Roots of Hate: Anti-Semitism in Europe Before the Holocaust

Description

Braustein's book is refreshing in that it does not pretend that anti-Semitism is some kind of psychological disease but more of a conflict of interest between an established society and an emerging society. Braustein's approach is to evaluate the treatment of the "Jewish question" in late 19th century Europe by comparing newspaper articles, decade by decade, in various European newspapers. It is an innovative and deeply researched approach. "The Roots of Hate" admits that one of the chief causes of anti-Semitism in late 19th/early 20th century Europe was the deep Jewish involvement in revolutionary Marxism. Thus, Braustein admits that in the Hungarian and German revolutions of 1919 that the revolutionaries were 80-90% Jewish. He is quite candid that the great October Revolution in Russia was perceived as Jewish dominated. Braustein will not, of course, concede that sometimes anti-Semitism is justified. But he does admit that anti-Semitism has frequently been a response to Jewish behavior in the real world.

"The Roots of Hate" is an interesting book in that it represents a break from the usual apologetic tradition of trying to pretend that anti-Semitism is an irrational phenomenon. Braustein is not entirely alone in his approach. Both ex-president Jimmy Carter and professors Stephen Walt and John Mearsheimer have argued in their books that there exists an Israel First lobby acting contrary to the interests of the United States. The German historian, Ernst Nolte, has argued that the anti-Jewish actions of the Nazis were a response to Jewish Bolshevism. As more and more authors like Alan Hart are pointing out, the actions of the Palestinians are a response to the evil the Zionists have inflicted on them.

The use of the word "hate" by ALL the Jewish organizations is deliberately disingenuous. (In the Holocaust movie "The Reader" there is a line where a a Jewish woman says: "Jews have an organization for everything". Another major reason for anti-Semitism!)

Hate implies an irrational mindset. It conditions the listener to exclude the possibility that Jewish behavior is the real cause of anti-Semitism. For many, many years no one has dared to publicly challenge this assumption. Finally, the pretense is breaking down.

Jews are not blameless.