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The Long History of Blaming Jews for Anti-Jewish Violence
Mehdi Hasan. Photo: Screenshot
“History,” Mark Twain famously said, “doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes.” The echoes of history were heavy on November 7, when a pogrom unfolded in Amsterdam, once home to Anne Frank, arguably the Holocaust’s most famous victim. Eight decades after the genocide of European Jewry, dozens of Jews were attacked and forced to hide.
In the aftermath of the assault, press and policymakers indulged in another long-running staple of antisemitism: blaming Jews for the violence perpetrated against them.
Mehdi Hasan, a former MSNBC host, claimed that the attacks were a “natural response” to the war between Israel and Iranian proxies in Gaza. Worse still, he alleged that the Israeli tourists — fans of visiting soccer team Maccabi — were guilty of “provoking” the mass assault. Others, from local Amsterdam officials to BBC reporters, put the onus for the violence on the victims.
The incident and its aftermath speak to something dark. There’s a long history of blaming Jews for anti-Jewish violence.
Kristallnacht, the “Night of Broken Glass,” is arguably the most infamous example. On November 9-10 1938, Nazis vandalized Jewish-owned shops, looted and burned synagogues, and attacked and murdered Jews throughout Germany, Austria and the Sudetenland. German officials claimed that the death toll was 91, but recent scholarship “suggests that there were hundreds of deaths, especially if one counts those who died of their injuries in the days and weeks that followed the pogrom,” the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) notes.
In the aftermath of Kristallnacht, scores of Jews, many of them victims of the mass rape that accompanied the violence, committed suicide. And the Nazis rounded up 30,000 Jewish males, placing them into concentration camps, marking the “first instance in which the Nazi regime incarcerated Jews on a massive scale simply on the basis of their ethnicity,” USHMM observes. The violence also spurred even greater emigration, with thousands of Jews attempting to flee Hitler’s grasp.
Many Holocaust scholars consider Kristallnacht to be a watershed moment, a point of no return where Nazi Germany and its supplicants embraced a murderous antisemitism which, in less than a decade, would culminate in the genocide of European Jewry. It opened the door to what the late historian Paul Johnson would call “the end of old Europe,” and it set the stage for the industrialized slaughter that was World War II. Then as now, what starts with the Jews never ends with the Jews. Kristallnacht was the prelude to more murder and tragedy.
The pogrom sparked condemnation and boycotts of German goods throughout the West. The Nazis, however, blamed the Jews.
On November 7, 1938, a Polish Jew named Herschel Grynszpan shot and killed a German embassy official named Ernst vom Rath in Paris. Grynszpan’s parents, Jews of Polish citizenship residing in Germany, had recently been expelled, along with thousands of others, and were stranded in a refugee camp. The Nazi regime used vom Rath’s murder as a pretext to launch Kristallnacht, an event whose scale and organization made it clear that it was preplanned and had state backing. Indeed, as the historian Thomas Childers observed, in the aftermath of vom Rath’s death, Hitler and his propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels had a “lengthy discussion about some sort of nationwide action against the Jews,” and it was decided that Goebbel’s “propaganda network would initiate the action” and that it should “appear to be a spontaneous action of an enraged nation.” Police and fire departments were not to interfere save to prevent fires from spreading to “Aryan” homes and businesses.
The Nazis blamed Jews for Kristallnacht, imposing a one-billion-mark indemnity on the Jews and “forcing them to pay for the destruction visited on them during that terrible night,” Childers noted in his 2017 book The Third Reich. Many of the pogrom’s victims held insurance policies that would have covered much of the property damage, but these were voided by the regime. Subsequent economic decrees aimed at further punishing the Jews and driving them from German life. Jews were forced to sell their retail businesses and were prevented from working as independent craftsmen, managers of businesses, or members of consumers’ cooperatives. Jewish children were expelled from public schools, had limited access to public sites like parks and movie theaters, were denied driver’s licenses and radios, and were excluded from the welfare system.
Regrettably, Kristallnacht is only part of a broader pattern in antisemitism.
In 1920, a pogrom unfolded in Jerusalem, formerly a part of the Ottoman Empire and then under British rule. Arab mobs murdered five and injured hundreds more. The riots were instigated by Arab leaders like Amin al-Husseini, who hoped to sway the British from supporting the establishment of a Jewish state in the Jewish people’s ancestral homeland. Rioters attacked Jews, yelling “the Jews are our dogs.” Prior to the violence, Arabic-language notices began circulating in Jerusalem stating: “The Government is with us, [the British General Edmund] Allenby is with us, kill the Jews; there is no punishment for killing the Jews.” Speakers whipped the crowd into a frenzy, leading to shouts of “We will drink the blood of the Jews.”
Zionist leaders like Ze’ev Jabotinsky had tried to get British officials to act, and failing that, had tried to get arms to besieged Jewish communities. For his efforts, Jabotinsky, a veteran of the British Jewish Legion, was imprisoned and, some years later, expelled from British-ruled Mandate Palestine. By contrast, Husseini, a future Nazi collaborator, was pardoned and made the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem and given vast powers of patronage via the creation of the office of the Supreme Muslim Council, which he controlled. Worse still, the Palin Commission, the British investigation into the riots, placed the lion’s share of the blame for the pogrom on its victims, the Jews.
Unsurprisingly, Husseini wasn’t deterred from his goals and orchestrated another pogrom in 1929. Arab rioters murdered Jews en masse in Jerusalem, Hebron, Safed, and elsewhere, with many, including women and children, mutilated and tortured in the most barbaric ways imaginable. Yet again, a British inquiry, the Shaw Commission faulted the Jews. Ditto for the subsequent Hope-Simpson Report, which, among other things, recommended imposing severe limits on Jewish immigration. In the eyes of many, including Jabotinsky and other Zionist leaders, the British authorities were appeasing and rewarding anti-Jewish violence.
Throughout the long history of pogroms, the message, if implicit, is clear: the Jews had it coming. It’s their fault for existing. As Paul Knabenshue, an American diplomat serving in the Middle East during the 1920s and 1930s, put it: “The Jews are always responsible, for they generally bring their troubles upon themselves.” To Knabenshue, the pogroms in Jerusalem and Hebron were justified: “provocative acts” by the Jews, he asserted, had incited “ordinary, law-abiding Arabs.”
A century later, little has changed. From college campuses to newsrooms, justifications for anti-Jewish violence take many forms: “settlements” — that is, Jewish homes in Judea — are blamed for Palestinian “resistance” (terrorism) or, perversely, Israeli counterterrorist operations — that is, Jews defending themselves against terrorists — are a “war crime.” All of these excuses have one thing as their common denominator: the need to blame Jews. The eagerness by some press and policymakers to excuse a pogrom in 2024 Amsterdam is but the latest iteration.
But history offers a warning: if Europe and the West fail to curb rising antisemitism, their future will be as ignominious as the past.
The writer is a Senior Research Analyst for CAMERA, the 65,000-member, Boston-based Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis.
The post The Long History of Blaming Jews for Anti-Jewish Violence first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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China, Russia Join Iran in Rejecting European Move to Restore Sanctions on Tehran
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian attends the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Summit 2025, in Tianjin, China, Sept. 1, 2025. Photo: Iran’s Presidential website/WANA (West Asia News Agency)/Handout via REUTERS
UN Security Council permanent members China and Russia backed Iran on Monday in rejecting a move by European countries to reimpose UN sanctions on Tehran loosened a decade ago under a nuclear agreement.
A letter signed by the Chinese, Russian, and Iranian foreign ministers said a move by Britain, France, and Germany to automatically restore the sanctions under a so-called “snapback mechanism” was “legally and procedurally flawed.”
China and Russia were signatories to Iran‘s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, along with the three European countries, known as the E3. US President Donald Trump pulled the United States out of the agreement in his first term in 2018.
The Europeans launched the “snapback mechanism” last week, accusing Iran of violating the deal, which had provided relief from international financial sanctions in return for curbs to Iran‘s nuclear program.
The letter published by Iran‘s Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi in a post on X on Monday said that the course taken by Britain, France, and Germany “abuses the authority and functions of the UN Security Council.”
Iran has long since broken through the limits on uranium production set under the 2015 deal, arguing that it is justified in doing so as a consequence of Washington having pulled out of the agreement. The deal expires in October this year, and the snapback mechanism would allow sanctions that were lifted under it to take effect again.
Iran and the E3 held talks aimed at a new nuclear agreement after Israel and the US bombed Iran‘s nuclear installations in mid-June. But the E3 deemed that talks in Geneva last week did not yield sufficient signals of readiness for a new deal from Iran.
“Our joint letter with my colleagues, the foreign ministers of China and Russia, signed in Tianjin, reflects the firm position that the European attempt to invoke snapback is legally baseless and politically destructive,” Iran‘s foreign minister said in his post on X.
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What Is Happening in the West?
A British bulldog toy and other souvenirs are pictured at a souvenir store, near Parliament Square, on ‘Brexit Day,’ in London, Jan. 31, 2020. Photo: Reuters / Simon Dawson.
In 1968, Enoch Powell — a British politician and writer — was attacked when he criticized immigration to Britain by large numbers of former members of the British Empire. At that time, I was convinced that he was off his rocker, largely because of the inflammatory language he used.
The Conservative Party expelled Powell and excoriated him for being a racist fanatic. At that time between 70 and 80% of the British population agreed with him. Anti-immigration in Powell’s day was directed at the black West Indians. But they in fact shared so much of the British cultural and religious values. Their only fight was racial prejudice — not imposing blasphemy laws or outlawing whatever they considered offensive speech.
In the 1970s, I was in the cabinet of Chief Rabbi Lord Jakobovits, who was responsible for Interfaith Affairs, and I must say I enjoyed very cordial relationships both with Christian, Hindu, and Muslim leaders. We hoped to work together, to support each other for a tolerant society.
Since then, Britain and Europe have changed beyond all recognition. In some ways, this has been very healthy. The old imperial white entitled middle and upper classes have seen the erosion of their grip on society. In its place, a much fairer and less prejudiced world emerged. But as with all cycles, there are reactions and have been major problems.
In Europe as in America, the cultural, academic, and human rights progressives have inexorably swung towards the left-wing neo-Marxist ideology that allows for any alliance, even with other groups with incompatible values, so long as it leads to power.
Like Stalin’s pact with Hitler, they have allied themselves with jihadi Islam and against Israel. The irrational theories of a universal, capitalist oppression lump everyone together regardless of history or nuance. Anyone perceived to be or have been suffering — regardless of the cause or the history or their wealth and status — is a victim. Everyone else is an oppressor.
This has resulted in a completely different ethos that is leading countries on a downward spiral of social and cultural conflict that is tearing apart societies and helping the rise of the only apparent alternative — fascism.
Welfare and health systems everywhere are in crisis. Public subsidies have made it almost unnecessary for so many people to find work. And yet, advanced countries desperately need new blood, to fill jobs — which will only increase as birth rates decline.
Unless the disparity is addressed, humanely, the result will be disastrous. Already there are no-go areas in the Western world, living according to different ethnic values that conflict with the dominant culture — and yet there is no serious effort to integrate them.
The UK Government’s own website explains, in straightforward terms, that anyone, including foreigners, can easily get subsidies — and can also help their families and friends.
We have ignored the explosive reality that is now changing Western civilization. Our lay and religious leadership has wanted to curry favor with governments for their own careers and status, and preached an apologetic gospel of naivete — a dream of sharing homes and co-operating and working together, that ignored an ideology of domination that came with many who have been preaching far-left and jihadi doctrines.
Liberal Jewish organizations on both sides of the Atlantic were so blinded by showing how liberal they were and only empowered enemies of Western values. Charity is important of course, but not at the expense of standing up for principles and the rights of everyone.
Meanwhile the press, the Internet, social media, and influencers have all but corrupted the minds of billions under our noses — and with our encouragement, they have all but erased the art of honest reporting, and reasonable, objective, and civilized discourse.
Too often, we have been told that Israel and the Jews are to blame, as if this disease, this culture war, were not endemic to our societies. We have allowed imported ideologies funded by rich states and enemies of freedom to spread, because we were overconfident and took our eyes off the ball.
Are we witnessing the death of Western culture and civilization? I pray not.
The author is a rabbi and writer, based in New York.
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Houthi Attacks on Israel Are a Real Threat — Why Won’t the World Acknowledge It?
A Houthi ballistic missile strike in the Palestinian village of Sa’ir. July 13, 2025. Credit: X/Twitter
On the evening of August 24, the BBC News website published a report by Paulin Kola headlined, “Israel hits Yemen’s Houthis after reports group used cluster bomb” which opens as follows:
Israel has carried out air strikes against Houthi targets in Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, in response to the group’s missile attack on Friday which Israel said carried cluster munitions.
Readers would of course be unlikely to know anything about “the group’s missile attack on Friday” — given that the BBC News website did not provide any coverage of that attack at the time, or in the 50 or so hours before the appearance of Kola’s article about Israel’s response to it.
Neither would BBC audiences be aware of the fact that earlier “on Friday,” the Houthis had also conducted a UAV attack — or that at least seven additional missile or UAV attacks had taken place since the beginning of August (1/8, 3/8, 5/8, 8/8, 12/8, 14/8, 17/8).
Readers wouldn’t know this, because — as we have noted in the past — the BBC generally ignores such attacks, unless Israel responds. And even then, the BBC fails to provide its audience with any sense of the scale of Houthi aggression against Israel, which according to the INSS has now reached over 400 attacks:
Perusal of the BBC News website’s “Houthis” page shows that prior to Kola’s August 24 report, the last three occasions on which audiences found any brief mentions of Houthi attacks on Israel were on June 10 , July 7, and July 10, 2025 — in the first two cases, also following Israeli retaliatory strikes.
Like many of his colleagues before him, Kola tells readers of this report that: [emphasis added]
Since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza in October 2023, the Houthis have regularly launched missiles at Israel and attacked commercial ships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, saying they are acting in solidarity with the Palestinians.
The BBC’s serial use of the phrase “regularly launched missiles” of course fails to provide readers with any sense of the scale of those attacks, meaning that they are unable to put reporting about Israeli retaliatory strikes into the appropriate context.
On the topic of the attack on August 22 that used a missile containing cluster munitions, Kola tells readers that:
The Israeli military said the Houthi strike had been the first use of such bombs by the Iran-backed Houthis during the current conflict with Israel, local media and the AP reported.
The Israeli military is reportedly investigating why it was unable to intercept the missile carrying the munitions, which are banned by more than 100 countries. […]
After Friday’s attack, the Houthis released a video showing bombs dispersing mid-air.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) told media on Sunday that one such bomblet had landed on the yard of a home in the central Israeli town of Ginaton, causing light damage.
The IDF investigation centres on why the missile delivering the bombs was not intercepted before they had been dispersed, according to Israeli media.
That “light damage” can be seen in a Jerusalem Post report which also includes an account from the daughter of the home-owner.
“Fortunately, our mother heard the alarm and went into the emergency room. We talked while she was there, and she said there was a big boom. When she came out, she saw that the whole house was covered in glass,” Shira told Ynet. “It’s lucky that it fell close and not on the house. She said that the whole house shook, and as you can see, everything is shattered.”
The version of Kola’s report which is currently available online closes by telling readers that:
The [Houthi] rebels are backed by Iran, which Israel said also used cluster bombs during its 12-day confrontation with Israel in June. Iran did not respond at the time to this report.
Interestingly, Kola did not inform BBC audiences that, in addition to the IDF statements concerning Iranian cluster bomb attacks, Amnesty International (which the corporation often quotes and promotes) also put out a report citing three such attacks in June 2025.
Even more remarkable is the fact that the original version of that part of Kola’s report read as follows:
The [Houthi] rebels are supplied by Iran, which also used cluster bombs during its 12-day confrontation with Israel in June.
However, some 11-and-a-half hours later, that paragraph was amended to make it less accurate and informative.
Hadar Sela is the co-editor of CAMERA UK – an affiliate of the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis (CAMERA), where a version of this article first appeared.