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Antisemitism

'Old-style' antisemitism alive and well in Russia


By Stan Goodenough
March 21, 2008

Russian Christian children face being kidnapped and having the blood drained from their veins for the making of unleavened bread before Passover next week.

This is the heinous message being conveyed on posters across Novosibirsk, the third-largest city in Russia, according to reports in the Israeli press Thursday.

"These vermin [the Jews] are still performing rituals, stealing small children and draining their blood to make their sacred bread," it reads.

Known as blood libels, such outrageous accusations against Jews have been around for centuries, and were frequently used to turn popular opinion against Jews, often even fomenting pogroms and other forms of antisemitic persecution.

While many in the west would find the Novosibirsk report shocking, such libelous instigations against the Jews are not a rarity in the Middle East.

Israel's Arab neighbors, from Egypt to Syria, have in recent years screened television films "proving" that Jews do indeed kill kids to make matza.

Inciting literature like "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion" and "Mein Kampf" are best sellers in those countries.

Mid-East watchers have observed how international press coverage of the Arab-Israeli conflict appears to often employ the "blood libel" effect - accusing Israel of perpetrating all kinds of terrible crimes in order to turn world opinion against the Jewish state.

These blood libels have been as successful in the present day as they were in the past.

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