From Ian:
There is no left left in Israel
That leaves Netanyahu very well placed to form a government quite similar to the solidly right-wing one that has been ruling the country since 2015, albeit with one significant change: Likud’s share of the vote looks to have increased from 23.4 percent to a little under 30 percent (with seats in the Knesset expanding from 30 to something around 35 out of 120). And he did it while running for re-election under threat of indictment — by warning ominously that if Likud lost, the left would take over Israel.The left will be doing no such thing in Israel anytime soon. But the fear that it could, and the conviction that this would be disastrous for the country, is a very powerful force in Israeli politics these days, just as the American right hopes it will become in the United States.
Which is another way of saying that what American political scientists call negative partisanship has been extraordinarily effective for the Israeli right. It has done nothing for the Israeli left because, in an electoral sense, there is no Israeli left. It exists now primarily in the minds of the right — as an existential threat, a sort of suicidal impulse toward surrender to Israel’s many blood-thirsty enemies that must be resisted at all costs.
Gantz may have campaigned as the anti-Netanyahu, but his disagreements mostly focused on the corruption investigation and domestic issues. On the Palestinian question and Israel’s relations with its neighbors, the former commander of the formidable Israeli military came down quite close to Bibi’s positions, and he maintains close ties to sharply hawkish members of the Knesset. This would not change if his alliance ends up forming a government, because any governing coalition would need to include at least some of the same right-wing parties that have been Likud’s partners for the past four years. And that’s assuming Blue and White doesn’t join together with Likud itself to form a national unity government.
No matter what happens in the coming days and weeks, the right in Israel holds most of the cards, the center is its only opposition and viable alternative, and the left is well and truly dead. (h/t jzaik)
In his March 3, 2019 column in the leading London-based Saudi daily Al-Sharq Al-Awsat, Saudi journalist and businessman Hussein Shobakshi condemned the deeply rooted hatred of Jews in Islamic culture, in which the term “Jew” is strongly derogatory. Shobakshi mused on why the Muslims do not differentiate between the Israeli Zionists and the Jews in general, even though Allah had instructed the Muslims to love and respect Jews and Christians, and even though the Prophet Muhammad himself had married a Jewess, made pacts with Jews, and maintained relations with them. He called on the Muslims to first achieve peace amongst themselves and with those around them, and to recognize that they have profound antisemitic hatred and racism, and that they are capable nevertheless of carrying out Allah’s commandment and respect the Jews.The following are translated excerpts of Shobakshi’s column:
“When the extremists in the political Islam organizations want to carry out character assassination against a leader in the Arab world, they are accustomed to reiterating over and over that ‘his mother was a Jewess’ or that ‘he has Jewish roots.’ Often, the supporters of this or that leader respond to this by saying of the leader of the Muslim Brotherhood that ‘his mother was a Jewess.'[1] This has made me wonder about the scope of the hatred for Jews in our culture, and about our inability to distinguish between the Jews as People of the Book – whom Allah commanded us to love and respect and permitted us to trade with them, eat their foods, and marry them – and the Israeli Zionist political project that has instilled [in us] schizophrenia [in our attitude towards the Jews] from which we have not yet awakened.“The intensity of the Jew-hatred disseminated by the media and by art, literature, and political cartoons [in the Arab world] has reached a degree that cannot be ignored. No one, of course, is arguing that the Jewish and Israeli arena itself is free of a culture of hatred within it. In the extremist religious Jewish schools, there is [also] the same takfir [i.e. accusing others of heresy, as there is among Muslims] and differentiation between the [Jewish] people and the ‘gentiles,’ who are worthless and may be robbed and killed. From these schools emerged the well-known extremist terrorists Meir Kahana and Baruch Goldstein.
“However, antisemitism in the Arab world is the product of loathsome, racist education that is rooted in the Arab mentality that is used to labeling people according to tribal, family, and racial affiliation, and according to the religious school to which they belong. It is this education that prompted thousands of Jews who were citizens of Arab countries to emigrate after the establishment of the State of Israel… (this is the same mentality faced by Christians of the Arab Orient and by all other religious [non-Muslim] streams in the region).
Disgraceful: Newsweek Glorifies Ilhan Omar On Its Latest Cover
The lead article itself is very lengthy, and seems to applaud Omar for her obstinate flirtations with age-old anti-Semitic tropes. Consider this excerpt — and, specifically, the seemingly laudatory tone of the concluding line:For Republican leaders, Exhibit A was a 37-year-old Democratic freshman: Ilhan Omar, who, in just a few months, has become perhaps the most controversial member of the progressive caucus. One of the first two Muslim women ever elected to Congress, Omar has attacked both harsh Israeli policies toward the Palestinians and AIPAC’s power in Washington, at times, using language easily regarded as anti-Semitic. “It’s all about the Benjamins baby,” she tweeted six weeks before the conference, breezily referring to $100 bills that AIPAC lobbyists spend to fund pro-Israel lawmakers. Omar apologized for that remark after a storm of accusations — including from Democratic leaders — that she was employing an old ethnic slur regarding Jews and money. Only two weeks later, after Omar questioned the fealty that American Jews show to Israel, her critics seized on her suggestion of dual loyalty as yet another anti-Jewish insult. This time, she refused to apologize.
The article, harrowingly, concludes by suggesting that Omar’s platform is supportive of the future of the Democratic Party: “to remain a viable candidate in the upcoming primaries, it will be vital for contenders to win the support of the Democratic base, which skews younger, more multiethnic and progressive — in short, Omar’s supporters.”
But Ilhan Omar, of course, has a long, noxious history of dabbling in anti-Semitic conspiracy theories. In an op-ed in early March, here is how I described Omar’s insinuations of dual loyalty for Jewish Americans:
This is not even thinly veiled anti-Semitism — it is straight-up, unvarnished anti-Semitism. Insinuating that Jews are conflicted by “dual loyalty” is right up there with the infamous “blood libel” as the most deep-rooted of all centuries-long anti-Semitic canards.
Yeah changing it to how anti-Semites often hide behind criticism of Israel.
— neontaster (@neontaster) April 9, 2019
According to @Newsweek @BroderJonathan, videos about life rocket fire, having your fields destroyed by terrorist incendiary kites and living with the threat of Hamas terror tunnels are “short propaganda films about daily life in Israel.” How disgusting. https://t.co/B0i2CnKrPE pic.twitter.com/Zrw1luaiVw
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) April 10, 2019
Ilhan Omar Trivializes 9/11 Terrorist Attacks: ‘Some People Did Something’
Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) trivialized the deadliest terrorist attack in U.S. history in a recent speech she gave at an event for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) — which the United Arab Emirates has designated as a terrorist organization.When speaking about the 9/11 terror attacks, which killed approximately 3,000 American citizens, Omar described the attacks as “some people did something.”
“CAIR was founded after 9/11 because they recognized that some people did something, and that all of us were starting to lose access to our civil liberties,” Omar said.
Omar was met by hundreds of protesters when she attended the March event in Los Angeles, who expressed strong disapproval of her use of anti-Semitic tropes and promotion of anti-Semitic conspiracy theories.
Omar responded to the “very interesting” pro-Israel demonstrators by saying: “I don’t think any of them realize that people like myself and many of the people in this room could care less about what they have to say.”
First Member of Congress to ever describe terrorists who killed thousands of Americans on 9/11 as “some people who did something”.
Unbelievable. https://t.co/IKtoZWWmIT
— Dan Crenshaw (@DanCrenshawTX) April 9, 2019
Hayes: Omar Is One of the ‘Most Consistent’ Voices on Human Rights in the Middle East
MSNBC’s All In host Chris Hayes tweeted Tuesday that Rep. Ilhan Omar (D., Minn.) is “one of the most consistent voices for human rights in the Middle East across the various governments and regimes.”This came in response to Omar tweeting a Slate article about Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi possibly becoming a “dictator” with help from the Trump administration. Omar said, “No ally is above reproach” and Hayes commended her.
In one respect, Hayes is right to say that Omar is consistent: The freshman Congresswoman has repeatedly come under fire for supporting the Boycott, Sanctions, and Divestment Movement, which encourages placing sanctions on Israel, the United States’s closest ally in the Middle East.
Omar’s sustained opposition to Israel has sown division among Democrats. House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) condemned Omar’s stance on BDS in March, while speaking at the annual American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) conference, saying, “We must also be vigilant against bigoted or dangerous ideologies masquerading as policy, and that includes BDS.”
Israel Advocacy Movement: Most stupid excuses for Ilhan Omar’s anti-Semitism (h/t vwVwwVwv)
David Collier: JLM blindness, as Momentum go full ‘Israel made up the antisemitism’
On Sunday, the Jewish Labour Movement (JLM) held their AGM. JLM passed a ‘motion of no confidence in Jeremy Corbyn‘. The ‘closest vote of the day’ was apparently an amendment to a motion on antisemitism. Through this amendment the JLM voted to shield Momentum from criticism. Instead of suggesting Momentum had ‘protected those engaging in antisemitism’, they praised Momentum’s commitment to fighting antisemitism‘. There is a stark difference between the two positions and it shows how lost the JLM are, that they were not sure whether Momentum had been fighting or protecting antisemites.In fact, just as JLM were voting in their AGM, Momentum activists in Birmingham were busy preparing for an event. Called ‘Labour & Palestine’, it was hosted by Momentum Birmingham and took place at the offices of Unite the Union. The key speaker at the event was Hugh Lanning:
This event took place just as JLM were showering Momentum with praise. I have seen Lanning speak many times. He is a key part of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign and has acted as Chairman for a decade. As a front-line BDS activist, Lanning has been banned from visiting Israel. The PSC are themselves riddled with antisemitism. Some of their own Board have flirted with vicious anti-Jewish conspiracy theories and websites that promote Holocaust denial. If you are fighting antisemitism, you don’t ‘accidently’ invite Hugh Lanning or the PSC.
Momentum and the Israel antisemitism industryWhat did Hugh Lanning say at the event? Amongst other things he said this:
“What Israel has been trying to do for the last decade, which is drive Palestine off the agenda. Out of consciousness and so on. It was after 2009, after Operation Cast Lead, when they realised they had lost global public opinion. They commissioned an organisation called the Reut institute, which is an Israeli think tank set to the right, and what they said they’ve got to do is delegitimise the critics of Israel. And there has been a conscious plan and strategy by Israel since then… and the plan was to use criticism of BDS, to accuse people of antisemitism and to make sure that the debate was around that and not about the actions of the State of Israel.
And that has been a consistent strategy that they have been following ever since. I am not actually a Corbynista…. but actually I know where his heart is, but we also know that the Israeli government have a strategic objective of trying to ensure that Jeremy is never elected Prime Minister of this country. They do not want there to be a progressive Labour Party with somebody who is supporting Palestine as its head. And they have, as we have seen, put an awful lot of time and effort into supporting (?) and undermining Jeremy.”
In the current environment this comment is outrageous. It came with no clarification and no attempt to offset the damage. Hugh Lanning suggested to everyone listening that the current ‘antisemitism crisis’ was concocted in Jerusalem. A strategy born in Israel just to deflect criticism. How on earth is giving this man a platform part of a commitment to ‘fight antisemitism’?
McDonnell’s LRC Accuses Jews of ‘Stabbing Labour in the Back’
The ‘Labour Representation Committee’, Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell’s long-term faction of which he now serves as President, this week published an article attacking the Jewish Labour Movement entitled “JLM Stabs Labour in the Back.” A line echoing Goebbels…The article seems to state that the concerns of Jewish people about racism are of no importance compared to austerity, denies the harassment of Luciana Berger, and claims that the Jewish members of Jewish Labour Movement are part of a conspiracy to bring the Labour Party into disrepute.
Written by the Political Secretary of the group, Mick Brooks, the article goes on to claim that the Jewish Labour Movement is simply a front for Israeli intelligence agency Mossad. The article rounds off by calling for the official representative body of Jews in Labour to be banned and disaffiliated from the Labour Party…
John McDonnell remains active as the President of the group, having written for it less than a week ago. He is listed as one of just nine people involved in running it on their website. We have contacted John McDonnell’s office for comment, at the time of going to pixel no response has been forthcoming. This is being done in McDonnell’s name…
Lord Falconer says that Labour’s actions look “frighteningly like” institutional antisemitism
Labour peer Lord Falconer, who the Labour Party’s leaders had controversially considered putting in charge of another “independent” review of Labour’s handling of disciplinary cases of antisemitism, has joined the litany of current and former Labour figures saying that the Party’s actions on antisemitism could render it institutionally antisemitic.Campaign Against Antisemitism declared the Labour Party to be “institutionally antisemitic” back in 2016, followed by other Jewish community charities two years later.
Invoking the words used by the landmark 1999 Macphereson into institutional racism in the Metropolitan Police Service, Lord Falconer told the Jewish News: “Can antisemitism be detected in the Party’s processes, attitudes or behaviour which amount to discrimination through unwitting prejudice, ignorance, thoughtlessness and racist stereotyping? Looks frighteningly like it as every day goes by.”
Lord Falconer’s warning came after the Sunday Times published pages of analysis and details of a leaked hard drive of e-mails and documents and a secret recording of a meeting between Jeremy Corbyn and Campaign Against Antisemitism’s honorary patron, Dame Margaret Hodge, which have proven once and for all that Mr Corbyn and his team have intervened in hundreds of antisemitism cases in the Labour Party whilst lying that they would “never” interfere.
Three more Labour councillors, Allan Barclay, Marilyn Davies and Jason Fojtik, have resigned from the Labour Party over antisemitism.Mr Barclay, the Mayor of Hartlepool, said that he resigned from Labour because: “My fear has become a reality that the Labour Party has become a party of antisemites, racists and homophobes, it has indeed become the nasty party.” In his resignation letter to Jeremy Corbyn, as well as Deputy Leader Tom Watson and General Secretary Jennie Formby, he wrote that: “I feel that Jeremy Corbyn must resign and the Corbynites must be removed from the Labour Party. This is the only way that the party can become respectable again.”
“My fear has become a reality that the Labour Party has become a party of antisemites, racists and homophobes, it has indeed become the nasty party.”
Mr Barclay, an armed forces veteran, had been a member of the Party for more than 24 years. A Labour Party spokesperson said that the Party rejected Mr Barclay’s position.
Ms Davies also resigned over antisemitism. A Labour and Co-op councillor in Freeland and Hanborough in Oxfordshire, Ms Davies, was reportedly infuriated after a video featuring former Labour prime minister Gordon Brown making a speech opposing antisemitism was deleted from the closed Witney Labour Facebook group. Ms Davies told the Oxford Mail: “I could not have been prouder to be elected, a year ago, as a Labour and Co-op councillor for Hanborough and Freeland. But in that year, my party has changed, and whilst I know my former Labour councillors at West Oxfordshire District Council share my values and commitment to our communities, I have come to the conclusion to stay in the party would make me complicit in the antisemitism and climate of hate and fear now generated across CLPs.”
“I believe the Party has become institutionally antisemitic, and I can no longer stand by in silence, because being silent is being complicit.”
Emily Thornberry, the Shadow Foreign Secretary and a close ally of Jeremy Corbyn, is reportedly the latest senior Labour politician to call for the Equality and Human Rights Commission to proceed with its investigation into institutional antisemitic discrimination and victimisation within the Labour Party.The Equality and Human Rights Commission launched pre-enforcement proceedings against the Labour Party last month following a formal referral and detailed legal representations from Campaign Against Antisemitism, which is the complainant. The pre-enforcement proceedings are a precursor to opening a full statutory investigation.
According to the news website, Politico, Ms Thornberry said that she would be in favour of Labour coming under national oversight from bodies like the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), which she said could launch an inquiry into the Party’s process for handling complaints. Ms Thornberry made the comments during an interview for Politico’s “EU Confidential” podcast.
“I just want it sorted,” she told Politico.
Ms Thornberry also told Politico that she is “disgusted” by fresh media reports in the Sunday Times of antisemitism within Labour and claims that the leadership had interfered with the disciplinary process. She said: “I’m completely disgusted this is continuing to happen” and added that: “Some of the things that were said just turn my stomach and the idea that these people are still in my Labour Party disgusts me.”
Ms Thornberry follows many others within the Labour Party who have called for the EHRC’s investigation to proceed.
Prominent Pro-Israel Group Sends Key Memorandum To Firms Outlining Anti-Semitic Nature Of BDS
The Lawfare Project sent its memorandum to 350 companies and 100 law firms and, according to its press release, “outlines legal ramifications and anti-Semitic underpinnings of the BDS movement.”Here is more from the press release:
The memorandum follows a campaign led by certain offices of Amnesty International, among other entities, to pressure major companies and law firms into engaging in targeted boycotts of individuals and enterprises residing or operating in the Jewish communities located in the disputed territories.A March 13 letter from Director of Amnesty International UK Kate Allen warned companies of the “significant risk” of conducting commerce with “Israeli businesses in Occupied Palestinian Territories.” The letter failed to disclose both the legal risks associated with participating in boycotts of Israel and the anti-Semitic nature of the global Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement. Boycotts of Israel fit the U.S. State Department’s definition of anti-Semitism through “applying double standards by requiring of [Israel] a behavior not expected or demanded of any other democratic nation.”
Amnesty International UK’s letter aligns with the position of the Amnesty International organization as a whole, as Amnesty’s central website hosts a petition which asks users to sign their name in order to take actions in support of BDS.
After learning about Amnesty International UK’s anti-Israel boycott campaign, The Lawfare Project immediately began updating the memorandum, first produced in 2017, which provides executives with the full legal context and anti-Semitic underpinnings of the boycott movement in order to inform their decisions on doing business with Israel. Corporate leaders have already expressed gratitude for how the memorandum has protected them from complicity in illegal and immoral boycotts.
The press release concludes by quoting Lawfare Project Executive Director Brooke Goldstein: “BDS has a well-documented history of fostering anti-Semitism and illegal discrimination on the basis of national origin. It has no place in commerce. We will continue to make companies aware of the legal and moral ramifications of engaging in boycott activity.”
Activists Disrupt Law Professor’s Talk at the University of Chicago
George Mason University Law Professor Eugene Kontorovich attempted to deliver remarks to law students at the University of Chicago Tuesday, but was heckled by several protesters who successfully drowned him out. These activists were eventually removed by security.Eyewitnesses told Reason that the hecklers were not enrolled at Chicago, though one student did attempt to record Kontrovich on a cell phone, and was silently involved in the protest.
Kontrovich, an alumni of the law school, told Reason he had been invited by a student group to discuss the First Amendment as it pertains to laws that target the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement, which calls for direct action to oppose Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians. A group of about five pro-Palestinian activists showed up for his talk and shouted over him as best they could, making it very difficult for attendees to hear.
“During the first few minutes of this disruption, Professor Kontorovich could not proceed with his lecture,” Seth Cohen, a student who attended the lecture, told Reason. “After about five minutes, we gathered around Professor Kontorovich, and he attempted to resume the talk. The protestors raised their voices.”
Kontrovich attempted to engage the protesters, but they merely continued to shout over him.
“The principal disruption was that they kept loudly yelling and chanting,” Kontrovich told Reason. “It’s a shame for students who came to hear a talk about the First Amendment in a law school.”
Madonna vs. BDS: Cancel your appearance at the Eurovision Song Contest
BDS activists have called on Madonna to cancel her appearance at the Eurovision Song Contest. In recent months there has been contact between the production of the European Song Contest and the Queen of Pop, with anticipation that the singer will perform at the coveted event.Last night it was finally confirmed that the successful singer will appear in the artistic part of the final night of the competition on May 18. However, those against Israel they called Madonna to cancel her arrival.
Activists of boycott organizations against Israel published various posts calling on the Madonna to cancel her appearance at the event under the hashtag of #Boycotteurovision2019.
“Put off your appearance in Israel, the children of Gaza need your help,” the activists said.
“Madonna, open your heart to the people of Gaza,” wrote one of the activists, chattering to Madonna’s song “Open you heart” and added, “Palestinians are being slaughtered by Israel for demanding the basic human rights of freedom and life.
The caption added a caricature of Madonna with leather boots and a mesh netting as she stood next to a smiling Israeli soldier who was treading a Palestinian boy on a brown tear.
Australian Eurovision Entry Defies Roger Waters, Will Perform in Israel
Defying calls from the anti-Semitic Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) campaign to cancel her performance at the 2019 Eurovision Song Contest in Tel Aviv, Australia’s nominee, Kate Miller-Heidke, said she believed “in the power of music and art to actually provoke discussion and inspire.”Miller-Heidke defended her decision to perform in Israel after former Pink Floyd frontman and leading BDS activist, Roger Waters, suggested last week that her appearance would be used by the Israeli government to “whitewash” human rights abuses against Palestinians.
The classically-trained artist, who is set to perform her song “Zero Gravity” at this year’s contest, said: “For me, personally, the idea of completely blocking off an entire people, an entire country, from music, culture and learning…
“It’s not just art that they are trying to block but academia and stopping the free flow of learning and information into a country.
“I just can’t see how that is going to advance that part of the world towards solution.”
Cornell Student: Undergraduate Assembly must not adopt inaccurate and misleading BDS Resolution
On Thursday, April 11, the Cornell Undergraduate Student Assembly will vote on an anti-Israel Boycott Resolution that falls short of meeting basic academic standards.On April 11, the Student Assembly will vote on a Resolution submitted by Students for Justice in Palestine (Resolution 36).
Much of Resolution 36 is deeply misleading and inaccurate. Resolution 36 must be rejected by the Student Assembly, which should not adopt a document which falls below basic academic standards.
Resolution 36 misleads students on the history of the Gaza strip when it discusses, “the blockaded Palestinian territories” as being “controlled militarily by the Israeli government”. After Israel unilaterally withdrew from Gaza in 2005, the terror group Hamas took control in 2007.
Hamas smuggled weapons by land and sea to attack Israeli civilians, so Israel has been forced to check goods that enter Gaza. With these measures in place, Hamas has still indiscriminately targeted Israeli civilians with thousands of rockets and mortars, so the threat to innocent Israelis’ lives would be much greater without them. This is why the United Nation’s Palmer report ruled that Israel’s policy in Gaza is legal under international law.
Resolution 36 also omits critical information about the West Bank when it talks about the “occupied…Palestinian territories” as being “controlled militarily by the Israeli government”.
Between 1948 and 1967, Jordan occupied the West Bank, which it captured from Israel in 1948. That territory had been designated by the League of Nations as part of the Jewish homeland.
Prior to 1967, Palestinians made no claim on that territory for a state when it was controlled by Jordan. That is why the U.S. government refers to it as “disputed” territory.
Naila and the Uprising (2017) A Film Review
Naila and the Uprising (2017) Arabic, English, Hebrew 76 minutesPBS recently broadcast yet another one-sided documentary highlighting Palestinian grievances against Israel. Called Naila and the Uprising, it aired on March 26, 2019 as part of a multi-film series called Women, War & Peace. As CAMERA earlier demonstrated, documentaries broadcast on PBS about the Palestinian-Israeli conflict seem to hew to a specific pattern: They depict Palestinians as heroes in a distorted and partisan narrative that ignores the conflict’s underlying fundamentals to blame the Jewish state, military, leaders and society for the region’s ills.
This latest film is an exemplar of how PBS serves as a platform for anti-Israel propaganda.
Just VisionNaila and the Uprising was produced by “Just Vision,” a politicized NGO that poses as a “non-partisan” group and couches its mission in terms of peace and understanding. Its declared goal is “to contribute to fostering peace and an end to the occupation by rendering Palestinian and Israeli grassroots leaders more visible, valued and influential in their efforts.” But this is belied by the group’s partisan statements that condemn or demonize Israel in hostile terms. According to the NGO’s website:
We assert that the continuing occupation and Israeli settlement growth are illegal, immoral, and pose a major obstacle to any lasting solution, and recognize the rights of refugees in accordance with international law.
Similarly, Just Peace Executive Director Suhad Babaa contributed a message of solidarity to the Palestinians in the name of Just Peace, accusing Israel of “brutality,” “repression,” and “violations of international law,” while suggesting that the anti-Semitic BDS campaign is “a classical, peaceful form of civil and economic resistance.”
While the organization claims to include Israelis, it partners only with the radical few who reflexively denounce Israel while refusing to acknowledge history, context and factual evidence.
Islamophobia vs Antisemitism — a misunderstood chasm
The latest action by the Democratic House of Representatives condemning all forms of hate—rather than singling out an anti-Semitic Spring within its own ranks—has contributed to a gross distortion, typical of an ignorant liberal thinking, presuming that all forms of hate may be thrown into a single bowl to fashion one appealing salad.It’s very possible that the ineffectual resolution was not sorted out under malicious intent, but rather under an ignorance-soaked naivete. Still, the outcome was a shameful misrepresentation of reality, serving the wrong purpose, leaving the door open for more of the same antisemitic outbursts by those who had been left unscathed.
Antisemitism and Islamophobia are both depraved forms of hate, but the root causes affecting them are light years apart.
Antisemitism’s origins were pioneered, borne and promoted by those who were looking for scapegoats. It was originally instituted by religious zealots who tried to promote Christianity by spreading fake historical counts, blaming Jews for killing Jesus, while masking the true executioners—their own Roman predecessors. Their followers looked for the easy prey, the weak faction, the ones who looked different, dressed differently, worshiped God via a competing religion, celebrated different holidays and attended to different customs.
In short; antisemitism was originated by the losers who were able to move the masses on hate-waves against a frail, vulnerable sect. It also presented an opportunity by these anti-Semite losers to legally rob these “subhuman” Jewish creatures and feed on their belongings.
Official German Report Acknowledges Islamist Antisemitism in the Country
In a major break with the past, the German agency for domestic security — Bundesamt fuer Verfassungsschutz — has published a 40-page report whose title translates as “Antisemitism in Islamism.” The report defines Islamism as a form of political extremism among Muslims that wants to eliminate democracy, and where antisemitism is an essential ideological element.Many Muslims are not antisemites. Yet the antisemitism problem in Islam is far from limited to people with extreme political views, or even to religious Muslims. The report indicates that many antisemitic incidents have been caused by individuals “about whom until then no indications were available to organized Islamism.” This suggests that these antisemitic acts were committed because of Islamism, which may not be the case.
Only recently, speaking about Muslim antisemitism was taboo in Germany, never to be mentioned by politicians — despite the fact that it was generally known that there had been major antisemitic incidents perpetrated by Muslims in the country.
The new German report starts off by talking about right-wing antisemitism, but then notes that common, “daily” antisemitism is widespread in the social and political center of German society. In addition, there is anti-Zionism and antisemitism among leftist extremists.
The authors continue that even more far-reaching are the antisemitic opinions in Islamism, where religious, territorial, and political motives combine into an antisemitic worldview.
One third of Austrians believe that Israelis behave like Nazis
The summary of a new study on antisemitism in Austria, after many years without any statistical studies – which suited European governments just fine – has been published. The report was ordered by the country’s parliament. It is based on 2,700 interviews and was published by the IFES and Demox organizations. The study differentiates between three groups of interviewees: native Austrians, Turkish and Arab speakers.The major perpetrating countries of the Holocaust, Germany and Austria are best suited to investigate secondary antisemitism. Statements which claim that Jews abuse the reality of the persecution during the Holocaust are an example of secondary antisemitism. Another example is the wish that aspects of the Holocaust should no longer be mentioned.
The authors of the study asked whether those polled agreed with the statement: “Jews try to obtain advantages due to the fact that they were victims during the Nazi period.” Thirty-six percent of Austrian natives agreed with this, as did 51% of Turkish and 59% of Arab speakers.
Another statement addressing secondary antisemitism was: “I oppose that it is raised again that in the Second World War Jews died.” The language of the statement whitewashes the truth that Jews died because they were murdered. Thirty-seven percent of native Austrians agreed as did 46% of Arab and 55% of Turkish speakers.
Even concerning these two statements one finds that – like elsewhere in Europe — Muslims are far more antisemitic than the native population.
Ex-journalist to get resentenced in Jewish bomb threats case
A former journalist from St. Louis who terrorized his ex-girlfriend and made bomb threats in her name to Jewish groups must be resentenced.The 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan cited a legal flaw Wednesday in ordering Juan Thompson’s resentencing.
It’s unclear what effect, if any, the resentencing will have on his prison term. He is serving a five-year sentence.
Thompson said he sent emails and faxes to his ex-girlfriend’s employer after she ended their relationship last summer and later made bomb threats, claiming his ex-girlfriend had planted bombs.
Prosecutors said Thompson sometimes used his girlfriend’s name while making threats against Jewish community centers, schools or other facilities. One message claimed he had placed two bombs in a Jewish school and was “eager for Jewish Newtown,” a reference to the 2012 school massacre in Connecticut, prosecutors said.
He said he committed the crimes “to disrupt my ex-romantic partner’s life and cause her great distress.”
A timeline of milestones on Israel’s amazing journey to the moon
It started with small communications satellites and on Thursday is set to culminate in a moon landing. ISRAEL21c proudly traces the steps of Israel’s audacious journey to the moon.
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