238	The Story of the Jewish Defense League

bgolden than today. We have allowed ourselves to be lulled binto a false belief in the death of Jew-hatred in the United bStates by a quarter of a century of apparent absence of that bhatred. It is not true. The abatement of open hatred of the bJew has not been due to any permanent change in the reality bof things but was rather the result of two phenomena, both bmost temporary.

b“The terrible Holocaust that shocked the world with its bhorrors twenty-five years ago created a temporary embargo bon anti-Semitism. The Jew buys the favor of the world with bhis bodies, and in this case it was the destruction of six bmillion Jews that made the anti-Semite a temporary pariah.

b“Added to this was the unprecedented economic boom bthat thrust the good life upon America and allowed it to bwallow in automobiles, private homes, full employment, band consumer luxuries undreamed of before. Anti-Semites bhave slim pickings during good times, and steak in the bbroiler and a new automobile in the garage dilute the appeal bof the hater. It was these two things—the guilt of Auschwitz band the good economic times—that saw anti-Semitism ar- brested, but not eliminated. And today both of the things that bcaused anti-Semitism to retreat under the rocks have been bundergoing fundamental change and no longer serve as a bbarrier to the resurgence of virulent Jew-hatred.

b“The guilt of Auschwitz is no longer there. Time and the bvictory of Israel in battle have forever given the gentile his bawaited opportunity to rid himself of his albatross. On the bother hand, the days of economic boom have ended for the bUnited States and the good life has been replaced by one bthat has sounds of ugliness and danger.

b“America is today a troubled land, torn by racial passions band hatreds. We find white pitted against Black in anger bover the busing of children to achieve integration, violence bover changing neighborhoods and housing patterns, com- bpetition for blue-collar and low-level white-collar jobs, and btension and fighting between races in schools and the armed bforces. The fact that cities are not burning or that progress bhas been made by minorities fools only the foolish. Today bcities are not burned by extremists who see their way to b