{"id":127693,"date":"2026-02-01T17:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-02-01T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/?p=127693"},"modified":"2026-01-28T07:57:41","modified_gmt":"2026-01-28T05:57:41","slug":"02-00-119","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/?p=127693","title":{"rendered":"What We\u2019re Really Asking Today: Could Another Holocaust Happen?"},"content":{"rendered":"<hr \/>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.algemeiner.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"center alignleft\" src=\"http:\/\/www.reunion68.com\/Biuletyn\/img\/algem.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"35%\" \/><\/a><span style=\"text-decoration: underline; color: #000080;\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong><a style=\"color: #000080; text-decoration: underline;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.algemeiner.com\/2026\/01\/27\/what-were-really-asking-today-could-another-holocaust-happen\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">What We\u2019re Really Asking Today: Could Another Holocaust Happen?<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/h3>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>Daniel Staetsky<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<hr style=\"height: 15px; background: #d0e6fa; width: 100%;\" \/>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/www.algemeiner.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/fis2023-10-29T115526Z_1_LYNXMPEJ9S04N_RTROPTP_4_ISRAEL-PALESTINIANS-BRITAIN-POLICE.jpg\" width=\"100%\" \/><span style=\"color: #808080;\"><em>Illustrative: Demonstrators protest in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in London, Oct. 28, 2023. Photo: Reuters\/Susannah Ireland<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"post_content\">\n<p><span style=\"color: #000080;\">In the West today, Jews and non-Jews speak anxiously about antisemitism. They debate incident statistics, survey results, attitudes toward Israel, and the distinction \u2014 supposedly crucial \u2014 between hostility to Jews and hostility to the Jewish State.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000080;\">Enormous intellectual and financial energy is invested in measuring all of this. Yet these debates are largely beside the point. They are a proxy for a darker, unspoken question: could another Holocaust happen?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000080;\">Statistics cannot answer that question. They were never designed to. Nor can opinion surveys, however sophisticated.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000080;\">After more than a decade of empirical research into antisemitism in Western societies, I have reached a conclusion that will sound extreme but is, I believe, unavoidable: another catastrophe for the Jews is not only possible but increasingly probable.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000080;\">This is not because of a sudden resurgence of old-fashioned hatred, but because Western societies are undergoing a profound spiritual and political transformation \u2014 and Jews are once again positioned as expendable.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000080;\">The West has largely de-Christianised. In the vacuum left behind, it is constructing an alternative creed powerful enough to provide meaning, cohesion, and moral orientation to societies that are fragmented, diverse, and unsure of themselves. One of these creeds is pro-Palestinianism. It functions not merely as a political stance, but as a civic religion.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000080;\">Civic religion is not a new concept. It refers to the shared rituals, symbols, and moral narratives that bind a nation together when traditional faith weakens. What is new is the content. Pro-Palestinianism offers a simple moral universe \u2014 victim and oppressor, innocence and guilt \u2014 at precisely the moment when Western societies feel incapable of enforcing older lines of belonging and authority.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000080;\">This helps explain several developments that otherwise appear baffling.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000080;\">First, the speed and intensity of the Gaza War protests. Within days of October 7, 2023 \u2014 before the war had meaningfully unfolded, before casualty figures could be invoked \u2014 hundreds of thousands were already mobilised across Britain and Western Europe. The slogans evolved over time, but the mobilisation was instant and relentless. This was not spontaneous outrage reacting to unfolding facts. It was something closer to ritualised response.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000080;\">There is no need to invoke conspiracy. The machinery behind this mobilisation is visible and long-established. Its urgency does not stem from the Middle East, but from Europe itself. Western societies are grappling with the integration of large immigrant populations, many from Muslim-majority countries, for whom identification with the Palestinian cause is emotionally immediate. Aligning national moral narratives with this cause is a low-cost way to signal inclusion, empathy, and shared purpose. Call it appeasement if you like; the deeper issue is insecurity. Societies that lack confidence in their own values are reluctant to discipline, because discipline presupposes a shared line \u2014 and the line is gone.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000080;\">Second, the sheer disproportionality of the Palestinian issue in European politics. Governments fall, ministers resign, parties form, and retailers boycott over Gaza, while conflicts with far greater strategic relevance \u2014 Russia\u2019s war in Ukraine, for example \u2014 fade into the background. Palestinian flags saturate cultural spaces, from city streets to school fundraisers to the inner doors of pub toilets. Avoiding the messaging now requires active withdrawal from public life.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000080;\">This is not noble universalism. It is selective moral inflation. Gaza has \u201cwon\u201d the competition for Western attention because it serves an internal function. Casting Israel as a supreme criminal and Palestinians as ultimate victims fits the sensibilities of newly arrived populations whose integration is deemed essential, and progressive movements unhappy with what they deem racism and elite supremacy in their own nations. Pro-Palestinianism promises social harmony, or at least the appearance of it. The reward is cohesion; the price is intellectual honesty.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000080;\">Third, the widespread willingness to ignore \u2014 or actively deny \u2014 the atrocities of October 7. The denial is often explained as bad faith or manipulation. I think something simpler is at work. The violence was too alien, too disturbing for contemporary Western sensibilities. It does not fit the moral script that pro-Palestinianism requires. And so it must be softened, relativised, or erased. This is not endorsement of terrorism; it is narrative necessity. Civic religions, like traditional ones, cannot tolerate facts that undermine their moral clarity.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000080;\">Finally, there is the strangest alliance of all: pro-Palestinianism\u2019s ability to unite groups with fundamentally incompatible worldviews. The most striking case is the enthusiastic embrace of the Palestinian cause by segments of the LGBT community. The contradiction is obvious. Israel is the most LGBT-tolerant society in the Middle East; Palestinian and broader Muslim societies are not. In Gaza, homosexuality can be a capital offense. Yet the alliance persists.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000080;\">This is not confusion. It is strategy. In Western societies, LGBT rights remain culturally contested, particularly among immigrant communities. Embracing a shared moral cause costs little and builds goodwill where it is most needed \u2014 at home, not abroad. Pro-Palestinianism functions as a bridge, allowing incompatible groups to coexist under a single moral banner.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000080;\">Put together, these puzzles point to a single conclusion. The West is experiencing a genuine spiritual crisis. The sensibilities of the West today are secular; Islam is not attractive for the same reason that Christianity was abandoned. Nihilism cannot integrate diverse populations. And they are diverse. Very large minorities among the young generations in major Western European cities, at times 20%-40%, are Muslim or of Muslim heritage. A new glue is required \u2014 one that is emotionally compelling, morally binary, and accessible across cultural divides. Pro-Palestinianism fits the role perfectly.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000080;\">But civic religions have consequences. They demand sacrifices. Historically, societies stabilise themselves by offloading tension onto those least able to resist. Jews, numerically small and symbolically charged, have always been vulnerable in such moments. There is little reason to believe this time will be different.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000080;\">I am not predicting gas chambers. At least, I do not insist on them. History rarely repeats itself so neatly. Disenfranchisement, exclusion, informal expulsion, and moral abandonment are more likely. They will be framed, as always, in the language of justice and peace.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000080;\">The uncomfortable truth is this: pro-Palestinianism did not arise despite Western weakness, but because of it. And until Western societies confront the spiritual emptiness that made this new faith necessary, they will continue to demand offerings. Jews have seen this altar before.<\/span><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><span style=\"color: #808080;\"><em><strong>Dr. Daniel Staetsky<\/strong> is an expert in Jewish demography and statistics. He is based in Cambridge, UK.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<hr style=\"height: 15px; background: #d0e6fa; width: 100%;\" \/>\n<div id=\"content\" class=\"content-alignment\">\n<div id=\"watch-description\" class=\"yt-uix-button-panel\">\n<div id=\"watch-description-text\" style=\"text-align: center;\">\n<p><em>Zawarto\u015b\u0107 publikowanych artyku\u0142\u00f3w i materia\u0142\u00f3w nie reprezentuje pogl\u0105d\u00f3w ani opinii Reunion&#8217;68,<\/em><em><br \/>\nani te\u017c webmastera Blogu Reunion&#8217;68, chyba ze jest to wyra\u017anie zaznaczone.<br \/>\nTwoje uwagi, linki, w\u0142asne artyku\u0142y lub wiadomo\u015bci prze\u015blij na adres:<br \/>\n<\/em><span style=\"color: #000080;\"><strong><em><a style=\"color: #000080;\" href=\"mailto:webmaster@reunion68.com\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">webmaster@reunion68.com<\/span><\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<hr style=\"width: 100%;\" \/>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What We\u2019re Really Asking Today: Could Another Holocaust Happen? Daniel Staetsky Illustrative: Demonstrators protest in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in London, Oct. 28, 2023. Photo: Reuters\/Susannah Ireland In the West today, Jews and non-Jews speak anxiously about antisemitism. They debate incident statistics, survey results, attitudes toward [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[33,24],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127693"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=127693"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127693\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":127735,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127693\/revisions\/127735"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=127693"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=127693"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=127693"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}