This joke went around newspapers in 1921.
The idea that Jews cannot be trusted is centuries old. And while it was the subject of jokes a century ago, it never really left.
We saw it a year ago, when Jews were not believed that they said they were slaughtered, raped and burned alive, even after the murderers filmed their own actions.
We saw it during the year, when Israeli statements about the war in Gaza are received skeptically and required verification while Hamas statements issued by anonymous spokesmen with no supporting evidence are repeated as truth.
We've seen only in the past week that a pogrom documented by the antisemites themselves is not believed to be true, or assumed to be justified.
It turns out that Kristallnacht was treated the same way.
Pat Harrison was a popular senator from Mississippi, holding that office from 1919 until his death in 1941. But he didn't quite believe the reports from Jews in Germany about Kristallnacht.
From United Press, November 16, 1938:
Harrison, like other southern Democrats, was racist as well. He filibustered against the Dyer Anti-Lynching Bill as he and his cohorts argued that lynchings were a response to rapes.
It is amazing how easily violence can be justified by people claiming to be on the side of justice.
It is also noteworthy that when you look at the justifications of yesterday's bigots, they sound reasonable at the time but are obviously rubbish when looked at from today. In fifty years, today's justifications for antisemitism will look equally ridiculous. Their arguments have no merit, but too many people want to believe them so they aren't seriously contested.
The "genocide" charge is also based on an assumption of Jews not telling the truth.
As I tweeted this morning, everyone who tries to apply the definition of "genocide" to Israel is antisemitic. A large part of that is based on the assumption that Jews are liars.
Genocide requires intent. They rely on out-of-context quotes from Israelis that show that in the days after 10/7 they were very angry at Gazans.
The reason they believe that the out of context quotes indicate genocidal intent is because they ascribe the worst attributes to Jews.
The reason they don't accept the many, many, quotes from Israeli officials that they are only targeting Hamas and not Gaza civilians is because they don't believe anything that Jews say that make them look like less than horrible monsters.
The reason they don't accept the physical evidence (asking Gazans to get out of the way of attacks, coordinating humanitarian aid, using the smallest possible munitions, etc.) is because they claim Israel is only trying to cover up what are obviously its crimes, because deception is what Jews do.
All counter-evidence is looked upon as faked; all "evidence" is trumpeted no matter how tenuous or proven false it is.
Every piece of evidence and counter-evidence is viewed through the prism of Jew-hate.
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