Monday, January 28, 2013

Anti-Zionism and Anti-Semitism - Illustrating the Link


Jonathan S. Tobin..
Commentary/Contentions..
27 January '13..

The Commentator draws our attention today to the fact that Britain’s Sunday Times celebrated the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz—the date that is observed outside of Israel and the United States as Holocaust Memorial Day—by publishing a cartoon depicting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a hook-nosed thug cementing helpless Arab victims into a wall whose bricks are lined with blood rather than mortar. This is an apt reminder of just how low Europe’s intellectual elites have sunk and how deep the taint of anti-Semitism is baked into the political culture of the West these days. As the Commentator’s Raheem Kassam points out, in Britain as in many other places, the Holocaust is not a historical lesson of the product of 2,000 years of anti-Semitism and Jewish powerlessness as it is an excuse to depict Israel as a Nazi-like entity.

The cartoon will be defended as fair comment about Israel’s security fence that the Palestinians and their foreign cheerleaders depict as a war crime. That this strictly defensive measure was made necessary by the Palestinians’ campaign of suicide bombings that cost the lives of a thousand Jews in the last decade goes unmentioned. The willingness of Israel-bashers to appropriate the Holocaust to promote a new generation of anti-Semitic imagery is rooted in a worldview in which the actions of the Palestinians, or their consistent refusal to make peace, are irrelevant. If even a fence to keep out suicide bombers can be seen as criminal then it is obvious that no terrorist outrage or act of hateful incitement (such as the Egyptian president’s belief that Israelis are the “descendants of apes and pigs”) is worthy of censure so long as Israelis are standing up for themselves and refusing to be slaughtered as the Jews of Europe were 70 years ago.


In the face of slanders such as this cartoon about Netanyahu, the facts are almost beside the point. In order for it to be considered a defensible point of view about the Middle East, you’d have to believe the artist and the editors who condoned its publication know nothing of why Israel built a security fence or that the terrorist campaign that it was built to stop was preceded by repeated Israeli offers of a Palestinian state that were refused and answered with war. Can it be that no one at the Sunday Times is aware of the fact that the Palestinians again refused (or rather fled from it to avoid answering) an even more generous peace offer in 2008 and have consistently refused to return to the negotiating table since then despite an Israeli settlement freeze, Netanyahu’s acceptance of a two-state solution and pleas for them to talk without preconditions? Those are mere details to be ignored when the big picture you are trying to draw is of an evil Israel and its evil leader hurting the innocent.

While many have seized on the fact that Netanyahu didn’t do as well as originally expected in this last week’s election as somehow being proof that Israelis are rejecting his views about the Palestinians, this is nonsense. The point about the election is that Netanyahu’s basic views about the peace process are now so clearly endorsed by a broad consensus that encompasses not only the Israeli right but also the center and even some on the left that the election was decided on other issues. Though some would like it to be different, there’s actually very little to differentiate Netanyahu’s foreign policy views from those of Yair Lapid or even Labor’s Shelly Yacimovich or Tzipi Livni, who actually campaigned on a platform of reviving the peace process.

The point is most Israelis have long given up on the Palestinians, whom they rightly understand to be light years away from the sort of sea change that would allow them to recognize the legitimacy of a Jewish state no matter where its borders were drawn. So, too, do they no longer listen to a Europe where blood libels like the Sunday Times cartoon are seen as commonplace and just a more sophisticated version of Morsi’s hate speech.

Israel is not perfect and its politicians can be criticized. But this commemoration of Europe’s Holocaust Memorial Day with such slanders shows the inability of those who believe Israel has no right to exist or to defend itself to discuss the Israeli-Palestinian dispute without resorting to imagery like that of the cartoon or Morsi’s imprecations. Though Israel-bashers claim labeling them as anti-Semites is unfair, their reflexive use of Nazi-like blood libels illustrates the link between anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism better than any argument their opponents can muster.

Link: http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2013/01/27/illustrating-the-link-between-anti-zionism-and-anti-semitism-cartoon-netanyahu/#more-817217


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6 comments:

  1. http://www.cogat.idf.il/901-10737-en/Cogat.aspx

    Last year (2012), 3,400 Palestinian patients from the Judea and Samaria Region crossed into Israel for medical treatments in Palestinian and Israeli ambulances which took them to the various hospitals. Moreover, the Civil Administration financed life saving medical treatments for 20 Palestinian children (marrow transplants, kidney transplants, purchase of a pump for P.N.T., prenatal diagnosis, impaired intestine surgery and baby obstruction) and more medical treatments worth more than 1,500,000 NIS per year.

    ReplyDelete
  2. http://honestreporting.com/sunday-times-in-damage-control-over-offensive-cartoon/

    Sunday Times in Damage Control Over Offensive Cartoon

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  3. On the occasion of the Sunday Times publishing the most anti-semitic cartoon since Der Sturmer, and on International Holocaust Remembrance Day no less, I sent this letter to letters@thetimes.co.uk. I urge you to send your own.

    Dear Editor,
    While this is just an email, I wish I could attach a bomb to give you your just deserts for your incredibly incendatory, hate-filled, anti-semitic cartoon of last Sunday. No, wait, that's what Muslim terrorists send to newspapers who defame their prophet (sic), not Jews. Ok, well then, how about this: I hereby issue a Fatwah against the editors and cartoonist of the Times offering a reward of 1 million pounds for your death. Oh, no wait, that's what your precious Muslims do, not Jews, when someone insults them. Well, how about this instead: I attach a cartoon that could equally well have run in your rag last Sunday, but didn't. Recognize it? It comes from Der Sturmer, the Nazi propaganda newspaper that incited hatred and murder of the Jews, resulting in the Holocaust. I think you will see the resemblance.

    But beyond that, where do you get the unmitigated gall to publish such a slander against the Jews. If you and your cartoonist do not understand the FACTS about what goes on in the Middle East you have the responsibility to say nothing about it.

    Fact: The security barrier keeps out Muslim terrorists. How many Jews died in MUSLIM terror attacks before it was erected? How many have died since? That barrier was built with Jewish blood. The only Muslim blood in it was that of terrorists who want to murder women and children. Remember the Folgers? You probably never heard of them.
    Fact: Who teaches HATE, yes hatred, of the Jews in schools from the youngest ages on? The MUSLIMs. Jews have no such hate curriculum in their schools.
    Fact: Who teaches children the love of death and the heroism of murdering Jews? The Muslims, and not just those in the "West Bank", but throughout the Muslim world.
    Fact: 20% of Israeli citizens are Muslim. How many has Abbas allowed for in any new "Palestinian" State? Zero. Yes, Zero. His state will be Yuden Rein.
    Fact: What happened when the Jews gave Gaza to the Arabs? A terror state whose sworn ambition is the destruction of Israel. Not a single Jew remains. Where's your cartoon of that?
    Fact: What does the Palestinian Authority claim for their "country"? All of Israel, not the West Bank.

    How many Jews will die because of your hate filled, hate incenting cartoon? More than one, I assure you. You are guilty of manslaughter. Hence, spare me any apologies. Just jump in the Thames and drown.

    I call down the curses of heaven upon you,
    Ira Machefsky
    A Jew from
    Mitzpe Ramon, Israel

    ReplyDelete

  4. . I have bowed out of the local interfaith Holocaust service, because it was a custom to include Hatikvah at the end, but now some Christian groups object as they support the Palestinians and the Muslim Imams would either sit or leave during the Hatikvah. Perhaps interfaith Holocaust programs no longer make sense, at least to me. I do not need the stress of seeing disrespect being afforded to Israel and nor do I wish to compromise by leaving Hatikvah out. This is a personal choice and I DO NOT ADVOCATE ANYONE NOT PARTICIPATING IN ANY INTERFAITH HOLOCAUST SERVICE. I INTRODUCED INTERFAITH HOLOCAUST SERVICES IN 1974 AND WAS ONE OF THE FIRST IF NOT THE FIRST TO DO SO. This was a difficult decision for me based on personal principle. The interfaith Holocaust memorials started as well intentioned way for the Jewish people and other groups to pause and reflect on man's capacity to perpetuate unbelievable cruelty against his fellow and to commiserate as a group and others, with the Jews and hopefully prevent this nightmare from reoccurring. Over the years it was understandably modified to include other victims of genocidal mass killings, though these mass killings were not really analogous, as the Nazis were obsessed at not just killing Jews as a competing group, but Hitler desired to eliminate our creed and it's pervasive influence on humanity, particularly Christian doxy. As a result of Muslim participation and twisted liberalism, this is morphing into a twisted canard where Israel is being blamed for perpetuating ethnic killings against the Palestinians as the Jews were slaughtered by the Nazis. One can understand the Islamo-Nazis belief system with a quote from the Talmud. We do not see things as they are. We see them as we are. RABBI DR. BERNHARD ROSENBERG, CHILD OF Holocaust survivors and a refugee born in a D.P. camp.


    Subject: Cementing Hate on Holocaust Memorial Day - Britain the thirsty for Jewish blood





    Cementing Hate on Holocaust Memorial Day

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  5. RABBI DR. BERNHARD ROSENBERG will not attend and boycott if imam sits during hatikvah.

    Organizers to vote on restoring ‘Hatikva’ to interfaith program


    More Sharing ServicesShare|Share on facebookShare on twitterShare on emailShare on print


    Rabbi Bernhard Rosenberg says omitting the Israeli anthem from the Holocaust commemoration would be “giving in to the current atmosphere of anti-Semitism.”
    "+ enlarge image
    Rabbi Bernhard Rosenberg says omitting the Israeli anthem from the Holocaust commemoration would be “giving in to the current atmosphere of anti-Semitism.”

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  6. http://www.aish.com/j/as/The_History_of_Hatikvah.html

    As it states,

    • The British Mandate government briefly banned its performance in 1919 due to Arab anti-Zionist political activity.

    • In 1944, Czech Jews spontaneously sang it at the entry to the Auschwitz-Birkenau gas chamber and, as reported by a member of the Sonderkommando, were beaten by SS guards.




    The link is clear, the Arabs were against Hatikvah before there was Israel or even before the myth of Palestinian people. Furthermore, Jews sang it while being led to their death. How dare anyone allow individuals to leave in protest during Hatikvah with the canard they are commemorating the Holocaust but against the State of Israel. Just keep quoting Dr Martin Luther King, Jr “When people criticize Zionists, they mean Jews. You're talking anti-Semitism.”


    RABBI DR. BERNHARD ROSENBERG






    http://www.aish.com/j/as/The_History_of_Hatikvah.html

    As it states,

    • The British Mandate government briefly banned its performance in 1919 due to Arab anti-Zionist political activity.

    • In 1944, Czech Jews spontaneously sang it at the entry to the Auschwitz-Birkenau gas chamber and, as reported by a member of the Sonderkommando, were beaten by SS guards.




    The link is clear, the Arabs were against Hatikvah before there was Israel or even before the myth of Palestinian people. Furthermore, Jews sang it while being led to their death. How dare anyone allow individuals to leave in protest during Hatikvah with the canard they are commemorating the Holocaust but against the State of Israel. Just keep quoting Dr Martin Luther King, Jr “When people criticize Zionists, they mean Jews. You're talking anti-Semitism.”


    RABBI DR. BERNHARD ROSENBERG






    http://www.aish.com/j/as/The_History_of_Hatikvah.html

    As it states,

    • The British Mandate government briefly banned its performance in 1919 due to Arab anti-Zionist political activity.

    • In 1944, Czech Jews spontaneously sang it at the entry to the Auschwitz-Birkenau gas chamber and, as reported by a member of the Sonderkommando, were beaten by SS guards.




    The link is clear, the Arabs were against Hatikvah before there was Israel or even before the myth of Palestinian people. Furthermore, Jews sang it while being led to their death. How dare anyone allow individuals to leave in protest during Hatikvah with the canard they are commemorating the Holocaust but against the State of Israel. Just keep quoting Dr Martin Luther King, Jr “When people criticize Zionists, they mean Jews. You're talking anti-Semitism.”


    RABBI DR. BERNHARD ROSENBERG

    ReplyDelete