Next week, we may well have to face the reality of a new term for Donald Trump as President of the United States. Surely, this is a catastrophic prospect for democratic societies. The election of Donald Trump, this time with full knowledge of what he is capable of, would in effect mark the decline of their ideals and standards, and the rise of illiberal nationalist regimes. But what would his election mean for Jews? We know that Trump vacillates between sycophancy towards them, based on admiration for Israel’s strength, and particularly threatening antisemitic remarks, such as when he declares that in the event of his side’s defeat “the Jews will have had a lot to do with it”. The target here are those Jews who are not prepared to renounce democratic ideals out of a lust for power. Bruno Karsenti proposes to analyze the Trump phenomenon as revealing a process of internal division in the Jewish world, which for the moment remains in a state of latent war. A Trumpist victory could then precipitate this rift and endanger not only the balance between the Diaspora and Israel, but the very legitimacy of the Zionist project.
In the second part of “Germany’s Battle Against Antisemitism”, Monty Ott explores Germany’s intensified measures against antisemitism, especially following October 7. From appointing antisemitism commissioners to implementing policies against pro-BDS activism, Germany seeks to safeguard Jewish communities in a challenging balance between security and civil liberties. Yet critics warn these efforts sometimes risk conflating antisemitism with criticism of Israeli policies, sparking freedom of expression concerns. How does a country so deeply haunted by its history avoid instrumentalizing the fight against antisemitism to serve other agendas? As Germany tightens its stance, questions persist about the freedoms that might quietly fall away in the process.
It’s always risky to invite a sociologist to dinner. If you place him in a context where he feels out of step, it’s quite possible that his professional habits will get the better of him, and he’ll begin to produce a critical analysis of the ethos specific to your social milieu. This week, it’s the small world of French academia and diplomacy in Jerusalem that bears the brunt of his implacable gaze. One has to admit that there’s a lot to be astonished by, between the backward-looking orientalism and the persistence of old Catholic thought patterns that continue to irrigate the universalism of the Republic’s servants. But the strangest thing of all, remarks Danny Trom, is the way in which, from the Notre Dame of Jerusalem, the Jewish state appears as scarcely a reality, obvious but kept out of sight.
