The Bush administration now concedes errors in Iraq, foremost among them failure to understand the reluctance of so many Iraqis to support a democratic government. While historical parallels are always imperfect, it's fair to observe that the Germans who supported Weimar also failed to understand how fragile their republican government could be. The Western democracies were slow to perceive that, too.
Just as anti-Semitism was harnessed to bring down Weimar, hatred of the Jews keeps trouble on the boil today in the Middle East. Anti-Semitism is the refuge of cowards who are eager to exploit the appetite for hatred of the Jews. Anti-Semitism in the '20s and '30s was respectable in Germany, just as it is fashionable today among certain intellectuals and creative artists, including some Jews. Describing the Israelis as the "new Nazis" invites no outrage among certain bright young (and old) things who decry bigotry in others.
Martin Heidegger, the German philosopher of the 1930s, complained about the "Judaization" of the German university. He defended himself, saying that he was no more anti-Semitic than many of his Jewish colleagues. It was a glib observation not entirely wrong, but few took on Heidegger for his outspoken anti-Semitism.
Noam Chomsky is widely respected today for his linguistic theories, but he is willing to join forces with those who deny the Holocaust. He wrote the foreword to the standard French-language textbook of Holocaust denial. He praises "Jewish History, Jewish Religion," a book by Israel Shalak, one of the most outspoken Jewish anti-Semites. Gore Vidal, who insists he's not an anti-Semite, wrote the foreword for that one.
"The appearance of political anti-Semitism in the Arab and Muslim world is of relatively recent date," writes Walter Laqueur in "The Changing Face of Anti-Semitism." He observes how the Muslims who preach hatred of the Jews have found friends in Europe: "Islamist anti-Semites have collaborated with European anti-Semites of the left and with the neo-fascist anti-Semites in convening various conferences, protest meetings, demonstrations and declarations."
Those who assisted the Nazi rise to power held diverse views and were motivated by different influences, both inside and outside Germany, and the rest of the world recognized the peril of Nazism only slowly and reluctantly. Islamo-fascism poses a similar danger for us now.