Page 3 - HaMizrachi #32 RH-YK 2021 USA
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MUTATING VIRUSES






        The Delta Variant and Demonization of Israel – Part 1


                                           Rabbi Doron Perez


             arallel to the different vari-  Antisemitism as a virus     understanding and confronting the
             ants of the coronavirus that                                dynamics and dangers of antisemitism.
             have spread havoc, illness   One of the first people to compare
      Pand death all over the world,   antisemitism to a virus – systematically   In this article I will highlight two: its
      we  have  also witnessed the  muta-  and brilliantly – was Rabbi Jonathan   ability to change form and mutate,
      tion and dissemination of another   Sacks zt”l. Already in 2002, in the wake   and its highly contagious nature – its  2
      destructive global virus, spreading   of the outrageous attacks on Israel at   tendency to spread fast and furiously.
      hatred and demonization in new and   the UN Durban Conference against
      unimaginable ways – antisemitism in   Racism, he began to speak vocally   Mutations and contagions
      its mutated form of anti-Zionism and   about the dangers of a new strain of   Just as viruses are able to change their
      delegitimization of Israel.      antisemitism. Although having never   biological properties and mutate, so too
                                       personally experienced any type of
      In the wake of Operation Guardian of   antisemitism, he wrote:     – continues Rabbi Sacks – has antisem-
      the Walls, the systematic delegitimiza-                            itism mutated into different variations
      tion of Israel reared its ugly head again.   “So when I began, in 2002, to alert our   over the last two millennia. From Chris-
      Remarkably, global social influencers,   community and the British public to the   tian Judeophobia and anti-Judaism to
      media personalities and celebrities   phenomenon of the return of antisemitism,   secular racial antisemitism culminat-
      with tens of millions of followers came   it was against inclination and experience.   ing in the Holocaust, and most recently
      out in public defense of an internation-  Yet it was real, dangerous and consequen-  to a mutation of radical Islamic hatred
      ally recognized terror organization.   tial. Evidence was too blatant to be ignored.   of Israel and anti-Zionism. In short,
      Hamas’ charter unequivocally denies   The emergence of a virulent new strain of   either hatred of Judaism, the Jewish
      Jewish sovereign rights in any part of   antisemitism, after 60 years of Holocaust   people or the Jewish State.
      Israel and is totally committed to its   education, interfaith dialogue and anti-rac-  In the last  HaMizrachi, I quoted the
      destruction by any available means.   ist legislation, is a major historical event...”  ingenious insight of the Vilna Gaon,
      The cynical reign of terror over its own   “The best way of understanding antisem-  who traced these very same three
      citizens and the unprovoked terrorizing   itism is to see it as a virus. Viruses attack   mutations to Biblical times, to Israel’s
      of Israeli civilians, Jew and non-Jew   the human body, but the body itself has an   three archenemies: Moav, Edom and
      alike, with indiscriminate firing of   immensely sophisticated defense system,   the Plishtim.
      rockets, was not only overlooked but   the human immune system. How, then, do
      justified. The never-ending demoni-  viruses survive and flourish? By mutating.   The latter, incredibly defined by the
      zation has continually eroded Israel’s   Antisemitism mutates, and in so doing   Gaon as denying the Jewish people “any
      very legitimacy, penetrating the moral   defeats the immune systems set up by cul-  sovereign presence or form of gover-
      immune system of the uninformed   tures to protect themselves against hatred.” 1  nance in the Land” is parallel to Pales-
      masses. Violent attacks on Jews and                                tinian denialism and their demonizing
      vandalism of Jewish community cen-  There are many properties of biolog-  of Israel today. It is a single-minded
      ters around the world soon followed.   ical viruses that assist us in better   opposition to Jewish sovereignty and



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