Blood libel (the absurd slander that Jews kill non-Jewish babies to make matsoh, which is believed by many Palestinians) stills hangs over the Jews, a misplaced theological concept effectively used by the Nazis during World War II, but the reasons may lie even deeper. Israel is a modern democracy with a per capita gross domestic product of some $40,000 per year, on par with Britain or France. Its tech sector sprouts world leaders in cybersecurity, nanotechnology, ad tech, biotech, autonomous vehicles, and more. The whole country is not much bigger than the state of New Jersey.

Jews are smart, on average smarter and better educated than the rest of us, and the failure to admit that makes people both angry and afraid. Outside of the US, only Israel has a Silicon Valley. Can you imagine the Gaza Strip having a Silicon Valley? It's laughable. Hamas hides in tunnels, Haifa is a shining light of modernity. And, for the record, it is home to the Bahai Faith and Bahai World Center. Israel has an inclusive policy on religion. Now just try and be a Christian in Gaza these days, see how far that will get you. Or as a Christian on the West Bank and whisper a word of disagreement with the Palestinian Authority--you risk arrest and torture for yourself and your family. There are numerous stories of Christians being arrested and forced conversions to Islam being imposed on them.

Hamas's new political leader is Yahya Sinwar, a man who spent 22 years in Israeli jails for his terrorist activities and got free brain surgery while in jail to keep him alive courtesy of the Israeli medical system. (A lot of my enemies think I need my head examined. I'd be delighted if it was done in Israel.) Now he is the chief architect of misery out to destroy Israel, still using hostages as pawns in an elaborate game of international hide and seek.

Sinwar admitted several weeks ago, as the Wall Street Journal has reported, that the more his people suffer and die, the better, because he can blame Israel. Most Americans don't realize that the vast majority of Palestinians in Gaza suffer and die because of Hamas policies of putting terrorists and rockets among their own people so that attacks on terrorists will automatically kill Palestinians.

So why do religious figures like Episcopal Presiding Bishop Michael Curry and the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby seem bound and determined to blame Israel for a war it never started, calling upon Netanyahu to negotiate a ceasefire (which Hamas would paint as a victory and put an end to any incentive to release hostages), pay reparations to rebuild Gaza once the war is over, demand a two-state solution that neither Hamas nor any Palestinian faction wants), and generally kowtow to terrorists and thugs who would like to rain down rockets on Israel forever. And please don't forget they want to put Bibi on trial for crimes against humanity (their term for defending Jews against being slaughtered), falsely claiming Israel is starving Gazans, invoking fake famine stories and deliberately killing women and children.

Nightly on the news we see ambulances racing through Gaza with wounded children caught in the war's contradictions, but do we ever see over half a million children starving in the Sudan because armed tribal groups cannot be brought to heel by anyone? Of course not. Sudan is not a big player on the international scene, they are a political sideshow. Sudan is experiencing the world's largest hunger crisis -- and the largest child displacement crisis, according to NGO organization World Vision International. (Full disclosure. I once worked for WVI in Ethiopia).

And what of the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians kept from decent jobs and schooling in Lebanon and Jordan?

Hatred of Israel by countries like South Africa falsely accusing Israel of apartheid is now in vogue.

Would Curry and Welby shed tears if Israel, which now faces war on seven fronts, was overwhelmed by Iran using Hezbollah as a proxy for its war against the small state? If Iran finally succeeded in dropping a nuclear bomb on Israel and killing millions of Jews and Arabs together? One wonders.

But there is a new sinister twist on antisemitism rearing its head in England.

A letter to The Times by a bevy of Lords and Baronesses appropriately titled: 'Two-tier' policing and responses to the riots, said this:

Sir, In their letter to The Times (Aug 7) Sir Ephraim Mirvis, the Chief Rabbi, Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Sayed Razawi, Chief Imam of the Scottish Ahlul Bayt Society, and other faith leaders point out that an appropriate response to the outbreak of hatred, violence and vandalism is to work on building "a cohesive and harmonious society for all".

The Islamic Human Rights Commission has adopted a different approach. Its letter dated August 6 to the home secretary and police chiefs asserts (with, of course, no factual foundation) that "far-right elements" have been "enabled by their Zionist financiers abroad". Such primitive, dangerous and disgraceful antisemitism needs to be called out and condemned.

A study done by the nonpartisan wealth research firm New World Wealth found that 56.2% of the 13.1 million millionaires in the world were Christians, while 6.5% were Muslims, 3.9% were Hindu, and 1.7% were Jewish.

Antisemitism will never be fully eradicated, but that it is being embraced and kept alive by some religious leaders is appalling. They should be called out, as heresy should, and expelled from their religious communities. It's the very least that should be done.

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