be considered as martyrs especially of Jewish women and children were killed in the attacks.
The author disproves the myth that Jews were well treated and prospered under Islamic rule through the centuries and actually points out that the tradition of the yellow badge that Jews were forced to wear by the Nazis during the Holocaust, originated in Baghdad, and has been revived in Iran today.
In fact the real reason for Arab rage against the concept of a sovereign Jewish state in the Middle East is rooted in the fact that the Arab Muslims had dominated Jews and kept Jews in a subordinate and downtrodden Dhimmi position for so long, that the idea of Jewish sovereignty, of Jews being equal to Muslims was anathema and an insult to Arab pride.
There had always been a Jewish population in Palestine, mainly urban, which was wretchedly poor and treated as dhimmi or second class subjects.
These Jews (mainly in Jerusalem) "had to pass Muslims on the left side, because that was the side of Satan. They had to yield the right of way, step off the pavement to let the Arab go by above all to make sure not to touch him as this could provoke a violent response. In the same way anything that reminded the Muslim of the presence of alternative forms of worship had to be avoided so synagogues were placed in humble, hidden places and the sound of Jewish prayer was carefully muted"
The last two chapters detail the Iranian Islamo-Nazi regime and the goals and ideology of the late Ayatollah Khomeini and the Iranian supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad today,and Ahmadinejads's repeated vows to wipe Israel off the map and his nuclear weapons programme being built with the express purpose of doing so.
It is worth concluding with the words of scholar Mathias Kuntzel that "Just as Hitler sought to 'liberate' humanity by murdering Jews, so Ahmadinejad believes he can ;liberate' humanity by eradicating Israel"
December 1, 2021
A vast tome revealing and analyzing the shocking reality of Jew-hatred today. Dissects and explores the roots of this frightening and revolting phenomenon.
The author abundantly shows how it is a dangerous myth that anti-Semitism can only come form the far-right and points out that people who believe this falsehood are caught in a seventy year time warp.
In this large volume, Wistrich captures the venom and records for our use and vital understanding about how all the ills of the world today are blamed by Islamists and the radical left on the tiny state of Israel, which is demonized and blood libeled , Israel's people are repulsively labelled as Nazis and accused of all manner of blood libels and their murder justified, ultimately resulting in what the author refers to accurately as a ' a warrant for genocide'.
This book exposes the intensity of the culture of genocidal hatred extant in the media, mosques and universities today, to name a few of the sources.
The three totalitarian ideologies that have caused so much death and destruction in the last century, Communism , Nazism and Islamism have all taken Jew-hatred and the new anti-Semitism, Israel hatred to the heart of their ideology.
The Soviet Union from the 1960s demonized the Zionist movement and the Jewish State as bent on world domination and controlling the economies of the major Western capitalist states, and working for the enslavement of the Arab world and other Third World peoples. This propaganda has outlived communist rule in the USSR and is the staple diet of the Western Left and various parts of the Third World (such as Venezuela, Cuba and South Africa).
Witrich pulls no punches in showing the horrific scope of today;s manifestation of the world's oldest hatred. If you substitute the word 'Jew' for 'Zionist' you will see little difference between Leftist/Islamist propaganda and Nazi propagnda of the Hitler era.
After all the Nazis aimed for the eradication of the Jews of Europe, the anti-Zionists aim for the eradication of the Jewish State and the ethnic cleansing of the levant of all Jews. Israel accounts for 40% of world Jewry and is the largest Jewish community in the world. The destruction of Israel would certainly lead to the death or displacement of five million Jews, so in point of fact anti-Zionism amounts to very little difference to Nazi anti-Semitism.
Witrich explores Israel-hatred in Europe, the Third World and the Islamic world and none of it makes for a pretty picture.
Witrich condemns the sheer hypocrisy of left-wing Israel-haters " The same radical left that foams at the mouth at the very mention of Israel/Palestine has little difficulty in closing it's eyes to the religious and gender apartheid in Islam, the murderous crimes of such Communist leaders as Stalin, Mao and Pol Pot, not to mention the mass murders in Africa from Idi Amin in the 1970s to Rwanda over a decade ago and Sudan today. While real massacres are ignored, a huge propaganda effort continues to be invested globally in pillorying Israel as a perpetrator of genocide. This far transcends the Left since it also involves the United Nations, the Arab states, the Muslim world, non government organizations and parts of the Western media who black out Israeli victims of suicide bombers"
Most leftwing and liberal anti-Zionists in the West often mask their hostility by a highly selective humanitarianism that sees only Palestinians as worthy of compassion.
Witrich disproves many lies and myths about the conflict including that Israel resembles Apartheid South Africa, and that the Zionists collaborated with the Nazis prior and during the Second World War.
He dissects anti-Israel prejudice in Britain and explores the venomous rantings of the likes of anti-Jewish/anti-Israel intellectual and political bigots such as George Galloway, Jenny Tonge, Robert Fisk, John Pilger and Tam Dalyell. He also quotes those brave and lone voices such as Melanie Philips and Julie Burchill who have stood up to this hatred.
Julie Burchill explaining why she left the highly noxious Guardian for the more balanced The Times explained that as a non-Jew she observed a 'quite striking bias against Israel...which for all it's faults is the only country in that barren region that you or I, or any feminist, atheist, homosexual or trade unionist could bear to live under".
Burchill points out that anti-Americanism and anti-Semitism are the only forms of prejudice that still unite left and right. She expressed her revulsion at the "slime of hypocritical hatred"
Their are frightening and revealing chapters on the Red-Green Axis in Europe and the repulsive phenomenon of Jewish elites who have dedicated their lives to hatred of and determination to harm the Jewish State, such as Noam Chomsky, Norman Finkelstein, Lenni Brener, Michael Neumann and Jacqueline Rose. In recent years Finkelstein who has openly praised Hamas and Hezbollah and condoned their terrorism against Israeli civilians has become 'the go to Jewish-icon for Islamists, neo-Nazis Holocaust deniers, and deluded leftists determined to believe that demonic Israel is the source of all their woes".
Denial of the Holocaust is another mainstay of Islamic Jew-hatred and Israelophobia.
In exploring Arab and Islamo-Fascist Jew-hatred Wistrich traces the history of Hitler's close ally and collaborator Mufti Haj Amin Al Husseini , Arafat, the PLO, Nasser, Hamas , Hezbollah and the IslamoNazi Khamenei/Ahmadinejad regime in Iran.
Shocking examples of this bottomless venom include the statements of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah that one of the central reasons for the creation of Hezbollah has been the violent eradication of Israel "That is the principal objective of Hezbollah...As we see it this is a cancerous state and the root of all the crises and wars and cannot be factor in brining about a true and just peace in the region".
The spiritual guide to Hezbollah sheik Muhammad Husayn Fadallah has said that even if all Jews in Israel converted to Islam they would still have to leave or die, as their 'blood is tainted with the crimes of Zionism'
Hamas and Hezbollah leaders have both expressed praise for the 'noble acts' of killing 'Zionists' ESPECIALLY they have noted WOMEN and children.
In 2002, Muhammad Tantawi, chief Mufti of Egypt and sheik of Al Azhar has declared that Muslims must return to the teachings of Islam "in order to fight against Allah's enemy and to cleanse the sacred ground of the Jews."
Tantawi issued a fatwa in 2002 stating that assassins should be considered as martyrs especially of Jewish women and children were killed in the attacks.
The authior disproves the myth that Jews were well treated and prospered under Islamic rule through the centuries and actually points out that the tradition of the yellow badge that Jews were forced to wear by the Nazis during the Holocaust, originated in Baghdad, and has been revived in Iran today.
The last two chapters detail the Iranian Islamo-Nazi regime and the goals and ideology of the late Ayatolllah Khomeini and the Iranian supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad today,and Ahmadinejads's repeated vows to wipe Israel off the map and his nuclear weapons programme being built with the express purpose of doing so.
It is worth concluding with the words of scholar Mathias Kuntzel that "Just as Hitler sought to 'liberate' humanity by murdering Jews, so Ahmadinejad believes he can ;liberate' humanity by eradicating Israel"
Merged review:
A vast tome revealing and analyzing the shocking reality of Jew-hatred today. Dissects and explores the roots of this frightening and revolting phenomenon.
The author abundantly shows how it is a dangerous myth that anti-Semitism can only come form the far-right and points out that people who believe this falsehood are caught in a seventy year time warp.
In this large volume, Wistrich captures the venom and records for our use and vital understanding about how all the ills of the world today are blamed by Islamists and the radical left on the tiny state of Israel, which is demonized and blood libeled , Israel's people are repulsively labelled as Nazis and accused of all manner of blood libels and their murder justified, ultimately resulting in what the author refers to accurately as a ' a warrant for genocide'.
This book exposes the intensity of the culture of genocidal hatred extant in the media, mosques and universities today, to name a few of the sources.
The three totalitarian ideologies that have caused so much death and destruction in the last century, Communism , Nazism and Islamism have all taken Jew-hatred and the new anti-Semitism, Israel hatred to the heart of their ideology.
The Soviet Union from the 1960s demonized the Zionist movement and the Jewish State as bent on world domination and controlling the economies of the major Western capitalist states, and working for the enslavement of the Arab world and other Third World peoples. This propaganda has outlived communist rule in the USSR and is the staple diet of the Western Left and various parts of the Third World (such as Venezuela, Cuba and South Africa).
Witrich pulls no punches in showing the horrific scope of today;s manifestation of the world's oldest hatred. If you substitute the word 'Jew' for 'Zionist' you will see little difference between Leftist/Islamist propaganda and Nazi propagnda of the Hitler era.
After all the Nazis aimed for the eradication of the Jews of Europe, the anti-Zionists aim for the eradication of the Jewish State and the ethnic cleansing of the levant of all Jews. Israel accounts for 40% of world Jewry and is the largest Jewish community in the world. The destruction of Israel would certainly lead to the death or displacement of five million Jews, so in point of fact anti-Zionism amounts to very little difference to Nazi anti-Semitism.
Witrich explores Israel-hatred in Europe, the Third World and the Islamic world and none of it makes for a pretty picture.
Witrich condemns the sheer hypocrisy of left-wing Israel-haters " The same radical left that foams at the mouth at the very mention of Israel/Palestine has little difficulty in closing it's eyes to the religious and gender apartheid in Islam, the murderous crimes of such Communist leaders as Stalin, Mao and Pol Pot, not to mention the mass murders in Africa from Idi Amin in the 1970s to Rwanda over a decade ago and Sudan today. While real massacres are ignored, a huge propaganda effort continues to be invested globally in pillorying Israel as a perpetrator of genocide. This far transcends the Left since it also involves the United Nations, the Arab states, the Muslim world, non government organizations and parts of the Western media who black out Israeli victims of suicide bombers"
Most leftwing and liberal anti-Zionists in the West often mask their hostility by a highly selective humanitarianism that sees only Palestinians as worthy of compassion.
Witrich disproves many lies and myths about the conflict including that Israel resembles Apartheid South Africa, and that the Zionists collaborated with the Nazis prior and during the Second World War.
He dissects anti-Israel prejudice in Britain and explores the venomous rantings of the likes of anti-Jewish/anti-Israel intellectual and political bigots such as George Galloway, Jenny Tonge, Robert Fisk, John Pilger and Tam Dalyell. He also quotes those brave and lone voices such as Melanie Philips and Julie Burchill who have stood up to this hatred.
Julie Burchill explaining why she left the highly noxious Guardian for the more balanced The Times explained that as a non-Jew she observed a 'quite striking bias against Israel...which for all it's faults is the only country in that barren region that you or I, or any feminist, atheist, homosexual or trade unionist could bear to live under".
Burchill points out that anti-Americanism and anti-Semitism are the only forms of prejudice that still unite left and right. She expressed her revulsion at the "slime of hypocritical hatred"
Their are frightening and revealing chapters on the Red-Green Axis in Europe and the repulsive phenomenon of Jewish elites who have dedicated their lives to hatred of and determination to harm the Jewish State, such as Noam Chomsky, Norman Finkelstein, Lenni Brener, Michael Neumann and Jacqueline Rose. In recent years Finkelstein who has openly praised Hamas and Hezbollah and condoned their terrorism against Israeli civilians has become 'the go to Jewish-icon for Islamists, neo-Nazis Holocaust deniers, and deluded leftists determined to believe that demonic Israel is the source of all their woes".
Denial of the Holocaust is another mainstay of Islamic Jew-hatred and Israelophobia.
In exploring Arab and Islamo-Fascist Jew-hatred Wistrich traces the history of Hitler's close ally and collaborator Mufti Haj Amin Al Husseini , Arafat, the PLO, Nasser, Hamas , Hezbollah and the IslamoNazi Khamenei/Ahmadinejad regime in Iran.
Shocking examples of this bottomless venom include the statements of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah that one of the central reasons for the creation of Hezbollah has been the violent eradication of Israel "That is the principal objective of Hezbollah...As we see it this is a cancerous state and the root of all the crises and wars and cannot be factor in brining about a true and just peace in the region".
The spiritual guide to Hezbollah sheik Muhammad Husayn Fadallah has said that even if all Jews in Israel converted to Islam they would still have to leave or die, as their 'blood is tainted with the crimes of Zionism'
Hamas and Hezbollah leaders have both expressed praise for the 'noble acts' of killing 'Zionists' ESPECIALLY they have noted WOMEN and children.
In 2002, Muhammad Tantawi, chief Mufti of Egypt and sheik of Al Azhar has declared that Muslims must return to the teachings of Islam "in order to fight against Allah's enemy and to cleanse the sacred ground of the Jews."
Tantawi issued a fatwa in 2002 stating that assassins should be considered as martyrs especially of Jewish women and children were killed in the attacks.
The authior disproves the myth that Jews were well treated and prospered under Islamic rule through the centuries and actually points out that the tradition of the yellow badge that Jews were forced to wear by the Nazis during the Holocaust, originated in Baghdad, and has been revived in Iran today.
The last two chapters detail the Iranian Islamo-Nazi regime and the goals and ideology of the late Ayatolllah Khomeini and the Iranian supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and the then President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in 2009 ,and Ahmadinejads's repeated vows to wipe Israel off the map and his nuclear weapons programme being built with the express purpose of doing so.
It is worth concluding with the words of scholar Mathias Kuntzel that "Just as Hitler sought to 'liberate' humanity by murdering Jews, so Ahmadinejad believes he can ;liberate' humanity by eradicating Israel"
The author abundantly shows how it is a dangerous myth that anti-Semitism can only come form the far-right and points out that people who believe this falsehood are caught in a seventy year time warp.
In this large volume, Wistrich captures the venom and records for our use and vital understanding about how all the ills of the world today are blamed by Islamists and the radical left on the tiny state of Israel, which is demonized and blood libeled , Israel's people are repulsively labelled as Nazis and accused of all manner of blood libels and their murder justified, ultimately resulting in what the author refers to accurately as a ' a warrant for genocide'.
This book exposes the intensity of the culture of genocidal hatred extant in the media, mosques and universities today, to name a few of the sources.
The three totalitarian ideologies that have caused so much death and destruction in the last century, Communism , Nazism and Islamism have all taken Jew-hatred and the new anti-Semitism, Israel hatred to the heart of their ideology.
The Soviet Union from the 1960s demonized the Zionist movement and the Jewish State as bent on world domination and controlling the economies of the major Western capitalist states, and working for the enslavement of the Arab world and other Third World peoples. This propaganda has outlived communist rule in the USSR and is the staple diet of the Western Left and various parts of the Third World (such as Venezuela, Cuba and South Africa).
Witrich pulls no punches in showing the horrific scope of today;s manifestation of the world's oldest hatred. If you substitute the word 'Jew' for 'Zionist' you will see little difference between Leftist/Islamist propaganda and Nazi propagnda of the Hitler era.
After all the Nazis aimed for the eradication of the Jews of Europe, the anti-Zionists aim for the eradication of the Jewish State and the ethnic cleansing of the levant of all Jews. Israel accounts for 40% of world Jewry and is the largest Jewish community in the world. The destruction of Israel would certainly lead to the death or displacement of five million Jews, so in point of fact anti-Zionism amounts to very little difference to Nazi anti-Semitism.
Witrich explores Israel-hatred in Europe, the Third World and the Islamic world and none of it makes for a pretty picture.
Witrich condemns the sheer hypocrisy of left-wing Israel-haters " The same radical left that foams at the mouth at the very mention of Israel/Palestine has little difficulty in closing it's eyes to the religious and gender apartheid in Islam, the murderous crimes of such Communist leaders as Stalin, Mao and Pol Pot, not to mention the mass murders in Africa from Idi Amin in the 1970s to Rwanda over a decade ago and Sudan today. While real massacres are ignored, a huge propaganda effort continues to be invested globally in pillorying Israel as a perpetrator of genocide. This far transcends the Left since it also involves the United Nations, the Arab states, the Muslim world, non government organizations and parts of the Western media who black out Israeli victims of suicide bombers"
Most leftwing and liberal anti-Zionists in the West often mask their hostility by a highly selective humanitarianism that sees only Palestinians as worthy of compassion.
Witrich disproves many lies and myths about the conflict including that Israel resembles Apartheid South Africa, and that the Zionists collaborated with the Nazis prior and during the Second World War.
He dissects anti-Israel prejudice in Britain and explores the venomous rantings of the likes of anti-Jewish/anti-Israel intellectual and political bigots such as George Galloway, Jenny Tonge, Robert Fisk, John Pilger and Tam Dalyell. He also quotes those brave and lone voices such as Melanie Philips and Julie Burchill who have stood up to this hatred.
Julie Burchill explaining why she left the highly noxious Guardian for the more balanced The Times explained that as a non-Jew she observed a 'quite striking bias against Israel...which for all it's faults is the only country in that barren region that you or I, or any feminist, atheist, homosexual or trade unionist could bear to live under".
Burchill points out that anti-Americanism and anti-Semitism are the only forms of prejudice that still unite left and right. She expressed her revulsion at the "slime of hypocritical hatred"
Their are frightening and revealing chapters on the Red-Green Axis in Europe and the repulsive phenomenon of Jewish elites who have dedicated their lives to hatred of and determination to harm the Jewish State, such as Noam Chomsky, Norman Finkelstein, Lenni Brener, Michael Neumann and Jacqueline Rose. In recent years Finkelstein who has openly praised Hamas and Hezbollah and condoned their terrorism against Israeli civilians has become 'the go to Jewish-icon for Islamists, neo-Nazis Holocaust deniers, and deluded leftists determined to believe that demonic Israel is the source of all their woes".
Denial of the Holocaust is another mainstay of Islamic Jew-hatred and Israelophobia.
In exploring Arab and Islamo-Fascist Jew-hatred Wistrich traces the history of Hitler's close ally and collaborator Mufti Haj Amin Al Husseini , Arafat, the PLO, Nasser, Hamas , Hezbollah and the IslamoNazi Khamenei/Ahmadinejad regime in Iran.
Shocking examples of this bottomless venom include the statements of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah that one of the central reasons for the creation of Hezbollah has been the violent eradication of Israel "That is the principal objective of Hezbollah...As we see it this is a cancerous state and the root of all the crises and wars and cannot be factor in brining about a true and just peace in the region".
The spiritual guide to Hezbollah sheik Muhammad Husayn Fadallah has said that even if all Jews in Israel converted to Islam they would still have to leave or die, as their 'blood is tainted with the crimes of Zionism'
Hamas and Hezbollah leaders have both expressed praise for the 'noble acts' of killing 'Zionists' ESPECIALLY they have noted WOMEN and children.
In 2002, Muhammad Tantawi, chief Mufti of Egypt and sheik of Al Azhar has declared that Muslims must return to the teachings of Islam "in order to fight against Allah's enemy and to cleanse the sacred ground of the Jews."
Tantawi issued a fatwa in 2002 stating that assassins should be considered as martyrs especially of Jewish women and children were killed in the attacks.
The authior disproves the myth that Jews were well treated and prospered under Islamic rule through the centuries and actually points out that the tradition of the yellow badge that Jews were forced to wear by the Nazis during the Holocaust, originated in Baghdad, and has been revived in Iran today.
The last two chapters detail the Iranian Islamo-Nazi regime and the goals and ideology of the late Ayatolllah Khomeini and the Iranian supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad today,and Ahmadinejads's repeated vows to wipe Israel off the map and his nuclear weapons programme being built with the express purpose of doing so.
It is worth concluding with the words of scholar Mathias Kuntzel that "Just as Hitler sought to 'liberate' humanity by murdering Jews, so Ahmadinejad believes he can ;liberate' humanity by eradicating Israel"
Merged review:
A vast tome revealing and analyzing the shocking reality of Jew-hatred today. Dissects and explores the roots of this frightening and revolting phenomenon.
The author abundantly shows how it is a dangerous myth that anti-Semitism can only come form the far-right and points out that people who believe this falsehood are caught in a seventy year time warp.
In this large volume, Wistrich captures the venom and records for our use and vital understanding about how all the ills of the world today are blamed by Islamists and the radical left on the tiny state of Israel, which is demonized and blood libeled , Israel's people are repulsively labelled as Nazis and accused of all manner of blood libels and their murder justified, ultimately resulting in what the author refers to accurately as a ' a warrant for genocide'.
This book exposes the intensity of the culture of genocidal hatred extant in the media, mosques and universities today, to name a few of the sources.
The three totalitarian ideologies that have caused so much death and destruction in the last century, Communism , Nazism and Islamism have all taken Jew-hatred and the new anti-Semitism, Israel hatred to the heart of their ideology.
The Soviet Union from the 1960s demonized the Zionist movement and the Jewish State as bent on world domination and controlling the economies of the major Western capitalist states, and working for the enslavement of the Arab world and other Third World peoples. This propaganda has outlived communist rule in the USSR and is the staple diet of the Western Left and various parts of the Third World (such as Venezuela, Cuba and South Africa).
Witrich pulls no punches in showing the horrific scope of today;s manifestation of the world's oldest hatred. If you substitute the word 'Jew' for 'Zionist' you will see little difference between Leftist/Islamist propaganda and Nazi propagnda of the Hitler era.
After all the Nazis aimed for the eradication of the Jews of Europe, the anti-Zionists aim for the eradication of the Jewish State and the ethnic cleansing of the levant of all Jews. Israel accounts for 40% of world Jewry and is the largest Jewish community in the world. The destruction of Israel would certainly lead to the death or displacement of five million Jews, so in point of fact anti-Zionism amounts to very little difference to Nazi anti-Semitism.
Witrich explores Israel-hatred in Europe, the Third World and the Islamic world and none of it makes for a pretty picture.
Witrich condemns the sheer hypocrisy of left-wing Israel-haters " The same radical left that foams at the mouth at the very mention of Israel/Palestine has little difficulty in closing it's eyes to the religious and gender apartheid in Islam, the murderous crimes of such Communist leaders as Stalin, Mao and Pol Pot, not to mention the mass murders in Africa from Idi Amin in the 1970s to Rwanda over a decade ago and Sudan today. While real massacres are ignored, a huge propaganda effort continues to be invested globally in pillorying Israel as a perpetrator of genocide. This far transcends the Left since it also involves the United Nations, the Arab states, the Muslim world, non government organizations and parts of the Western media who black out Israeli victims of suicide bombers"
Most leftwing and liberal anti-Zionists in the West often mask their hostility by a highly selective humanitarianism that sees only Palestinians as worthy of compassion.
Witrich disproves many lies and myths about the conflict including that Israel resembles Apartheid South Africa, and that the Zionists collaborated with the Nazis prior and during the Second World War.
He dissects anti-Israel prejudice in Britain and explores the venomous rantings of the likes of anti-Jewish/anti-Israel intellectual and political bigots such as George Galloway, Jenny Tonge, Robert Fisk, John Pilger and Tam Dalyell. He also quotes those brave and lone voices such as Melanie Philips and Julie Burchill who have stood up to this hatred.
Julie Burchill explaining why she left the highly noxious Guardian for the more balanced The Times explained that as a non-Jew she observed a 'quite striking bias against Israel...which for all it's faults is the only country in that barren region that you or I, or any feminist, atheist, homosexual or trade unionist could bear to live under".
Burchill points out that anti-Americanism and anti-Semitism are the only forms of prejudice that still unite left and right. She expressed her revulsion at the "slime of hypocritical hatred"
Their are frightening and revealing chapters on the Red-Green Axis in Europe and the repulsive phenomenon of Jewish elites who have dedicated their lives to hatred of and determination to harm the Jewish State, such as Noam Chomsky, Norman Finkelstein, Lenni Brener, Michael Neumann and Jacqueline Rose. In recent years Finkelstein who has openly praised Hamas and Hezbollah and condoned their terrorism against Israeli civilians has become 'the go to Jewish-icon for Islamists, neo-Nazis Holocaust deniers, and deluded leftists determined to believe that demonic Israel is the source of all their woes".
Denial of the Holocaust is another mainstay of Islamic Jew-hatred and Israelophobia.
In exploring Arab and Islamo-Fascist Jew-hatred Wistrich traces the history of Hitler's close ally and collaborator Mufti Haj Amin Al Husseini , Arafat, the PLO, Nasser, Hamas , Hezbollah and the IslamoNazi Khamenei/Ahmadinejad regime in Iran.
Shocking examples of this bottomless venom include the statements of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah that one of the central reasons for the creation of Hezbollah has been the violent eradication of Israel "That is the principal objective of Hezbollah...As we see it this is a cancerous state and the root of all the crises and wars and cannot be factor in brining about a true and just peace in the region".
The spiritual guide to Hezbollah sheik Muhammad Husayn Fadallah has said that even if all Jews in Israel converted to Islam they would still have to leave or die, as their 'blood is tainted with the crimes of Zionism'
Hamas and Hezbollah leaders have both expressed praise for the 'noble acts' of killing 'Zionists' ESPECIALLY they have noted WOMEN and children.
In 2002, Muhammad Tantawi, chief Mufti of Egypt and sheik of Al Azhar has declared that Muslims must return to the teachings of Islam "in order to fight against Allah's enemy and to cleanse the sacred ground of the Jews."
Tantawi issued a fatwa in 2002 stating that assassins should be considered as martyrs especially of Jewish women and children were killed in the attacks.
The authior disproves the myth that Jews were well treated and prospered under Islamic rule through the centuries and actually points out that the tradition of the yellow badge that Jews were forced to wear by the Nazis during the Holocaust, originated in Baghdad, and has been revived in Iran today.
The last two chapters detail the Iranian Islamo-Nazi regime and the goals and ideology of the late Ayatolllah Khomeini and the Iranian supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and the then President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in 2009 ,and Ahmadinejads's repeated vows to wipe Israel off the map and his nuclear weapons programme being built with the express purpose of doing so.
It is worth concluding with the words of scholar Mathias Kuntzel that "Just as Hitler sought to 'liberate' humanity by murdering Jews, so Ahmadinejad believes he can ;liberate' humanity by eradicating Israel"
Read
August 18, 2022After a great deal of thought, I've decided to leave this book without a star rating. Instead, I am going to review it, extensively, and see where that goes.
The basic thesis of A Lethal Obsession is that anti-Semitism is a) pervasive, b) universal, in that it appears on both the Right and the Left, c) exportable and importable, countries and ideologies "acquire" it, and d) mutable, in that in every age, just as we have to see ourselves as coming out of Egypt, so do anti-Semites find a new way to catch the Jew. In the global world of today, that means that anti-Semitism hides behind multiple other ideologies, such as anti-globalism, anti-Zionism, and anti-Capitalism, but also behind Right-wing separatism, neofascism, national supremacy movements, alt-right neocon, and radical Islam. It takes the shape of Holocaust denial, classic anti-Jewish vitriol, denial of Jewish communal identity, negation of and demonisation of the state of Israel, and so on, and so on, and so on, and so on......
Anti-Semitism is, essentially, the quintessential political football, or, perhaps, I should say, the quintessential D&D Mimic. You need it to be a treasure chest full of loot, it's a treasure chest full of loot. You need it to be a hammer and sickle, it's a hammer and sickle. You need it to be DNA, it's DNA. You need it to be a tree, it's a tree... Until you touch it and it eats you.
Wistrich presents mountains of evidence. Literal, actual mountains. Endless quotations, citations, polls, incident statistics, historical trends and opinion pieces. In fact, his amounts of material and evidence are so copious that he often repeats himself (sometimes quite unnecessarily) just to dump in more pieces of evidence and quotes. And he would know - as the head of two (no less!) anti-Semitism research centers, no doubt he started and ended every workday by hearing "what's the anti-Semitic toll for today?"
Wistrich's thesis is, at its core, I believe, correct. Not only does anti-Semitism feature in the background of many Left-wing attitudes to Zionism and Israel, and is tremendously pervasive in the Muslim world, it also does seem to be the case that society is often slow to react to anti-Semitism and anti-Semitic violence perpetrated by groups that are themselves minorities in European countries, such as radicalized Muslims and minority member antiglobalists. Neither is Wistrich the only author to point out the connection between Soviet anti-Semitic propaganda and modern humanitarian anti-Zionism, and the lack of response to Islamic anti-Semitism in Europe (not to mention its propagation in the Middle East and North Africa). Other authors have made the same points before and since. I personally remember the publication of an actual blood libel (Jews put blood in their matza!) in a Jordanian newspaper when I was a teenager. Multiple other experts (mostly, but not exclusively, Jewish) have made the connection between old anti-Semitic myths and the anti-Zionist rhetoric of movements like BDS or The Mapping Project - though it should be noted that the line they draw varies widely from person to person (no surprise there; the 'ten Jews, thirty-five opinions' problem strikes again). None of this is wrong. It all needs to be said.
The problem, and sticking point, is that Wistrich's rhetoric is often entirely unconscionable. Too often, he crosses the red lines he himself demarcated, and careens straight into hypocrisy. Why is calling the Torah the "genocidal and most violent text in history" anti-Semitic, but calling the Koran irreparably violent and fundamentalist a legitimate criticism that is not Islamophobic? I'm not saying I agree the Torah is the most genocidal and violent etc', but if indiscriminately panning one is bad, surely so is doing it to the other. Why is Jewish separateness and adherence to cultural uniqueness (such as sending children to Jewish schools) okay, but Muslim religious schooling inherently not? Why does Wistrich care at all about the headscarf debate? How is it his business to comment on it? Neither tichels, nor hijabs, need to be evaluated in terms of world peace.
Wistrich also blends his charges of anti-Semitism with anti-Americanism and anti-Westernism. I understand these are often entwined, and feed into each other, but dedicating an entire chapter to anti-Americanism, even leaving aside all other issues inherent in that kind of juxtaposition, is completely extraneous in a book that is already 1200 pages long. It serves little beyond promoting the obvious agenda of the author. If an academic discussion of intertwining ideologies was all that was needed, surely several paragraphs of objective text would have sufficed?
Wistrich's substantial Western paranoia rhetoric (the demise of Europe, the hollowing-out of Western values, blah blah) feels very... Eastern European, to me. It is no surprise that Wistrich is originally from Poland and was mainly raised in France. This kind of alarmist, Western chauvinist conversation is very common in Russian-speaking circles, including among intellectuals, writers, reporters and so forth. He makes a distinction (which I believe at least tries to be genuine) between Islam and "Islamofascism" - radicalized, militarized Islam - but nonetheless careens into bigotry too often for comfort.
In addition to being inherently problematic and ugly, this kind of rhetoric massively detracts from the credibility of the (genuinely pertinent and real) point he is trying to make. Why should a reader take his piles of evidence and substantial academic credentials seriously, coming as they do wrapped in a package of paranoia and disdain? If the topic were anything other than anti-Semitism, which is near and dear to my heart, and about which I know a fair amount even without the author's help, I'd just throw the book away without thinking twice.
To top it all off, reviewers online point to a systematic pattern of errors in Wistrich's scholarship. A 1200 page book is bound to have factual and numerical errors, but once they start supporting an agenda, scholarly integrity flies out the window. That is unacceptable. There is enough obvious, real, virulent anti-Semitism on the Right, Left, Center, Top, Bottom and Diagonal of the political spectrum without needing to create more.
To be sure, there is plenty of real evidence in the book to make reading 1200 pages of people wanting to kill you, subjugate you, delegitimize you, dismantle your political self-determination, delegate you to the status of perpetual victim or just plain old hate on you, to make for a truly soul-crushing experience. Toward the end, I barely had the heart for it, and couldn't help but experience a modicum of sympathy toward a person whose opinion of mankind and the international community has been beaten into dust by a lifetime of wading through the subject. I sometimes feel that for the sake of our already fragile mental health, anti-Semitism experts should not be Jews. I definitely feel kinship with the notorious Jew of the old 1930s joke, who preferred to read Der Strummer over Jewish newspapers. Der Strummer, after all, was so much more optimistic and upbeat over the kind of place Jews occupy in the world.
I will sign off with one last question: where the heck are my codes for the giant Jewish space laser?!
The basic thesis of A Lethal Obsession is that anti-Semitism is a) pervasive, b) universal, in that it appears on both the Right and the Left, c) exportable and importable, countries and ideologies "acquire" it, and d) mutable, in that in every age, just as we have to see ourselves as coming out of Egypt, so do anti-Semites find a new way to catch the Jew. In the global world of today, that means that anti-Semitism hides behind multiple other ideologies, such as anti-globalism, anti-Zionism, and anti-Capitalism, but also behind Right-wing separatism, neofascism, national supremacy movements, alt-right neocon, and radical Islam. It takes the shape of Holocaust denial, classic anti-Jewish vitriol, denial of Jewish communal identity, negation of and demonisation of the state of Israel, and so on, and so on, and so on, and so on......
Anti-Semitism is, essentially, the quintessential political football, or, perhaps, I should say, the quintessential D&D Mimic. You need it to be a treasure chest full of loot, it's a treasure chest full of loot. You need it to be a hammer and sickle, it's a hammer and sickle. You need it to be DNA, it's DNA. You need it to be a tree, it's a tree... Until you touch it and it eats you.
Wistrich presents mountains of evidence. Literal, actual mountains. Endless quotations, citations, polls, incident statistics, historical trends and opinion pieces. In fact, his amounts of material and evidence are so copious that he often repeats himself (sometimes quite unnecessarily) just to dump in more pieces of evidence and quotes. And he would know - as the head of two (no less!) anti-Semitism research centers, no doubt he started and ended every workday by hearing "what's the anti-Semitic toll for today?"
Wistrich's thesis is, at its core, I believe, correct. Not only does anti-Semitism feature in the background of many Left-wing attitudes to Zionism and Israel, and is tremendously pervasive in the Muslim world, it also does seem to be the case that society is often slow to react to anti-Semitism and anti-Semitic violence perpetrated by groups that are themselves minorities in European countries, such as radicalized Muslims and minority member antiglobalists. Neither is Wistrich the only author to point out the connection between Soviet anti-Semitic propaganda and modern humanitarian anti-Zionism, and the lack of response to Islamic anti-Semitism in Europe (not to mention its propagation in the Middle East and North Africa). Other authors have made the same points before and since. I personally remember the publication of an actual blood libel (Jews put blood in their matza!) in a Jordanian newspaper when I was a teenager. Multiple other experts (mostly, but not exclusively, Jewish) have made the connection between old anti-Semitic myths and the anti-Zionist rhetoric of movements like BDS or The Mapping Project - though it should be noted that the line they draw varies widely from person to person (no surprise there; the 'ten Jews, thirty-five opinions' problem strikes again). None of this is wrong. It all needs to be said.
The problem, and sticking point, is that Wistrich's rhetoric is often entirely unconscionable. Too often, he crosses the red lines he himself demarcated, and careens straight into hypocrisy. Why is calling the Torah the "genocidal and most violent text in history" anti-Semitic, but calling the Koran irreparably violent and fundamentalist a legitimate criticism that is not Islamophobic? I'm not saying I agree the Torah is the most genocidal and violent etc', but if indiscriminately panning one is bad, surely so is doing it to the other. Why is Jewish separateness and adherence to cultural uniqueness (such as sending children to Jewish schools) okay, but Muslim religious schooling inherently not? Why does Wistrich care at all about the headscarf debate? How is it his business to comment on it? Neither tichels, nor hijabs, need to be evaluated in terms of world peace.
Wistrich also blends his charges of anti-Semitism with anti-Americanism and anti-Westernism. I understand these are often entwined, and feed into each other, but dedicating an entire chapter to anti-Americanism, even leaving aside all other issues inherent in that kind of juxtaposition, is completely extraneous in a book that is already 1200 pages long. It serves little beyond promoting the obvious agenda of the author. If an academic discussion of intertwining ideologies was all that was needed, surely several paragraphs of objective text would have sufficed?
Wistrich's substantial Western paranoia rhetoric (the demise of Europe, the hollowing-out of Western values, blah blah) feels very... Eastern European, to me. It is no surprise that Wistrich is originally from Poland and was mainly raised in France. This kind of alarmist, Western chauvinist conversation is very common in Russian-speaking circles, including among intellectuals, writers, reporters and so forth. He makes a distinction (which I believe at least tries to be genuine) between Islam and "Islamofascism" - radicalized, militarized Islam - but nonetheless careens into bigotry too often for comfort.
In addition to being inherently problematic and ugly, this kind of rhetoric massively detracts from the credibility of the (genuinely pertinent and real) point he is trying to make. Why should a reader take his piles of evidence and substantial academic credentials seriously, coming as they do wrapped in a package of paranoia and disdain? If the topic were anything other than anti-Semitism, which is near and dear to my heart, and about which I know a fair amount even without the author's help, I'd just throw the book away without thinking twice.
To top it all off, reviewers online point to a systematic pattern of errors in Wistrich's scholarship. A 1200 page book is bound to have factual and numerical errors, but once they start supporting an agenda, scholarly integrity flies out the window. That is unacceptable. There is enough obvious, real, virulent anti-Semitism on the Right, Left, Center, Top, Bottom and Diagonal of the political spectrum without needing to create more.
To be sure, there is plenty of real evidence in the book to make reading 1200 pages of people wanting to kill you, subjugate you, delegitimize you, dismantle your political self-determination, delegate you to the status of perpetual victim or just plain old hate on you, to make for a truly soul-crushing experience. Toward the end, I barely had the heart for it, and couldn't help but experience a modicum of sympathy toward a person whose opinion of mankind and the international community has been beaten into dust by a lifetime of wading through the subject. I sometimes feel that for the sake of our already fragile mental health, anti-Semitism experts should not be Jews. I definitely feel kinship with the notorious Jew of the old 1930s joke, who preferred to read Der Strummer over Jewish newspapers. Der Strummer, after all, was so much more optimistic and upbeat over the kind of place Jews occupy in the world.
I will sign off with one last question: where the heck are my codes for the giant Jewish space laser?!
August 20, 2012
One of the most important and frightening books of our times. Wistrich not only exposes the historical past of Antisemetism but its virulent existence today, particularly in the Middle East, on university campuses, and on the far Left, which has always had problems with Jews. A must read for understanding contemporary events and the demonization of Israel.
December 10, 2021
A brilliant expose on the history of ancient and contemporary antisemitism....I cannot recommend this book enough to Jews and Gentiles! A must read on the longest hatred!
June 14, 2025
A Lethal Obsession: Anti-semitism from Antiquity to the Global Jihad is a book clearly written by a historian with a strong feeling on the topic. Robert S. Wistrich, who has passed since this book's publishing in 2010, was a professor of Jewish history at Hebrew University who appeared to possess a deep knowledge of Judaism's past.
Antiquity, the Middle Ages, World War Two until the 2000s; no era is spared.
The 1144 invention of the blood libel in Norwich was an example of misinformation being weaponized to smear Jews.
It was a tale whereby a pre-Easter murder of a Christian boy occurred allegedly at the hands of local English Jews. This blood libel rumor was shown to still be alive today in a different form, with Jews today depicted as savages in some quarters. Its utilization in order to target Jews like those in the town of Trent in 1475 was mentioned, and Jews would ultimately be banned from England for several centuries following the 1295 Edict of Expulsion.
The book points out that one excuse frequently used by Gentiles-and some Jewish anti-Zionists-for pushing back against Jews is a perception that Jews view themselves as a "chosen people." (Wistrich makes clear that this has since been disavowed by many Jews). It does not mention this in order to excuse anti-semitic prejudice but mentions it as a motivating factor in some instances. It notes that this was an issue which goes back to the Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans as a pagan source of disdain for Jews.
Even a first century intellectual like Tacitus apparently "dwelt on the perverse clannishness of the Jews. They sit apart at meals, and they sleep apart...."
To hear the book tell it, "Not surprisingly, the first recorded pogrom of antiquity exploded in Alexandria in 38 C.E. at a time when Caligula was emperor of Rome. The rival Greek community accused the Jews, who represented almost 40 percent of the city's population, of being unpatriotic and of manifesting dual loyalties when the Aramaic-speaking king Judean king Herod Agrippa I visited Alexandria." (This topic of dual loyalty accusations would be returned to.)
Wistrich does not let the early Christian church off the hook when it comes to promoting anti-Semitism. The book tells a story of how Jews were tarred as "deicides" and those who exclusively believed in the Torah were labeled heretics who could guide true Christians off the righteous path.
Anti-Jewish pogroms by Christians during the First Crusade led to roughly thirty percent of the Jews in Germany and northern France-many as the result of mobs-(roughly ten thousand souls lost their lives) in the first half of 1096 alone.
Spain's own intolerant attitude toward its Jewish population, especially at the hands of King Ferdinand II and Queen Isabella I toward the end of the fifteenth century, came in for a look as well. Even the Catholic church on the eve of the Holocaust (also called the Shoah in A Lethal Obsession) was shown, in at least some quarters in Europe, to have joined along in casting aspersions on Jews via some of its outlets.
The Polish population does not come across as looking like their hands were entirely clean when it came to steering clear of aiding Holocaust death camp.
There is even an interesting section about Hitler's Third Reich reaching out to the Mufti of Jerusalem, Hajj Amin al-Husayni, which tries to connect Nazi rhetoric to burgeoning anti-Israeli attitudes on the Middle Eastern Islamic street.
While they got it bad from the Nazis, supposed Jewish connections to Communism also made them suspicious to populations even in countries which despised fascism. With Jewish men like Karl Marx, Vladimir Lenin, and Leon Trotsky playing outsized roles in Communism's taking root in then taking over Russia, the idea of a Jewish persuasion pulling the strings in the Soviet Union (where they had, following the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, since fell out of favor) was alive and well in non-Axis countries.
The rise of Islam is purportedly shown to be another factor behind Judeophobia's increase in popularity , with author Robert S. Wistrich not hiding his disdain for elements of the religion of Muhammed when it comes to treatments of Jews. His premise is that the ongoing Israeli/Palestinian controversy, while able to pull in sympathetic treatment for the latter group among many countries’ general populations, is largely a cover issue for a segment of Islam which views it as part of their duty to attack Jews.
After talking about Europe and North America, Wistrich makes it clear that Jews' treatments in those places is not even in the same ballpark as what they have received at the hands of various governments in the Middle East. Countries like Saudi Arabia (only three thousand Jews), Syria (fewer than ten Jews), and Egypt (less than a hundred Jewish people) have only a microscopically tiny Jewish population remaining.
In fact, the book dwells on a series of reinventions when it comes to anti-Semitism. The efforts to make it a Muamar Gadhafi or Saddam Hussein sort of push for a (comparatively) secular Arab nationalism seem to have fizzled, while today it is moving more toward an almost exclusively Islamist eliminationist sort of viewpoint toward the Jews in terms of pushing them from their post-1948 homeland.
There are ample looks at regional leaders at the time of the book's writing like Ariel Sharon and Yasir Arafat. The Venn diagram nature of the PLO and Hamas's relationship is analyzed alongside a short history of how these two terrorist organizations came to be.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was the president of Iran when this book was being written; Wistrich quotes liberally from the former president of Iran, tying together all of the anti-Semitic situations mentioned in the book with his repeated calls to eliminate Israel.
Wistrich looks at treatment of modern Jewish populations in western countries like the U.S., Canada, England, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Russia, eastern Europe, and Scandinavia. He appears irked that, in his telling, Israel's intentions are interpreted in a false light in places like the United Nations and many European capitals.
The linking up of rhetoric from far right, neo-Nazi groups and far left groups of a pro-Third World bent, particularly in Europe, over the last few decades seemed a point of concern for the author. He believes these group have put forward a view (subsequently adopted by many in both the west, Asia, and Middle East) that essentially says although the Jews were the ones wronged in the 1930-40s, they have since milked sympathy from the Holocaust to bilk European capitals for reparations payments and to grab territory in the Holy Lands. Essentially, he feels there has been a successful effort to make the one time victims into today's version of the Nazis.
Alongside this, there is a good bit of space spent talking about Holocaust denialism (and the inevitable look at 9/11 denialism of a bent blaming the Mossad). To hear A Lethal Obsession tell it, this is a mainstream view in a number of Middle Eastern countries like Iran and Saudi Arabia. He even name drops several European scholars like Robert Faurisson who have lent their own credentials to trying to downplay or minimize the Holocaust.
He mentions that there is even latent anti-Semitism in black communities in the west as well. It is documented that, despite their own issues with segregation, African-Americans in the U.S. are registered as consistently unsupportive of Israel. Figures like French comedian Dieudonne M'bala M'bala who view mocking Jews as an open season sport also came in for a critical look.
Wistrich observes that, while there had been hundreds of anti-semitic attacks a year in some European countries which were disproportionately carried out by immigrants from Islamic countries, there have been few attacks by Jews against Islamic places such as mosques and community centers. He dives somewhat into what was then just becoming a hot topic in Europe: how to preserve secular values at a time of widespread immigration from countries where those values might have few, if any, roots.
The thread throughout the book's last quarter is that the threat Jews face from the Islamic world is both growing and under appreciated by culturally relative Westerners. Not all readers will agree with this or other premises/methods of presenting evidence, but there is still a lot of information and background to the current Middle Eastern conflict which can be gained by reading A Lethal Obsession with a discerning eye.
There is also a good bit of exposition on the nuances between anti-Semitic, anti-Israeli, and anti-Zionist attitudes. Wistrich does say that not all questioning of the present Israeli government's policies is any one of these things, but he at times leaves readers with the impression that this in fact how he feels.
A Lethal Obsession: Anti-semitism from Antiquity to the Global Jihad is much-needed reading to gain an understanding of the current moment vis-a-vis anti-Semitism. The fact that tension with local Jewish populations increases when the Palestinian situation becomes inflamed was evident even when Wistrich wrote this 2010 book, and readers will do well to keep that in mind as they page through it.
Even though it might ebb and flow, the problems in the Holy Lands and between the Jews and groups with an anti-semitic bent are unfortunately likely to flare more before they are one day solved. Knowing this, it cannot hurt to become familiar with much of the backgrounds and arguments from the perspective of a pro-Israeli Jewish academic with deep knowledge of the topic.
This is precisely what will be imparted from this well-written but sure to be controversial book.
-Andrew Canfield Denver, Colorado
Antiquity, the Middle Ages, World War Two until the 2000s; no era is spared.
The 1144 invention of the blood libel in Norwich was an example of misinformation being weaponized to smear Jews.
It was a tale whereby a pre-Easter murder of a Christian boy occurred allegedly at the hands of local English Jews. This blood libel rumor was shown to still be alive today in a different form, with Jews today depicted as savages in some quarters. Its utilization in order to target Jews like those in the town of Trent in 1475 was mentioned, and Jews would ultimately be banned from England for several centuries following the 1295 Edict of Expulsion.
The book points out that one excuse frequently used by Gentiles-and some Jewish anti-Zionists-for pushing back against Jews is a perception that Jews view themselves as a "chosen people." (Wistrich makes clear that this has since been disavowed by many Jews). It does not mention this in order to excuse anti-semitic prejudice but mentions it as a motivating factor in some instances. It notes that this was an issue which goes back to the Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans as a pagan source of disdain for Jews.
Even a first century intellectual like Tacitus apparently "dwelt on the perverse clannishness of the Jews. They sit apart at meals, and they sleep apart...."
To hear the book tell it, "Not surprisingly, the first recorded pogrom of antiquity exploded in Alexandria in 38 C.E. at a time when Caligula was emperor of Rome. The rival Greek community accused the Jews, who represented almost 40 percent of the city's population, of being unpatriotic and of manifesting dual loyalties when the Aramaic-speaking king Judean king Herod Agrippa I visited Alexandria." (This topic of dual loyalty accusations would be returned to.)
Wistrich does not let the early Christian church off the hook when it comes to promoting anti-Semitism. The book tells a story of how Jews were tarred as "deicides" and those who exclusively believed in the Torah were labeled heretics who could guide true Christians off the righteous path.
Anti-Jewish pogroms by Christians during the First Crusade led to roughly thirty percent of the Jews in Germany and northern France-many as the result of mobs-(roughly ten thousand souls lost their lives) in the first half of 1096 alone.
Spain's own intolerant attitude toward its Jewish population, especially at the hands of King Ferdinand II and Queen Isabella I toward the end of the fifteenth century, came in for a look as well. Even the Catholic church on the eve of the Holocaust (also called the Shoah in A Lethal Obsession) was shown, in at least some quarters in Europe, to have joined along in casting aspersions on Jews via some of its outlets.
The Polish population does not come across as looking like their hands were entirely clean when it came to steering clear of aiding Holocaust death camp.
There is even an interesting section about Hitler's Third Reich reaching out to the Mufti of Jerusalem, Hajj Amin al-Husayni, which tries to connect Nazi rhetoric to burgeoning anti-Israeli attitudes on the Middle Eastern Islamic street.
While they got it bad from the Nazis, supposed Jewish connections to Communism also made them suspicious to populations even in countries which despised fascism. With Jewish men like Karl Marx, Vladimir Lenin, and Leon Trotsky playing outsized roles in Communism's taking root in then taking over Russia, the idea of a Jewish persuasion pulling the strings in the Soviet Union (where they had, following the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, since fell out of favor) was alive and well in non-Axis countries.
The rise of Islam is purportedly shown to be another factor behind Judeophobia's increase in popularity , with author Robert S. Wistrich not hiding his disdain for elements of the religion of Muhammed when it comes to treatments of Jews. His premise is that the ongoing Israeli/Palestinian controversy, while able to pull in sympathetic treatment for the latter group among many countries’ general populations, is largely a cover issue for a segment of Islam which views it as part of their duty to attack Jews.
After talking about Europe and North America, Wistrich makes it clear that Jews' treatments in those places is not even in the same ballpark as what they have received at the hands of various governments in the Middle East. Countries like Saudi Arabia (only three thousand Jews), Syria (fewer than ten Jews), and Egypt (less than a hundred Jewish people) have only a microscopically tiny Jewish population remaining.
In fact, the book dwells on a series of reinventions when it comes to anti-Semitism. The efforts to make it a Muamar Gadhafi or Saddam Hussein sort of push for a (comparatively) secular Arab nationalism seem to have fizzled, while today it is moving more toward an almost exclusively Islamist eliminationist sort of viewpoint toward the Jews in terms of pushing them from their post-1948 homeland.
There are ample looks at regional leaders at the time of the book's writing like Ariel Sharon and Yasir Arafat. The Venn diagram nature of the PLO and Hamas's relationship is analyzed alongside a short history of how these two terrorist organizations came to be.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was the president of Iran when this book was being written; Wistrich quotes liberally from the former president of Iran, tying together all of the anti-Semitic situations mentioned in the book with his repeated calls to eliminate Israel.
Wistrich looks at treatment of modern Jewish populations in western countries like the U.S., Canada, England, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Russia, eastern Europe, and Scandinavia. He appears irked that, in his telling, Israel's intentions are interpreted in a false light in places like the United Nations and many European capitals.
The linking up of rhetoric from far right, neo-Nazi groups and far left groups of a pro-Third World bent, particularly in Europe, over the last few decades seemed a point of concern for the author. He believes these group have put forward a view (subsequently adopted by many in both the west, Asia, and Middle East) that essentially says although the Jews were the ones wronged in the 1930-40s, they have since milked sympathy from the Holocaust to bilk European capitals for reparations payments and to grab territory in the Holy Lands. Essentially, he feels there has been a successful effort to make the one time victims into today's version of the Nazis.
Alongside this, there is a good bit of space spent talking about Holocaust denialism (and the inevitable look at 9/11 denialism of a bent blaming the Mossad). To hear A Lethal Obsession tell it, this is a mainstream view in a number of Middle Eastern countries like Iran and Saudi Arabia. He even name drops several European scholars like Robert Faurisson who have lent their own credentials to trying to downplay or minimize the Holocaust.
He mentions that there is even latent anti-Semitism in black communities in the west as well. It is documented that, despite their own issues with segregation, African-Americans in the U.S. are registered as consistently unsupportive of Israel. Figures like French comedian Dieudonne M'bala M'bala who view mocking Jews as an open season sport also came in for a critical look.
Wistrich observes that, while there had been hundreds of anti-semitic attacks a year in some European countries which were disproportionately carried out by immigrants from Islamic countries, there have been few attacks by Jews against Islamic places such as mosques and community centers. He dives somewhat into what was then just becoming a hot topic in Europe: how to preserve secular values at a time of widespread immigration from countries where those values might have few, if any, roots.
The thread throughout the book's last quarter is that the threat Jews face from the Islamic world is both growing and under appreciated by culturally relative Westerners. Not all readers will agree with this or other premises/methods of presenting evidence, but there is still a lot of information and background to the current Middle Eastern conflict which can be gained by reading A Lethal Obsession with a discerning eye.
There is also a good bit of exposition on the nuances between anti-Semitic, anti-Israeli, and anti-Zionist attitudes. Wistrich does say that not all questioning of the present Israeli government's policies is any one of these things, but he at times leaves readers with the impression that this in fact how he feels.
A Lethal Obsession: Anti-semitism from Antiquity to the Global Jihad is much-needed reading to gain an understanding of the current moment vis-a-vis anti-Semitism. The fact that tension with local Jewish populations increases when the Palestinian situation becomes inflamed was evident even when Wistrich wrote this 2010 book, and readers will do well to keep that in mind as they page through it.
Even though it might ebb and flow, the problems in the Holy Lands and between the Jews and groups with an anti-semitic bent are unfortunately likely to flare more before they are one day solved. Knowing this, it cannot hurt to become familiar with much of the backgrounds and arguments from the perspective of a pro-Israeli Jewish academic with deep knowledge of the topic.
This is precisely what will be imparted from this well-written but sure to be controversial book.
-Andrew Canfield Denver, Colorado
March 10, 2019
This is a very important, brilliant and encyclopedic book on what, alas, is a central engine of world history. It is the crowning of a life's work and is full of deep insights that can only be gained by a long intimacy with the subject. Nowhere else will you learn as much on antisemitism's numerous mutations throughout history. Yet, it does at times have some surprising limitations. Obviously, its late author had no natural understanding of numbers, and took at face value some hugely exaggerated estimates, like Flavius Joseph's casualty figures for the Jewish wars or the ludicrous claim that "one million" alleged witches were burnt at the stake in early modern Europe (current scholarship agrees on about 45,000). Also, the writing can be allusive, the author forgetting at times that his readers are not necessarily as familiar as he himself was with the details of every pogrom or persecution.
January 31, 2016
A slightly overlong treatment, but a useful introduction to the vast literature on the deadliest hatred. I worry that the sheer largeness of the problem will tend to develop a desire among many people to compromise with the genocidal among us.
May 20, 2023
"A Lethal Obsession" by Professor Robert S. Wistrich Ph.D. (1,184 pages; 2010).
This is the fourth book I have read by the author as I continue my study of antisemitism and its repercussions throughout the ages. Thanking my brother for suggesting Wistrich a number of years ago on this enormous and complex subject.
So much material but from chapter 18, The Globalization of Anti-Semitism (page 600), the first paragraph struck this reader so I am quoting it herein:
"Each new stage in the history of anti-Semitism has been able to build on a prior legacy of negative stereotypes, adapting them to a novel domestic and international context. In recent decades, for example, Israel has become the Jew of nations on a planetary scale. Both anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism have been globalized in an era where technology creates unprecedented opportunities for instant and continuous access to information. The Internet has eliminated older distinctions between center and periphery, mainstream and fringe opinion. Cyberspace is, in many ways, the fulfillment of every bigot's dream. True believers no longer need to attend mass rallies where they can scream 'Sieg Heil!' or 'Allahu akbar!' The "new" Judeophobes can take the age-old anti-Semitic narrative, link it to highly inflammatory images of real conflict, and spread a toxic message of fanaticism and Jew hatred that can reach millions at the click of a mouse."
Thirteen years after publication Wistrich's analysis seems spot on and portends great danger ahead.
This is the fourth book I have read by the author as I continue my study of antisemitism and its repercussions throughout the ages. Thanking my brother for suggesting Wistrich a number of years ago on this enormous and complex subject.
So much material but from chapter 18, The Globalization of Anti-Semitism (page 600), the first paragraph struck this reader so I am quoting it herein:
"Each new stage in the history of anti-Semitism has been able to build on a prior legacy of negative stereotypes, adapting them to a novel domestic and international context. In recent decades, for example, Israel has become the Jew of nations on a planetary scale. Both anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism have been globalized in an era where technology creates unprecedented opportunities for instant and continuous access to information. The Internet has eliminated older distinctions between center and periphery, mainstream and fringe opinion. Cyberspace is, in many ways, the fulfillment of every bigot's dream. True believers no longer need to attend mass rallies where they can scream 'Sieg Heil!' or 'Allahu akbar!' The "new" Judeophobes can take the age-old anti-Semitic narrative, link it to highly inflammatory images of real conflict, and spread a toxic message of fanaticism and Jew hatred that can reach millions at the click of a mouse."
Thirteen years after publication Wistrich's analysis seems spot on and portends great danger ahead.
August 6, 2025
Excellent book about the jewish struggle to survive as a people over 2000 years. Interesting to see the historical parallels play out again especially after the October 7 2023 attack.
Author knows his stuff and is extremely well educated on the topic. Anti semitism is way older than the Nazi programs of the 30s and it’s a fascinated read.
Very detailed and long. Took me a year to read on and off. Bit repetitive toward the end.
Author knows his stuff and is extremely well educated on the topic. Anti semitism is way older than the Nazi programs of the 30s and it’s a fascinated read.
Very detailed and long. Took me a year to read on and off. Bit repetitive toward the end.
October 25, 2023
An absolute monster of a book, in terms of scholarship and erudition as well as sheer bulk.
September 7, 2012
Too dry and depressing, but it is a very important book. It is necessary to document this and use as a reference book.
May 18, 2010
Should be excellent, but a slow read, the introduction is 77 pages.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews