France: Jews and France, airbrushing anti-semitism

“It was the heavy leather-bound volume of the Torah he was carrying that shielded Benjamin Amsellem from the machete blows.”

Joel Braunold writes @ Harry's Place: 

The New York Times opens its story of anti-Semitism in France last week with a terrifying paragraph: “It was the heavy leather-bound volume of the Torah he was carrying that shielded Benjamin Amsellem from the machete blows.”

The barbarism and brutality of the attack by an ISIS inspired youth on a Jew brings a feeling of insecurity that public kippa wearing campaigns cannot erase. This is the latest incident of local Jewish communities being a prime target of terrorists attacking nations.  [...]

For your average citizen, terrorism has sadly become like any other impersonal disaster. The victim of a mass terrorist incident is not targeted for anything other then the misfortune at the wrong place at the wrong time. Yet this obsession of attacking Jews, and there definitely is a trend, makes these incidents against the community far more personal.

I have criticized Tariq Ramadan and others for air-brushing anti-Semitism out of some of these attacks. Ramadan and others have claimed that Jews have just become the symbols of the state, and are not attacked because they are Jews, but a good target of a critic of the state and its policies.

The dehumanizing nature of this analysis shows a remarkable turn around in the genesis of anti-Semitism. Where as in the 20^th century Jews were mainly victims of the State, now they are victims because of it. An expression of aggression towards liberal democracy is apparently the cause for running towards the nearest Jewish school or kippa wearing teacher to express a murderous rage against the West. The Jews have moved from being the outsiders in society to being the ultimate protected insider, thus a great target for attack.

This excuse has also been used to try and state that the anti-Semitic comic Dieudonne M’bala M’bala has nothing against Jews per say but against sacred cows. Thus any attack against the Jews in society is excused as a generalist objection to the state itself and thus justified in the name of grievance.

Jews are not being targeted by terrorists because they are angry about general grievances, they are targeting Jews as the Jew and/or Zionist is seen have long been seen as the hidden hand behind the conspiracy theories that are integral to the world view of these extremists. Free Masons, Zionists and Jews stand behind everything. They are the reason for the state of the world as it stands, the hidden shadow conspiracy keeping themselves in power while the rest suffer. They infect nations, the media and global capitalism, controlling it all.

These conspiracy theories are classic anti-Semitism and are prevalent not just in the Middle East and South East Asia, but broadcast on satellite stations that reach diaspora communities throughout the western world. The targeting of the Jewish communities is after a long diet of conspiracy theory. Throw in the question of Palestine (which ISIS has been preaching as of late) and you have the perfect mix to get loan wolves to turn against and target Jews.

When terrorism becomes personal, when every one of the Jewish schools and community centers need bomb proof glass, armed guards and 24/7 police protection, kippa rallies is not going to cut it. Despite the best efforts of the State, Jews are leaving France in record numbers to Israel. One of the biggest ironies of ISIS picking up the issue of Palestine is that it is causing Jewish immigration to Israel.  If you feel that at any moment your shul could blow up, why not move to Israel where at least the fear is collective and you can once again be an anonymous victim rather then a special target of global terrorism.

Read more.

Germany: Antisemitic sign at anti-immigration protest

Via Twitter: At an anti-immigration protest of the right-wing AfD party in Erfurt two weeks ago, protesters held up antisemitic signs: "Angela must go" with Jewish stars.

UK: Youth attack Jews with fireworks

Via Everyday Antisemitism:

A 14-year-old boy has been arrested in Hackney after a group of youths attempted to place lit fireworks in the pockets of Jewish pedestrians. Volunteers from Shomrim, the Jewish neighbourhood watch patrol, arrived almost immediately and witnessed the boy chasing one victim and hurling a lit firework towards him. The Shomrim volunteer chased and detained the boy, then called the police who arrested him.

read more

Germany: Berlin imam praises Jew-murderer, says Israel is the real terrorist

This isn't really much different from the mainstream European press.  J

Via Memri:

In a memorial ceremony for terrorist Samir Quntar, held in Berlin on December 28, Sheikh Hassan Shahrour, head of the Al-Mustafa Association in Berlin, eulogized Quntar as a "leader and martyr, the liberated prisoner, a man who is a symbol," who throughout his captivity "would vanquish his captors with his firm will, determination, and intrepidity."

Following are excerpts:

Hassan Shahrour: We are here today in order to eulogize the leader and martyr, the liberated prisoner, a man who is a symbol. Yes, throughout his captivity he would vanquish his captor with his firm will, determination, and intrepidity.

(...)

Some of the biased media outlets claim that Samir Quntar was a terrorist, who killed innocent people in the attack. Those who died in the attack were killed in the crossfire with the Israeli enemy. That is what happened. But [these media outlets] forget about those who burn families in Palestine, like the Dawabshe family recently. Have forgotten Muhhamad Al-Durra? Have you forgotten Iman Hajjo? Have you forgotten entire Palestinian families that were burnt? Have you forgotten about the children in Gaza who were killed? Indeed, assassination is the way of the cowards. Recently, and further back in history, they arrested [sic] the mujahid Ghassan Kanfani, Kamal 'Udwan, Abu Jihad Al-Wazir, Al-Rantisi, and Abu Ali Mustafa, as well as the son of the leader Ahmed Jibril. These [Israeli] cowards are the real terrorists. These are the night bats that kill innocent people in their homes. Bless Muhammad and his family!

read more

UK: Scottish Jews feeling under threat from anti-Zionists, says Tory MSP

Via TheJC (h/t Honestly Concerned):

A member of the Scottish Parliament has said the country’s Jewish community has “started to feel under the threat” from rising anti-Zionism and antisemitism

Jackson Carlaw, Conservative MSP for West Scotland, said: “It’s true that MSPs do commemorate the Holocaust. Sometimes I think some think they have ticked a box when they do that and are free the rest of the year to be deeply critical about Israel, and at times to allow that anti-Israel expression of view to cross into an antisemitic expression of view, and not see the difference between them.”

He added: “The community has started to feel under threat again.

read more

Germany: Paper uses antisemitic language to blame Israel for Palestinian terrorism

European media love to talk about Israeli revenge/vengefulness.  They don't ever stop to think that they're tapping into age-old antisemitic tropes, and when it's pointed out to them, they cry that they're being unjustly targeted and that they don't hate Jews.

Maybe they don't, but headlines like these are the reason Jews are fleeing Europe.  As long as European media continues to freely inciting against Israel, Jews will continue to feel unsafe in Europe. 

Via Jerusalem Post:

An article in the Munich-based Süddeutsche Zeitung (SZ) has been accused of mimicking Nazi rhetoric by placing the blame for Palestinian terrorism squarely on Israel’s shoulders.

Titled, “Israel suffers for its cycle of revenge,” an article last week by the newspaper’s Israel-based correspondent, Peter Münch, quoted from an interview with Said Zidani, a Palestinian philosophy professor at Al-Quds University in Jerusalem, in which he said Palestinians murder Israelis not only out of “desperation but [as] an act of resistance...”

According to the article, Zidani’s remarks did not amount to justifying the violence.

Experts on anti-Semitism thought differently.

“Such headlines project classical anti-Jewish stereotypes onto the Jewish state,” Prof. Monika Schwarz-Friesel told The Jerusalem Post on Thursday. Schwarz-Friesel has made an exhaustive study of anti-Semitic language in Germany. The SZ article uses emotional, anti-Jewish language from the Hitler movement to influence its readers, she said.

“The stereotype of Jewish revenge/vengefulness is an age-old Judeophobia concept that was articulated by the National Socialists,” she said. Schwarz-Friesel cited the infamous 1943 Posen speeches of SS head Heinrich Himmler calling for the extermination of European Jews. In addition to his call to murder all Jewish adults, Himmler urged the elimination of Jewish children to prevent them from seeking vengeance.

read more

UK: Times columnist opines that Jews became Nazis

Via UK Media Watch:

Whilst many condemned the parallels Ward and Prescott drew between Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians and the Nazis’ treatment of the Jews, the passage was compromised by another morally repellent trope – the suggestion that Jews, as a people, didn’t internalize the right lessons from the Holocaust, and have collectively forfeited any rights to sympathy by taking on the role of oppressor.

All of which brings us to an op-ed (Do the right thing – long shadow of the Holocaust demands resolve, Jan. 31) at The Sunday Times by Kevin Pringle, a Times columnist and former communications director for the Scottish National Party (SNP).

Pringle largely used his op-ed to praise education programs in Scotland’s schools by Holocaust Educational Trust (HET), but later pivoted to the creation of Israel which, he argued, became a moral imperative after the Nazi massacre of six million Jews.

Then, there was this:

After the Second World War and for many years thereafter, Israel was a cause and country supported by progressive opinion, which is hard to imagine now.

I deplore the Israeli state’s treatment of Palestinians — a tragic case of the persecuted become the persecutor — and wish to see an independent Palestine as part of a two-state solution. The suffering of Jews through history, however, gives me a sympathy for the people and state of Israel that I cannot, indeed do not want to, lose.

The Times columnist’s need to criticize (Israeli) Jews in an otherwise sober meditation on the tragedy of “the millions killed and many millions more unborn because of the Holocaust” reflects a common refrain suggesting that Israelis have ‘squandered’ sympathy due to their treatment of the Palestinians.

read more

France: 60% blame Jews for antisemitism

Via The Local:

A contentious survey in France that concluded the French are largely intolerant towards the country's Muslim and Jewish communities has ruffled feathers after featuring questions such as "how would you feel if your daughter married a Muslim?"

(...)

 The survey also proved uncomfortable reading for France's Jewish community, with old clichés showing no sign of dying out.

Some 56 percent of respondents said they believed the typical Jew is richer than the average French person, and 60 percent said that the Jewish community was partly responsible for the rise in anti-Semitism.

Thirteen percent also said that were too many Jews in France.

read more

UK: Unapologetic supporter of Palestinian terror honored by City of London

Via Elder of  Ziyon:

From BBC:

Two men who were sentenced to life imprisonment alongside Nelson Mandela in South Africa have received the Freedom of the City of London.

Ahmed "Kathy" Kathrada and Denis Goldberg were both jailed because of their activities during the Apartheid period.

Lord Mayor Jeffrey Mountevans said the honour was a "tribute to the noble and fearless fortitude" of the men.

They received the accolade with their defence team at the Guildhall.

The City of London said the men were awarded in recognition of their fight for freedom and racial equality.

Ahmed Kathrada is an unapologetic supporter of Palestinian terrorism, as this 2014 excerpt from BBC's Hardtalk shows:

Speaking in the context of bus bombings and the terror crimes of Marwan Barghouti, Kathrada says that if the Palestinian leaders (which presumably includes Hamas as well as Fatah,) "If they, in their wisdom, resort to violence,  as the only method, I'll support them. ...My support is wholehearted."

Kathrada also says that, in all the years of Palestinian terror, he has not seen a single thing to criticize them about.

This is what is considered a hero by the world nowadays.

(h/t SpotlightingSA)

Italy: Antisemtiic football graffiti

Via CFCA, Osservatorio Antisemitismo:

Antisemitic graffiti in Genoa that says "Doriano is Jewish", referring to the fans of the local football team.

Germany: Jewish volunteer at refugee center spat on and insulted

A few months ago I posted about a Jewish volunteer who said she does not reveal her Jewish identity to the Muslim refugees, but also to the left-wing German volunteers, who are just as antisemitc.

Via Reuters:

When Judith G. helped out at a refugee center near Frankfurt last October and identified herself as Jewish, she was spat on and insulted.
German Jews say the case of Judith G., a 33-year-old optician who asked not to be fully named, isn’t isolated and underlines concerns many have about the record arrivals of asylum seekers, largely from Muslim countries in the Middle East.

Official figures show German-born far-right supporters commit the vast majority of antisemitic crimes in the country, and Muslim leaders say nearly all asylum seekers – who can be targets of hate crime themselves – are trying to escape conflict, not stir it up.

Nevertheless, Jews across Germany are hiding their identity when volunteering at refugee shelters for fear of reprisals, adding another layer of complexity to a social, economic and logistical challenge that is stretching the fabric of German society.

(...)

Some Jewish groups, such as the Berlin-based “Friends of the Fraenkleufer Synagogue”, have taken the cultural exchange issue into their own hands with around 40 volunteers helping out at a local refugee center.

“We want to send a message to all the Jews who sit at home and build big fences around their synagogues that it’s possible and necessary to approach one another, because if we don’t try, things can only turn for the worse,” said Nina Peretz, head of the initiative.

read more

Germany: National radio claims 'Arabs cannot be antisemitic' because they're Semites

Redefining antisemitism as anything other than Jew-hatred is antisemitism.

Via Everyday Antisemitism:

Deutschlandfunk, part of Deutschlandradio, Germany’s national, public broadcasting institution, published an article yesterday stating that Hamas (which has a decisive majority in the Palestinian Authority legislature) was “almost” antisemtic.

(....)

Following a public outcry, Deutschlandfunk published a ‘clarification’ on their Facebook page, where they stated that the use of the term “antisemitism” to describe Jew-hatred is not representative of its original use. They go on to remark, “Arabs themselves are Semites and therefore can hardly be antisemitic themselves. This includes Hamas. But many Arabs, including Hamas supporters, do not refer to ‘the Israelis’ but rather ‘the Jews’ (Al Yehud), as it was Jews who came to Palestine as Zionists [sic]…Thus Arab delegitimisation and contempt towards Israelis is linguistically ‘almost’ identical to the Nazis’ antisemitism. But only ‘almost’. We apologise that this has lead to misunderstandings.”

read more

UK: Labour invites Palestinan journalist who said he'd dance with delight if Iran nuked Israel

The Jewish Chronicle reports:

Abdel Bari Atwan

The chair of Labour Friends of Israel has called for a speaker to be disinvited from an event in Parliament because he said he would dance in the streets if there was a nuclear attack on Israel.

Editor-in-chief of London-based news site Rai al-Youm Abdel Bari Atwan is due to be moderator at an event run by Labour friends of Palestine and the Middle East next week.

Mr Atwan, who is from Gaza, sparked controversy in 2007 when, speaking on Lebanese television about Iran’s nuclear capability, he said: "If the Iranian missiles strike Israel, by Allah, I will go to Trafalgar Square and dance with delight."

In a letter, LFI chair Joan Ryan asked LFPME chair Grahame Morris to withdraw the invitation to Mr Atwan or to withdraw LFPME from hosting the meeting.

Ms Ryan, MP for Enfield North, said: “In 2010, at an appearance at LSE, Mr Atwan was questioned about these comments... The JC reports he also suggested that the 'Jewish lobby' was 'extremely dangerous and is endangering the whole planet, the whole world', and that it 'controlled' the American Senate, Congress and media." 

Urging Mr Morris to withdraw the invitation, she added: “I am sure that, like all Labour MPs, you will be keen to demonstrate our party’s utter intolerance of antisemitism and revulsion at attacks on Israel.”

Czech Republic: Jews are blamed for both “Islamization” and “Islamophobia”

Via ISGAP:

Moreover, neo-Nazis have very ambivalent feelings about Islam. On the one hand, they do feel some admiration for the authenticity of the Muslim culture, its family values, opposition to Israel and to what they see as Western consumerism.[iii] On the other hand, the very same value of authenticity becomes a problem, once a non-Aryan Muslim crosses the European border. Vice chairman of the neo-Nazi Workers’ Party put it clearly that his movement “does reject the organized mass migration to Europe, not out of hatred against anything Islamic, but out of fears about the preservation of our own identity.”[iv] Another, non neo-Nazi yet antisemitic, voice was even more explicit: “Islam is not a problem on a territory connected with Islam, it is a problem only on our territory.”[v]

The antisemitic far-right explains the Muslim refugee influx as an “organized import” planned by the almighty New World Order, which can be further elaborated as either American conspiracy or Jewish conspiracy. The Jews are depicted as directly responsible for the migration wave either by causing the war in Syria and Iraq, by creating ISIS, or by organizing the import of migrants to Europe for purposes or motives on which the antisemitic scene has not yet managed to agree upon. Videos of brutal decapitations by ISIS are considered fakes filmed somewhere in the Californian desert.[vi] Immigration is described as a “strategic weapon“[vii] of the American Jewish NGOs and as for the ISIS itself, it is considered to be “a project of a secret group of Obama’s advisors”.[viii]

The alleged conspirators are said to be led by two main goals: 1. To destroy European racial identity and, 2. To invoke more support for Israel. Leaders of the antisemitic movements talk about a systematic plan to “destroy White Europe”, allegedly hatched “a century ago”.[ix] The neo-Nazi website Svobodný odpor, wrote about the refugee wave: “It is nothing accidental. It is a long prepared operation with an aim to liquidate Christianity, to liquidate nation state, to liquidate nations and to create a single European nation. The Mordor was thinking for a long time, how to do it, to make the whites give up their states and nations and start considering themselves only Europeans.”[x] The Czech antisemites follow and translate foreign voices that speak in a similar fashion, including David Duke’s claims that the State of Israel wishes to dissolve European identity through forced migration.[xi] Among these popular foreign voices, one can find Russian neo-Nazi intellectual Valeriy Piyakin, who is not afraid to go back thousands of years in history to explain the sources of the alleged Jewish conspiracy to destroy Christianity through migration.[xii]

(...)
           
In the end, the Jews are being blamed for both “Islamization” (by allegedly inciting the migration to Europe) and “Islamophobia” (by allegedly misusing the anti-Muslim rhetoric to invoke support for Israel). And again, it is not about the Jews themselves – it is about antisemitism as a tool of totalitarian political propaganda. One might look at the Refugee Crisis as just another human catastrophe for which the Jews are being blamed. Immigration is the pretext, Western democracies are the target, Jews are to become the scapegoats. We have spent a lot of time recently talking the “new antisemitism”, but let us not consider the “old” one to be dead. This “old” antisemitism of Protocols and Judeo-Masonic conspiracy theories lives on and begs our attention again.

 read more

Europe: "Some on the European left see the Zionist experiment as wrong, and some advocate that it should be dismantled"

Colin Shindler @ Haaretz:

Many on the Israeli Left come to Europe in the mistaken belief that they will find allies on the European Left, that the European Left think in the same way – with a full understanding of the tortuous history of the Israel-Palestine conflict. More often than not, this is not the case. They often do not find solidarity because the ideological price demanded of them as Israelis is too high. In an age of decolonization, some on the European left see the Zionist experiment as wrong because it does not fit theoretically into their world view – and some advocate that it should be dismantled, regardless of the occupation. 

read more