this: how can anyone who's ever worked for someone else vote republican? [laughter] how could so many people get it so wrong? i think her question is apt. in fact, i think it is, in some ways, the preeminent question of our times. people getting their fundamental interests wrong is what american political life is all about. >> and visit booktv.org to watch more programs from the last 15 years and continue watching booktv all weekend long for more nonfiction authors and books. booktv continues now with daniel jonah goldhagen. mr. goldhagen argues that anti-semitism is more threatening today than at any other time since the holocaust. this lasts about an hour, 20 minutes. [applause] >> thank you, rabbi hamilton, and thank all of you for being here.

it's a thick book, there's an enormous amount of information about what's going on today in it, both qualitative and quantitative data. so survey numbers and accounts of what people think, what they do and what the consequences of their actions are. i can't possibly tell you everything that's in the book tonight, but i'm going to give you a sense of the phenomenon of global anti-semitism, its rise and its threat so that i hope you emerge from here with a greater understanding of something that everyone, really practically everyone, jew and gentile, old and young at some point wonders about, why the jews? why are they hated so much, why have they been persecuted so much? so, first, relate me tell you a -- let me tell you a few snippets of things that will

give you a flavor of what's out there. in surveys of european union, we find regularly that 40-50% 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 shouldn't stay satisfied with just the percentages. we should think about how many people that is. that's 200-250 million people who believe one of these, one of the age-old and contemporary canards about jews. that's a vast number of people. second, we should recognize that anyone who believes such a thing is anti-semitic. we shouldn't brush it aside and say, well, jews do well in

business, or they don't really hate jews, they just think this so, therefore, they're not anti-semitic. if you heard the same kind of thing said about any other group, that such and such group has too much power in the economy, you would say people are prejudiced. we should say the same about those who say this about vews. 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 or the people in finance as being jews? after all, businessmen in general or business people in general, people in finance seek to make money, they seek to make profit. what is is it, wherein resides

the business quality of people who happen to be jewish? why see them this way? what does that tell us about the perceptions or the frameworks of understanding of the people who they they have too much power and then that they actually say they have too much power? what does this mean? power is the capacity to transform, to affect things. if people have too much of it, then obviously that's a bad thing. you expect that 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 so much is revealed about the anti-semitic mindset of 200-250 million

europeans. and furthermore, when we add the salient though ignored fact if many cases that there are virtually no jews, let alone jewish business people as such in of the countries where such accusations or such beliefs are widespread, we see that even the notion that they have too much power is in itself fantastical. who are these jewish businessmen in poland? or in switzerland, a land of business people? with a difficult history and a difficult contemporary stance with regard to business and probity and jews. or in germany. look at what this one question, the survey question tells us about what is going on in europe, what people believe.

and it clues us in to the fundamental thing which 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 not brush off these things, say, well, that's not a good thing. it is a profound set of beliefs that i've just described that has so many dimensions that indicate the depth and breadth and quality of anti-semitism today. can that's just one -- and that's just 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. now, this is in the quran, it is said again and again by political leaders, by imams in sermons, in writings. it is an article of faith in the

arab and islamic world that jews are the children of apes and pigs. this is an age-old canard. it is not something that is new, it's not something that has resulted from the middle east conflict. it is an old notion that has been given new life and has become near universeally believed in countries and cultures in the middle east and elsewhere. and we should note that this is a kind of belief that dehumanizes the people, the jews in this case. they're the children of apes and pigs. tear not really human beings -- they're not really human beings. it's a classic case of dehumanization. move away from the 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 notion. that a cabal of jews would dupe the leaders of the united states, tease hard-bitten -- these hard-bitten practitioners of real politic or the u.k. and drive the countries headlong into war when they would otherwise not have gone there. this is a different kind of belief. it's 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 and sometimes women of these countries to be killed to fight a war that shouldn't be fought.

because the jews don't care, they have, in their view, a higher interest which is not the well being 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 anti-semitism. you find it all over latin america, all over sub-saharan africa, all over asia. in nigeria -- first, in brazil 50% of people of brazil report that they have unfavorable views of jews, that they're anti-semites. 50%. there are very few jews in brazil. five one hundredth of 1% of the

population is jewish. where do they get these notions? most brazilians have never met a jew, don't know any jews. it's just what they've learned as part of their culture, as part of the world culture, the global culture. if you move to africa, nigeria, 43% of the people in nigeria are anti'em tick. there are virtually no jews and many fewer than in brazil. and then if you go to asia, in country after country large percentages of the people are anti-semitic. in china, the population classes of the world, the rising power, 55% of the people are anti-semitic, there are no jews to speak of in china. this is simply astonishing. move back to europe. jews, it's not just a question of the beliefs, the

anti-semitism that exists in these areas, but also the real world effects upon jews. jews are fleeing europe. they're leaving because many jews think there is no future for them in their communities in europe because there is so much anti-semitism and because they are under such threat and such danger. not from the government, but from people in their neighbors, people in their communities, sometimes people who have come to the countries recently, sometimes people who have been there for a long time. jews get attacked on the streets. 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, so they leave. and those who are not leaving

because they are in such, under such duress and threat are leaving in a sense anyway, because they're living in -- their communal institutions are bunkered, they're fortresses, they're under police protection, and the jews walk the streets without showing signs of their jewishness. they don't wear stars of david for fear that they would be attacked. and this fear is not ungrounded. and they particularly don't let their children wear such visible signs of their jewishness because they know sooner or later the chances are very good that the children will be harassed, if not assaulted. be a kind of internal migration. and finally, if we go the israel, the country which is the home as a country of j well,ews, israel is under duress as well

as we all know. it is the object of an international eliminationist coalition, a coalition of states and groups and movements that want in one way or another -- and there are a variety of different ways in which they want to do this -- they want to eliminate the cup of the j well- the cup of the jews. the country of the jews. now, this is just a brief and not even a come comprehensive by means tour of what exists in the world regarding jews and anti-semitism. and while it tells you important facts and gives you a sense of what's out there, it doesn't cop say the flavor -- convey the flavor of what people believe and what they say. listen to this. i'm going to read you a relatively, 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 zionism, contaminated 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 lodge chi exclusivist 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,

to make it incurable, and they show it to the world as if it were a banner. israel seizes hold of the terrible words of god in deuteronomy: vengeance is mine, and i will be repaid. israel wants us all, wants all of us to feel guilty directly or indirectly for the horrors of the holocaust. israel wants us to renounce the most elemental critical judgment and for us to transform ourselves into a docile echo of its will. ..

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 so-called fundamentalist islamic imam, in the front lines of battle as he understands it against israel and jews, i'm sure you would believe me. in fact, this is a statement, a written piece or part of her in peace by a nobel prize-winning author, nobel prize winner in literature, which he published in one of europe's leading newspapers.

can you imagine another group of people that a nobel prize-winning author in literature, and a leading newspaper in europe would publish? something like this about. but this, but about jews, it flies. i'm going to read you a little bit of my commentary on this because it's quite succinct more than i would b if i stood here d delivered it extemporaneously. most, perhaps the best mentored of europeans would read this and nod into dancing amongst themselves in private that he expressed publicly what everyone knows and is afraid to say. virtually all arab and islamic anti-semites would agree to its every point. christian anti-semites would in addition to most passionate much else they would've badly like certainly concur with the old age christian charges of jews

and their god being vengeful. and the country of the jews stiffnecked servitude of their chosen and, therefore, casting doubt on christians claims that they are the rightful proprieties of the judeo-christian. i should add there are many christians who don't subscribe to this today but i'm talking about those who do. leftist could find many finally express points especially the condemnation of zionism. the condemnation of the imputed drive to create a greater israel. rightists might in particular batch on to the holocaust inversion casting the jews as abuses of the past to justify their own gradations. and in effect making the juice company equal to, or worse, than any of those who may have afflicted them. internationals human rights are global anti-semites relentlessly focus on the international

dimension of anti-semitism might applaud the nation that israel is trying to subjugate and control a good part of the world. is anti-semitic diatribe grounded in the foundational paradigms is a distillation and concentration of a common notion that our three found piecemeal and usually more genteelly expressed around the european media and in surveys. it easily slides, and this in literature. >> the one thing that is missing

from this statement is a sense of the violence and bloodlust that many contemporary anti-semites have produced, and 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 inhibitions upon such expression on exist, and where they're quite open about what they would like to do the jews. i should add that i cited in this book many ordinary people, but i repeatedly quote from political and opinion leaders, not just some crackpot her herer crackpot there who has made some outrageous statement about jews. 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 the takeover of gaza, said, explained that hamas has an plan to destroy israel which hamas affirms again and again. he said this in a long, chilling address after friday's assortment in a damascus mosque, and it was aired out the arab and islamic world on al-jazeera television. these kinds of things are broadcast all over for al-jazeera and other networks. which lays out, and he laid out hamas' fanatical political islamic vision to conquer and enslave its enemies. after his speech, moved his audience of religious worshipers -- remember, these are religious

worshipers. this is not some beer hall rally. after it moved them to interrupt him with a chance, 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 the country into a people? except for israel and jews. after this, he said before israel dies it must be humiliated and degraded. must be humiliated and degraded. it's not just enough to kill it. all a willing, they will expression notation and degradation every day. all the willing will make them lose their eyesight. will make them lose their brains. this is a leader of a political movement, became a governing part of a good part of the palestinian people.

shortly thereafter, on hamas' official website, they posted the last testament, last of the to testament to two suicide bombers. one of which included my message to below of jews is there's no god but allah. we will chase you everywhere. notice they talk about jews. we are a nation that drinks blood and we know there is no blood better than the blood of jews. we will not leave you alone until we have quenched our thirst with your blood and our children's thirst with your blood. from the high mesh all of the low suicide bomber, such violent imagery, such blood loss, such calls to murder, degradation, humiliation, the likes of which we see are not on the scale of a

new group and not from such people. and as i've already intimated, it's not just israel or israelis that they're concerned with. they talk repeatedly about jews, and they're quite specific and they know what they were doing. let's go to another political leader. this time no straw, the head of hezbollah who for a long time off for a while at least was the superstar of the arab and islamic world because of hezbollah's battle as successful as it was against israel. in southern lebanon. he made it clear and want to make it clear that it is not israel and israelis who we must fundamentally hate. but jews themselves. he said, this is a 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 that you. notice i do not say the israeli. he wants everyone to know it's jews that he objects to fundamentally. these are just not its from surveys, from statements about the extent of anti-semitism, and nuggets of the flavor of anti-semitism, what it contains, what it expresses, what its demonology is about jews. there is much, much, much more of this, and much more to know. and if we're going to understand this phenomenon, we want to know a lot of things, including the following. we want to know what anti-semitism is. we want to know why it exists

and what causes it. we want to know how it functions in people's and in communities lives and in the politics of their countries. we want to know how it has been transformed the last two decades into this global anti-separatism which i will talk about. and we want to know what its features are today. i'm not going to go into all of this tonight. the book does. i'm going to focus on a few essential matters, particularly on global anti-semitism. but first i want to say that there are difficulties in answering these questions. lots of difficulties your in part because there is much confusion about what anti-semitism is. you do many things. i should add most everyone i've encountered is interested and fascinated with that racism -- with anti anti-semitism.

many people have notions about this. jews and non-jews. i hear them. i've heard many of them. what are you doing? i'm writing a book on contemporary anti-semitism. the next thing i'm being told what it is, why it exists and so on. i have a long catalogue in my head of what people have told me. but -- that's not that people don't have right notions but there are many fundamental confusions and i will just mention one. the old explanation for anti-semitism, the old standard explanation for anti-semitism was that its economic jealousy. right? jews do well economically and other people are jealous and when, or wind are hard economic times they blame jews as a scapegoat, so and so forth. today, that explanation isn't offered very much. explanation for why there's anti-semitism is because of israel. because israel occupies the west

bank, formally gaza. it does all the things it does real or alleged, and we have two explanations. one has nothing to do with the other. they are supposedly explaining the same phenomenon, because contemporary anti-semitism for all its differences, global anti-semitism for all its differences is to ground in the old accusations, the old prejudice, the old notion that have led people over the centuries to hate and to persecute jews. both of them could not be right. in fact, neither of them is correct. it's remarkable to me how people say its economic jealousy. and it's all israel today. without focusing on the content of what people believe and the absurdity of these explanations as the principal explanation for the kinds of beliefs that people have about jews that we call anti-semitism.

it's not just confusion but there's also the complexities of the phenomenon. on the one hand, you can save anti-semitism is simple. it's when people hate jews or of prejudicial views of jews. on the other hand, it's quite complex as many dimensions. it's a set of beliefs or a of beliefs or a variety of beliefs depending on where you like and who has them. it's not just the believes of what people think about jews but the emotions they have towards jews. they are powerful, powerful emotions evoked in people at the site are mentioned or thought even of jews sometimes. anti-semitism is not just believes in the emotions but its speech. if some assisted jews are scoundrels for this and that reason, that's a form of anti-semitism whether the person believes it or not. it is spreading believe. if you were on a bus and you heard someone say any of the standard kind of prejudicial what we call racist views about african-americans in this country, your head might with

around -- maybe not. maybe you would do it. but you would certainly think this person is a racist. and yet often when it's said come on some points to the things that people say about jews, such as in business, it is discounted that they're anti-semites unless they say, and i hate jews. it's not enough to utter anti-semitic things. some of the standard is that the person in his heart has to have an is towards jews in general hate them, and can then choose as friends and so on and so forth. it's beliefs, emotions, speech, ask. anti-semitic acts makes him an anti-semite whatever he or she believes. its policies and its programs. all these things are anti-semitic, a part of anti-semitism. it's not just what people think. other difficulties, anti-semitism has, things with

other prejudices. after all, there are fundamental aspects of prejudice which anti-semitism share. but it's also singular among them and many people don't recognize this. i'll just briefly mention some of the singular features, and there are so many. it's duration, it is the world's longest standing prejudice against an ethnic group. tenacity, it holds on in context after context through the millennia, with circumstances changing of all different kinds, economic, political, cultural, technological developments. it's tenacious. it takes is -- very few prejudices against ethnic groups exist when there are no people in those groups. who cares? people aren't in your country, you don't care about them. and yet, anti-semitism exist in country after country both historically and today where there are no or very few jews.

it has fantastical qualities. in medieval times, jews were seen as being in league with or minions of the devil. germans and many others in the mid-part of the 20th century believed that jews were essentially secular devils in human form. it would look at jews and not think they were beholding human beings. the charges against the jews, they foment all wars. they are responsible for all wars in the world. they invented a haze, and on and on and on. these are fantastical. most prejudices, although not accurate accounts of reality by any means, have more of a relationship to the reality of the people they described than anti-semitism, which as far flung fantastical one might even go so far as is a hallucinatory qualities. it is in the national, found all

over the world. there are very few prejudices that, in fact there are none against ethnic groups that have this kind of international reach. so it's not just when there are no jews in the country but it's an international phenomenon. the bloodlust, the open bloodlust is very unusual. certainly on the scale that it exists against jews, and it is fundamentally elimination must. what elimination means for different people and how they would carry it out is open for discussion but it's fundamental eshani elimination. i don't like these people, they are bad for the neighborhood, so on and so forth. but there isn't this thrust to eliminate them in the presence and the power such as it's understood. these are the single features of anti-semitism. and finally, over the ages the

accusations have changed again and again and again. some remain constant, some take new form. new ones appear. old ones disappear. anti-semitism is always taking on the medium of its time to make it more plausible even if it's fantastical. and so how do we make sense of what anti-semitism is? what is the solution to dealing conceptually with this multi-various and changing historically and even contemporaneously changing phenomenon? it is to recognize that there's something that is at the core of this and that something can be called the foundational anti-semitic paradigm. the paradigm of jews is the foundation. these are its elements. that jews are finally different from non-jews. -- fundamentally different your they are fundamentally different, that they are

noxious. from non-jews. that they willfully do harm to non-jews. that they are powerful and, therefore, dangerous. these are the five elements the foundation that can be found again and again throughout history and across cultures. how this foundational anti-semitic paradigm, this foundational notion about jews is elaborated, whether it's his jews are poisoning the wells other neighbors as it was said in medieval times, or whether it's the jews are trying to subjugate and destroy islam as it is said today. these accusations change. it is not trivial what they are, but they all are built upon this court which reproduces itself through time even while taking

on new traffic. so we need to rethink anti-semitism to the ages. in light of the paradigm and how it's been transformed, and most of all and this is what the book is mostly devoted about, we need to think about anti-semitism today, global anti-semitism which is the third principle air of anti-semitism that we have seen. the first being the religious air of anti-semitism, in which it was given a religious foundation both in the christian world and in the muslim world. the second era was the modern era when religion in europe and in the west began to lose its hold in the 18th century, and then in a more pronounced way in the 19th century, and into the 20th century. and in more scientific or pseudoscientific notion of the jews nature of the source of their perniciousness, which was deemed to be their biology.

and with social darwinian framework of understanding of how, why they would not just compete but try to subjugate and even in slave and even the worst two other groups. this was the second air of the modern era of anti-semitism. and now with a third error of anti-semitism which is a couple decades old still taking shape which can be called global anti-semitism, which is more profoundly political in nature. it doesn't see the jews, the source of the jews noxious in this to be religion per se, or their biology, their race per se, but has taken a variety of forms, all of which are focused on the political aspirations as they are deemed to be of jews. there are multiple sources for the jews nature as seen by different people in different places. and so global anti-semitism

really unites the different streams that have existed somewhat separate from one another. you heard in the passage i read and which i went over and how he draws from this dream and that stream and puts them together and as a malcolm of anti-semitism. this is a classical statement, or classic statement of global anti-semitism. where you find in israel rallies coming of people on the left margin arm in arm with clinical islamists or otherwise would be at each other's throat, but against their common enemy they can unite. you have the islamic and christian globa anti-semitism. i don't mean to suggest that all people in any group share what i'm saying to talk about large percentages of the majority of people in different countries and different groups. there are exceptions, and it should be noted. one of the things that

palestinians and others in the middle east, but particularly palestinians have been doing in order to appeal to christian anti-semitism is to present the palestinians as the jesus of today, been crucified on the cross by the jews yet again. they do this in cartoons and images and exquisite statements, and drawing a direct line between jesus and what jews allegedly did to him and the alleged guilt for and what jews are doing today again. this has been picked up, of course, by christian anti-semitism as well. you see unification of these different streams of anti-semitism. global anti-semitism is not just the unification of these streams and the global a malcolm, but it is also the vast, vast reach of anti-semitism which exceeds the vast reach before which was already greater than anti-prejudiced. and that it is that much greater. i've already suggested to some of the numbers. in europe, according to a survey

data, it is undoubtedly the case that at least 250 million people are anti-semitic. it's a mind-boggling number. in asia, africa, and latin america, and with surveys of only some of the countries, and this is just a tally of the surveys that we have, we have very large countries and china, in india and in latin america, brazil and niger in africa, and other countries as well. there are 1.5 billion anti-semitism. in the part of the world where there are virtually no jews. and in the arab and islamic world, we don't know how many again because all the countries have not been surveyed, but we have hundreds of millions of anti-semitism.

extremes coming together, enormous numbers around the globe, and it is important to say that global anti-semitism as i've already said but it bears repeating and collaboration is not caused by israel's policy. that's not to say that what goes on in the middle east doesn't influence come is a brought into the anti-semitic litany, but it is not the cause of it as those who want to be a nightly against the charge of emphasis in say. it's says if israel would stop it wouldn't be a problem. there are many go so far as to say there is with this kind of anti-semitic problem. it's just a problem with israel. and we know the story of friday of reasons, such as something we hope that is not the case but we know this for a variety of reasons. that is, that israel is not the cause. surveys of europeans, and in the united states, ask about classic

anti-semitic views. had nothing to do with israel. just have too much influence in business. 210-280 million europeans believe this. nothing to do with israel. jews have too much power in the country. nothing to do with israel. giuseppe much influence in international financial markets. you may think about the united states. 209 people in the eu believe this. jews care about, only about their own kind. another 200 million people -- not another that 200 billion people believe that as well. nothing to do with israel. jews speak too much about the holocaust. the jews who are unlikely so powerful, people don't even put two and two together. the jews have so much power, not that long ago they were being slaughtered as no other people have ever been slaughtered. not in this way. slated for total extermination with little capacity, they have

the power. they had no army. virtually no friends. with very little capacity to even stay alive. so you have a survey question. jews talk to much about the holocaust. yes, jews are being killed but they're too much power. how does this make sense to people? except in their anti-semitic late inflame to mind. so 209 people believed that in europe. and even, and this is a significant, 2009, 150 million people in the eu said that jews are responsible for the global financial crisis. the reason this is so significant is this is not some kind of abstract thing, or something that people don't really know about. so what's going on in israel exactly? some people in china don't know what's going on in israel all that well. there was so much reporting and

so much knowledge about the global financial crisis. everybody had access to information but it was the number one topic of attention for a year or two, and maybe even longer. and yet 150 million people blamed the jews. how profound must their anti-semitism be? and then if we move to israel itself, so the shows this has nothing to do with issue. israel is not mentioned in these questions. these are just old and contemporary anti-semitic notions about jews. and if we move to israel we see though how homeless and tory these projections are. really fantastical. 55% of europeans, 57 recent intimate, that's 45 million germans, 275 many people in the european union say that israel is conducting a war of

extermination against palestinians. not a war of subjugation. not a brutal occupation. i'm not saying that either are correct, but they would be much less pejorative, but a war of extermination. in other words, they like and the jews of israel to the nazis conducting a genocide. whatever you think about the middle east conflict, whatever you think about the conflict, jewish israelis and palestinians, or about the justice of israel occupying the west bank before we have gaza -- and formally gaza, there is no way that any reasonable person or anyone in touch with reality could say that israel is conducting a war of extermination against the palestinians. in its recent tenure decade, palestinians have the highest birthrate in the world. the recent tenure period, from

1990-2008, the population of palestinians under israeli control in the occupied territory has doubled. israel in the course of a complex and anti-fathers and lower level conflict with palestinians killed about 6000 palestinians during this period. palestinians killed about 1000 israelis. this is nothing like a genocide. the palestinian population doubled. university florist, so and so forth. yet 57% of germans believe this to be the case, and 55% of people in the european union. utterly fantastical. the arab and islamic anti-semitism against israel is, some of it, indeed a fair amount of it, comes straight from the ground. of course, there is this concept with israel. that is a real conflict.

nothing to do with israel. the jews portrayed mohammed and tried to kill a profit, another set of notions that are incessantly intoned in the arab and islamic world. nothing to do with israel. you need to look to these sources to understand the current demonology against jews, and, of course, this led to their activation and intensification of these age-old sources, but they were there and they have always been there. and even the united states what global anti-semitism unlike everywhere else in the world is on the decline, the united states anti-semitism has declined over the last few decades and that increased, even if there are disturbing signs. at that itself is an interesting story, and of itself explains why many in the united states are not alarmed by what was otherwise a london. i speak both of jews and gentiles. because we live in a relatively non-anti-semitic country certain

our public sphere. the media is not poisoned by anti-semitism the way it i is in much of you europe, and sorely n most of the rest of the world. and so many american jews and non-jews say it's not that bad, and they are right. it's not that bad here. the united states is the exception. but still there's a fair amount of anti-semitism in this country, same kinds of things that i discussed in europe. nothing to do with israel. and, finally, this great upsurge in anti-semitic expression and this development of global anti-semitism has taken place the last two decades and it did, particularly the 1990s, which was perhaps the most hopeful period for resolution of the middle east conflict. the oslo peace process was under way. if israel is historic of this, why when things were looking most hopeful for resolution of

its conflict with the palestinians, and other arab countries, why was it during this period that we had this emergence and intensification of global anti-semitism? it doesn't matter. israel is not the cause. and, finally, if we look specifically at israel's actions and what it affects our in anti-semitism you would expect to see cause and effect if israel were the source of anti-semitism. perhaps the most condemned military operation or operation of any kind by israel in recent history was its incursion into gaza. operation cast lead. roundly condemn. vociferously condemned the world over. headline news come headline news again and again and again. what we found was there was an upsurge in attacks against jews

in europe. the number of anti-semitic incidents and attacks spiked enormous. but that survey data of was people believe about jews did not move at all. in some countries it went up a percentage point in some countries down a percentage point. some countries it stayed right where it was. it did not affect the underlying anti-semitism, just a life of its own. it effecte affected the attacksd expression of it in certain ways. so israel's actions are not the cause of anti-semitism. global anti-semitism has its own life, but it is focus on israel. because israel is the home of jews, the country of jews referred to as the jewish state. and in our political world, what is better to attack than a source of political power, the home of the jews. what is better to attack in

israel, particularly went in much of the world it is a taboo to attack the domestic jews of one country in public because of the holocaust and the norms that have been put in place since then. global anti-semitism is not caused by issue. it's also not caused by reality in any way. most prejudices are grounded in some kind of objective conflict over power, resources, territory. yet the assault -- the ideational is a sal, the cultural assault upon jews historically and in our globalized world is not grounded in reality. it's grounded in these age-old notions and the new ones that have been grafted upon the. they have been transmitted in a variety of ways, including through the internet which i spent a great deal of time discussing in the book, how that has been a game changer, digital technology for the spread and character of anti-semitism.

so this is another way in which advises them is -- the conflict with israel when thousands and israel's, that is a real conflict over territory and resources and so on. but as i've explained, that is not the source of anti-semitism. that is incorporated into it and the focal point expression. anti-zionism, anti-semitism, vast amount of evidence are presented in the book are just another form specific forms of anti-semitism. 50% of europeans or more say that israel is conducting a war of extermination against palestinian shows that the views are simply not grounded in reality. their views are an expression of their animist and their prior beliefs. global anti-semitism is ever. it's not just everywhere in the sense that you find anti-semites

in large numbers all over the world, but everywhere because of digital technology, the internet, satellite television. anyone, everyone is just a few clicks away from anti-semitism. in fact, fewer than you may realize. if we type the word jew, an innocent person or non-an innocent person, you type the words you enter your browser, google, whichever, depending on what they do it and when you do, is a the second, the third or the fourth item, way up there, that there's a website called jew watch. you're an innocent person are not such an innocent person. you click on jew watch to see what it has. you know, imagine a site coming up, i don't know what, blackwatch. i mean, it's almost ludicrous to think this would be the third or fourth thing on the internet. or i don't know what. southern italian watch or mean

anything you want. jew watch is a website of under anti-semitic assault, demonology, fantasy, morbid fantasy and so on. it said it intends 1.5 billion pages that tells you of the dangers of jews. jews. it's quite will organize and hear some of its major categories. zionist occupied government, jewish genocide today and yesterday. jewish leaders, conspirators, powerless. against what other group would you have this kind of stuff? jewish banking and financial manipulation. jewish comments roads and killed. it has a particular fascination our obsession with jews as communists. jewish mind control mechanisms. jewish criminals. jewish oppression of gentiles. jewish christian murders. jewish supremacist list and the associations they dominate.

of course, jewish controlled press. jewish hate groups. jewish world conspiracies. by the way, the fabrication of the czar's secret police has made an enormous comeback in the world. it's an international bestseller called country after country into generic, edition after edition is published. it has much greater life now than it ever had before. in the pure form or in takeoff forms, printed in or has influenced the printing of books in japan and china, not to mention arab countries, not to mention european countries and so on. this is one of those pernicious things out there today. so anti-semitism is everywhere. and available at all times. anti-semitism flows in all different directions. it's different from the past. there was a center peripheral

relationship. the use of an address with the vatican. that is not a dress now. it's all over. you don't even know where to go to find. you go here, go there, but you have to everywhere. how can you do that? you can't. the demonology of global anti-semitism has change. shylock, the manipulative moneylender, the jews who pulled the strings behind the scenes in local ways, of medieval times, who morphed into rothchild, the great jewish banker, 19 family of modern time, then became a symbol of jew, jewish. has now morphed into rambo. with israel and the american colossus controlled by jews are said to be controlled by jews. as marauders around the world fomenting and fighting wars with

the boot of israeli -- of the jewish israeli on the road of the palestinian child. shylock taranto, the demonology has change. and in each period the demonology is centered on something that seems to have a chord with rally this respect. jews had no power. you couldn't treat them as powerful soldiers. and today there is -- a local power. jews are influential in the united states and the united states is a superpower of the world and to the imagery has changed. on this issue of reality, and this is an important point, the conflict was not itself produce this kind of hatred. in surveys of arab countries, we find that 95, 97% of people in egypt, jordan, lebanon say they

are anti-semites. it's an unbelievably large number. they have a conflict so you say it's because of israel. but when you do a survey, surveys have been done about other groups in this country. take lebanon where there was a decade-long civil war. 100,000 people in a population of a few million died in the civil war. this is between christians and non-christians, among others. everyone in lebanon lost relatives and lost friends on know people who have lost friends. the whole society was involved and scarred, and many died. among muslims in lebanon, where 97% of the people have an unfavorable view of jews, despite is much, much, much more intense and long lasting conflict, this intensive scale

with christians, only 14-70% say they have an unfavorable view of christians. so it's not conflict per se that produces this. it's conflict in the context of existing prejudice, which is what anti-semitism is. global anti-semitism is more deadly than ever. it is treachery like him even more explicitly murders than the transport express them to be. they killed an enormous number of non-jews, but the imagery, the calls to extermination, the calls to brutality are far more frequent, far more open, far more unreserved in anything you would've found him naz nazi gery in the 1930s, or even publicly and the 1940s. and the threat is real.

as one rwandan, a mass murder of to see explained after the genocide, that the police they had come he put it very well, the police they had were already sharpening the knives. the beliefs that many people have already sharpening the knife to a just a question whether they get to use them and they're quite to clear. if you have any doubt when you see what's going on in syria and in many of the country, in some other places in arab spring and what different groups of arabs and muslims have been doing to one another, imagine what they would do if they were ever to conquer israel. would they be any less violent? any less murders? any less cruel? global anti-semitism is fundamentally political. it takes place in the political

sphere, and the contemporary world, this is a critical aspect of globalism that everybody understands that the world is political. a joy to affect the world, you do it through politics. you have to. and if you don't you run the risk of someone else doing it and so, therefore, there is a political competition. it is relentless the political which is different from the past where we are much more ground and cultural and social relations. it is political in that it is governmental policies of anti-semitism within many countries and also internationally. this is a distinctive feature of today's anti-semitism compared to the past on the scale that has taken place, and also compared to other prejudices. there even is an international elimination is alliance or coalition as i described to destroy israel or to eliminate it one way or another. it should be one state or in the arab and islamic countries or groups, there should be no jews

left, or very few jews left in the region. the u.s. is the exception, and that's why we have to learn to see, that's one of the reasons i wrote the book. we have to see it for what it is and those ask yourself, if this were said or done, said or done about what any other group, what would people say? use that as a standard and usage so much anti-semitism that we have growth habituated to. arab leaders called for the extermination of jews. presents plans to annihilate israel. it's been reported. ahmadinejad said in some flamboyant way, it's barely reported or not reported at all. not to mention all this, the things i read your earlier you can read 100 or a thousand times over. it's said daily. the u.s. is the exception also in its public sphere.

it is the one country where there is still a taboo on expressing these connections in the public sphere, in immediate to it it's breaking down a litte bit, but by and large there was an understatement in this country that is political leaders were to express -- imagine anyone wrote something like this. you would be totally off to size. it seemed the things that european leaders say, accusing israel of being a nazi like country and so on. there is an understatement in this country that this is dangerous, and it is wrong and it's dangerous not just the jews but for everybody. and that is what we have to work to maintain in this country, and went to work to get our european elite function is sister of the country so they can begin to dampening down these anti-semitic expression. for now, arab and islamic countries are beyond anyone's influence, and will stay the way

they are for the foreseeable future. anti-semitism is back in full force in people who have not fully recognized this. if you want to find out about it, the evidence is in the book. of all different kinds of evidence, it's more widespread than ever. it's more powerful than ever. and its global. it is global anti-semitism. the devil that never dies. thank you. [applause] >> thank you very much. thank you for your patience. i will be happy to take your questions. yes? >> a couple of quick points. in germany, i have heard it said

by quite a number of people now that the germans are very anti-semitic. is there any anti-semitism bolstered by this occupation, or is this -- >> the occupation? >> you mean the israeli? >> yes. >> the second thing is, are there any benefits to the anti-semitism? is there a positive thing we can look at this and say, you know, what would you gather that we are, we are stronger for it, more unified for it? >> there's no country where anti-semitism is more complicated. with many commissions and crisscrossing influences than in germany. because there is no country where it was worse in the mid-part of the 20th century. there is no country where,

which, the people of which executed the policies they did to slaughter jews on the scale they did, though the germans found many willing helpers. there's no country that has such intensive education about the horrors of the past and the horrors of anti-semitism. there's no country that has, as far as germany has in demonizing itself. there's lots of anti-semitism in germany but it's quality in character is so different and much tamer than before, even if someone believes the kind of things that i said. and yet there's no country where there is such recent event of the kind that exists in germany towards jews and towards what we germans have to suffer because of the jews remind us of a past, this kind of thing. so anti-semitism in germany is enormously complicated with people having very conflicting emotions. german is a country where you find probably more -- we don't know this -- who have an

aversion towards jews, on the one hand, but know it's wrong. very complex. most people have a versioned with other people think it's right. and in germany you have this kind of internal conflict among many people. so germany is a long, long story. and yet there is an enormous amount of anti-semitism. their anti-semitism is fundamentally as is the other anti-semitism in europe, grounded in notions about jews and have been passed on generation after generation, from parents to children that have nothing to do with israel. and israel is brought in as an object against which the antiemetic fire can be directed. there is no advantage for jews of this kind of anti-semitism. in haiti, being persecuted, being under pressure, not being

able to wear -- for fear of being attacked in berlin, copenhagen and rome. there's no benefit whatsoever. yes? [inaudible] >> a big problem. do you want to say something else? [inaudible] i realized there's a difference from everything you're describing, but in america, have things turned around? blacks, latinos, gays. and it was those people who took the forefront but then others, you know, there were many whites who were for blacks rights, fighting. there are many people who joined the gays and the latinos. do we have that? >> yes, we do spent. [inaudible] >> there's a lot of it.

but first let me pick up o on a point that you made that is really very important, which is that many prejudices decline anticipate. and i mentioned one of the features of anti-semitism is tenacity, cross time, across space, across millennia, across the entire world. and again, the notion that this is from grounded in something that israel does, it's look at a group of people whom one might have thought be hated. germans. look what german did all of your. they didn't just kill jews. they subjected much of the european continent to brutal occupation, slaughtered millions of non-jews, enslaved millions of people, and on and on and on. if prejudice is grounded in the deeds of the people against them the prejudice is directed, germans would've been, in 1945 they were hated, but such a hatred would've persisted and festered and be well unlike today, not -- really hated, 1000

times more than choose should ever have been, if reality, the deeds of the people are the guide to what is believed about them. and yet the prejudice against germans has disappeared on this scale relatively quickly, and really doesn't exist today in any form like what anti-semitism does. so that's another critical point to the many, many groups that do all kinds of things to other groups and you don't just have international prejudice and so on. but your other point order question, which is it is in this country, and in other countries as well but mainly in this country there are lots of people who are not jewish, i don't like anti-semitism, i want to combat it. there are many christian groups and there are many christian churches and groups that have very good relations with jewish

synagogues in groups, and to work together to foster was called tolerance and roll is him. and it's not just jews who react allegedly to one of the anti-semitic in the public sphere. and you have in this country something that's different from any other country, and it's a bit of a long story to it, which is jews are seen as jewish americans. they are seen as part of the national community. not just the citizens of the country but part of the national community. there are exceptions of course do this but by and large it's not question. in europe, the jews who live in germany are german jews, french jews. they are not -- to recognize with equal rights but they're not seen as part of the national community by the national community. this is very different in the trendy and it's one of the many ways in which one of the many ways in which we see that there is a fundamental sympathy and often indeed and empathy on the part of non-jews for the plight

of jews in the world. and why israel is seen more favorably in this country than unfavorably, serving more favorable than just about anywhere in the world. because some say it's because the influence of american jews. i would say it's because of the absence of this degree of prejudice that people can take a cold sober look at the middle east and said this is a much more public and situation and israel has been under existential attack for its entire life, so on and so forth. we don't need to enter the details of the middle east conflict now. [inaudible] how do we solve this? >> we been whom are exciting, it wasn't just a quip, because the people who are the objects of prejudice have very little capacity to influence the people who have prejudice against them. people who are not in communities have very little

capacity. that's why it's almost unimaginable that much can be done in many arab and islamic countries. what are you going to do? shout and say you need to be educated? nobody is listening. you have no way to influence them. and so what can be done is closer ties before the the elite levels but things are pretty good in this country in that respect. and you know, different minority groups understand that when any minority is being attacked, that it opens the door at least a little bit more for their own group to be attacked. and so, i'm not particularly -- if the rest of the world was the what was in the united states, we shall say how they. it's not to say there are concerning things, but on all this country is doing quite well in that respect. yes.

[inaudible] is set in the koran itself and as any other group in the koran that is demonized like that? >> no. >> i wonder if you have any comments to make about what is sometimes called the new anti-semitism, that is really the expression of the same old anti-semitic canard in the context of modern political speech, particularly criticism of israel. you made the point, well i think, that contemporary global anti-semitism is not rooted in reality and not rooted also in anything that israel does or doesn't do. and yet i think we do see quite an upsurge these days of anti-semitic speech in the context of our political

discourse. i wonder if you have any comments about that and its impact, it's political impact? >> well, the new anti-semitism means different things to different people, and much of it is focused on people use the term is focused on what exists, what is really emanating from the arab and islamist world and different groups with people in the west, particularly on the left, you're not only hangers on but for cheerleaders for this. and i don't like the term anti-semitism. we get to the substance of the because a lot of the so-called anti-semitism is old anti-semitism and it doesn't really convey what -- anything you doesn't but actually the global anti-semitism, and that's one important strain of it. you know, the whole question of how you evaluate this speech or

the extent to which anti-semitic speech in the form of anti-zionism or of anti-zionism or and that is a lesson is coming into the american sphere, the way in which you evaluate it can be, one can have legitimate differences about that. and you can see on the one hand, look, it comes into the mainstream media only in very coded forms, or in very weak forms. and by and large we see the resistance to it and without an influential it is because the passenger of americans, not jews, still support israel. by quite a hefty margin in the conflict. on the other and you can say look what goes on in college campuses. weather is a great deal of this kind of speech and a great deal of pressure for just students not to side with israel or sometimes even to let their identities be front and center.

the jewish aspect of their identity be front and center, which is the main source i think of worry of legitimate were in this country. ..

jewish power in the surveys from here up because right now there's a study on going in switzerland about places which has been an economic sector for generations. the question is dewey jews have to much power which is bizarre. i wonder if that concept that jews should remain powerless, that they should be the wandering jew and that the islamist world doesn't just want a jewish state in the midst but they all come together with what is going on now. jews are not supposed to have power. a determined to be second or third or fourth citizens. >> what you are saying is true and this is the heart at the paradigm that i described earlier which is jews our seemed to be powerful which is dangerous by definition because

jews are woefully malevolent. if there's somebody in the community that has bad thoughts but not enough capacity to act on them it's not the end of the world but if the person is a powerful person did you become very concerned. since the foundation of the anti-semitic paradigm is what is at the root of anti-semitism, the principal reaction to jews on the part of those that hold this view is we have to wrest power away from them which often when it's taken to its extreme to the end of its logic means to eliminate them which can take many forms one of which is killing them and that is what you find to be a common notion and wish and indeed promise and the arab and islamic world. so, yes, jewish power is deemed to be one aspect of the

foundation which is a paradigm about genes but it is in some sense the matter your right to point out. thanks everyone. it is much more in the book. [applause] i will be signing books outside. thank you. >> [inaudible conversations] to introduce you to somebody on the bus with us and that is natasha trethewey who is the u.s. poet laureate. what is a u.s. poet laureate and what do they do? >> the job is pretty simple. it's to bring poetry to