Europe: Huge success for terrorist Leila Khaled at European Parliament

Unsurprisingly not many of the 751 European MPs objected to the hosting of a terrorist at the European Parliament.  No European newspapers, no Human Rights NGOs, no politicians had anything to say about the event.  As I wrote before, this is the perfect illustration of how European MPs spend their time and taxpayers' money.  They then complain that populists are becoming more and more popular...

Standing ovation for Leila Khaled at the European Parliament in Brussels.  They were having a very good time.

Via CNS News (Patrick Goodenough):

Half a Century Ago Leila Khaled Hijacked Two Aircraft in Europe. This Week She Was Guest at European Parliament

A woman who hijacked two aircraft in Europe of behalf of a Palestinian terrorist group almost half a century ago was feted as an invited guest at a European Parliament event on Tuesday evening, despite the fact her group is on the European Union’s terrorist list. 

Leila Khaled, a member of the political bureau of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), took part in an event in Brussels entitled “The Role of Women in the Palestinian Popular Resistance,” organized by a left-wing parliamentary group. 

The poster advertising the event and naming the three speakers identifies her affiliation: “Leila Khaled – Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.” 

Just early last month [1], E.U. ministers decided to keep the PFLP on the union’s list of designated terrorist organization. The PFLP has been on the list –  now comprising 21 groups – since June 2002. 

Tuesday’s event was organized by members of the European Parliament (MEPs) from a far-left Spanish party, Izquierda Unida, which is part of the “European United Left/Nordic Green Left (GUE/NGL) group at the European Parliament.
Martina Anderson, an MEP from Ireland’s Sinn Fein – also a member of the GUE/NGL group – tweeted a photo of herself with “legendary Palestinian revolutionary Leila Khaled” at the event 

“Fantastic Turnout in Brussels 4 Women in Palestinian Struggle Leila Khaled addressing a packed room – long live international solidarity,” Anderson tweeted.
A spokeswoman for Israel’s mission to the E.U., Michal Weiler-Tal, said meetings of this nature should not be allowed in an institution “which promotes democracy and Western values.” 

“It is difficult to understand that a political group in the European Parliament, legitimizes and provides a platform for a convicted terrorist who hijacked American and Israeli airliners, to spread incitement and promote hatred and violence,” she said. 

“Moreover, hosting such an infamous figure belonging to the PFLP – which E.U. law designates as a terrorist organization – is not only against our moral standards but also sabotages the efforts to fight terrorism,” Weiler-Tal added. “IThis is a terrible message to the Israeli public and goes against the values that Israel and Europe share.” 

Earlier on Tuesday, the American Jewish Committee’s Brussels-based Transatlantic Institute called on the parliament’s president to prevent Khaled’s entry. 

“It would be a sad irony if parliament, only days after crucially setting up a special committee on terrorism, were to welcome and lionize as a ‘resistance fighter’ a convicted terrorist who was captured in 1970 while hijacking a commercial airplane,” said the institute’s director, Daniel Schwammenthal.

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In February 2016:

Samidoun continued its meetings at the European Parliament and events with Leila Khaled, Palestinian historic resistance figure and political leader, visiting Brussels following a speech in Utrecht at the New World Summit. Representatives of Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network and the European Coordination of Committees and Associations for Palestine joined Khaled for meetings with Cypriot MEP Neoklis Sylikiotis, vice-chair of the Green United Left/Nordic Green Left (GUE/NGL) bloc in the Parliament, and Greek MEP Dimitrios Papadimoulis, vice-president of the European Parliament on 9 and 10 February.

Related - Standing ovation for Mahmoud Abbas at the European Parliament in 2016:

Among those rewarding Abbas with a standing ovation: Martin Schulz, President of the European Parliament, Federica Mogherini, the EU Minister in charge of Foreign Affairs, and Guy Verhofstadt , former Belgian PM and currently a MEP. (2016)

- The European Parliament rewards hate

- Europe: MEPs give standing ovation to blood libel

Norwegian minister: 'We now get what Israel goes through'

Via Ynet News:

Speaking in an exclusive interview with Ynet in Oslo, Immigration Minister Sylvi Listhaug says Europeans 'are experiencing now the fear that you have experienced for decades'; supporting Israel's right to defend itself, Listhaug adds 'you live in a region that has a lot of problems.' 

Norway’s minister of immigration drew comparisons Wednesday between the plight of Europeans suffering from increasingly common terror attacks with the experiences endured by Israel for decades. 

“We are experiencing now the fear that you have experienced for decades,” said Sylvi Listhaug in an exclusive interview with Ynet in Oslo. “Many people now understand the situation you live in. We see what is happening in Sweden, in Britain and in France.”   

European nations, she added, “and their citizens need to understand the situation in Israel better because of the terror attacks in Israel.”  Since taking office, Listhaug has cracked down on illegal immigration into the Scandinavian country by adopting stringent policies that have resulted in just 1,000 illegal migrants entering the country in 2017 from 30,000 in 2015.   

According to Listhaug, her Progress Party, which governs in a coalition with the Conservative Party, is a staunch supporter of Israel.  “The Progress Party has always been a supporter of Israel’s need to protect themselves (sic) in a region where you are the only democracy,” she claimed.

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Germany: Writer under fire for demonizing German Jews

Via The Jerusalem Post (Benjamin Weinthal):

German Jews and experts in the field of antisemitism in the press slammed a journalist for promoting classical antisemitic tropes in her commentary that attacked the Central Council of Jews for their criticism of a reportedly one-sided television documentary about the Hamas-controlled Gaza strip. 

The Jerusalem Post reached out in September to the Berlin Jewish community, media experts, and observers of rising antisemitism in Germany about the progressive newspaper taz’s media columnist Marlene Halser’s commentary. 

“Ms. Halser conveys antisemitic conspiracy theories, according to which Jews control the media (if not the entire world),” said Sigmount Königsberg, the Berlin Jewish community’s commissioner on antisemitism. 

Sacha Stawski, the editor-in-chief of media watchdog Honestly Concerned in Frankfurt, said Halser’s commentary is filled with bias and reveals “antisemitic conspiracy theories.” Stawski, a German Jew, has tracked antisemitism in the German-language press for over a decade. 

Halser’s August commentary, titled “Program Director Schuster,” notes that “already for a second time within months the Central Council of Jews in Germany issued criticism of the program decision of the TV station Arte.” Halser concluded her column: “the question is, to what extent does the political representative of a religious community attempt to interfere in the program presentation of an independent station.” (...)

When asked in a follow-up query if she has criticized other religious communities and NGOs in Germany for media interference, Halser declined to respond. 

Daniel Killy, the spokesman for the city of Hamburg’s Jewish community, said: “Marlene Halser agrees on the fact that the Arte documentary was lacking a lot but then also attacks Mr. Schuster for interfering. Well, the Muslim representatives of Germany are interfering every second minute and it’s their democratic right, so why is Halser bothering?” 

Post queries to taz editor-in-chief Georg Löwisch, as well as deputy editors Barbara Junge and Katrin Gottschalk, were not returned. (...) 

Grigori Pantijelew, the deputy representative of the Bremen Jewish community in northern Germany, said that “in my work with the media, my premise is that the poll results of the federal government’s antisemitism commission are accurate. That means, 40% of the citizens of this country are antisemitic. It flies in the face of logic when the results do not apply [to] journalists. Journalists are, after all, also people.' 

The Jewish community in Germany is relatively small, with 98,600 registered members as of 2016. Germany’s population is just over 82 million people.

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Russia: TV series claims Jewish Trotsky masterminded bloody 1917 revolution

Via The Times of Israel:

Leaving historians unsure whether show is anti-Semitic or simply sensationalist, upcoming drama accuses Marxist thinker of murdering tsar's family 

A hundred years after the Russian revolution, the Russians are claiming that a Jew was behind it — at least according to a new television drama. 

An eight-episode series entitled “Trotsky” argues it was Jewish revolutionary Leon Trotsky — and not Vladimir Lenin — who masterminded the revolution that brought the communists to power. The film also blames Trotsky for the execution of the Russian royal family.

The upcoming televised drama will be screened on Russian TV in the beginning of November, in time for the 100th anniversary of the Russian Revolution. 

 “You can say that Trotsky wrote the music, and Lenin sang to it. Trotsky made the revolution happen; Lenin only lead it,” said Alexander Kott, the Jewish co-director of the TV series. (...)

But most historians don’t accept the new theory that it was Trotsky who masterminded the Russian revolution.

“This is utter nonsense. It doesn’t fit in with any historical facts. I totally disagree,” said Gennady Estraikh, a New York University professor who specializes in Jewish history in Russia. “It smells like anti-Semitism, the claim that the Jews were responsible for the revolution rather than the Russians. It’s very strange.”

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France: Up to 8,000 Jews leave France each year

Valeurs Actuelles has a piece by Rachel Binhas about antisemitism in France:

Each year, several thousand French Jews leave to Israel, the United Kingdom or America. BNVCA (Bureau of Vigilance against anti-Semitism) puts the figure at between 6,000 and 8,000 Jews.

There is also an internal displacement phenomenon.   In the Île-de-France region many Jews move to safer areas. "In Sarcelles, branded the "Little Jerusalem", the synagogues now stand empty," says Marc Bensimhon, the Pinto family lawyer and a member of the BNVCA.

This year, in Noisy-le-Grand (Seine-Saint-Denis), a Jewish family discovered a kalashnikov bullet and a note with insults in their mailbox.  At Anet (Eure-et-Loir) another family got the message: "Hitler was right, all Jews should have been burnt in ovens".

While Jews account for less than 1% of the population, they are the target of half the racist acts committed in France. In the last fifteen years, the individuals involved in these acts are mostly of Muslim origin, very far from the skinhead affiliated to the extreme right.

read the article (in French) & Valeurs Actuelles

Related:
France: 60,000 Jews have moved out of Ile-de-France in the last 10 years

European Parliament hosting Palestinian terrorists

This is an example of how European MPs spend their time and taxpayers' money.  They then complain that populists are becoming more and more popular...

Via NGO Monitor (Gerald Steinberg):

Letter to MEPs Concerning PFLP Event at the European Parliament 

Olga Deutsch, September 26, 2017 

Dear Mr. President of the European Parliament, 

As the distinguished President of the European Parliament, we wish to bring to your attention a highly disturbing event, “The Role of Women in the Palestinian Popular Struggle,” scheduled to take place this evening (September 26, 2017) in the European Parliament in Brussels. The event is organized by MEPs from the European United Left/Nordic Green Left (GUE/NGL) group and Unadikum – International Solidarity Association. 

Scheduled speakers include Leila Khaled, whose affiliation is listed as the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and Sahar Francis, director of a Palestinian NGO known as “Addameer” (see below for poster advertising the event). 

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) is a terror organization, responsible for hijackings, suicide bombings, and assassinations. It is designated as such by the EU (including in the latest Council update dated August 4, 2017), as well as by the United States, Canada, and Israel, among others. We note the following connections between the event’s speakers/organizers and the PFLP terror organization:

• Leila Khaled is a “prominent member of the PFLP,” and is a terrorist responsible for hijacking multiple airplanes. 

• Addameer is an “affiliate” of the PFLP. Addameer’s chairperson and co-founder, vice-chairperson, as well as researchers and board members have been convicted, arrested, and/or banned from travel due to their ties to the PFLP.

• In December 2014, Unadikum, participated in a gala event to raise donations for the Union of Health Workers Committee (UHWC), a PFLP-affiliated health committee active in Gaza (as identified by USAID and in Palestinian documents).

It is outrageous that the European Parliament is giving a platform to a terrorist and her organization, and that these affiliations are being openly advertised. NGO Monitor strongly condemns any parliament group hosting internationally recognized terrorists as well as civil society organizations (CSOs) with ties to terror organizations. 

This event is part of a pattern of European governmental endorsement of (and in some cases funding to) CSOs that legitimize violent attacks against civilians and incite violence. As shown in our research, these groups propagate historical distortions and omissions, but more dangerously manipulate the terminology of human rights and international law in order to justify violence against civilians by using terms like “popular resistance” and “popular struggle.”  

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Sweden: Former PM says Israel pushing US into region-wide war with Iran

Carl Bildt, former Swedish PM, and nowadays Co-Chair of the European Council on Foreign Relations wrote on twitter:

Egged on by Netanyahu it seems Trump wants to take the US into a region-wide war with Iran. Europe will suffer. Everyone will lose.

Joshua Muravchik calls him "a longtime anti-Israel fanatic":

Bildt, a longtime anti-Israel fanatic, endorsed Goldstone report, later disavowed by Goldstone, within hours of release w/o having read it.

UK: Labour panellists question Holocaust, call for expulsion of Jewish Labour Movement

Via Daily Mail:

Jeremy Corbyn was urged to act after activists applauded panellists at a fringe meeting who likened supporters of Israel to Nazis.

One speaker even suggested Labour should be free to debate whether the Holocaust had happened.

(...)

The controversial meeting on 'free speech on Israel' was chaired by Naomi Wimborne-Idrissi, who said there was a 'vicious campaign that's been directed at the Palestinian cause, misusing anti-Semitic allegations'. Although described as a free speech event audience members were told not to record it or tweet.

Miko Peled, an Israeli-American who sat on the panel, said 'they' – an apparent reference to Israel or the pro-Israel lobby – did not want Mr Corbyn to enter Number 10. 'This is about free speech, the freedom to criticise and to discuss every issue, whether it's the Holocaust: yes or no, Palestine, the liberation, the whole spectrum. There should be no limits on the discussion.'

He added: 'It's about the limits of tolerance: we don't invite the Nazis and give them an hour to explain why they are right; we do not invite apartheid South Africa racists to explain why apartheid was good for the blacks, and in the same way we do not invite Zionists – it's a very similar kind of thing.'

Michael Kalmanovitz, from the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network, was applauded for calling from the audience for the expulsion from Labour of the Jewish Labour Movement and the Labour Friends of Israel.

A Labour spokesman said: 'Labour condemns anti-Semitism in the strongest terms. We will not tolerate anti-Semitism or Holocaust denial.' 

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Europe: Is the latest migrant wave bringing a dark cloud for Europe’s Jews?

Via European Jewish Press (Manfred Gerstenfeld):

Following Germany’s lead over the past two years, Europe has absorbed well over a million refugees and migrants, many of whom fled the bitter intrastate conflicts in war-torn countries such as Syria, Iraq and Libya.  (...)

“European Jews have already paid a major price for the unselective massive immigration of Muslims in the past decades along with Israel,” said Dr. Manfred Gerstenfeld, an emeritus chairman of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, to European Jewish Press. 

Dr. Gerstenfeld, an Austrian born, Dutch educated, Israeli author and expert on anti-Semitism, founded the Center’s Post-Holocaust and Anti-Semitism program. 

According to Dr. Gerstenfeld, the problems for Europe’s Jewish community have been in the making for at least several decades. 

“Some of the problems however were already there irrespective of Muslim refugees,” he stressed. 

 “We cannot isolate the latest migrant wave from the previous ones,” he said, referring to Europe’s decades-long absorption of immigrants from the Middle East and North Africa.
“The most negative thing that has happened to European Jewry since the Holocaust is this massive non-selective influx of Muslims into Europe, even though of course nothing can be compared to the horrors of the Holocaust,” Dr. Gerstenfeld contended. 

Noting that “all ideologically-motivated murders of European Jews in this century were carried out by Muslims,” Dr. Gerstenfeld views the EU as having been “a massive importer of anti-Semites.”

The American Jewish Committee (AJC), which has provided assistance to some of the refugees who fled North Africa and the Middle East for Europe over the past two years, has acknowledged the prevalence of anti-Semitism among many of the migrants. 

“Many of the migrants come from countries with deeply anti-Semitic and anti-Zionist roots,” AJC CEO David Harris told European Jewish Press. “It would be hard to believe that simply by leaving those countries behind, they are necessarily leaving behind everything they heard and were taught about Jews and Israel over the span of lifetimes.” 

Dr. Gerstenfeld believes that European society at large should also be anxious.

“Essentially, Europe has also imported a radically alien culture with the many people among the immigrants who do not seek to integrate,” he argued.

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David Kohane (Kuhan)

Related:

(1980) A ‘hit Team’ of Arab Terrorists Planned to Bomb Jewish Institutions in Brussels and in Antwerp 

"David Kohane, 15, was killed and 20 other persons were wounded, one of whom, 13-year-old Joshua Erblich, remains in critical condition."

UK: Labour top member defends "Jews financed slave trade" Jackie Walker

Via Guido Fawkes:

Readers will remember Jackie Walker, who was suspended from the Labour Party not once but twice for claiming “Jews” financed the slave trade and attacking Holocaust Memorial Day. She’s being supported by top Corbynistas at conference…

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Germany: Top CDU member Jens Spahn warns of "imported anti-Semitism"

Via The Jerusalem Post (2015):

The rise of Muslim anti-Semitism in Germany prompted Bundestag member Jens Spahn, of Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union party (CDU), to warn on Saturday of “imported anti-Semitism.” 

“Let’s not kid ourselves that immigration from Islamic countries has not changed part of the climate in our country,” he told Der Spiegel, and called on CDU leadership to clearly address the impact of reactionary Islam in Germany. 

“When I walk through Berlin with my boyfriend, I have to hear dumb comments because I am gay... and on German streets we hear talk like ‘Jews in the gas’ and they come not only from neo-Nazis. We have also imported anti-Semitism,” Spahn said.

Today, Le Figaro reported that Jens Spahn has said that it ought to be possible to speak about anti-Semitism prevalent in the Arab world and that it occurs, for instance, in the homes and in the mosques. 

Germany adopts international definition of anti-Semitism

Via JTA:

Germany has formally accepted an international definition of anti-Semitism in a move designed to provide clarity for the prosecution of related crimes.

The German Cabinet announced Wednesday that it unanimously adopted the working definition promoted by the International Alliance for Holocaust Remembrance, a body with 31 member states.

In addition to classic forms of anti-Semitism, the definition offers examples of modern manifestations, such as targeting all Jews as a proxy for Israel, denying Jews the right to a homeland and using historical anti-Semitic images to tarnish all Israelis.

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Germany: Anti-Semitism continues to hurt German pocketbooks

Via Journalist's Resource:

A new paper looks at lingering resentments in Germany and finds that families living in counties with a history of anti-Semitism today are less likely to invest in the stock market. That is costly because, as other research has shown, holding stocks is associated with growing wealth in the long run. “Hatred against Jews in the past reduces not only the long-term wealth of the persecuted, but of the persecutors as well,” the authors write.

An academic study worth reading: “Historical Antisemitism, Ethnic Specialization, and Financial Development,” a working paper for the National Bureau of Economic Research, 2017.

Drawing on a diverse assortment of data measured across hundreds of years in Germany, such as access to banking services and local anti-Semitism, a team led by Francesco D’Acunto of the University of Maryland measures “present day regional differences in financial development.”

To isolate anti-Semitism by county, the authors establish a number of proxies: They look for the presence of a Jewish community before the year 1300 (92 percent of counties) and for confirmed pogroms associated with the Black Death (54 percent of counties), a plague that spread across Europe around 1349 and for which Jews were widely blamed. During the years leading up to the Holocaust of World War II, they look for vandalized synagogues, votes for anti-Semitic parties and anti-Jewish pogroms. They also use surveys from 1996 and 2006 that assessed German attitudes toward statements like: “Jewish people living in Germany should have the same rights as Germans in every respect.”

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France: Killing of Paris Jewish woman was anti-Semitic crime, prosecutors finally say

Via Times of Israel:

Prosecutors investigating the April slaying of a Jewish woman by her neighbor said for the first time that her killing was an anti-Semitic hate crime.

The characterization by prosecutors Wednesday in the death of Sarah Halimi followed months of lobbying and protest by French Jews, who were outraged by the absence of aggravated circumstances in the indictment against Kobili Traore. The 27-year-old Muslim man confessed to the killing and was heard shouting about Allah and calling Halimi “Satan” shortly before throwing her out the window of her three-story apartment.

Francis Kalifat, the president of the CRIF umbrella group of French Jewish communities, said in a statement to the media that he and other French Jews were “satisfied and relieved by the inclusion finally of an admission of the anti-Semitic character of the murder.”

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Germany: Progressive paper blasted for justifying terrorism, stoking Nazism

Via The Jerusalem Post (Benjamin Weinthal):

The Berlin-based taz daily is facing withering criticism from German Jews and US and Israeli experts on antisemitism for justifying Palestinian terrorism against Israelis, promoting hatred of the Jewish state, and stoking Nazi conspiracy theories targeting Jews. 

After the left-wing newspaper published a series of pro-BDS articles, a tipping point was reached among the news outlet’s critics. The Jerusalem Post exposés on rising boycott activity in Berlin played a role in the mayor’s decision to outlaw funding and space for BDS groups and activities, triggering angry taz columns and interviews slamming the mayor. 

The Post conducted an in-depth report into the taz’s coverage in 2017 of Israel and Jews. 

Sigmount Königsberg, the commissioner on antisemitism for Germany’s largest Jewish community in Berlin, said taz’s Israel-based correspondent “Susanne Knaul legitimizes terrorism.” 

Knaul sparked outrage over her commentary last January arguing that “Jerusalem is not Berlin” when evaluating the morality of vehicular terrorist attacks that took place in both cities. It is a “fact that there are reasons for the desperation which motivates Palestinians to suicide attacks,” she wrote. Knaul cited the “occupation” and “injustice” as ostensibly legitimate reasons to murder Israeli soldiers. 

In January, a Palestinian drove his truck into a group of Israeli soldiers, murdering four of them in attack that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said was “part of the same pattern inspired by the Islamic State.” In December last year, an Islamic State supporter rammed his truck into a Christmas market in Berlin, killing 12 people, including Israeli Dalia Elyakim. 

Michaela Engelmeier, a Social Democratic deputy in the Bundestag, said Knaul “with her tendentious statements pours more oil into the fire of antisemitism and legitimizes violence against Israelis.”
Knaul did not respond to Post queries. 

Antisemitism experts accuse Daniel Bax, a taz editor who writes about German politics, of spreading extreme right-wing ideologies and anti-Jewish conspiracy theories reminiscent of the Nazi era. 

Bax, who is an energetic supporter of the BDS movement, wrote in a commentary this month that the American Jewish Committee “acts entirely in line with Israel’s government.” He also wrote that “Germany’s Central Council of Jews has made itself into a one-sided mouthpiece for the interests of Israel’s government.” Bax claimed the mayor of Berlin’s decision to reject BDS meant he “caved in” to German and US Jewish NGOs.

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France: Is French postmodernism good for the Jews?

Via Mosaic Magazine and Jewish Review of Books (Michael Weingrad):

The title of Bruno Chaouat’s Is Theory Good for the Jews? refers to a school of thought—variously dubbed “critical theory,” “postmodern theory,” or simply “Theory”—that dominates philosophy departments in France and literature departments in the U.S., and has infiltrated the humanities everywhere. Articulated by thinkers like Michel Foucault and Jacques Derrida, Theory’s overarching principle is the rejection of absolute truth, linguistic meaning, conventional morality, and the ideals of civilization and progress; its central characteristic is its own obfuscatory jargon. In his book, Chaouat elucidates the troubling tendency of Theory’s leading lights to pay particular attention to the Jews, and to do so in way that is never complimentary, especially where Israel is involved. Michael Weingrad writes in his review:

Chaouat shows how various postcolonial theorists justify or ignore Muslim anti-Semitism, seen as a legitimate response to European colonialism. Indeed, as Chaouat writes, a number of French writers are less concerned with Muslim attacks on Jews than with the [alleged] political threat posed by those European Jews who decry anti-Semitism even when exhibited by Muslims, and who defend Israel against those who would see the Jewish state destroyed. . . .

Chaouat traces some part of these inversions to Theory’s abstraction of Jews and Jewishness into symbols, fungible moral tokens easily transferred into other bank accounts. It is little surprise that intellectuals who see Jews only as de-territorialized outsiders have little use for actual flesh-and-blood Jews, let alone those with a nation-state. . . . [Today’s] postmodern theorists prefer to support projects of resistance and political violence on behalf of what they see as downtrodden groups. If Jews and Israelis, who are now defined [by most devotees of Theory] as white colonialists or even Nazis, must be thrown under history’s bus as part of this utopian project, so be it. 

[But], one might respond, isn’t all this a problem not of Theory but of the radical left more generally? . . . [T]he anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism of postmodern intellectuals, their fetishization of the Palestinians and of violent jihadists, have less to do with new readings of Derrida than with longstanding features of left-wing political ideology. . . . For all his analytical acuity and moral passion, Chaouat leaves the broader historical and philosophical context of Theory’s relation to the left largely unexplored. . . . 

While valuable and trenchant Chaouat’s book resembles other recent attempts by left-liberal Jewish academics to push back against their more militantly radical colleagues. . . . One applauds these efforts, but viewed from outside the truncated political system of today’s professoriate they can seem both belated and somewhat pyrrhic: old-fashioned liberals asking their radical colleagues not to march them off the same gangplank as were their conservative colleagues, and faculty who support Israel’s continued existence pleading for Jewish membership in the club of the aggrieved.

Read more at Jewish Review of Books

Sweden: Netanyahu refused to meet with Swedish Prime Minister in New York

Via European Jewish Press:

Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has refused a request from his Swedish counterpart Stefan Löfven to meet at the United Nations General Assembly in New York because Sweden’s recognition of a Palestinian state, the Israeli media reported. 

It is the second year in a row that Netanyahu has turned down the Swedish Prime Minister’s invitation for a meeting. According to Israel’s Channel 2, the request was rejected as “not possible.’’ 

Relations between Israel and Sweden have been rather tense since the decision of the Swedish Prime Minister to recognize a Palestinian state shortly after his election in 2014.Sweden was the first European member to do so. 

Israel also protested comments made by Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom when she linked Palestinian frustration to the November 2015 terror attacks in Paris by the Islamic State.

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Denmark: Islamic rules and anti-semitism in Muslim schools

Via Gatestone Institute (Judith Bergman):

Some Muslim schools in Denmark appear to be employing anti-Semitic teachers, enforcing gender inequality, employing violence against students, offering poor education in general, and teaching jihad. (...)

The school leader at Al Quds School in Copenhagen, Waleed Houji, posted anti-Semitic images from the Muslim terrorist organization Hamas on his Facebook profile. A class teacher at that same school, Naji Dyndgaard, a convert, wrote anti-Semitic posts on Facebook. (...)

Two former teachers at the Nord-Vest school, Henriette Baden Hesselmann and Gitte Luttinen Ørnkow, described how the children at the school spoke of Danes in terms of "them and us". In a school poetry contest in 2008, several of the children composed poems that detailed their wish to beat up and break the legs and hands of the "Danish pigs". The former teachers described a school culture of intimidation and violence, with the head of the school board yelling at the students in Arabic and beating them. The former teachers added that all their students admitted that they were also beaten at home. The Jew-hatred was unmistakable, as the geography teacher discovered when he almost had to give up teaching a lesson about Israel due to the students' hostility. Another teacher was told not to draw stars in the children's books as a way of showing the children that they had done well, since the star was reminiscent of the Star of David. (...)

Following these revelations, several Danish opposition parties, including the Social Democrats, now wish to outlaw Muslim schools completely. According to Mette Frederiksen, leader of the Social Democratic party:

"...it's not a good idea with Muslim schools. When you are a child in Denmark, it is incredibly important that you grow up in Danish culture and Danish everyday life. No matter how you spin it, an independent school based on Islam is not part of the majority culture in Denmark... Nor do I like the lack of equality in schools and these very hateful words against our Jewish minorities. It emphasizes that we have parallel societies."

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France: Cities shut out hate speech comedian Dieudonné

As stated in an article by Guy Millière published on the Gatestone Institute: "Dieudonné, in a video posted on YouTube, and widely seen before being removed, expressed a longing to bring back the gas chambers in which the Nazis gassed the Jews. Everything he posts goes viral."

Via The Jerusalem Post:

Notorious French comedian Dieudonné, convicted of hate speech and condoning terrorism, will need to make alternative arrangements for his upcoming War tour after the mayors of Marseille and Grenoble barred his performances. 

The mayor of Marseille, Jean-Claude Gaudin, announced Wednesday that his city will no longer permit Dieudonné to perform at its largest municipality-affiliated venue, the Dome, in November on grounds of public safety.  

The Marseille mayor reached the decision following pressure from Jewish groups and local media to withdraw permission for the performance. 

Dieudonné, whose full name is Dieudonné M'bala M'bala, has a long list of convictions for antisemitism, inciting racial hatred, condoning terrorism and tax evasion in both French and Belgian courts. His shows often draw large, animated protests. 

Dieudonné is also known for his trademark "quenelle" gesture, an inverted Nazi salute which he insists is solely antiestablishment, and his offensive Holocaust-themed jokes. 

"A multicultural city such as Marseille cannot permit a show which is based on divisive and factious humor... and which is likely to lead to public disorder," said Gaudin in a statement. (...) 

In 2009 and 2011, the Grenoble municipality also issued orders banning Dieudonné from performing in the town. On both occasions, however, the decision was overturned by an administrative tribunal. 

Dieudonné responded to the ban on his official Twitter account Thursday saying: "I will indeed be in Grenoble and Marseille, despite what the media say." 

In May 2016, Dieudonné was banned from entering Canada after being convicted of breaking hate speech laws. In February 2014, the British government barred the comedian from entering Britain, issuing an "exclusion order" due to his prior convictions.  

Hong Kong also refused him entry, stating that it was "committed to upholding effective immigration control by denying the entry of undesirables." 

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UK: Woman with notorious history of anti-Semitic statements hired by trade union

Via Guido Fawkes:

A former Labour parliamentary candidate who was twice suspended from the party for anti-Semitic comments is now working for Unite as a regional officer. Guido can reveal that Vicki Kirby has been hired by Len McCluskey’s trade union despite her notorious history of anti-Semitic statements. In 2014 Kirby was ditched as a Labour PPC after a string of disturbing tweets where she suggested Hitler is the “Zionist God”:

Kirby was Vice Chair of Woking Labour Party, and refused to step down even as she was reported to the police by a fellow party official. She was suspended for a second time following another Guido story… 

Now Kirby is understood to be working for Unite, based in the union’s South East regional office.

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Germany: Politicians in Einstein's hometown fund anti-Semitic lecture

Albert Einstein (1921)

The fact that this is happening in Ulm, Albert Einstein's hometown, is highly symbolic. Furthermore, The Jerusalem Post was told that Ulm has a large "Salafist scene".  Such are the realities of contemporary Germany (and Europe).  As the saying goes, one nail drives out another...


Via The Jerusalem Post (Benjamin Weinthal):

A municipally funded adult education center in Ulm – the birthplace of Albert Einstein – is slated to host next Wednesday a speaker accused of stoking anti-Semitism and hatred of Israel across Germany. 

The Ulm/Neu-Ulm chapter of the German-Israeli Society (DIG) launched its protest against the event, saying the lecture “is part of a series of anti-Israel events leading to the delegitimization of the Jewish state and its right to self-defense.” 

“We call for the end of this Israeli criticism disguised as a latent anti-Semitic position,” the German-Israeli friendship society wrote on Thursday. 

The planned talk from BDS (boycott, divestment, sanctions) activist Arn Strohmeyer at the Einstein House Academic Center, which is taking place in cooperation with the House of Encounter, prompted criticism because the city subsidizes the center and has steadfastly ignored citizen complaints about harsh anti-Israel events at the academic center. 

“Strohmeyer is known for his anti-Zionist position,” DIG said. “He speaks, among other things, of a ‘colonial settler state [Israel]’ that strives to completely replace the indigenous population through an immigrant population.” 

Strohmeyer’s BDS activities against Israel in Bremen have been compared in the German media to the “Don’t buy from Jews” Nazi boycott in the 1930s. 

“This event under the aegis of the director of politics for the academic center, Lothar Heusohn, and director of the House of Encounter, Michael Hauser, is financed by public money and that is scandalous. 

We call for a cancellation of the event and will in the future raise our voices,” said DIG.
Iris Mann, the politician responsible for education and culture in Ulm, told The Jerusalem Post, “We will not undertake anything” to stop the event because “to form political opinions stands in the tradition of the academic center and it lives from a discourse of different opinions.” 

Mann defended the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement, saying “the concept of anti-Semitism is being misused because the statements of BDS do not address individual hostility or religious affiliation, rather it deals with criticism of state actions against violations of human rights conventions.” 

The EU and German Chancellor Angela Merkel have both rejected boycotts of the Jewish state. (...)

Grigori Pantijelew, the deputy representative of the Bremen Jewish community, told the Weser Kurier paper at the time: “Anti-Semitism is not banned in Germany but there is a consensus that it not be allowed to be conveyed in public facilities. If we all maintain that, it will help societal peace.”

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Bulgaria: Vandalism at Jewish cemetery in Sofia points towards anti-Semitic act

Via The Sofia Globe:

In what looks like an anti-Semitic act of violence, unknown individuals have damaged graves at the Jewish Cemetery in Sofia. The latter is located on the premises of the Bulgarian capital’s Central Cemetery, towards the North of the city center. 

Photos taken by concerned visitors of the cemetery show knocked down gravestones and broken grave slabs. One photo shows a grave stone, which seems to have broken into at least three pieces, after it was thrown on a neighbouring grave.

The visitors who noticed the damage contacted Shalom, Bulgaria’s largest Jewish organisation. Shalom’s President Dr. Alek Oskar turned to Deputy Mayor Todor Chobanov, who is in charge of Sofia’s cemeteries.

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European arrogance costs lives

Via Honest Reporting (Daniel Pomerantz):

Last week I attended the International Institute for Counter-Terrorism conference in connection with Israel’s Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya (the “IDC Herzliya”).

Speakers and attendees included military, diplomats and experts from every region of the world. All echoed one similar theme: do not underestimate Islamic State (ISIS), nor its likely replacements. Finally we come to Europe. 

The same Europe that perennially “advises” Israel on how to achieve peace and security, while frequently condemning Israel for not adopting policies similar to Europe’s own disastrous strategies. 

Deputy Head of Mission from the UK to Israel Tony Kay exemplified the standard European talking points: 

We are doing quite a lot on… safeguarding people from becoming terrorists, or supporting terrorism… [using] a combination of soft power with hard power. We are… engaging communities [and producing] lots of successes that the UK has made on countering terrorism recently.

There is a dark irony in Kay’s statement, which came just three days before a devastating terror attack hit London’s Parsons Green, injuring 29 victims this past Friday. While Kay undoubtedly meant well, his statement served as just one more example of deadly European self-assurance, at a time when Europe desperately needs a measure of humility. 

In fact, Europe’s recent track record has been bloody: 

Just this past week Europe saw three separate attacks in London and Paris, in addition to recent attacks in Nice, Brussels, Stockholm, Berlin, Manchester, Barcelona and others. In just two years (2015-16) Islamic terror killed 288 Europeans and injured 739. Contrast with Israel, where 50 were killed during the same period. 

Israelis have suffered less than one fifth the number of terror related deaths as Europeans, a fact that may surprise news audiences who know Israel only through dramatic and misleading headlines. 

One might even say that Europe (and not Islamic State) is the real “JV team.” [Former president Barak Obama once referred to terror groups in Syria and Iraq (including Islamic State) as the “JV team,” a sports metaphor indicating that he did not feel they pose a serious threat.] Consider that over 20% of Israel’s population is Arab, as are all of its neighboring countries, and the conclusion is obvious: for all its challenges, Israel understands how to live with Muslim neighbors and how to protect against Islamic terror. Europe, on the other hand, does not. 

Yet if the speakers at the ICT conference are any indication, European leaders have yet to face and accept this hard truth. 

And the people of Europe are paying for this mistake with their lives.

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UK: When ‘progressives’ excuse Nazi ideology: The case of Bella Caledonia

Via David Collier:

Just over a month ago, my report into hard-core antisemitism in the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign (SPSC) was published. Following its release, condemnation of the SPSC crossed the political divide, and was swift. Given what was uncovered, it seemed an obvious and natural response. Nobody wanted to be seen protecting hard-core Nazi ideology. 

After all, what had been uncovered was indefensible. It was shown that almost every time SPSC activists ran a stall or held a demonstration, 40-50% of those present had previously shared material that circulated in far-right white supremacy websites. At one demonstration alone, ten of the attendees had shared material on their social media pages denying the Holocaust. 

Consider this for a moment. Imagine a stall run by a right wing party. Then imagine that 40-50% of those people running it, shared *EXACTLY* the same material as the SPSC activists. How would civil rights campaigners view such a group? What excuses would be considered acceptable? As I said, indefensible. 

What also spoke volumes was the relative silence from the SPSC. Little in the way of apology, regret and introspection. The SPSC shrugged their shoulders, denied all responsibility, and chose to respond by calling me names. 

Sarah Glynn’s acrobaticsAnd that was all I heard. Until three days ago. When a blog called ‘Bella Caledonia’, published a piecewritten by anti-Israel activist Sarah Glynn. Sarah’s apparent problem with the SPSC report, wasn’t the fact so many racists are out on the streets handing out SPSC leaflets, oh no, Sarah’s problem with the report, was that I had written it.Of course, in the article, Sarah had to tell everyone she was speaking ‘as a Jew’. It took 40 words for Sarah Glynn to place her Jewish credentials before the reader. Although in the strictest sense, as the first 39 words of the article were a basic introduction, ‘as a Jew’, was how she began. 

Sarah chose to condemn a report exposing Nazi ideology as ‘a gross and politically motivated slur’. According to Sarah then, it doesn’t seem to be in the public interest to inform on those who share Holocaust denial material and stand outside malls boycotting a Jewish business. As the majority of articles I had found came from hard-core white supremacist sites, I wonder if Sarah has other examples where she doesn’t want such vile racism exposed publicly? 

You see, Sarah needed to write a piece that condemned those posts, but actually wanted to write one that cleansed the SPSC, and yes, even the activists of any real blame. 

Because here is the crunch. Those activists weren’t just SPSC ‘fringe material’ as Sarah Glynn would desperately want you to believe. These activists are the people who man the SPSC stalls, they are the ones who come out in the rain to demonstrate. These activists are the ones that call the SPSC HQ their ‘second home‘. Without these activists, the SPSC can’t move. 

And the report was flawless because its findings are so clearly evident. Don’t let me tell you these people are front line SPSC activists. Google SPSC, find images of them in action, and then cross-check with the names in the report. It is that easy. Which is why the SPSC, and now Sarah Glynn’s attempts, to suggest that this isn’t actually about the ‘SPSC’, are so laughable. 

Long winded excusesWhich is also why Glynn’s article engages in a rather long winded discussion excusing those who shared antisemitic material. As Glynn explains, ‘the internet has vastly outpaced development of our critical faculties’. She goes on to suggest that these ‘progressive activists’, are  just ‘sickened by official propaganda’ and are just on the ‘lookout for alternative sources of information’. Oh! That’s all right then. Now I get it, these people became posters of racist material by accident. When these activists saw the Jews blamed for all the evils in the world, when they came across Holocaust denial, these intelligent ‘progressive people’ just didn’t see racism. 

Never have I seen such a twisted excuse for blatant racism. ‘Sorry guv, it weren’t my fault I hit the black guy, that newspaper made me do it’. Is this really the line Bella Caledonia are pushing?

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