Both George Santayana and Winston Churchill averred that “those who fail to learn the lessons of history are doomed to repeat it”. This is true enough, but it is also true that, while history often repeats, it rarely does so by carbon copy. The trends may be the same, humans may be “so much the same, in all times and places”, as Hume said, but the details will always be quite different.
For instance, it’s common to assert that the USA is headed for civil war again. But, as some have pointed out, anyone picturing massed armies squaring off on the battlefield is almost certainly mistaken. Instead, it would more likely be the Irish “Troubles” on steroids: endless rounds of assassinations, massacres, and revenge killings.
Similarly, as we slide into a new Dark Valley of anti-Semitic authoritarianism, it’s a mistake to picture squads of Brownshirts spouting racial hygiene nonsense. Instead, it’s squads of keffiyeh-wearers spouting a ludicrous mix of Marxism and Islam.
Even their kristallnacht analogue isn’t a one-night orgy of violence: it’s a string of related, and fast-escalating, “mostly peaceful protest” targeting Jews. Perhaps the most egregious so far was an outbreak of anti-Jewish violence in Los Angeles.
An anti-Israel protest held outside the Adas Torah synagogue in a Jewish neighborhood of Los Angeles, turned violent on Sunday afternoon, as pro-Palestinian protesters, dressed in keffiyehs and holding flags, attacked Israel supporters who were at the site.
i24 News
Of course, “anti-Israel protest” is an obvious lie. It was an anti-Jewish riot. It didn’t target, say, an Israeli embassy but a Jewish house of worship.
But, like the original kristallnacht, it occurred in an absence of anything resembling deterrence from officials. The anti-Semitic mob had made clear for days what they intended to do. Jewish communities representatives raised the alarm with civil authorities. They were ignored. Few police were deployed to keep order ahead of the planned attack, and they were quickly and predictably overwhelmed by waves of anti-Semitic rioters carrying weapons.
Law enforcement sources said more than 150 people converged on the temple on West Pico Boulevard, and it took time for the Los Angeles Police Department to get enough personnel to the scene. The LAPD eventually deployed 60 officers and got the protesters and counterprotesters to clear the area, according to the sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.
It’s well-established law enforcement practice, when such protests are planned, to have sufficient resources on hand and to keep opposing groups separate. That LA authorities declined even these basic precautions speaks of a fundamental failure of leadership. Instead, the Jewish community was left to protect itself.
Rabbi Yossi Eilfort was at the synagogue with his security group Magen Am after Jewish community members notified them about the planned protest, Eilfort said. Sunday’s protest was only the second time Eilfort could recall a protest taking place outside a synagogue since Oct. 7, when a group gathered outside the Shaarey Zedek synagogue and Hebrew school in Valley Village.
Hand-wringing after the event simply isn’t good enough.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said the protest had “cast a shadow of fear,” not just in the Pico-Robertson neighborhood – “the heart of one of our Jewish communities” – but also “regionally and nationally.”
The mayor, at a Monday afternoon news conference at the Museum of Tolerance, vowed to take quick action, including seeking city and state funding for additional security measures at places of worship in the city, as well as examining the rules governing demonstrations, including “the idea of people wearing masks at protests.” A number of pro-Palestinian protesters had their faces covered Sunday.
“Yesterday was abhorrent, and blocking access to a place of worship is absolutely unacceptable,” Bass said at the news conference. “This violence was designed to stoke fear. It was designed to divide. But hear me loud and clear: It will fail.”
LA Times
Then perhaps she should have acted to stop it happening in the first place, as she was clearly warned it would?
It’s notable that the violence was organised by two groups well known to be connect to prescribed terrorist groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and the viciously anti-Semitic Qatar government.
It’s not the first outbreak of anti-Jewish violence in LA in recent months.
On Monday, Jewish students at the University of California Los Angeles were barred from accessing facilities or passing through certain parts of campus by pro-Palestinian protestors.
Once again, officialdom sided with the anti-Semites.
When a concerned parent brought the issue to the UCLA police, they were told university officials had instructed law enforcement to refrain from dealing with the occupying force.
The Post-Millennial
The anti-Jewish violence is spreading even to the US capital.
Thousands of supporters of the Palestinian cause, who oppose Israel’s war against the terror group Hamas that is entrenched in the region, gathered outside the White House, vigorously shaking the security fence and hurling dolls soaked in red paint as part of a massive demonstration urging a ceasefire in Gaza.
At one point the anti-Israel crowd tried to breach the White House fence.
The Post-Millennial
Can you imagine the media histrionics, if they were wearing red hats instead of keffiyehs?
