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To the Editor: 

The recent anti Semitic activities that have taken place in the bay area are forcing old Jews such as myself to speak up or find a secondary tattoo on our forearms. 

I am not the most pious of Jews. In fact, some of my more conservative friends view me as ultra left: I see no problem with eating pork, having a cheeseburger, or accepting gay men and women in our religion. What I do have a problem with are these mad men grabbing the mantel of Judaism way from the vast majority of the Jewish community. 

I see a few Jews lambasting Israel left and right when I walk to get my morning paper. Nazi Joseph Goebbels could not have done a better job at turning Zionism into a “racist” campaign. Jews conservative and liberal alike should be defending Israel in these tumultuous times. When a reporter cries about gunfire from Israel my friends around my neighborhood take great pains to point Israel’s actions out to me. 

This does not bother me, though; I merely scoff and recount the numerous Hamas bombings, suicide and car, that have been leveled against Israel. The problem is not that Israelis are taking actions to defend themselves, but the emphasis that is being put upon Israel's actions as opposed to those of Muslim fundamentalists. If the anti-Israel media outlets would put attacks on the Jews on page one and not 19, the tide of anti-Semitism in the Bay Area and abroad would be greatly curbed.  

In the United States people tend to blame themselves for any misfortune that falls upon them. In the case of the events of Sept. 11, Jews and gentiles from all over the country are blaming U.S. foreign policy. People from all over the country are trying to demonize Israel, and Zionist Jews. This is exactly what Osama Bin Laden wants — pogroms arising because people feel guilt, although unjustified, about Sept. 11. 

Anti-Semites from all over the world are using this time of distress to come out of the anti-Semitic closet. They do not care about Israel; they are merely anti-Semites seizing the day, or self-hating Jews, using this opportunity to don the hair shirt.  

- Jospeh Moskowitz 

Berkeley