Joe Biden: “I rise today to support S. Res. 253, which condemns the growing intolerance and acts of persecution against Jews in many…”

“I rise today to support S. Res. 253, which condemns the growing intolerance and acts of persecution against Jews in many European countries. The Resolution urges European governments to own up to this growing evil, to reject any excuse for it, to use every tool at hand to combat these crimes, and to punish the criminals. Finally, the Resolution calls upon European governments to cultivate an atmosphere of cooperation and reconciliation among the continent's Jewish and non-Jewish residents. Making Jews scapegoats for societal ills has an ominous history. The Nazis' Holocaust was preceded by centuries of gradually increasing anti-Semitism--first by religious dogma, then by racial pseudo-theories--spread through preaching, villainous written propaganda, exclusionary laws, and finally pogroms and massacres. The so-called civilized governments of the twentieth century largely remained silent and failed to confront the rising tide of anti-Jewish persecution. As a result, they set the stage for the murder of the vast majority of European Jewry. Some of the individuals committing anti-Semitic acts today are the affluent beneficiaries of unprecedented Western European prosperity. Some may be bigots. Others may simply be ignorant of the hideous causality of the Holocaust, now more than fifty years in the past. Still others are mindless thugs.…”