The Dispatch: More from CWR...

The grave sin of Jew-hatred

Antisemitism is usually a sign of social and cultural rot, and this latest outbreak of an ancient social disease is no exception.

(Image of Star of David: chenspec/Pixabay; image of fire: Cullan Smith/Unsplash.com)

Shortly after the 2014 Russian annexation of Crimea, I noted in this column and elsewhere that the entire episode – including the fouling of the public space by the aggressor’s genocidal threats and endless disinformation – suggested something of what the 1930s must have been like. A brazen dictator with a talent for rabble-rousing bewitches his own people and paralyzes the political will of those who might be able to deter him. Well-meaning (and not-so-well-meaning) souls make excuses for the aggressor, while his slick propagandists tell lie after lie about his intentions and the purported wickedness of those in the aggressor’s crosshairs. “It couldn’t happen again,” too many say; “the world learned its lesson in the Great War.”

Of course, it did happen again. And the world bled more profusely because of the myopia of those who could not see what was right in front of them.

More recently, a critic of my views on the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the imperative of American support for that beleaguered country bemoaned my use of the tired “World War II analogy.” To which I replied, it’s only “tired” if it’s wrong. Which it manifestly wasn’t in the period before and after the Russian invasion of February 2022. And it isn’t now.

For the Nazi Anschluss of Austria, the Munich cave-in of Britain and France, and the subsequent destruction of Czechoslovakia – all crucial moments in the run-up to World War II – coincided with the Kristallnacht of November 9-10, 1938: the violent assault on Jewish homes, synagogues, and properties during the “Night of Broken Glass” that presaged the exterminationist antisemitism of the Holocaust. On that night of horrors, the cry “Kill the Jews!” rang out across Germany. Now, the same cry is being heard across Europe and the United States, amplified by “Gas the Jews!” in Sydney, Australia.

About all of which, some lessons from the Catechism of the Catholic Church may help concentrate minds that need concentrating.

“Sin is an act contrary to reason. It wounds man’s nature and injures human solidarity” [1872].

“The root of all sins lies in man’s heart. The kinds and gravity of sins are determined principally by their objects” [1873].

“To choose deliberately – that is, both knowing it and willing it – something gravely contrary to the divine law and to the ultimate end of man is to commit a mortal sin. This destroys in us the charity without which eternal beatitude is impossible. Unrepented, it brings eternal death” [1874].

If divine law and human reason condemn hatred of anyone who is “Other” simply because of who he or she is, then even more so do they condemn the irrational and too-often lethal hatred of the People to whom God first made his promises – promises, the Second Vatican Council taught, of which God has never repented (see Nostra Aetate 4). Jew-hatred that leads to cries of “Kill the Jews!” and “Gas the Jews!” is as clear an example of a deliberate choice “that destroys in us the charity without which eternal beatitude is possible” as one can imagine. It is loathsome. It is a gangrenous wound eating away at everything from higher education to politics. It cannot be tolerated, and those who advocate such barbarities should not be tolerated, either.

For Christians to engage in any form of antisemitism is to add further blows to the smitten back of Christ, tied to the Pillar of Flagellation. It is to press more thorns upon his bleeding brow. It is to pound more nails into his hands and feet. It is to thrust another spear into his side. For he was and is, eternally, the Son of David as well as the Son of God, and to scorn his kinsmen is to scorn him.

There is no excuse – none – for the wave of Jew-hatred that has washed across the Western world like an acid bath. Antisemitism is usually a sign of social and cultural rot, and this latest outbreak of an ancient social disease is no exception. Western culture and society are being rotted out from within; is it any wonder that some of the worst of the recent Jew-baiting has taken place on elite campuses, where nihilism, cynicism, and soul-withering secularism reign supreme? (Any parent planning to spend a half-million dollars to send a son or daughter to an Ivy League university or some other intellectual cesspool really should think again.)

The hour is late. The threats are growing. Wake up. And take a first step toward sanity by standing in solidarity with those whom John Paul II called our “elder brothers” in faith.

(George Weigel’s column ‘The Catholic Difference’ is syndicated by the Denver Catholic, the official publication of the Archdiocese of Denver.)


If you value the news and views Catholic World Report provides, please consider donating to support our efforts. Your contribution will help us continue to make CWR available to all readers worldwide for free, without a subscription. Thank you for your generosity!

Click here for more information on donating to CWR. Click here to sign up for our newsletter.


About George Weigel 520 Articles
George Weigel is Distinguished Senior Fellow of Washington's Ethics and Public Policy Center, where he holds the William E. Simon Chair in Catholic Studies. He is the author of over twenty books, including Witness to Hope: The Biography of Pope John Paul II (1999), The End and the Beginning: Pope John Paul II—The Victory of Freedom, the Last Years, the Legacy (2010), and The Irony of Modern Catholic History: How the Church Rediscovered Itself and Challenged the Modern World to Reform. His most recent books are The Next Pope: The Office of Peter and a Church in Mission (2020), Not Forgotten: Elegies for, and Reminiscences of, a Diverse Cast of Characters, Most of Them Admirable (Ignatius, 2021), and To Sanctify the World: The Vital Legacy of Vatican II (Basic Books, 2022).

125 Comments

  1. Sadly, the modern version just substitutes “anti Zionism” for anti Semitism.
    Looking for a scapegoat never gets old it seems and the Jews end up being recruited as scapegoats over and over again. Some things never change.
    God bless and protect Israel and all the innocents caught in this terrible conflict. Gaza and Israel both deserve a peaceful future.

  2. The million-dollar question is what constitutes anti-Semitism? On this site and elsewhere, criticizing the behavior Israel or Jews, merely stating facts and arguing about history or US foreign policy are interpreted as evidence of hatred of the Jews. That is a standard that must be rejected. People like George Weigel who have zealously promoted the immoral and stupid Middle Eastern wars of the last thirty-two years have no standing to make judgements or define terms in this area.

    • “The million-dollar question is what constitutes anti-Semitism? ”
      ********
      I think the answer lies in what our intentions are. As in virtually everything else, intention is key.
      Criticism of Israeli politics & politicians is something many Israelis share. That’s legit. So is the realization that some of our foreign entanglements have removed one evil & allowed worse ones to multiply in the vacuum created.

      • Does the legitimacy of criticism of Israeli politics and politicians really depend on whether some Israelis agree with it? Is there a more objective standard we should apply?

        • The fact that many Israelis are critical of their government puts things in context I think.
          The sad thing is that the kibbutz settlements that were so horrifically attacked were mostly folks who opposed Netanyahu and who had attempted to be good neighbors to Gazans.

          • Propagating Hamas propaganda can constitute that also. We can’t assume though that everyone realizes that. We all can be manipulated by the media if we’re not careful.

    • Great post. Anti-Semitism is not the same as anti-Zionism and criticism of the current government. How anyone can thing turning off water, electricity and preventing medicine for over 2mn people is a reasonable and proportionate reaction to the death of 1,400 people is amazing? Weigel clearly has another agenda beyond a genuine discussion of a horrible situation. Thankfully most people on this blog can see through it.

  3. Even after we fought our way to Dobbs, and have seen virtually no results out of DC for half a century – a headline this week: U.S. bishops back 15-week baby-killing ban as ‘positive step’ forward.

    Do Catholics believe that incremental laws are needed to ban the murder of some Jews? Before you say no, consider how Ohio Catholics voted to enshrine abortion in their Constitution yesterday.

    Why should we expect top ranked US Universities to stand for abolition of murderous antisemitism, when Catholic leaders can’t even muster abolitionist outrage against the murder of children?

    Replace antisemitism with abortion and read the article. Wake up.

    • Early in his pontificate Francis dismissed concern for abortion as an “obsession” despite pretending later, as a politician, that he better say a few things against it, even while later taking contrary actions. But I did know then that he would be the source of inspiring even greater moral cowardice among our episcopate. We, the laity, have to do all the heavy lifting.
      Woody Allen has his unsavory side, but he had one of his genius moments when he authored a particular dialogue (according to sources) in his movie “Hannah and her Sisters”. The bored artist character, played by Max Von Sydow, lamented being reduced to watching television one evening and noted viewing a group of intellectuals asking the same old questions about how the Holocaust could possibly happen. He said, the reason they can never answer the question is because it’s the wrong question. The question should be, given what people are, why doesn’t it happen more often? But of course it does, in subtler forms.

  4. Further manipulating a current anti-Jew myth to ignore the Euro-American hatred and endless atrocities against our Muslim brothers and sisters, and all non-White peoples of the world. Shame on you, George Weigel; examine your conscience!

    • Ah, yes, Islamophobia.
      But, perhaps the deepest reason why modernday tribalism (all identity politics) resents the Jews is that historic Israel is a reminder not only of a real God who is not ourselves, but of a God who also speaks. (And, jumping ahead, as the Christian C.S. Lewis notices: a God who chooses to “make a nuisance of Himself!”)

      So, today in our postmodern, deconstructed, and convoluted moment in history, our widely-shared deafness toward solidarity manifests itself in simultaneous and contradictory ways–e.g., historically, the Islamic replacement of “the Word made flesh” (the Incarnation) by the “word made book” (the Qur’an); within the West–not hatred toward “non-White peoples”–but more broadly, hatred and amnesia toward all communal wisdom as symbolized especially by despised “dead White dudes” (Plato, Aristotle, disposable remnants especially like that); and, possibly within the Church itself, a wedge driven between so-called “backwardists” and/by ideological “forwardists” now burrowed into whatever real “synodality” used to be. And, again within the conflicted West, as in much of the Muslim-overrun domain as well, the upsurge of Christophobia and worse (Nigeria, etc. etc.)—which guru Dileep is careful not to notice.

      As for the war now on gang-Hamas territory, yours truly is no better informed or positioned than anyone else on the street. But it does seem that Weigel’s human solidarity with our “elder brothers,” in response to orchestrated mass demonstrations across the Muslim world, and of course solidarity with entrapped Palestinian body shields, is a conscientious place to stand.

    • The endleless terrorism towards Israel and innocent people in every corner of the world has been inspired by a significant portion of the Muslim population interpreting their religion as providing this as a mandate. There is not a reciprocal attitude of inhumanity from any other segment of humanity.

    • In reply Dileep:

      You narrative (that is, you make no recourse to any facts), is that Islamic populations and countries are the object of “hatred and endless atrocities” by Europeans and Americans, and you imply that therefore readers here should join you in asserting your solidarity with “our Muslim brothers and sisters.”

      Your comment indicates your own racial hatred of white people in Europe and America, and indicates that you support violence against white people to “get even” for the “endless atrocities” you accuse them of.

      Contrary to your comment, and in opposition to your explicit racist motives against white people, your appeal in favor of “our Muslim brothers and sisters” seems like nothing more than “violent-race-war-propaganda,” in support of populations that are, in fact, violent and racially hateful Muslims.

      While there are certainly many peace-loving Muslim people around the world, they are a very small minority of the Palestinian population, the vast majority of whom are extremely violent in their beliefs, and overwhelmingly voted for their Hamas-terrorist governing party.

      You perhaps know, like informed observers, that the 2013 Pew Poll on worldwide Muslim populations indicates that the Palestinian people are not peace-loving “Muslim brothers and sisters.” They are among the 3 most violent Muslim populations in the world, with, at that time, some 75% of Palestinian adults polled in favor of violent Sharia, using the 3 violence indicators of stoning women, cutting hands off thieves, and death for apostasy from Islam. This indicates merely their belief in violence against their own Palestinian Muslim people. It is simply logical to conclude that if they support such violence against their own people, they are willing to kill anyone who is a “non-Muslim.” The violence of Palestinians against Jews in Israel, living on the border of Gaza, was put on display in the “Muslim-Atrocities-of-October-7th.

      So if you are suggesting that the Palestinian people are somehow “brothers and sisters,” they are certainly not “our brothers and sisters,” since “we” (meaning faithful Christians who read snd comment at CWR) are peace-loving and civilized people, who stand in opposition and will go to war against people who invade countries of non-Muslim-white people and slaughter them, rape their women and girls, and behead their babies and cook the babies in ovens.

      So if you didn’t mean to suggest that you identify with the overwhelmingly violent-Palestinian-people, and their pay masters in the violent Muslim dictatorship of Iran, both of whom brutalize their own people with violent-Islamic-Sharia, then take your own advice, and go examine your own conscience.

      But no matter what you really are supporting, civilized, peace-loving people are opposed to the pathological violence of Islamic Sharia, and its “war-without-end” against non-Muslim populations.

  5. Some good and timely points from Dr. Weigel.
    We should be clear though. Antisemitism, as one understands its meaning, is sinful inasmuch as it is unjust, as well as uncharitable. But so is every other analogous “anti” bias. We should be careful not to conflate critique, automatically with such a bias. Homophobia may be a sin to the extent that it denigrates the humanity of the homosexual. But this does mean not that it is laudable, or even acceptable, to refrain from condemning homosexuality. At least those would have been the opinions of St. John Chrysostom.
    On the other hand, unfortunately Dr. Weigel errs in the beginning of his missive.
    Vladimir Putin is a champion of the Russian people, who acted to defend Russians living in the Ukraine being persecuted, even killed, with the long-term goal of ethnically cleansing their “Russian-ness.” In this, he is a champion of ethno-nationalism, as is Israel. We wish them both well. Putin is also a champion against the encroaching tentacles of a rapacious Liberal global order, an order which, sad to say, seems directed from this country. As Pat Buchanan has implicitly pointed out, D.C. has Ukrainian blood on its hands.
    Thankfully it seems that the good, is set to triumph in the Donbas, and the days may be numbered for the LGBTQ regime in Kiev.

      • A two state solution will never work when a mercenary terrorist cartel runs one of the states, lethally preys on it’s neighbor, & holds it’s own population hostage for a source of cannon fodder & humanitarian aid to be diverted into weapons & personal luxuries.

    • In reply to your comment Robert.

      While it seems most likely to be the case that Zelinsky of Ukraine is a puppet of the “EU drag queen empire,” it foes not necessarily follow that Vladimir Putin is suddenly not what he has heretofore always been: a homicidal sociopath technocrat born and bred in the hell-hole of the Soviet dictator state, and a leading member of the Soviet Secret Police murder franchise.

      • I do not claim to know the person of Vladimir Putin. All I know is that he was in the right, in liberating the Donbass.
        And he has done nothing to me, which is more than I can say for the Biden regime.

        • Pardon me for somehow misunderstanding your intent, as I did read your words, Robert, that Putin is “the champion”…of “the good”…and “we wish [him] well.”

          You may wish Putin well, Robert.

          But “we” don’t…

    • “Homophobia” is a word made up specifically to smear those who say, or believe, that homosexual behavior is wrong. Moral judgment is not a phobia (which is an irrational fear). Even the etymology is ridiculous; “homo-phobia” literally means “fear of the same.” Those who invented the word, and those who use it, are attempting to skew any discussion and to disqualify anybody who disagrees with them.

      The equivalent would be for those who wish to push the view that pedophilia is not the terrible sin that it is to call those who know that it is evil “pedophobes.”

      • Well articulated Leslie. I’ve always noted the contradiction in the term homophobia. It’s not a literal fear of man. Rather a justifiable revulsion to disorded sexuality.

      • Exactly. Thank you Leslie.
        I’ve heard that “minor attracted” is a softer version of that word being circulated recently. I suppose we’ll be saying “minor-attracted-phobes” one day if that effort’s successful.
        🙁

  6. Our Lord encountered, roughly speaking, two types of Jews during his time on earth.

    Those who were open to his preaching and those were not.

    The first kind became *Catholics.*

    Concerning the second, our Lord had strong words. When they protested that God was their father, our Lord replied:

    “You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.” (John 8:44)

    When a Catholic looks at the prominent and influential Jews in the world today, it is very difficult to see in them a receptivity to the gospel.

    Rejection of or Indifference to Christ has consequences.

    One sees it most prominently in the wicked words and deeds of people like Klaus Schwab, Noah Harari, George Soros, Jeffrey Epstein, and most recently, the Israeli Benjamin Netanyahu–particularly in his bombing campaign against the people of Gaza.

    The massive worldwide protests against Israel’s ethnic cleansing of Palestine are more an expression of anger than of hatred, even if, as in all protests, that anger will sometimes give way–sadly–to a hatred of the object of one’s anger.

    Hatred of persons/peoples, of course, is always wrong.

    Our Lord teaches us to love all, including our enemies.

    Therefore, let us pray for Jews, that they become Catholics, and so become our friends.

  7. I will get flamed for this, but so be it. The truth is important.

    A distinction must be made between between being antisemitic and anti-Israel. The former concerns a race, the latter a political entity. The political entity of the modern state of Israel is evil. The Jewish People are not. The modern state of Israel and its government are out to destroy the Palestinian People—genocide—which the Jewish People are not seeking. To equate the Jewish People with the state of Israel is disingenuous. Ethnic Jews are the majority in Israel, religious Jews, less so. Many Israelis are thoroughly secular and atheistic. Israelis practice a variety of religions and come from many cultures.

    I will always stand with and for the Jewish people. I will never stand with Israel. If that makes me antisemitic in your eyes, so be it.

    • What you are suggesting is like trying to separate the color red from an apple peel. It cannot be done. That a small minority of Israeli’s are of a different religion is likely true. It doesnt change the fact that most Israeli’s are indeed Jewish. As witness the bible, Jews have been in Jerusalem for thousands of years. They did NOT suddenly appear like magic in 1948, propaganda to the contrary. I am weary of hearing from people who wish to attempt to “undo” history. It cannot be done. Not by toppling statues, not by murdering or suppressing people whose religion (or politics) you do not like. The Jews are not going to evacuate Israel and hand it to Palestine.Any more than we in the US are going to cede our lands back to Native Americans. And regarding that, it did not appear that the Palestinians or Hamas did anything progressive with Gaza all the years they have had it. A country on the Mediterranean could do a booming tourist business if it was SAFE for tourists to visit. How did the Hamas attack benefit the Palestinians, especially now that half the place has been leveled? Are they better off for what Hamas did? Palestinians are doing this damage to their own people. Israel has a right to defend itself, just as we would if attacked. History happens.It cannot be reversed. Move forward.

    • Creating a preposterous flat out lie for yourself where the victims of a genocidal campaign, Israel, is the perpetrator, most certainly is a case of ignorance and bigotry.

  8. Dileep, can you point out what’s mythical about antisemitism?
    Bigotry is something we all can suffer from through our fallen human nature. Muslims, Christians, Jews, Hindus, etc. alike. And that goes for atrocities committed also. There’s a very long history of that still playing out today in Africa, the Mid East, Asia, Latin America & elsewhere.
    We each need to examine our conscience & learn our histories.

  9. This is a wonderful essay and I wish more people would see it. I have a number of Jewish friends. They have loyally stood by my side through a terrible personal tragedy. They continue to remember me each year on the anniversary of that loss. When on a rare occasion when an acquaintance might make an anti-semetic remark, I look at them quizzically and say, “you do know that Jesus was Jewish, right??” I have never been able to make sense of this very old hatred on the part of Christians, in large part because of that very truth. Having seen on the news the irrational , vicious hatred directed to innocent Jewish civilians in October, the slaughter of babies and the kidnapping of children and elderly who have harmed no one, I cannot imagine anyone with any brain cells supporting the other side. It is incomprehensible, and disgusting. Certainly such violence and calls to exterminate a people can not be justified by any gripes about a 75 year old land dispute. In my Catholic world, encouraging such hatred is indeed a grave sin and Catholics would be smart to see it as such. Instead of calling for “proportional responses” as some priests have,and playing both sides, they should be making clear the extreme gravity of sin of the initial incident and the expressions of hatred of the Jews which followed from colleges, and community agitators like certain Congresswomen.

  10. We Christians sometimes forget (or ignore) the fact that Jesus was AND IS a Jew, both ethnically and religiously. He is the Messiah foretold in the Jewish (and Christian) scriptures, the Son of God and God Himself who chose Judaism as the grounding for His salvational message. “Do not think that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets. I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill. For amen I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall not pass of the law, till all be fulfilled.” Matthew 5: 17,18 (Douay-Rheims). There is no place for “Jew-hatred” in Christianity. Jesus is a Jew.

    • Raymond B. Marcin , you are Correct, Jesus IS a Jew,
      Present Tense, Jesus will Always be a Jew, Jesus Never Stopped being Jewish
      Not All Hatreds are Equal
      Anti-Semitism, Jew-Hatred is the Ultimate Wickedness and Evil Sin

    • Raymond, Again we Must All Remember that Not All Hatreds are Equal. Many have pointed out that
      Jew-Hatred, Anti-Semitism is the Ultimate Wickedness, worse than other Forms of Hatred

      • Benjamin, we’re all human beings & children of the same God. Hatred is hatred, but hatred of the Jews is one that seems to live longer under the radar & emerge at times like these.
        It’s all bad.

    • Jesus also stood up against the corruption of the Pharisees of His day and was persecuted by them all the way to the cross, proving that not all people in one single group are righteous. And that is ok to call out the ones that are in the wrong and embrace the ones that are acting rightly.

  11. This may shock pious readers, but in a normal world, I would care as much about what Jews and Muslims do to each other in the Middle East as I do about the conflicts between Hindus and Muslims in India. Yes, it is terrible that these foul crimes are committed, but we can’t save the world and attempts to do so usually make things much worse. I am forced to concern myself with Israel because of the US government’s nearly unconditional support for it. This backing has translated into massive diplomatic efforts, many tens of billions of dollars in economic and military aid and, in recent decades, direct military interventions (aka wars) on its behalf. This lopsided relationship has no moral justification and has worked very much to detriment of American national interests. It has also resulted in many hundreds of thousands of deaths and injuries and extensive destruction. I’ll leave it to God to decide who bears what percentage of the guilt for the many atrocities that have been committed in that part of the world since the end of WWII, but certainly, Israel’s hands are hardly clean and I reserve the right to evaluate its conduct.

  12. Has the 2-state solution secretly been abandoned? And “therefore” now “opposing Israel is a sin”? One thing for sure is extremists on both sides keep preventing true dialogue while somehow keeping each other and their brutalities relevant and in charge over and over again.

    Weigel does not address reality in so many ways. What right does Zionism have to paramountcy and absolute immunity in world affairs. What sense is it. How is not supporting it anti-Jewish when the Jews themselves are divided on it. How is recognizing its errors and excesses and opposing such, the same as “being Hamas” -as Netanyahu asserts.

    Is there an abandoning of the 2-state solution? Is that a JPII plan? Is it Catholic?

    When Zionists become as Amalek, who is sinning.

    • A two state solution has been proposed and rejected by the Palestinians 5 ties now. That’s not the issue. It’s also pretty clear that if I’m killing babies and children, burning people alive, gunning down young people at a music festival, and raping women, then I am the one sinning. That’s a no brainer.

      • A two state solution will never work when a mercenary terrorist cartel runs one of the states, lethally preys on it’s neighbor, & holds it’s own population hostage for a source of cannon fodder & humanitarian aid to be diverted into weapons & personal luxuries.

    • Many readers know, as already pointed out by Athanasius, that the Palestinians have repeatedly rejected a 2-state solution.

      The Palestinian population, as disclosed in the 2013 Pew Poll on Islamic politics, is among the 3 most violent Islamic populations in the world, vying for 1st-place with Pakistan: 75% of the Palestinian adult population supports deadly Sharia: stoning to death, cutting off hands, death for apostates from Islam. And that is merely the pathology they choose for their own Palestinian people. For non-Muslims, they showed what they intend for non-Muslims anywhere in the world, in their October 7th Atrocity: rape mothers and daughters in front of their families, then kill them after raping them, behead the babies and cook them in ovens.

      Church fantasies about a “2-state solution” were offered for years, and repeatedly rejected by the Palestinian populace.

      As of the morning of October 8th 2023, proposing a “2-state solution” requires pretending reality doesn’t matter.

      • Chris in Maryland , have you ever heard of Brooklyn born
        Rabbi Meir Kahane 1932-1990
        Many people have been saying after the Hamas Attacks of
        October 7, 2023 that
        “Kahane Was Right” have you ever seen the website jtf.org
        Jewish Task Force , JTF by
        Chaim Ben Pesach, a follower of Meir Kahane
        Many people have also pointed out that Jordan is Palestine
        That the “Palestinians” are a Fake Fictional Invented People, Invented after the Arab Nations started and lost the 1967 War
        Most of the people in Jordan are
        “Palestinians” why do
        “Palestinians” Need to have Another State ? They already have Jordan
        The late Arch Terrorist and leader of the “Palestinians”
        Yasser Arafat who died in 2004, even he wasn’t “Palestinian”
        He was Egyptian

      • Chris whether we are to discuss principles in just war or international settlements or what have you, it has to be on bases we can hold to as Catholics and it must not make the Church the agency of Zionism or (other) terrorism like that from Hamas.

        Deacon Edward’s point is not well put because Zionists in the free world are underwriters of abortion activities and related “industrialization of by-products” along with being proponents and arbitrageurs of free choice ideology.

        And I would say to Edward Baker that we don’t just look at things as they appear but we delve into motives as well as objective meanings and consequences. And this would hold for both sides not just one as well as all sides not just the moment’s.

        • Elias:

          As my sense is that abortion etc is preferred by many people of ethnic and religious identity other than just Jews, and that indeed there are many more, and I would venture a majority of “Catholics” and “Protestants” who are likewise promoting and contributing to the abortion ideology, I hardly see the basis for arguing to single out and alienate all Jews because of pro-abortion Jews.

          And they have fought and won a war to defend their claim on Israel, a claim that precedes by thousands of years their exile by the Emperor Hadrian.

          And the Palestinian population is pathologically violent (like many of the Muslim populations, such as Pakistan, etc, etc), and demonstrated that on October 7th, so they have chosen to be punished by war, and they will be pay dearly for their choice to commit their atrocities. Just like Germsny did under their preferred Nazi regime…

          And that’s all there really is to it.

  13. What is the difference between Hamas terrorists entering Israel and beheading babies and supporting abortion? (I thought so.)

  14. I certainly agree with supporting Israel in its war against the suicidal and homicidal pathology of promoted and acted out by the Palestinian-Muslims-Who-Overwhelmingly-Support-Violent Sharia-and-Prefer-the-Terror-of-Hamas.

    I do differ in one “forensic” sense that the author Mr. Weigel seems to gloss over: “the west” is not synonymous with Christianity, it has for centuries abandoned Christianity and embraced “modern-paganism,” manifested in the homicidal French Revolution, and the homicidal and suicidal political ideologies of pagan-socialism, both in the Nazi-socialist ideology and the suicidal-Marxist-socialist-anti-Christ-ideology (which rules in the so-called European Union).

    The EU political coalitions are not defending western civilization. Indeed, all can see that they hate Christianity, and are intent on destroying it.

    Thus, I can pray that somehow “the west” and the USA and the EU prevail in helping Ukraine fight off the homicidal-suicidal Russian invasion, for the sake of the peace-living people of Ukraine, “the west” seems more-and-more to declare itself to be nothing other than a naked “union-of-suicidal-pagan-socialist-pathology.”

    To put it starkly and simply, the government of the USA, largely infested with “pathological-western-and-USA-hating” ideologues of its current Obama-run, Biden-puppet federal government machine. Not surprisingly, its ruling “Democrat” administration is filled with Jew-hating, Christian-hating neo-pagans, and they are fighting for what we now know is Obama’s fantasy: his “drag-queen-empire.”

    Or to put it simply, as the redundant-bishop Cardinal Christophe Pierre blurted out recently: “hardly anyone goes to Church in Europe (or the USA) anymore.”

    I guess Cardinal CP has already imported the ideology of Robert Kagan, and proposes a “new-Church” for the “re-paganized-West,” and his ilk will be its pagan-Pontiff.

  15. This piece by Weigel is a schowcase example of the uncritical reception of the Zionist campaign to silence its critics by equating anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism. Zionism is the political nationalist ideology for the establishment and preservation of the modern state of Israel in 1948 through its parallel massive immigration of mainly Eastern European Jews and the displacement and dispossession of the indigenous Palestinians from their lands. Anti-Zionism is the resistance to and reproach of the state of Israel in its continuing apartheid and genocide of the Palestinians. Anti-Zionism citicizes the political, military, social and cultural policies and practices of the state of Israel rather than targeting the Jewish people as a whole. Anti-Semitism on the other hand is the prejudice, discrimination and hate directed against the Jewish people because of their religious identity. Anti-Semitism just like racism is universally viewed as morally wrong. The Zionist campaign of equiparation of anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism ultimately aims at putting the state of Israel above moral reproach no matter what and how much violence they inflict on the Palestinians whom they have displaced and dispossesed in 1948. What Israel is doing at this moment to the Palestinians is comparable to the scale and harshness of the Holocaust. The victim of genocide has become the perpetrator of genocide.

    • In reply to Dom:

      Your identification with the Palestinian populace (whether by lack of knowledge or other reason) is something you might reconsider in light of some facts that undermine the narrative you wrote.

      As many informed readers may already know, though perhaps you were unaware, in 2013 the Pew Poll organization published a poll of beliefs held by Muslim populations worldwide, involving dozens of countries and populations. Among the results were the preference for the 3 markers of violent Sharia: stoning women for adultery, cutting hands off thieves, and death for apostates. The most violent Muslim population was Pakistan, with btw 80-90% of the people supporting deadly Sharia. 3rd place was the Palestinian populace, with 75% of Palestinians in favor of deadly Sharia.

      As the preference for deadly Sharia indicates the violence Muslims intend for their own people, it is reasonable to assume they intend nothing but death for non-Muslim people.

      The preference for violence explains why the Palestinian overwhelmingly elected the terror party Hamas to govern them, and it likewise explains their atrocity of October 7th, in raping and murdering mothers and daughters in front of their families, and beheading infants and cooking them in ovens.

      Hopefully, your unfortunate personal identification with the pathologically violent Palestinians is simply of result of being largely uninformed about what you are talking about.

      For the Palestinians of 2013, there is no desire for a solution that doesn’t involve killing the Jews, in the same manner that their grandparents and great grandparents supported the “final solution” worked out between their very own Grand Mufti of Jerusalem and his like-minded ally, Adolph Hitler.

      Otherwise, perhaps you might join commenter Dileep above in an “examination of conscience?”

      • The idea you’ve appropriated is precisely a product of the campaign of Zionists (or at this point in time: ZioNazis) to dilute the moral discussion and reproach of atrocities committed by the modern state of Israel on the Palestinians for the purpose of keeping what they have stolen back in 1948. Yours and the Zionists way of arguing is whataboutism, diverting the discussion into a different direction or matter, here focusing on the Palestinians. This is classic twisting: making the aggressor the victim. This way a proper moral reproach and accounting of Israel’s apartheid and genocide of the Palestinian is prevented. Knowledge of raw history is not enough. Context is imperative and important. We have to go back to the 1948 establishment of the modern state of Israel with the massive immigration of mostly Eastern European Jews and the expulsion of the indigenous Palestinians from their homes and lands. Zionists misuse and abuse the Bible claiming they are simply returning to the land they are entitled to. Like most of its cofounders and pillars, Zionism’s founder atheist Theodor Herzl famously wrote: God does not exist; He gave us this land. Another common Zionist trick given to the world is the falsehood and lie of the continuity, equivalence and identity between the biblical Israel and the modern state of Israel. The Catechism of the Catholic Church is clear in teaching that we Catholics are Israel today (CCC 877, based on Romans 9 to 11). This fake equivalence and entitlement is debunked by credible Bible scholars, historians, archaeologists, geneticists, and other social scientists. As a sampling, I invite you to take up and read the Jewish historian Schlomo Sand’s books, “The Invention of the Jewish People” and “The Invention that the Land of Israel.” Sand’s thought represents the majority consensus of credible scholars in their field which expectedly the Zionists have been trying to smear as false. Sand in studying its history concludes that the Palestinians today are ethnically closer to the original twelve tribes of Abraham’s children and have remained in the land for millennia. They got expelled in 1948 by the immigrant Eastern European Jews who are only descendants of converts to Judaism and in no way linked genetically to the twelve tribes. Sand traces the Palestinians’ continuous presence in the land going back to Joshua’s conquest of Canaan to the present day. These Palestinians while keeping their blood link to Abraham did not remain Jewish by faith. A minority who remain until today became Christians (today majority Catholics) in the first century. With the Muslim conquest of the land, the majority embraced Islam in the seventh century. If you don’t have the energy to read Sand, watch any of his many YouTube lecture videos about his books. He often jokes: We Israelis have stolen from the Palestinians not only their land but also their falafel and hummus and claimed them as our own. (On the Zionist misuse and abuse of the Bible, take up and read the two books by the Catholic priest and Bible scholar, Michael Prior, CM: “Zionism and the State of Israel” and “The Bible and Colonialism.”)

        • Dear Dom:

          The self-stated declaration for violence from the Palestinian populace is reality…a reality that, if readers were to grant your implied declaration about your own “energy,” it might seem reasonable to conclude that you begin by simply refusing to deal with the reality of pathologically violent Islam, as expressed by, among others, the Palestinian population.

          But beyond questions about your current willingness (or abilities), in the end, you, like all men, and especially so as a Christian man, are accountable for what you do, or fail to do, in condemning pathological violence and atrocity.

  16. Not always a supporter of Mr. Weigel’s views, this time I surely am. Thank you for this, sir. It should be at the top of every Catholic website. There is far too much silence on anti-Judaism from our ecclesial leadership. I am mortified.
    Hamas need be called out for its barbarity not only toward Israel, but to the common man who they hold as slaves in Gaza. Hamas amounts to nothing but a criminal mob acting as warlords over innocents.

  17. During the cold war 80s, Weigel was a valuable Catholic commentator on public affairs. However, when the cold war was over, he just couldn’t give up his crazy neocon vision of world order: the US empire as spreader of “democracy” around the globe and as dutiful servant of the state of Israel. Hence the disastrous destructive wars since 1991: in Bosnia/Kosovo/Serbia/Croatia, the first gulf war, Somalia, the war “on terror”, invasion of Afghanistan, the invasion of Iraq, drone strikes over the world, missiles against Syria, the war in Ukraine, and now Palestine.

    A lousy track record, if you ask me.

    • Not unlike George Will. Both men are too easily seduced by their own pen, long after the expiration date.

      The only think I’m certain about in the Middle East is that for the entirety of my life, it has been slowly laundered of Christianity and all I ever hear is war death and the next “peace plan” even as various nations solicit every more lethal weapons from the U.S. at our expense.

      Just once I’d like to see some some concern about anti-CHRISTIAN hate.

    • I read your posts and to my understanding and knowledge you are very intelligent.

      After the Oslo Accords were signed, they first assassinated Rabin.

      Later they drove Arafat into internal exile where he died from sudden illness.

      If you are going to revive the Accords, you must have the right people.

      ‘ The Israeli government tried for decades to assassinate Arafat, including attempting to intercept and shoot down private aircraft and commercial airliners on which he was believed to be traveling. The assassination was initially assigned to Caesarea, the Mossad unit in charge of Israel’s numerous targeted killings. Shooting down a commercial airliner in international airspace over very deep water was thought to be preferable to make recovery of the wreckage, and hence investigation, more difficult. Following Israel’s 1982 invasion of Lebanon, Israeli Minister of Defense Ariel Sharon created a special task force code named “Salt Fish” headed by special operations experts Meir Dagan and Rafi Eitan to track Arafat’s movements in Lebanon to kill him because Sharon saw Arafat as a “Jew murderer” and an important symbol, symbols being as important as body counts in a war against a terrorist organization. The Salt Fish task force orchestrated the bombing of buildings where Arafat and senior PLO leaders were believed to be staying. Later renamed “Operation Goldfish”, Israeli operatives followed Israeli journalist Uri Avnery to a meeting with Arafat in an additional unsuccessful attempt to kill him. In 2001, Sharon as prime minister is believed to have made a commitment to cease attempts to assassinate Arafat. However, following Israel’s successful assassination in March 2004 of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, a founder of the Hamas movement, Sharon stated in April 2004 that “this commitment of mine no longer exists.” The first reports of Arafat’s failing health by his doctors for what his spokesman said was influenza came on 25 October 2004, after he vomited during a staff meeting. ‘

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yasser_Arafat

  18. This may shock pious readers, but in a normal world, I would care as much about what Jews and Muslims do to each other in the Middle East as I do about as the conflicts between Hindus and Muslims in India. Yes, it is terrible that these foul crimes are committed, but we can’t save the world and attempts to do so usually make things much worse. I am forced to concern myself with Israel because of the US government’s nearly unconditional support for it. This backing has translated into massive diplomatic efforts, many tens of billions of dollars in economic and military aid and, in recent decades, direct military interventions (aka wars) on its behalf. This lopsided relationship has no moral justification and has worked very much to detriment of American national interests. It has also resulted in many hundreds of thousands of deaths and injuries and extensive destruction. I’ll leave it to God to decide who bears what percentage of the guilt for the many atrocities that have been committed in that part of the world since the end of WWII, but certainly, Israel’s hands are hardly clean and I reserve the right to evaluate its conduct.

    • Tony W , Israel is always
      Morally, Legally and Intellectually Superior to it’s Enemies. Israel is the Most Humane Nation in the World
      Have you ever read the various editions of the Book
      “The Case for Israel” by
      Alan Dershowitz , no one is able to Refute Him
      Israel is Being Unjustly Demonized and Vilified by the Entire World, the Double Standards and Hypocrisy is Sickening

      • Thanks for the Dershowitz referral. I should have thought to consider his views before commenting. I’ll be more careful next time.

        • Always morally, legally and intellectually superior to its enemies? The most humane nation in the world?

          Telling Israel it can do no wrong ever – that providing they’re fighting Hamas, the end always justifies the means – just encourages the hideous Dresden-style carpet-bombing every day we can all see on our screens.

          Jews of conscience all over the world are protesting such barbarity with slogans such as ‘never again for anyone’. If terrorists were tunnelling under New York, would it be OK to flatten whole residential areas, bomb hospitals (in the plural), including today https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-palestine-shifa-hospital-gaza-besiege-attack, refugee camps etc at the cost of 10,000 mostly innocent lives to kill a handful of actual terrorists? Creating in UNICEF’s words ‘a graveyard for thousands of children’?

          We’ve got to move beyond simplistic world views which are blind to war crimes on both sides of a conflict. A war crime is a war crime is a war crime (check Gaudium et Spes as well as secular definitions). Catholics shouldn’t have to be taught this, and should remember that propaganda can come and from our own countries and allies as well as others, and from right, left and centre in terms of politics.

          • “Jews of conscience all over the world are protesting such barbarity with slogans such as ‘never again for anyone’”
            ********
            At least two of those groups have been funded by George Soros. They’re not organic, grassroots protests but well orchestrated efforts enabled & funded by Left Wing interests & Iran.
            We have documented evidence of Gazan hospitals being used hide terrorists & weapons. Even some of the motorcycles used in the Oct. 7th massacre were discovered in a Gaza hospital. And there are real suggestions that the same hospital held kidnapped hostages.
            Self defense is a legitimate right per Church teaching. Only Jews are condemned when they exercise that right. Only Israel is told to rescue their captives & dismantle a terrorist cartel with one hand tied behind their back.

    • Honest question. I have never understood as an American, why politicians talk about how important Israel is for the US. Why every politician always has to verbally indicate that Israel is “our greatest ally”. What have they done for us? Why do I have to send my taxes there?

      • Helen R , America gives Far More Money to Ukraine for it’s War Against Russia, Plus America gives large Amounts of Money to Many Other Nations each year
        Read the various editions of the book “The Case for Israel” by Alan Dershowitz
        Israel and the brilliant Jewish Israeli Minds in Israel gives so Much to the World in Science, Technology, Inventions, Computers, Medical Technology, Countless Things that Benefit All of Mankind. Israel is a Valuable Ally and Friend of the United States, if Israel were to be Destroyed, Europe and the Entire Western World would be destroyed by Radical Islam
        When Horrific Natural Disasters strike in remote areas of the World, Israel always sends search and rescue teams, Humanitarian Aid. Don’t Fall for the Anti-Israel Lies and Propaganda. Israel is Just Trying to Defend itself and Avoid a Second Holocaust . Israel is Not the bad guy

        • By Gods grace, not my own, I don’t hate anybody. And what Israel and Muslims’ relationship is, that is their business, not mine

          But if as a Christian I see injustice, I will speak up. And I will not want my country, our children and my tax dollars to contribute to the murdering of anyone

          I pray that God will protect the innocent and vulnerable, and the good at heart in all sides of this and all conflicts. He will judge me and everyone because only He can see what is in our hearts

      • Honedt reply. You may want to read history to see how people have treated the Jewish people. You might have a better sense of why a Jewish nation is absolutely necessary.

        • Mr Athanasius, I feel for your people and wish them well. But a lot of people and groups of people have been mistreated and persecuted. I could list them here but it would be too long.
          I also hope you get a nation where you can all live in peace and love next to each other like most.

      • Well for one thing our laws are based upon the 10 Commandments & Jews are our elder brethren of Abraham. We are a nation founded on Judeo Christian values.
        Scripture instructs us that those who bless Israel will be blessed & that the reverse is true also. George Washington understood that.
        And as Athanasius correctly points out, history illustrates why the Jews need their own nation to be safe. There’s nowhere else where they can live & flourish without bigotry & persecution.

  19. To touch on another angle to this story, if Mr. Weigel is (rightly) concerned about the displays of antisemitism in the wake of the October 7 attacks, he and his allies (including most Jews) should renounce their support for liberal immigration policies that have brought many millions of Hamas-supporting Muslims into West over the past sixty years. For him to ignore this question is inexcusable.

    • Tony – I agree with you absolutely about this point on uncontrolled immigration.

      It is outright criminal negligence, and for “Obama’s-Marxist—Cabal-of-USA-hating-drag-queen-empire-anarchists,” their strategy to destroy western civilization, while they vacation in Hawaii, Martha’s Vineyard, and Davos.

  20. christianpost.com has an article headlined
    “Wake up world before Jewish blood is shed in your country”
    By Michael Brown , CP Op-Ed Contributor on
    November 07, 2023

  21. What is being done in Gaza is a terrible crime. Is a genocide no matter how you look at it. Israel controls all aspects of the Palestinian people’s lives. When they can get water or electricity, and when they are allowed to travel to one of their neighborhoods. They are literally under the yoke of the Israelis. Injustice breeds hatred. There is no hatred “just because”. Even if Hamas is destroyed, another rebellious group will arise because like Pope JP II said: without justice, there is no peace.
    And now killing more than 10,000+ innocent people for 1200 killed?? That is certainly not Christian and not even Jewish as in “an eye for an eye”. It is full blown revenge and genocide of innocent people.

    I am very disappointed of Mr Weigel for not having seen this injustice. Go ahead and call me antisemitic if that is what you deem to call me for seeing the obvious injustice against the Palestinian people. As a Christian I am called to stand for what is right.

    • Ok, as you requested,I will go ahead and call you antisemitic based on the falsehoods stated in your post. There is no genocide taking place for 10,000 Palestinians. What is your source for these numbers, Hamas? It’s also safe to say that Palestinians who kill babies, shoot down young people at a music festival, burn families to death in their safe rooms, and brutally rape and execute women can hardly be called innocent. There is no such thing as an innocent Palestinian. Your moral compassion is broken.

      • “Athanasius”, I grieve with you over the indefensible atrocities committed by Hamas against Israeli civilians. Statements like “there is no such thing as an innocent Palestinian”, however, are also indefensible and could be used to “justify” more atrocity.

        You are not God and do not know the hearts of Palestinians, especially those who have given no visible approval of Hamas atrocities. That would include notably, that minority of Palestinians who are Christian, who have never committed or approved terrorism, or are under the age of reason. Do you want Hamas brought to Justice, or do you want to become them except for different insignia?

        • I recognize your point but stand behind my statement. I am not God and never claimed to be Him. I will not, however, condone dishonest and manipulative attempts to paint Palestinians as victims in this situation. Those who support terrorism are as morally guilty as those who are committing the acts themselves. There is no such thing as an innocent Palestinian.

    • Helen, I understand we only know what informs us & most of what’s circulating in the media currently is influenced by propaganda from the Left & Iran-which is a very weird example of strange political bedfellows.
      Self defense is not an “eye for an eye”. Nor is it something only legitimate for non Jews. Jews are not willing to remain docile victims or hide in attics. They have every right to protect their citizens from terrorists & bring their kidnapped hostages home.

      If Israel had actually been practicing genocide on Gazans over the last couple of decades they’ve done a very poor job of it because the Gazan population has been growing exponentially. Compare the numbers of Palestinians in Gaza & the numbers of Jews remaining in neighboring Syria, Jordan, or Egypt.

  22. I think “the grave sin of Jew hatred” is way less bad than “the sin of actual murder of 10000 innocent people (while we sit watching)”, and less bad than “the cruel opression of 2 million people for decades, who have way less resources, no freedom, and no country”.

    The article defends the oppressors and ignores the suffering.

  23. blogs.timesofisrael.com has an article by Fred Maroun headlined
    “Marsha Lederman, it is simple, they hate Israel because they hate Jews!” on
    NOV 19, 2023

  24. On the bright side
    Several months ago, earlier in
    2023 , a Catholic writer said online
    “Jews, however mistaken they may be about Jesus Christ, are the best neighbors, in the Biblical sense of that word, that Christians have in this world, in that we share a Commandment-based common moral standard and ethos. That cannot be said of Marxists or of Moslems. They are the opposite of “neighbors” “

  25. On X formerly Twitter
    Carly Pildis
    @CarlyPildis typed
    “One of the hardest parts about the past 100 days is realizing just how much people hate Jews. Even if we already knew it intellectually, it’s viscerally different now. The denial of rape, the celebration of death, the justification of our pain – even our most cynical were shocked”

    4:28 PM · Jan 14, 2024 from Washington, DC

  26. In February 2023 a person typed online “Anyone read this about
    State Senator Julia Salazar
    https://nypost.com/2023/02/25/sen-julia-salazar-slammed-for-mocking-jewish-mans-looks/amp/ she mentioned
    “Stereotypical Jewish looks” does she realize that many Jewish and part-Jewish people themselves can’t stand their often unattractive stereotypical Jewish looks , and are so sickened and repulsed by them that they are unable to even look at themselves in the Mirror
    Does Salazar Know that many Jews and people who are part Jewish don’t like being Jewish or looking Jewish either and try to hide their Jewishness, but often that is Impossible because of their
    “stereotypical Jewish looks”
    That make them very uncomfortable self-hating and somewhat anti-semitic themselves and how many Jews and people who are part Jewish try to pass as Non-Jews , as Full Blooded Gentiles”

  27. aish.com has an article headlined
    “Is American Jewry Doomed to Repeat the Mistakes of Their Grandparents?”
    by Yael Zoldan M.A.
    November 26, 2023

  28. The New York Post website
    nypost.com has an article headlined
    “ADL’s bleak report shows antisemitism is exploding in the US”

    By Post Editorial Board

    Published April 18, 2024,

    • Hello Benjamin. I hope you are doing well today. Yes, hatred of Jews is certainly not in the spirit of George Washington and the tolerant values he possessed. North America has been a refuge for persecuted Jews from the very beginning of European settlement . But antisemitism to some degree has been here all along also.

  29. Myself and others wonder what is the real truth about Pope Pius XII and the Holocaust ? Perhaps he wasn’t Hitler’s Pope, but not exactly a huge Rescuer of persecuted Jews during the Holocaust either, perhaps something in between ? A shade of grey, nuance ?
    Let’s look at all the evidence, the big picture, the whole picture, not Cherry Picking or taking out of context. It might be true that
    Pope Pius XII was Publicly “silent” during the Holocaust, but might have worked behind the scenes to rescue and hide Jews during the Holocaust. You know the Expression, Talk is Cheap, Actions Speak Louder than words

  30. The Jerusalem Post
    jpost.com has an article headlined
    “Fighting against antisemitism effectively: Non-Jews should engage too”
    By GIL TROY Published: JUNE 11, 2024

    jns.org has an article on
    June 10, 2024 headlined
    “Canadians describe Jew-hatred threat ‘as bad if not worse’ than in US” by
    DAVID SWINDLE

4 Trackbacks / Pingbacks

  1. Вайґель — про антисемітизм, Катехизм і невивчені уроки двох світових війн | CREDO
  2. Вайґель — про антисемітизм, Катехизм і невивчені уроки двох світових війн
  3. The grave sin of Jew-hatred | Franciscan Sisters of St Joseph (FSJ) , Asumbi Sisters Kenya
  4. The grave sin of Jew-hatred - JP2 Catholic Radio

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

All comments posted at Catholic World Report are moderated. While vigorous debate is welcome and encouraged, please note that in the interest of maintaining a civilized and helpful level of discussion, comments containing obscene language or personal attacks—or those that are deemed by the editors to be needlessly combative or inflammatory—will not be published. Thank you.


*