A 'perfect storm' of anti-Semitism
At the Times of London, Denis MacShane points out that the current economic crisis - for which many Europeans are blaming the Jews - together with the recent IDF operation in Gaza, have created a 'perfect storm' of anti-Semitism in Europe (Hat Tip: Gary P.).The economic crises of the 1970s led to a marked increase in the vote for the National Front in Britain and the openly anti-Semitic BNP, its successor extreme party, is doing very well in local elections - below the radar of the national opinion polls.Read the whole thing.
The distress and upset over the terrible pictures of children killed in Israel's attacks on Hamas in Gaza have allowed anti-Israeli feelings to be more violently and vehemently expressed than ever before. Criticism of Israel is not anti-Semitic. But all anti-Semites hate the existence of a Jewish state and hiding behind code words such as anti-Zionism increases the density and viciousness of their anti-Jewish utterances.
In Italy, the streets of Milan are daubed with slogans urging Italians not to buy goods at Jewish shops - an echo of the Nazi slogan “Kauft Nicht Bei Juden”. In Germany, radio phone-ins are full of accusations that the bankers accused of being responsible for the current economic crisis are Jews. In anti-Israel demonstrations in Berlin, placards stating “It was a good idea to use gas” or “I'm anti-Semitic and that's a good thing” were carried. Thus every Jew is made to feel as if they do not fully belong in the countries where they were born or the societies that they participate in.
Terrible massacres of Muslims have taken place in different parts of the world so far this century, from Kashmir to Gujarat. In Iraq and Afghanistan, Nato soldiers are accused of brutality but the men with the most blood on their hands of fellow Muslims have been Islamist ideologues. Yet there is no outrage against the perpetrators of those attacks compared with the onslaught on Israel and on Jews.
Is it unreasonable to argue that the reason that there is worldwide anger against Israel but not against other regimes or religions that carry out massacres of Muslims is because the Israelis are Jews? Has legitimate criticism and anger against Israel allowed Jew hate to become almost acceptable politics again? Add to this a world economic crisis in which it is so easy to point at the names of the swindlers and banksters that happen to be Jewish, and a new perfect storm of anti-Semitism begins to take shape.
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 1:09 PM
4 Comments:
I'm sorry to put this in a thread where it isn't directly relevant, but as you have no contact e-mail, Carl, this was the best I cd. think of.
I'd love to see a post by you on this story:
http://tinyurl.com/cpnoea
(That's to an AP story. I used Tinyurl to get it into the combox without being cut off.)
It's this story that says "Israel takes control of more West Bank Land." Gives the impression that the Israeli govt. is just grabbing land from poor "Palestinian" "landowners" in order to expand "settlements."
I'd love to see your take on it. Don't trust the AP on these kinds of things as far as I cd. throw them.
No one really expected the creation of a Jewish State to eliminate anti-Semitism. It would still have manifested itself had the Jewish State never existed. The difference today is Jews have someplace to go in times like this and that makes all the difference in the world.
Norman,
Theodore Herzl pushed for Zionism with the belief that anti-Semitism would persist as long as Jews lived in foreign lands, and would subside once the Jews had a state of their own.
Unfortunately, we are also deemed as aliens in our own land.
1900: "Go back to where you came from!"
2009: "Go back to Europe!"
Lydia,
My contact email is IsraelMatzav at gmail dot com.
The government took vacant land to build housing in an area that Israel anticipates keeping under any 'settlement' with the 'Palestinians.' Life doesn't stand still for 40 years waiting for the 'Palestinians' to decide to take what was offered. There will likely not be a 'settlement' with the 'Palestinians' in the foreseeable future, because the 'Palestinians' don't want a 'settlement' - they want to destroy the Jewish state.
By the way, I know the area well. We have many friends there.
Post a Comment
<< Home