Today the world's population is over 6 billion. While the world's population is about 30 times larger than 2,000 years ago, the Jewish population has barely doubled. Had Jews been left alone to procreate at the same rate as others, there would be about 180 million Jews in the world today. Moreover, even the 6 million number for the Roman empire represented a huge loss of population due to extensive killing of Jews in the 12 centuries from their inception.
It is true that Jewish population losses have been also due to assimilation, but this assimilation was itself overwhelmingly a result of persecution -- forced conversions, desire to lead a far safer life as part of the majority culture, etc. In fact, because of the Holocaust, there are fewer Jews today than there were 100 years ago.
One can now understand why the Passover Haggadah -- the special prayer book for the Passover Seder meal, first written about 2,000 years ago -- contains this famous statement: "In every generation there are those who rise against us to annihilate us . . . "
As a result, Jews are probably the most insecure group in the world. This may come as a surprise to most non-Jews since Jews are widely regarded as particularly powerful. But Jews' power and Jews' insecurity are not mutually contradictory. In fact, Jews' power derives in large measure from their insecurity. The stronger the Jews' influence, Jews believe, the less likely they are to be hurt again.
Fear of being hurt again is the major reason most identifying Jews are so protective of Israel. First, they fear that without Israel, Jews are far more vulnerable to another outburst of antisemitic violence. And this has been true. Israel, for example, was Soviet Jewry's great defender (along with America and Diaspora Jewry) and the place to escape to. Only a very strong Israel, Jews believe, can prevent another Holocaust. Second, Jews believe that Arabs and other Muslims want to do to Israel and its Jewish inhabitants what the Nazis did to the Jews. And given the Palestinians' desire to destroy Israel, the Iranian regime's repeated calls for the annihilation of Israel, and the number of Muslims who chant, "Death to Israel," this fear is entirely warranted.
Fear of being persecuted and even murdered solely for being a Jew resides in just about every Jew's psyche. It helps to explain Jews' preoccupation with Israel; Jews' preoccupation with teaching the world about the Holocaust; Jews' fear of Christianity -- most Jews are taught about European Christian antisemitism at a very young age and link Christianity to the Holocaust; and even Jews' near-religious commitment to liberalism, which most Jews see as the best guarantor against antisemitism. An increasing number of Jews are rethinking the latter two conclusions as a result of Christian treatment of Jews in America and Christian support for Israel and because of the lack of such support on the Left. But whatever one's position on these matters, the fact remains that fear of pogroms, torture, expulsions and mass murder shapes most Jews' psyches and politics.