OPINION:
This is how it started in Nazi Germany. First, it was harassment, then protests in the street, and then it evolved into extermination as state policy.
Angry, hateful mobs were egged on by simpleton Jew haters. It was almost bound to happen. Antisemitism has been part of our world for thousands of years, going back to Egypt’s enslavement of the Jews by the pharaohs.
Europe witnessed antisemitism over many years, especially in France, Austria and Germany. Indeed, there were actually antisemitic political parties in those countries in the late 19th century. German Jews were killed here and there in the early 1930s, and antisemitic protests were often supported by the intellectual classes and college students of Germany.
But there was never a mass and organized attempt at their annihilation until the rise of Hitler and National Socialism in Germany. Anti-Jewish propaganda was thrown about by the Nazis and their supporters to stir up anger and then hate.
More and more, German Jews were frightened to go to class or to restaurants, or take public transportation. More and more came the painting of “Jew” or “Juden” graffiti as well as the Nazi swastika on buildings owned by Jews.
Does this sound familiar? The Nazis — National Socialists —- were regarded as a fringe organization, a loose collection of left-wing haters, in the early days.
Then came vandalism. Then violence. Then a night of broken glass when hundreds of Jews were killed.
With the rise of National Socialist Adolf Hitler came organized hate. He was the detestable socialist and antisemite who brought it all together. As Hanna Arendt wrote in her brilliant book “The Origins of Totalitarianism,” antisemitism has often been used as an organizing tool of the left, as it was in the Soviet Union. She has an entire chapter titled “Leftist Antisemitism.”
“When Hitler came to power, the German banks were already almost judenrein (Jews were missing from their ranks), and German Jewry as a whole, after a long and steady growth in social status and numbers, was declining so rapidly that statisticians predicted its disappearance in a few decades.”
The end result was the extermination of 6 million Jews and millions of other “undesirables,” including homosexuals and people with physical or mental disabilities.
Nazism — National Socialism — has always been a left-wing ideology. And it was and is often associated with the upper and so-called educated classes.
Liberals over the years have falsely smeared conservatives as antisemitic. The irony is that conservatives have been steadfast in their anti-socialist views and have fought for the existence of Israel and its sovereignty. The reality of history shows the left being more closely aligned with overt nationalism and antisemitism. They see it as a means to control the masses.
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton recently and falsely attacked former President Donald Trump as a Nazi. Nothing could be further from the truth. Someone needs to teach this ignorant woman her “isms.” She is a collectivist, just like the liberals leading today’s antisemitic protests, just like the liberals smashing Jewish businesses, just like Nazism, a collectivist philosophy.
Menachem Begin, the great former head of Israel, called President Ronald Reagan Israel’s best friend. No Jewish leader ever said that about President Barack Obama, who empowered the terrorist state of Iran.
Today’s disgusting antisemitic mobsters, all on the left, are tomorrow’s Brownshirts. Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ayanna Pressley, Rashida Tlaib, Cori Bush, Ilhan Omar and other sympathizers of Hamas and their extermination of Jews are followers of other monsters of history. They are their ideological and behavioral equals. They have embraced despicable policies.
The textbook definition of socialism is the state controls the means of production and distribution. These are the new followers of hate as a state policy.
History does indeed repeat itself: Today’s liberals are yesterday’s National Socialists.
• Craig Paul Shirley is a conservative political consultant and author of four books on Ronald Reagan and others on U.S. history.
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