Israeli troops have entered Gaza and appear to surround Gaza City. That is not what I recommended—rather than fighting their way into the city, I advocated destroying every structure in an area on the town’s perimeter after civilians had a chance to leave, and then moving on to the next area seemed a better way. “A Solution for Gaza” and A Solution For Gaza II give you the whole plan. The results of the Israeli direct attack are as predicted. Unverified figures of Gazan’s massive deaths and injuries blasted across the media. Hospitals are running out of supplies, and the populace is in crisis. Demands for a humanitarian ceasefire coming from the usual suspects, the U.N., and other consistent Palestinian supporters abroad have become a drumbeat. 

The shock isn’t that there are antisemites abroad; it’s the outpouring of bigotry here. Some of our most prestigious Universities are the scene of mass pro-Hamas rallies. Jewish students trapped. They now fear their fellow students. Major cities have parades waving Palestinian flags. Cable news shows feature those uttering support for those known to have done the most vile things. Echoing them are members of Congress.

When I was growing up, people here were well aware of the Holocaust. “Gentlemen’s Agreement” was a best-selling book made into a vital movie exposing antisemitic bigotry. On a personal level, I could attend Northwestern University without being subject to a Jewish quota. Antisemitism seemed to fade into history. 

Jews even had a homeland. They had to fight for what the United Nations had agreed to, but they made the desert bloom not only with crops but modern products and technology. Unlike its neighbors, it was a vibrant democracy, giving equal rights to the Arabs that stayed within its borders.

After decades of rarely hearing an anti-semitic remark, suddenly, we see neighbors marching while shouting “from the river to the sea.” There is no missing the meaning of wiping out all the Jews in Israel. Maybe this anti-Jewish feeling was lurking just under the surface all along. We know of the relatively small groups of Neo-Nazis and Klu Klux claners, but they lived at the margins.