Ernest Herzog: “It doesn’t just affect us!”

DIE ZEIT: Mr. Herzog, you didn't actually want to have this conversation. At first they were downright outraged at the idea of ​​speaking about the rapid increase in anti-Semitic incidents before the anniversary of October 7th, the number of which remains at a high level. Why?

Ernest Herzog: Because anti-Semitism is just one of many fronts opened by Hamas on October 7th. And because Islamist terror is not only directed against Jews, but against anyone who does not fit into the Islamists' worldview. I have always had a problem with viewing anti-Semitism in isolation. Anyone who singles out Jews as if they were the only victims, as if they were different from everyone else, is doing them a disservice. He is doing exactly what our opponents want, isolating us. The Jewish state and the Jews should stand alone, as a problem that the rest of the West has nothing in common with.