The Crusades Are Back — and Targeting Jews

Once upon a time, Britain stood for cultured, civilized humanity, and with the US, eliminated the threat of fascist Hitler and stood firm against the false gods of Marxism. Britain is now sinking into third world status. Its culture and values are derided and cancelled.

I was always aware of the underlying antisemitism in British society. To do a good deed was described as, “the Christian thing to do.” And British education included an important cultural icon, the Glorious Crusades. That’s what they were called then.

Pope Urban II summoned the faithful in 1095 to wrest the Holy Land from the Muslims, who at that time were far more civilized than the barbaric Europeans. We are now seeing new crusades. Every bit as dangerous and counterproductive as those earlier ones.

The Crusades were supposed to be religious European missions to conquer the Holy Land from Muslim infidels and atone for all their sins — a holy war that on the surface united the European Christian world.

Over the next 200 years, at least seven different crusades swept through Europe and into the Middle East. Different armies and gangs went looting, raping, torturing, and murdering anyone not Christian in their paths (overwhelmingly, the Jews, of course).

Initially, the Crusaders were successful in conquering Jerusalem and massacring the Jewish population when they got there. But they squabbled and fought amongst themselves, and turned what was supposed to be an ideological, moral, and humanitarian mission into a horrific era of death and destruction.

Of course, most Christians did not see the crusaders that way, but as noble fighters for truth. We were taught in school about brave King Richard, who led his men on the third crusade, joining Phillip of France and Barbarossa of the Holy Roman Empire in a crusade to the Holy Land. But they failed, and Richard was kidnapped on his way home and held for ransom. Later, I learned that it was Jews who paid his ransom. They were not loved for it. And finally King Edward expelled them from England in 1290.

Historians still argue about what caused this Crusader movement — whether it was social unrest, unemployment, plagues, or the need to remove the unruly and get them out of the way. Whether it was genuinely about religion, or more about economics and power.

The Crusaders believed that they were right, that it was God’s work that they were doing. After all, they did offer the Jews the opportunity to convert and join the faithful (or face death). But it was always the stubborn Jews who refused to accept the blandishments of Christianity and Islam, and simply wanted to be left alone.

We are now seeing new crusades of mobs. Not just to fight for the rights of others, but to destroy those who already have them. We are seeing unabashed calls to destroy the Jewish State, retake its land, and drive out its citizens. Across the civilized world, there are howling mobs stirred up by fanatics, and funded by ideological and political enemies of the Jews. As in the crusades, disparate sects and ideologies who hate each other and espouse conflicting moral viewpoints, now combine in their hatred.

The likely new mayor of New York City has called publicly and repeatedly for a world jihad against the Jewish State. And unbelievably, he is supported both by left wing Jews and some Hasidim. We Jews have never learned the lessons of history.

The only saving grace is that such crusades of conflicting ideologies are bound to turn against each other and fail. But not before they do inestimable damage.

What is happening in Gaza is a tragedy. All war is tragic. But it was self-created and there were other options. Even some Arab statesmen agree. I do not see anyone able to control this hatred or violence. Hamas feeds on it. But this does not mean we will not survive and thrive as we always have. To see how history is repeating itself, I recommend reading Jews vs Rome: Two Centuries of Rebellion by Barry Strauss.

The author is a writer and rabbi, currently based in New York.