The Jewish sense of superiority plays a major role in provoking anti-Semitism. But the British, the French, and the Japanese are similarly arrogant, yet experience nothing like the hatred directed against the Jews. The major force behind anti-Semitism is weakness. Respect is generally a function of power, sometimes of moral power. No one respects weaklings. Compassion applies to two classes of weak people: doubtless members of one’s kin and pets. Beggars near churches exemplify the first category, remote powerless and submissive Blacks starving in Africa – the second. Homeless pets fall into the last category. Jews are pronouncedly different and are not accorded compassion. Jewish weakness bears the “kick me” stigma: the superiority of one’s values and ego is most easily established by insulting those who challenge them. The very existence of the Jews challenges the traditional understanding of Christian values. The superiority of one’s clan is most easily established by beating the other clan’s members, thus the repeated beatings of the clannish Jews. Centuries under Christian and Muslim rule established the Jews as institutionally weak; the Gentiles could act against them with impunity. The Bible, astonishingly, pictures the Jews as weak, both morally (e.g., the Hebrews of the Exodus wanted to return to Egypt) and physically (commonly losing wars). Sometimes, the Jews overcame their inherent weakness and fought bravely. In recent times, the 1967 victory sharply diminished anti-Semitism while the protracted scuffle with the insignificant Palestinians and Lebanese has caused anti-Semitism to surge.

Minuscule Israel among the sea of Muslims parallels the Jewish ghetto in European cities. The lessons of European anti-Semitism fully apply to Israel’s coexistence with the Muslims. Even the Gentiles sympathetic to Jews switch to pitiful contempt over Israel whining about Palestinian attacks.

Weakness wins the Jews no friends; strength makes our detractors respect us.