The world’s longest hatred, ‘A Lethal Obsession’

At over 1,000 pages, “A Lethal Obsession: Anti-Semitism from Antiquity to the Global Jihad” (Random House, 2010) does not lend itself to a quick read. Nevertheless, due to this large tome’s exquisite organization I am able to select several facets of this work to bring to your attention.

Each self-contained chapter treats a different element of the history of anti-Semitism as a unique situation in world history. Taken together, the 25 chapters make for a detailed history of the world’s longest surviving hatred.

The author, Dr. Robert Wistrich, is a professor of history at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. He has authored twenty scholarly works on the study of Jew-hatred ranging from its genesis to its ideological base. This book brings his previous works chronologically up to date and fine-tunes the latest historical detail.

This essay will bring to your attention Wistrich’s treatment of the role that Marxist and Communist ideology and their cognate personalities played in the enhancement of the hatred of the Jewish people.

In two chapters, “Between Marx and Stalin” and “The Soviet War Against Zion,” the author details the rancid bigotry that went into the actions, ideology and politics governing these so-called equalitarian movements. Wistrich makes clear that these movements were in reality based upon the most crass versions of bigotry in human history.

These totalitarian movements along with their ideological twin, Fascism, would result in the murder of over six million of our people and the subjugation of millions of others both spiritually and physically.

In addition, within the political and diplomatic sphere, the Communist threat to Israel led to the establishment of a false Palestinian nationalism. The PLO was initially formed as a satellite of the Soviet Empire and a subvention of the international Communist apparatus. This fact haunts us to this day.

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Simply put, had it not been for Communism there would be no Palestinian military threat to Israel today.

All this is placed in sharp contrast to other historical developments that, in turn, helped compromise the legitimacy of the Jewish nationalist cause and undermine the Jewish state in world affairs.

This is just one facet of the book’s scholarship. Future reviews will expand upon other facts dealing with the history of anti-Semitism, including the European and the Islamic roles in the expansion of anti-Semitism as a weapon to destroy Western civilization.

In considering the above, may I suggest that you consult the author’s previous work, “The Longest Hatred,” as well as the video of the same name. They serve as an apt introduction to this work. Taken together, these works are among the best in this field of study and Wistrich is among the leading interpreters of this insidious hatred.

Originally published in 2010.