Movies some good guys will ride in wearing white hats and the bad guys right away wearing black cats are that kind of thing. The characters are complex, and there are good people in a wide variety of positions and bad people. Most people who are sometimes good and sometimes bad, its not easy to make snap moral judgments. For instance, there are many who judged that their best interest lay with cooperating with the United States government. The crow nation as a general practice decided that their best interest, the way to maintain their homeland was to be cooperative with the whites who were coming into their country. So there is a great, as i say, variety and complexity in the kind of responses to encroaching White Society and white government. For more information on this and other cities visited by cspan local content vehicles, visit us online, at cspan. Org local content. Youre watching book tv on cspan2. Heres our primetime lineup for the night. Book tv continues now with daniel jonah goldhagen. Daniel goldhagen argues that antisemitism is more threatening today than at any other time since the holocaust. This lasts about an hour and 20 minutes. [applause] thankyou, rabbi hamilton and thank all of you for being hereb it is a big book. Mot an enormous amount of i affirmation about what is going on today in it, both qualitative data and quantitative data it. So survey numbers and accounts of what people think numbers, af people think and what they do and the consequences of their actions. I cant possibly tell you everything thats in the book tonight but im going to give you a sense of the phenomenon of global antisemitism; its rise and its threat so that i hope you emerge here with a greater understanding of something that everyone really practically everyone, jew and gentile, old and young, at some point wonders why the jews why are they hated so much . Why have they been persecuted so much. First, let me tell you a few snip. S of thing that will give you a flavor of what is out there. In surveys of the European Union , we find regularly that 40 to 50 of them, of europeans, say that jews have too much power in business and too much power in international finance. If we just stop and think about what that means. First, we shouldnt stay satisfied with just the percentages. Think about how many people that is. Thats 200 to 250 Million People who believe one of these one of the age are old canards beside jews. Thats a vast number of people. Second, we should recognize that anyone who believes such a thing is antisemitic. We shouldnt brush it aside and say jew does well and business, and they dont heat hate jews. If you heard the same thing said about any other group, that such and such group has too much power, in the economy, you would say, people are prejudice. We should say the same being those who say this about jews. Third, we should investigate a little deeper and say, what exactly do they think . What does that mean to them . That jews have too much power in business . Why do they even identify the businessmen some the people of finance as being jews . After all, businessmen in general, or Business People in general, people of finance, seek to make money, they seek to make profit. What is it wherein resides the jewish quality of the Business People or financeers who happen to be jewish . Why see them this way . What does that tell us about the per sing or framework office understand offering the people who say, they have too much power, and then they say they have too much power. What does this mean . Power is a capacity to transform to affect things. If people have too much of it, then obviously thats a bad thing. You expect they will misuse this power. Why would jewish businessmen be misusing whatever power they have or allegedly have against other people in their country any more than nonjewish Business People. And so we see in this simple question, so much is revealed about the antiseptember met antiseptember met fix mindset of 200 to 250 million europeans. And when we add there are virtually no jews, let alone jewish Business People, as such in many of the countries where such accusations are so Police Officers are widespread, we see that even the notion that they have too much power is itself fantastical. Who are these jewish businessmen in poland . Or switzerland, land of Business People, with a difficult history and a difficult contemporary stance with regard to business and probity and jews, or in germ system look at what this one question, the survey question, tells us about what is going on in europe, what people believe, and it clues is in to the fundamental thing we must do, and which i tried to bring out in this book, which is we must learn to see antisemitism for what it is and not take it for granted and brush off these things, thats not a good thing. It is a profound set of beliefs that i have just described that has so many dimensions that indicate the depth and breast breadth and quality of antiseptember tim today, and thats one question. One issue. Move from europe to the middle east to the arab and islamic world, and we find that an article of faith is that jews are the children of apes and pigs. This is in the koran. It is said again and again by political leaders, by imams and writings, an article of faith in the arab islamic world that jews are ochildren of apes and pigs. An age, old canard. Not something that is new or has resulted from the middle east conflict. It is an old notion that has been given new life and has become a near universally believed in many countries and cultures in the middle east, and elsewhere. We should note that this is a kind of belief that dehumanizes the people, the jews in this case. Theyre the children of apes and pigs. Theyre not really human beings. Its a classic case of dehumanization; move away from middle east. And you find that there are people who are charging, particularly in the context of the iraq war, that a jewish cabal is running the United States and running great britain, the united kingdom, and pushing each country to war. Another fantastical motion, that a cabal of jews would dupe the leaders of the United States, these heardbitten practitioners of reality, or the uk, and drive the countries head long into war when they would not have otherwise gone there. This is a different kind of belief. Its not a dehumanizing belief. After all, the jews are not deemed to be less than human or lack fundamental human qualities. It is a demonizing belief. It says that they, for their own purposes, in this case to support israel, have led the countries to war and have led the young men, sometimes women, of these countries to be killed to fight a war that shouldnt be fought. Because the jews dont care. They have higher in their view a higher interest which is not the wellbeing of their own countries. Move from the first world to the third world, the developing world, and you find an astonishing set of facts about antisemitism. You find it all over latin america, all over subsaharanns okay, and all over asia. In nigeria first in brazil, 50 of the people of brazil report that they have unfavorable views of jews. Theyre antisemites. 50 . There are very few jews in brazil. 5 100th of one percent of the population is jewish. 5 100th of one percent. Where do they get these notions . Most brazilians have never met a adjustment dont know any jews. Its just what theyve learn as part of their culture and the world culture can the globe culture. I if you november africa, nigeria, 43 of the anymore nigeria are antisemites, and there are fewer than in brazil, and then if you good to asia and country after country, large percentages of the people are antiseptember metic, and in china, the rising power, 55 of the people are antise maineityic. There are no jews in china. This is astonishing. Move back to europe. Jews its not just a question of the beliefs, the antisemitism that exists, but also the real world effects upon jews. Jews are fleeing europe. Theyre leaving because they many jews think theres no future for them in their communities in europe because theres so much antisemitism because they are under such threat and such danger, not from the governments, but from people in their neighbors, people in their communities, sometimes people who have come to the country recently, sometimes people have been there for a long time. Jews get attacked on the street. The situation is grave. In country after country, jewish leaders and jews who are not leaders, talk about this, and write about it, and try to raise the alarm, and yet it continues to exist. And those who are not leaving, because they are in such under such duress and threat, are leaving in a sense anyway because theyre living in their communal, bunkered, for tresses, under police protection, and the jews watch the street without showing signs of their jewishness. They dont wear stars of david for fear they would we attacked and this fear is not ungrounded, and they particularly dont let their Children Wear such visible signs of their jewishness because they know, sooner or latter, the chances are vary good the children will be harassed, if not assaulted. Kind of internal migration. And finally, if we go to israel, the country which is the home as a country of jews, israel is under duress as well as we all know, it is the object of an International Eliminationist coalition, coalition of states and groups and movements that want in one way or another, in a variety of different ways in which they want to do this they want to eliminate the country of the jews. Now, this is just a brief and not even a comprehensive by any means tour of what exists in the world regarding jews and antisemitism. And while it tells you important facts, it doesnt convey the flavor of what people believe and what they say. Listen to this. Im going to read you a relatively penetrating and lengthy passage. Intoxicated mentally by the messianic dream of a greater israel, which will finally achieve the expansionist dreams of the most radical sighonism, con nateed by the monstrous and rooted certitude that in this catastrophic and absurd world there exists a people chosen by god, the jews, and that consequently all the actions of an obsessive, psychological, and path logically exclusive racism are justified, educated and trained in the idea that any suffering that has been inflicted or is being inflicted or will be inflicted on everyone else especially the palestinians, will always be inferior to that which they themselves suffered in the holocaust. The jews endlessly scratch their own wound to keep it bleeding, make it incurable, and show it to the world as if it were a banner. Israel seizes hold of the terrible words of god deuteronomy, vengeance is mine and i will be repaid. Israel wants us all, with all of us to feel guilty, directly or indirectly forks the horrors of the holocaust, israel want to us renounce the most critical judgment. Israel in short is a racist state by virtue of judaisms not just against the palestinians but against the entire world which it seeks to manipulate and abuse. Israel struggles if its neighbors, seen in that light, do take on a unique and met fiscal quality of genuine evil, the quality that distinguishes israels struggles from those of all other nations, singular among nations in this respect, with disputed borders no matter what the statistics of death and suffering might suggest. If i told you this is a statement from a political islamic leader, or a socalled fundamentalist islamic imam, in the front lines of battle as he understands it against israel, and jews, im sure you would believe me. In fact, this is a statement, a written piece or part of a written piece by jose, Nobel Prize Winner in literature, which he published in europes leading newspapers. Most perhaps the best majority of europeans would read this and not, thinking and saying among themselves and private, they expressed publicly what everyone knows and is afraid to say. Virtually all arab and islamicvt antisemites would agree to his every point. Christian antisemites would, ir addition to muchy else, undoubtedly like certainly mu concur with the ageold question charges of jews and their god being vengeful. And the effrontery and the stiffnecked certitude of the chosen this and casting doubts on christians claims that they are the rightful proprietors of the judaic tradition. I should add that many christians dont subscribe to this but there are many of those that do. Expressing points especially the come zionism and the condemnation of the imputed drive to create a greater israel. Write us might latch onto the holocaust inversion casting the as abusers of the past to justify their own predations. And in effect making them coequal to or worse than any of those who may have afflicted them. Internationalist human rights or local antisemites who relentlessly focus on International Dimension might applaud the notion that israel is trying to subjugate and control a good part of the world. The antisemitic diatribe grounded in the foundational paradigm is a distillation and concentration of the Common Notions that are piecemeal and usually more gentile he expressed around media in the surveys. It easily slides and this is important among jews and judaism zionism and israel presenting them as inextricably interrelated entities. Its range of antisemitic troves draws on different antisemitic trains streams and traditions binding the old and the new into accusations and perspectives appealing to all men and a cement and clever weaving into them persuade someone who agrees with another of the rest of the of others. Nobel prize winner and literature. The one thing that is missing from ceramide while sarah. Moderator s statement is a sense of the violence and bloodlust that many contemporary antisemites have for jews and in which they express openly. And for that you need to go from europe to the middle east to the islamic and arab world where the inefficient upon such expression dont exist and where they are quite open about what they would like to do to the jews. I should add that i cite in this book many ordinary people but repeatedly quote from political and opinion leaders not just some pot here or crackpot there who has made some outrageous statement. I repeatedly cite leaders of countries leaders of Political Movements luminaries of one kind or another to show that these views are at the center of the political cultures and political lives of countries and societies one after another. The leader of hamas after the election victory in 2006 which led to their takeover of gaza said that hamas has a plan to destroy israel which hamas affirms again and again. He said this in a chilling address after friday sermon in a damascus mosque and it was aired throughout the arab and islamic world on aljazeera television. The broadcast was all over it out to sarah and other networks which and he laid out hamas is political islamic vision to conquer and enslave its enemies. After his speech remember these are religious worshipers. This is not some rally. After the chant death to israel, death to israel, death to america again where and what other part of the world would religious congregations this is quite normal start chanting death to a country into a people except about israel and the jews. After this he went into bloodcurdling revelry. He said before his real dies at must be humiliated and degraded. Must be humiliated and degraded. Its not enough just to kill it. Therefore that god will experience humiliation and degradation every day. Although willing he will make them lose their eyesight and make them lose their brains. This is the leader of a Political Movement that became the governing part of the good part of the palestinian people. Shortly thereafter a hamas official web site they posted the last testament the last video testaments of two suicide bombers one of which included my message to load the jews is there is no, in allah. We will chase you everywhere. Notice they talk about jews. We are a nation that drinks blood and pay no there is no lead better than the blood of jews. We will not leave you alone until we have quenched our thirst with your blood and our childrens thirst with your blood. From the hide my shawl to the low suicide bomber such violent imagery, such bloodlust, such calls to murder degradation humiliation the likes of which we see certainly not on the scale against any other group and not from such people. As i have already intimated its not just israel or israilis that they are concerned with. They talk repeatedly about jews and they are quite specifically knowing what they were doing. Lets go to another political leader Hasan Nasrallah who for a long time was the superstar of islamic and arab world because of hezbollahs battle as successful as it was against israel in southern lebanon. Nasrallah made it clear and wanted to make it clear that it is not israel and israelis who the most fundamentally hates the jews themselves. This was early in his career. If we search the entire world for a person more cowardly despicable weak and feeble in psyche mind ideology and religion we would not find anyone like a the jew. Notice i did not say the israeli he wants everyone to know its jews that he exists fundamentally. These are just nuggets from surveys, from statements about the extent of antisemitism and nuggets of the flavor of antisemitism and what it contains what it expresses what its demonology is about jews. There is much much more and much more to know. If we are going to understand this phenomenon we want to know a lot of things including the following. We want to know what antisemitism is. We want to know why it exists and what causes it. We want to know how it functions in peoples and communities and lives in the politics of the countries. We want to know how to transform the last two decades into this antisemitism which i will talk about and we want to know what its features are today. Im not going to go into all of this tonight. The book does. Im going to focus on a few essential matters particularly global antisemitism. First i want to say that their difficulties answering these questions. Lots of difficulties in part because there is much confusion about what antisemitism is. We hear many things. I should add most everyone i have encountered is interested and fascinated with antiemitm. Jews. Are obviously concerned with it and nonjews. Christians muslims and others have the questions why are the jews hated . Many people have notions. What are you doing . Im writing a book on antisemitism and the next thing i know why it exists and so on. I have a long catalogue in my head of what people have