I am fascinated when the true underlying motivations of people become clear – and those motivations are different from what they assert in public.
“No no – we are not anti-Jewish. We are only anti-Israel”.
“No no – we are not anti-Jewish. We want justice for the Palestinian people”.
“Israel’s Blitzkrieg against Gaza” (Pat Buchanan – are critics of Israel aware that he is on their side?)
Mm hm.
The media barrages us (sorry about the word choice) with news about what Israel is doing in Gaza. Dead civilians. Women and children. Israel “violates national law” and does not allow proper humanitarian relief.
I do not suggest Israel is immune to any and all criticism in how it conducts this military action in order to destroy a group which has been attacking Israeli citizens for a long time.
(And think for a moment about the significance of even trying to criticize Israel. Israel has high standards and sometimes messes up – so we criticize and rightly so. But her enemies conveniently cannot be so criticized because when you throw out morality you can never be immoral.)
Many who protest against what Israel is doing (in response to what has been done to her) for some odd reason do not merely criticize Israel (rightly or wrongly).
They proclaim their hatred for Jews.
You do not believe me?
Mark Steyn in his recent article “The ‘Oldest Hatred’” lists a global sampling of recent attacks against Jewish people. Tell me if this does not sound familiar:
In Fort Lauderdale [editor - please read that last place name again], Palestinian supporters sneer at Jews, “You need a big oven, that’s what you need!”
In Amsterdam, the crowd shouts, “Hamas, Hamas! Jews to the gas!” ….
In Toulouse, a synagogue is firebombed; in Bordeaux, two kosher butchers are attacked; at the Auber RER train station, a Jewish man is savagely assaulted by 20 youths taunting, “Palestine will kill the Jews;” in Villiers-le-Bel, a Jewish schoolgirl is brutally beaten by a gang jeering, “Jews must die.”
In Helsingborg, the congregation at a Swedish synagogue takes shelter as a window is broken and burning cloths thrown in; in Odense, principal Olav Nielsen announces that he will no longer admit Jewish children to the local school after a Dane of Lebanese extraction goes to the shopping mall and shoots two men working at the Dead Sea Products store; in Brussels, a Molotov cocktail is hurled at a Belgian synagogue; in Antwerp, lit rags are pushed through the mail flap of a Jewish home; and, across the Channel, “youths” attempt to burn the Brondesbury Park Synagogue.
Read the whole thing at National Review Online. You do not have to register.
I cannot wait for those who criticize Israel to express their concern and outrage. (I thought the examples from Sweden – good liberal Sweden – were particularly chilling.)
*Important qualification/clarification* – It would be wrong and irresponsible to suggest that those who criticize Israel (especially about its current actions in Gaza) are therefore anti-Semitic/anti-Jewish. By no means or at least not necessarily. I guess the point is that such persons (1) should be aware that the backdrop for their criticisms is a rise in overt and even violent anti-Semitism around the world and therefore (2) might give them pause** and finally (3) hopefully will demonstrate at least as much concern for violence against Jews all over the world. Remember how concerned we were for the safety and sensitivities of our Muslim neighbors after 9/11? (And do I need to ask the obvious and complementary question.)
One of the most basic principles of pastoral care I learned in seminary is “the apparent problem is almost never the real problem”. We are asked to believe the (apparent) problem is Israeli “aggression”. Steyn does a masterful job of asking us how we would respond (and how people have not responded) when the persons involved are different.
This is classic Mark Steyn. Watch this:
So, as I said, forget Gaza. And instead ponder the reaction to Gaza in Scandinavia, France, the United Kingdom, Canada, and golly, even Florida. As the delegitimization of Israel has metastasized, we are assured that criticism of the Jewish state is not the same as anti-Semitism. We are further assured that anti-Zionism is not the same as anti-Semitism, which is a wee bit more of a stretch. Only Israel attracts an intellectually respectable movement querying its very existence. For the purposes of comparison, let’s take a state that came into existence at the exact same time as the Zionist Entity, and involved far bloodier population displacements. I happen to think the creation of Pakistan was the greatest failure of post-war British imperial policy. But the fact is that Pakistan exists, and if I were to launch a movement of anti-Pakism it would get pretty short shrift.
But, even allowing for that, what has a schoolgirl in Villiers-le-Bel to do with Israeli government policy? Just last month terrorists attacked Bombay, seized hostages, tortured them, killed them, and mutilated their bodies. The police intercepts of the phone conversations between the terrorists and their controllers make for lively reading:
“Pakistan caller 1: ‘Kill all hostages, except the two Muslims. Keep your phone switched on so that we can hear the gunfire.’
“Mumbai terrorist 2: ‘We have three foreigners, including women. From Singapore and China.’
“Pakistan caller 1: ‘Kill them.’
“(Voices of gunmen can be heard directing hostages to stand in a line, and telling two Muslims to stand aside. Sound of gunfire. Sound of cheering voices.)”
“Kill all hostages, except the two Muslims.” Tough for those Singaporean women. Yet no mosques in Singapore have been attacked. The large Hindu populations in London, Toronto, and Fort Lauderdale have not shouted “Muslims must die!” or firebombed Halal butchers or attacked hijab-clad schoolgirls.
No one thinks of doing to non-Jews what no one hesitates to doing Jews even under pretty much the same circumstances.
I could wax about my growing concerns about the direction of this nation and the direction of the world. We are going mad. Again.
And they are going after the Jews – first. (Again.)
**I was shocked when someone I respect and care about responded to the article by Charles Krauthammer by saying (and this is pretty much a direct quote) “I don’t trust him. He is Jewish. Give me a source that does not have a stake in this”. (Like… reports/videos/photos/commentary by Palestinians? Just asking.)
