Hate

Marge Piercy published a book in 1991 called He, She and It (or Body of Glass outside the US). Wikipedia describes the book as a “feminist science fiction/cyberpunk novel”. Max describes it as “bloody good”.

The book takes place in the not too distant future. Wikipedia says 2059; Max doesn’t remember exactly. The world of the novel is in bad shape. Gigantic multi-national corporations have taken over the world and the environment has been devastated. Much of the world is straight out of Mad Max - devoid of law and order and extremely dangerous.

In other words, an entirely believable future.

The novel also takes place in the past as it incorporates the legend of Rabbi Löw’s Golem in 16th century Prague.

There is one aspect of the story that has always scared the bejesus out of me. Prior to the time of the narrative, the Middle East had been destroyed in a nuclear war. Maps in the year 2059 have only a black zone where Israel and its neighbours used to be.

And guess what. The world blamed Israel for starting the nuclear war. And the world did not stop there. If Israel was being blamed (rightly or wrongly), it followed that all Jews everywhere in the world were at fault. This defective logic led the world into a new age of rampant anti-Semitism.

Meanwhile, in the non-fictional world of today…

Mel “Hateful Bigot” Gibson was arrested for drink driving in LA at the weekend. It is reported that Gibson yelled anti-Semitic epithets at the arresting officer, repeatedly asked the officer if he was Jewish, and stated that “the Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world.” Amongst other unpleasant things.

A man forced his way into the office of the Seattle Jewish Federation last Friday and shot six women, one of them fatally. Three were taken to hospital in serious condition.

For lists of other incidents all over the world, see http://www.adl.org/ and click on ‘Anti-Semitism’.