Det var tidligere mulig å opprettholde et noenlunde rasjonelt politisk verdensbilde. Islamismen og selvmordbombernes inntog har snudd opp ned på mye. Jøder kjenner det selvfølgelig på en egen måte.

Forfatteren Amos Oz tilhører den moderate venstresiden. For han og likesinnede var det et aksiom at hvis begge folk fikk sin egen stat, ville ting roe seg. Ropet: kast jødene på sjøen, ville svinne hen. Nå er ikke Oz så sikker lenger.

Om dette og flere andre foruroligende trekk handler en essaysamling redigert av Ron Rosenbaum.

THOSE WHO FORGET THE PAST: QUESTIONS OF ANTI-SEMITISM
BY RON ROSENBAUM
RANDOM HOUSE, 416 PAGES, $16.95

For jøder er spørsmålet presserende: hvor alvorlig skal de ta signaler? hvor sterkt skal følge historiske erfaringer?

The last four years have made many Jews on the left see the world through a far different lens. This collection could be read as a laundry list of everything that has changed for the Jews since the outbreak of the second Intifada.

Editor Ron Rosenbaum includes essays on the murder of Daniel Pearl, the resurgence of anti-Semitism in France, Mel Gibson’s «The Passion,» the accusations that a cabal of neoconservative Jews plotted the war in Iraq, the imaginary «massacre» in Jenin, the divestment campaigns and virulent anti-Israel rhetoric on college campuses.

It is shocking to see how quickly the tide has turned against the Jews. The collection—including essays by Todd Gitlin, Paul Berman, Frank Rich and Nat Hentoff and an afterword by Cynthia Ozick — could also be read as a heartbreaking story of the betrayal of the people who have given so much of themselves to the left and liberalism.

The book is is not entirely about the failures of the left, mind you.

New York Post Online Edition: postopinion