The canary in the coalmine

Nidra Poller writes about an aggressive anti-Semitic group on the rise in France.  The whole article is depressing, but I'd like to take special note of the article's conclusion:

Outside the ORT school, where the minister met with residents, a dapper gray-haired shop owner said, with dignified regret, “It’s over for Jews in France.” And added, “The police told me . . . they said it’s over for us . . . they can’t handle this problem. . . . It’s too late.”

First, I think that's a correct statement, but I'd extend it to cover all of Europe. 

Second, I'll point out that every country that has destroyed its Jews has itself ended up destroyed, either economically or morally.  If one wants to go way back, even the Roman Empire marked its decline not long after it defeated the Jews in Palestine, which was a singularly costly compaign.  Those Jews who embraced Christianity, of course, had the ultimate revenge.

Moving forward in time a bit, another fairly good example is Spain,which went into its economic decline after it expelled its Jews.  The correlation between this decline and the loss of its Jews was highlighted by Holland's economic resurgence after it took those same Jews in. 

As for countries whose moral decline and ultimate self-destruction was signalled by the more virulent forms of modern Jew hating, Nazi Germany is, of course, the most obvious exampel.  I think, though, that a good look at both the former Soviet Union and the current Muslim world (which, with few exceptions, has expelled all Jews) further illustrates the point about Jew hating being a sign of a dying culture — and, more to the point, a culture that dies with an exceptional violence that it releases on both its own citizens and the rest of the world.

When you read stories such as Poller's about France, be afraid, be very afraid.

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