Evil targets God's chosen

However, as almost always happens, too many dismiss anti-Semitism as the Jews' problem or even the Jews' fault, when in fact it is the most accurate predictor of an evil that humanity will have to fight.

That, to the world's benefit and the Jews' unhappy fate, is the role Jews play. That is the way it is because the Jews are the chosen people.

Now, believe me, I am well aware of the hazards of making such a claim.

First, it sounds racist.

Second, it sounds chauvinistic, as if it were a claim of inherent Jewish superiority.

Third, it sounds irrational, if not bizarre.

But the claim of Jewish chosenness could not be racist because a) The Jews are not a race. There are Jews of every race. And b) Any person of any race, ethnicity or nationality can become a member of the Jewish people and thereby be as chosen as Abraham, Moses, Jeremiah or the current chief rabbi of Israel.

As for chauvinism, there is not a hint of inherent superiority in the claim of Jewish chosenness. In fact, the Jewish Bible, the book that states the Jews are chosen, constantly berates the Jews for their flawed behavior. No holy work of any other religion is so critical of the religious group affiliated with that holy work.

As for the claim of chosenness being irrational or even bizarre, it is so only to an atheist. But anyone, even the atheist, must look at the evidence and conclude that the Jews play a role in history that defies reason.

Without the Jews, there would be no Christianity (a fact acknowledged by the great majority of Christians), no Islam (a fact acknowledged by few Muslims) and nothing that developed in those cultures that was based on belief in the God the Jews introduced to the world -- such as science and the abolition of slavery.

Other nations have perceived themselves as chosen or divinely special. China means "Middle Kingdom" in Chinese -- meaning that China is at the center of the world. Japan considers itself the land where the sun originates ("Land of the Rising Sun").

What's different about the Jews is that vast numbers of people outside the religion have believed the Jews' claim or hated the Jews for it.