It seems, what we call the mafioso, in many different forms, have been influencing, and at times ruling, (from behind the curtain) throughout history. . .
Goes to show, some things never change when it comes to money and power.
Shamefully, this part of humanity has not evolved.
They are predators, human predators. They, as a collective, have made a choice. And I do think they have become more skilled in their theft and directed murder, locally, nationally and internationally, while international banking and corporate institutions have allowed them to store and allocate their ill-gotten resources in a more judicious manner than earlier ages. Because they come from many sources, seldom the the traditional nation-state lexus like Russia, they are difficult to root out in a thorough fashion, much less eradicate.
Frankly, I think we need to change the legal game to be more effective, quicker and more timely. They are the most deadly enemy democracies and civilizations encounter on an everyday basis. I do think they are evolving as there is more 'food' within their ecosphere.
Excellent article, funny how my British history lessons never mentioned such important topics.
We went from one King’s reign to the next, War of the Roses, reformation so Henry V111 could divorce his wife for a younger model, it was if no Jewish person had resided in Britain.
Thanks, Bernadette. This sort of thing happens everywhere, I expect. I remember learning about the Civil War and then sort of jumping to WWI, even though what happened between those two events set the stage for EVERYTHING happening in the US now.
Henry VIII had Trump qualities, now that I think of it...
"... the inability of far too many leftists to distinguish between Hamas and Palestinian and between the Israeli government and Jewish people, Jews are increasingly at risk." This, very much yes.
This may serve a blow to democracy that will take a generation or more to recover from.
We are the house in the woods, with the burning forest coming at us from both sides.
I think this is something that Biden can address explicitly, explicating both the history and who stands where...and where we, as the US, stand within all this.
Yes, but like most of what he is saying and doing, it will be ignored because the media is focusing on covering the spectacle of the clown show nazi circus.
They are, but I think they have been pretty much bought out by gop and corporate sources who have changed the outlook. In other words, the aren't so much ignoring Biden but pursuing and spreading their own agenda...which is the clown show nazi circus. However, Biden has a bull pulpit in the propaganda war and can literally override them, at least for a short time, on a national and international basis.
It would be wonderful if they could come up with some mechanism to override the media, as Trump did with Twitter. The problem with Biden talking a lot in that sort of forum is that he's not good at it. He's doing all this incredible stuff, and then he talks about it, and stammers over a few words or says something wrong, and it's six more weeks of OH MY GOD HE'S OLD.
You are so right, he is not spewing nonsense but just reporting on boring progress. His speech problems, like all speech problems, tend to label one as slow. Couldn’t be farther from the truth. But the ability to spew bull Schitt with fervor is lauded by idiots.
BTW, early reporting suggests that Biden played a major role in the pause in hostilities to exchange hostages. Will they give him credit for this? Isn't this the ceasefire everyone seems to be demanding? Or is five days not long enough?
And: Just as the bad guys planned. They've been desperately searching for a wedge issue to break away the far left from the sensible people, and here we are. We'll see if they vote for Stalin in 2024.
Very illuminating piece. This business of ritual child sacrifice seems to be an historically attractive conspiracy for crazies and nut jobs from many eras of human history. Amazing that some Pizzagate followers still believe that Hilary sacrificed infants to drink their blood in the basement of that (unbasemented) Washington, DC pizza parlor. What a world.
Thanks, Stephen, and good point. None of it makes sense.
The so-called "pro-life" movement does this very effectively, with all their talk of "post-birth abortion," which is not a thing, and never will be, but people hear it and believe it and feel the need to SAVE THE CHILDREN. Meanwhile, Russia has abducted 11,000 children from Ukraine, separating them from their parents, removing them to Russia...and Hamas slaughtered Israeli children in their homes...but that doesn't land somehow. It's very selective, this MAGA urge to save children....children who, by the way, were separated from their parents at the border under Trump.
Thanks, Geoff. I'm glad I filled in the details. The problem with the media, generally, is that they don't provide enough context for the stuff they report on.
Antisemitism is rightly called the oldest hatred in history because it goes all the way back to ancient Egypt. As a Christian, I am ashamed of what Christians did to spread this poison. Whenever times become hard, it’s easy for people to wrongly scapegoat Jews for the problems when they actually suffer themselves. Just to note, Jews were banned from openly living in England from the time of Edward I until Oliver Cromwell invited Jews to come live in England.
Freedom of religion is really a remarkable thing, when we consider the history of Europe and the role religion played in all the wars. We've done a lot of screwy things in the US, but we got that one right.
It's interesting that it was Cromwell -- the non-king -- who invited them back.
As I am of Irish descent, we tend to dislike Cromwell on the whole, but there were some good things he did. One of them was to allow Jews to return to England, and no later king revoked this right. The other good thing he did was to establish the principle that the monarch could not govern without the advice and consent of Parliament.
I’ve never been totally clear on why so many people hate the Jews. I’m of course aware of the “Jews killed Christ” argument, which seems to ignore—or be ignorant of—the fact that he was a Jew. Your excellent article gives so much more detail than I’ve heard before. Thanks for the research and, as always, the compelling writing!
I, too, have never understood or been clear on why there is so much prejudice against the Jews. So, thank you Greg, for enlightening us. It illustrates how people who get in trouble (money trouble in this case) and are angry about it, can more easily project that anger on others than take responsibility for their own actions. We are witnessing this projection of self- anger/self-hatred in the GOP and other extremous groups who attack others. Can you find examples when these attacks, both verbal and physical, have been successfully rebuffed?
Thanks, Greg. Really a well done report. I have learned things from every history you write. It is good to know exactly how these things have evolved in the public consciousness (or not, as is the case sometimes).
“There was something that Hitler had completely misunderstood," said Søren Frandsen the author of a new book, Kurs Mod Friheden (The Path To Freedom), about the events of October 1943. "And that was: while they were Jews, they were also Danish people. Of course, they would help each other in a crisis.
Gilleleje: Denmark's seaside town that saved Danish Jews - BBC Travel
Antisemitism is a disease that seems to be incurable and is spread from one person to the next. The virus looks for the gullible, the hateful, and the easily lead. Pizzagate was a perfect example of it even though no Jews were directly mentioned. A little bit of this and a little bit of that, and boom! a new conspiracy theory for people to glom onto. I STILL can't believe that ANYONE believed that one, but then there were a lot of people that actually did; one of them enough to come to DC with an assault rifle to "save the children." I can't think about it too much or I just start muttering, "what the fuck? what the fuck? what the fuck? what the fuck? what the fuck? what the ACTUAL fuck?"
I think about this sometimes: are we smarter now, as a species, than we were a thousand years ago? We should be, as we have the knowledge of the ages literally at our fingertips. But I don't think so.
Pope Urban II, in a single speech at Clermont , convinced kings and knights and mercenaries and pious Christians and holy warriors by the thousands to schlep 2,000 miles away, to a strange place none of them had been to, to slaughter a people none of them knew. A historical example of a disinformation campaign that worked spectacularly. Now we have Facebook microtargeting users with racist, sexist, antisemitic, and Nazi sympathies...I don't think our brains have evolved enough to process all of it. Brains get broken. And the bad guys know exactly how to do it, using technologies Urban II could only have dreamed of (and would probably have denounced as Satan's work).
I am late in responding, Greg, but I honestly did not know some of the history you mentioned. According to Ancestry, I am 100% Ashkenzai Jewish. Both parents were born in Europe and escaped separately from their countries of Germany (mom) and Poland (dad). My dad was considered a Zionist leader in Poland so he knew he had to leave his mom and sister, plus his grandfather. His uncle arranged passage to America for he and his cousin. This was in the mid 30’s. He spoke no English but was a very quick learner. He joined the Army when he saw the “Uncle Sam Wants You” poster. He joined so that they’d send him to Europe to fight the Nazis. The Army sent him to the Pacific Theater instead. He was there 4.5 years but was able to get his American citizenship papers when he got back. That was 1945 when he was discharged.
My mother took many circuitous routes at night, to go from Berlin to Holland and then to London. She and her 3 other siblings tearfully left their parents behind, promising to get them out. My grandparents didn’t get to leave. They were gassed in 1942 at the gas camp in Poland called Chelmno. The siblings all went through London as they were helped by an entertainment lawyer who had an office near the American embassy. Her name was Fannie Holtzman. She was born in Brooklyn, NY and she was one of the youngest people ever to pass the NY bar exam at the age of...17! Fannie, at the time my mother met her, was the lawyer for the actress, Gertrude Lawrence, along with being a mistress and lawyer to Noel Coward. Fannie employed my mom as her confidante and requested that she look after Lawrence’s daughter while she was performing in “The King and I”. After one year of being in Fannie’s company, Fannie arranged passage for my mother and 2 of her siblings to come to America. The youngest, my uncle stayed in London. I have a letter from Fannie’s nephew who told me she had helped broker a deal with Golda Meir, Ben-Gurion, and the Brits to make Israel home for the Jews. This is very significant now, isn’t it? Here is a bio on Fannie, if you’re interested: https://www.encyclopedia.com/women/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/holtzmann-fanny-c-1900-1980
Anyway, my parents met in 1946 and married six weeks later. They moved to NC to start a clothing store (What else?) and had my sister and I. Honestly, I truly think, and my sister does too, that if my mother had moved to Israel when my dad wanted to, we would have been the crazies on the West Bank. Thank goodness my mom said she had done enough moving! They were married for 51 years. Believe me, generational trauma is real. Sorry I went off on a rant, but you really struck a nerve and I want to thank you for revealing all of our history of survival.
Late here too, but should have been first in line. What a history. So glad you know the details, sad as they are. Sometimes I feel that I need to do a world history redux. Greg helps. Genealogy research told me more than I wanted to know.
Greg, as usual, you are spot on. How the world continues to support the ravings of the anti-semites is baffling to me. I think your research is deep & should be shouted from the rooftops. We must keep Democracy alive & vote out the crazies. Keep up the good work!
It seems, what we call the mafioso, in many different forms, have been influencing, and at times ruling, (from behind the curtain) throughout history. . .
Goes to show, some things never change when it comes to money and power.
Shamefully, this part of humanity has not evolved.
They are predators, human predators. They, as a collective, have made a choice. And I do think they have become more skilled in their theft and directed murder, locally, nationally and internationally, while international banking and corporate institutions have allowed them to store and allocate their ill-gotten resources in a more judicious manner than earlier ages. Because they come from many sources, seldom the the traditional nation-state lexus like Russia, they are difficult to root out in a thorough fashion, much less eradicate.
Frankly, I think we need to change the legal game to be more effective, quicker and more timely. They are the most deadly enemy democracies and civilizations encounter on an everyday basis. I do think they are evolving as there is more 'food' within their ecosphere.
The offshore stuff is what's killing us now, as you suggest. So easy for rich people and corporations to avoid taxes.
I think all of human history can be distilled to one big fight over resources perceived to be scarce. It's sad.
I think all of human history can be distilled to one big fight over who are the pecked, and who is the pecker.
It’s TUESDAY🎉🦃
Happy Thanksgiving, Lisbeth!
Back at ya!
The most cogent (and hysterical) analysis I've read; thanks for the timely and invaluable history lesson.
Hysterical? I doubt you'd think it was so funny if you were a Jew like me.
There was no malice intended; I was referring to Greg's story-telling, not the present situation.
I understand.
He does have a way with words…
Thank you! Happy Thanksgiving!
Excellent article, funny how my British history lessons never mentioned such important topics.
We went from one King’s reign to the next, War of the Roses, reformation so Henry V111 could divorce his wife for a younger model, it was if no Jewish person had resided in Britain.
Thanks, Bernadette. This sort of thing happens everywhere, I expect. I remember learning about the Civil War and then sort of jumping to WWI, even though what happened between those two events set the stage for EVERYTHING happening in the US now.
Henry VIII had Trump qualities, now that I think of it...
Haven’t all political vermin. Damn, there’s that word again..
The gaps were likely deliberate, as today. Or just not relevant to the greater plot.
In my schooling history was dates of HIS story of wars.
"... the inability of far too many leftists to distinguish between Hamas and Palestinian and between the Israeli government and Jewish people, Jews are increasingly at risk." This, very much yes.
This may serve a blow to democracy that will take a generation or more to recover from.
We are the house in the woods, with the burning forest coming at us from both sides.
I think this is something that Biden can address explicitly, explicating both the history and who stands where...and where we, as the US, stand within all this.
Yes, but like most of what he is saying and doing, it will be ignored because the media is focusing on covering the spectacle of the clown show nazi circus.
They are, but I think they have been pretty much bought out by gop and corporate sources who have changed the outlook. In other words, the aren't so much ignoring Biden but pursuing and spreading their own agenda...which is the clown show nazi circus. However, Biden has a bull pulpit in the propaganda war and can literally override them, at least for a short time, on a national and international basis.
It would be wonderful if they could come up with some mechanism to override the media, as Trump did with Twitter. The problem with Biden talking a lot in that sort of forum is that he's not good at it. He's doing all this incredible stuff, and then he talks about it, and stammers over a few words or says something wrong, and it's six more weeks of OH MY GOD HE'S OLD.
Stop it! 😄
You are so right, he is not spewing nonsense but just reporting on boring progress. His speech problems, like all speech problems, tend to label one as slow. Couldn’t be farther from the truth. But the ability to spew bull Schitt with fervor is lauded by idiots.
I wish. Every syllable of chump’s word salad was headline news but Biden’s bully pulpit is considered back page happenings.
Come now, Rick: those vignettes about voters in Midwestern diners don't write themselves!
I hope that he does.
BTW, early reporting suggests that Biden played a major role in the pause in hostilities to exchange hostages. Will they give him credit for this? Isn't this the ceasefire everyone seems to be demanding? Or is five days not long enough?
I can hear the carping now.
Perfect analogy, Rick.
And: Just as the bad guys planned. They've been desperately searching for a wedge issue to break away the far left from the sensible people, and here we are. We'll see if they vote for Stalin in 2024.
As if Joe didn’t need more opposition, Dems have never understood the concept of cohesion
Alas, they may vote for Stein or RFK junior instead
Very illuminating piece. This business of ritual child sacrifice seems to be an historically attractive conspiracy for crazies and nut jobs from many eras of human history. Amazing that some Pizzagate followers still believe that Hilary sacrificed infants to drink their blood in the basement of that (unbasemented) Washington, DC pizza parlor. What a world.
Indeed, what a bunch of liars and explicit projected lies for political purposes. Call 'em out.
Won't you just think of the children? /s
Thanks, Stephen, and good point. None of it makes sense.
The so-called "pro-life" movement does this very effectively, with all their talk of "post-birth abortion," which is not a thing, and never will be, but people hear it and believe it and feel the need to SAVE THE CHILDREN. Meanwhile, Russia has abducted 11,000 children from Ukraine, separating them from their parents, removing them to Russia...and Hamas slaughtered Israeli children in their homes...but that doesn't land somehow. It's very selective, this MAGA urge to save children....children who, by the way, were separated from their parents at the border under Trump.
Children used as political ploys, NEVER about an actual child in need
How many times have I thought “they have jumped the shark now. “
Great piece Greg. You filled in some of the details I hadn't learned elsewhere.
I am disheartened by all the rhetoric that passes for informed dialog. Thanks for posting this, and for your clear-eyed analyses.
Thanks, Geoff. I'm glad I filled in the details. The problem with the media, generally, is that they don't provide enough context for the stuff they report on.
Antisemitism is rightly called the oldest hatred in history because it goes all the way back to ancient Egypt. As a Christian, I am ashamed of what Christians did to spread this poison. Whenever times become hard, it’s easy for people to wrongly scapegoat Jews for the problems when they actually suffer themselves. Just to note, Jews were banned from openly living in England from the time of Edward I until Oliver Cromwell invited Jews to come live in England.
Thanks, Kathy.
Freedom of religion is really a remarkable thing, when we consider the history of Europe and the role religion played in all the wars. We've done a lot of screwy things in the US, but we got that one right.
It's interesting that it was Cromwell -- the non-king -- who invited them back.
As I am of Irish descent, we tend to dislike Cromwell on the whole, but there were some good things he did. One of them was to allow Jews to return to England, and no later king revoked this right. The other good thing he did was to establish the principle that the monarch could not govern without the advice and consent of Parliament.
I’ve never been totally clear on why so many people hate the Jews. I’m of course aware of the “Jews killed Christ” argument, which seems to ignore—or be ignorant of—the fact that he was a Jew. Your excellent article gives so much more detail than I’ve heard before. Thanks for the research and, as always, the compelling writing!
Thanks, Earl.
I recommend reading the entire Nation article, as it has a lot more details and explores more of the thinking behind the hatred:
https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/the-origins-of-blood-libel/
Thank you for this.
Same here, after all they don’t have the dark tan that most scapegoats have.
I, too, have never understood or been clear on why there is so much prejudice against the Jews. So, thank you Greg, for enlightening us. It illustrates how people who get in trouble (money trouble in this case) and are angry about it, can more easily project that anger on others than take responsibility for their own actions. We are witnessing this projection of self- anger/self-hatred in the GOP and other extremous groups who attack others. Can you find examples when these attacks, both verbal and physical, have been successfully rebuffed?
Thanks, Greg. Really a well done report. I have learned things from every history you write. It is good to know exactly how these things have evolved in the public consciousness (or not, as is the case sometimes).
Thanks, Billy. Happy Thanksgiving!
“There was something that Hitler had completely misunderstood," said Søren Frandsen the author of a new book, Kurs Mod Friheden (The Path To Freedom), about the events of October 1943. "And that was: while they were Jews, they were also Danish people. Of course, they would help each other in a crisis.
Gilleleje: Denmark's seaside town that saved Danish Jews - BBC Travel
https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20231002-gilleleje-denmarks-seaside-town-that-saved-danish-jews
Thanks, Kirsten. I didn't know that!
I think THAT, that sense of community, is what MOST humans believe deep down. Or, rather, it's what I'd like to believe.
Yes, we are social animals and can’t survive alone.
I’m thankful for my Dad, his family and brothers/sisters in arms who were all courageous WWII resistance fighters ✌🏻 #NeverForget!
Great post. Thank you!
Thanks, Walter!
Hey, Greg, thank you for bringing such wisdom and excellent writing to these challenging times!
And I thought I knew a lot about antisemitism.
No. I did not.
This article is a keeper. Of course I’ve sent it on.
Thank you so much, Greg.
I not only like your scholarship, your writing style, but also and essentially your POV.
Thanks, Samm. Much appreciated. I recommend reading the entire Nation article, which goes into more depth and detail on the blood libel:
https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/the-origins-of-blood-libel/
Antisemitism is a disease that seems to be incurable and is spread from one person to the next. The virus looks for the gullible, the hateful, and the easily lead. Pizzagate was a perfect example of it even though no Jews were directly mentioned. A little bit of this and a little bit of that, and boom! a new conspiracy theory for people to glom onto. I STILL can't believe that ANYONE believed that one, but then there were a lot of people that actually did; one of them enough to come to DC with an assault rifle to "save the children." I can't think about it too much or I just start muttering, "what the fuck? what the fuck? what the fuck? what the fuck? what the fuck? what the ACTUAL fuck?"
I think about this sometimes: are we smarter now, as a species, than we were a thousand years ago? We should be, as we have the knowledge of the ages literally at our fingertips. But I don't think so.
Pope Urban II, in a single speech at Clermont , convinced kings and knights and mercenaries and pious Christians and holy warriors by the thousands to schlep 2,000 miles away, to a strange place none of them had been to, to slaughter a people none of them knew. A historical example of a disinformation campaign that worked spectacularly. Now we have Facebook microtargeting users with racist, sexist, antisemitic, and Nazi sympathies...I don't think our brains have evolved enough to process all of it. Brains get broken. And the bad guys know exactly how to do it, using technologies Urban II could only have dreamed of (and would probably have denounced as Satan's work).
You said it best: what the ACTUAL fuck.
I am late in responding, Greg, but I honestly did not know some of the history you mentioned. According to Ancestry, I am 100% Ashkenzai Jewish. Both parents were born in Europe and escaped separately from their countries of Germany (mom) and Poland (dad). My dad was considered a Zionist leader in Poland so he knew he had to leave his mom and sister, plus his grandfather. His uncle arranged passage to America for he and his cousin. This was in the mid 30’s. He spoke no English but was a very quick learner. He joined the Army when he saw the “Uncle Sam Wants You” poster. He joined so that they’d send him to Europe to fight the Nazis. The Army sent him to the Pacific Theater instead. He was there 4.5 years but was able to get his American citizenship papers when he got back. That was 1945 when he was discharged.
My mother took many circuitous routes at night, to go from Berlin to Holland and then to London. She and her 3 other siblings tearfully left their parents behind, promising to get them out. My grandparents didn’t get to leave. They were gassed in 1942 at the gas camp in Poland called Chelmno. The siblings all went through London as they were helped by an entertainment lawyer who had an office near the American embassy. Her name was Fannie Holtzman. She was born in Brooklyn, NY and she was one of the youngest people ever to pass the NY bar exam at the age of...17! Fannie, at the time my mother met her, was the lawyer for the actress, Gertrude Lawrence, along with being a mistress and lawyer to Noel Coward. Fannie employed my mom as her confidante and requested that she look after Lawrence’s daughter while she was performing in “The King and I”. After one year of being in Fannie’s company, Fannie arranged passage for my mother and 2 of her siblings to come to America. The youngest, my uncle stayed in London. I have a letter from Fannie’s nephew who told me she had helped broker a deal with Golda Meir, Ben-Gurion, and the Brits to make Israel home for the Jews. This is very significant now, isn’t it? Here is a bio on Fannie, if you’re interested: https://www.encyclopedia.com/women/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/holtzmann-fanny-c-1900-1980
Anyway, my parents met in 1946 and married six weeks later. They moved to NC to start a clothing store (What else?) and had my sister and I. Honestly, I truly think, and my sister does too, that if my mother had moved to Israel when my dad wanted to, we would have been the crazies on the West Bank. Thank goodness my mom said she had done enough moving! They were married for 51 years. Believe me, generational trauma is real. Sorry I went off on a rant, but you really struck a nerve and I want to thank you for revealing all of our history of survival.
Late here too, but should have been first in line. What a history. So glad you know the details, sad as they are. Sometimes I feel that I need to do a world history redux. Greg helps. Genealogy research told me more than I wanted to know.
Greg, as usual, you are spot on. How the world continues to support the ravings of the anti-semites is baffling to me. I think your research is deep & should be shouted from the rooftops. We must keep Democracy alive & vote out the crazies. Keep up the good work!