Status: 14.5.09
Esiste un genere di informazione a carattere verticale, da un solo centro di produzione mediatica ai molti se non tutti. La ripetizione costante del messaggio, a prescindere da qualsiasi contenuto di verità, è una tecnica collaudata e consapevole di condizionamento e di persuasione subliminale dei destinatari ovvero vittime, più o meno acquiescenti, di questo genere di informazione. Il fenomeno mi sembra abbastanza noto perché io debba indugiarvi oltre. Mi chiedo invece cosa ognuno di noi, nel suo piccolo e con i suoi mezzi, possa fare per contrastare la menzogna che governa il mondo e che in Platone aveva persino trovato il suo filosofo, persuaso com’era che si trattava in fondo di imporre il Bene ad un mondo che non era in grado di riconoscerlo. A differenza degli antichi noi un siffatto “bene” siamo in grado di riconoscerlo dal numero dei morti ammazzati che produce, dalle devastazioni inaudite, dal rischio stesso di sopravvivenza del mondo e della specie umana. Tra le menzogne che vengono adoperate come forma di governo del mondo l’accusa strumentale di antisemitismo è la più frustra. Inutile cercarne il senso, una definizione razionale. L’impianto di questo post è finalizzato a raccogliere notizie come quella che mi è giunta per posta ieri sera da un corrispondente tedesco. Sono in grado di leggere, con maggiore o minore perizia, testi in lingua tedesca, inglese, francese, spagnola. Non ho tempo per eseguirne una traduzione. Certo che in molti hanno maggiori abilità linguistiche di quanto io non abbia, reputo opportuno mettere in ulteriore circolazione senza indugio testi di denuncia come quello che qui apre la serie. In questo modo, ad una informazione “verticale” di regime tentiamo opporre un’informazione “orizzontale”, da passaparola o catena di Sant’Antonio. Non è detto che il successo non ci arrida e che i nostri sforzi siano inefficaci. Ogni lettore che lo desideri può segnalare tutti i testi omegenei, nelle lingue anzidette. Essi verranno tutti raccolti qui secondo i tipi di “Civium Libertas”.
Sommario: 1. The End of Free Speech? Criminalizing Criticism of Israel. – 2. Zionist Judeophobic anti-Semitism. –
1. The End of Free Speech? Criminalizing Criticism of Israel? – By Paul Craig Roberts. Pubblico il testo come che si trova alla fonte su CounterPunch.
On October 16, 2004, President George W. Bush signed the Israel Lobby’s bill, the Global Anti-Semitism Review Act. This legislation requires the US Department of State to monitor anti-semitism world wide.
To monitor anti-semitism, it has to be defined. What is the definition? Basically, as defined by the Israel Lobby and Abe Foxman, it boils down to any criticism of Israel or Jews.
Rahm Israel Emanuel hasn’t been mopping floors at the White House.
As soon as he gets the Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2009 passed, it will become a crime for any American to tell the truth about Israel’s treatment of Palestinians and theft of their lands.
It will be a crime for Christians to acknowledge the New Testament’s account of Jews demanding the crucifixion of Jesus.
It will be a crime to report the extraordinary influence of the Israel Lobby on the White House and Congress, such as the AIPAC-written resolutions praising Israel for its war crimes against the Palestinians in Gaza that were endorsed by 100 per cent of the US Senate and 99 per cent of the House of Representatives, while the rest of the world condemned Israel for its barbarity.
It will be a crime to doubt the Holocaust.
It will become a crime to note the disproportionate representation of Jews in the media, finance, and foreign policy.
In other words, it means the end of free speech, free inquiry, and the First Amendment to the Constitution. Any facts or truths that cast aspersion upon Israel will simply be banned.
Given the hubris of the US government, which leads Washington to apply US law to every country and organization, what will happen to the International Red Cross, the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, and the various human rights organizations that have demanded investigations of Israel’s military assault on Gaza’s civilian population? Will they all be arrested for the hate crime of “excessive” criticism of Israel?
This is a serious question.
A recent UN report, which is yet to be released in its entirety, blames Israel for the deaths and injuries that occurred within the United Nations premises in Gaza. The Israeli government has responded by charging that the UN report is “tendentious, patently biased,” which puts the UN report into the State Department’s category of excessive criticism and strong anti-Israel sentiment.
Israel is getting away with its blatant use of the American government to silence its critics despite the fact that the Israeli press and Israeli soldiers have exposed the Israeli atrocities in Gaza and the premeditated murder of women and children urged upon the Israeli invaders by rabbis. These acts are clearly war crimes.
It was the Israeli press that published the pictures of the Israeli soldiers’ T-shirts that indicate that the willful murder of women and children is now the culture of the Israeli army. The T-shirts are horrific expressions of barbarity. For example, one shows a pregnant Palestinian woman with a crosshairs over her stomach and the slogan, “One shot, two kills.” These T-shirts are an indication that Israel’s policy toward the Palestinians is one of extermination.
It has been true for years that the most potent criticism of Israel’s mistreatment of the Palestinians comes from the Israeli press and Israeli peace groups. For example, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz and Jeff Halper of ICAHD have shown a moral conscience that apparently does not exist in the Western democracies where Israel’s crimes are covered up and even praised.
Will the American hate crime bill be applied to Haaretz and Jeff Halper? Will American commentators who say nothing themselves but simply report what Haaretz and Halper have said be arrested for “spreading hatred of Israel, an anti-semitic act”?
Many Americans have been brainwashed by the propaganda that Palestinians are terrorists who threaten innocent Israel. These Americans will see the censorship as merely part of the necessary war on terror. They will accept the demonization of fellow citizens who report unpalatable facts about Israel and agree that such people should be punished for aiding and abetting terrorists.
A massive push is underway to criminalize criticism of Israel. American university professors have fallen victim to the well organized attempt to eliminate all criticism of Israel. Norman Finkelstein was denied tenure at a Catholic university because of the power of the Israel Lobby. Now the Israel Lobby is after University of California (at Santa Barbara,) professor Wiliam Robinson. Robinson’s crime: his course on global affairs included some reading assignments critical of Israel’s invasion of Gaza.
The Israel Lobby apparently succeeded in convincing the Obama Justice (sic) Department that it is anti-semitic to accuse two Jewish AIPAC officials, Steven Rosen and Keith Weissman, of spying. The Israel Lobby succeeded in getting their trial delayed for four years, and now Attorney General Eric Holder has dropped charges. Yet, Larry Franklin, the DOD official accused of giving secret material to Rosen and Weissman, is serving 12 years and 7 months in prison.
The absurdity is extraordinary. The two Israeli agents are not guilty of receiving secrets, but the American official is guilty of giving secrets to them! If there is no spy in the story, how was Franklin convicted of giving secrets to a spy?
Criminalizing criticism of Israel destroys any hope of America having an independent foreign policy in the Middle East that serves American rather than Israeli interests. It eliminates any prospect of Americans escaping from their enculturation with Israeli propaganda.
To keep American minds captive, the Lobby is working to ban as anti-semitic any truth or disagreeable fact that pertains to Israel. It is permissible to criticize every other country in the world, but it is anti-semitic to criticize Israel, and anti-semitism will soon be a universal hate-crime in the Western world.
Most of Europe has already criminalized doubting the Holocaust. It is a crime even to confirm that it happened but to conclude that less than 6 million Jews were murdered.
Why is the Holocaust a subject that is off limits to examination? How could a case buttressed by hard facts possibly be endangered by kooks and anti-semitics? Surely the case doesn’t need to be protected by thought control.
Imprisoning people for doubts is the antithesis of modernity.
Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan administration. He is coauthor of The Tyranny of Good Intentions. He can be reached at: PaulCraigRoberts@yahoo.com
Torna al Sommario.
2. Zionist Judeophobic anti-Semitism. – Dallo stesso amico tedesco mi è stato segnalato un altro testo sul tema. Questa volta è disponibile il link originale, al quale si accede cliccando sul titolo del paragrafo. Si tratta di un vero e proprio studio sul quale occorre del tempo per esercitare la propria riflessione. Il testo non è recente; è del 2005. Ma non voglio indugiare nel pubblicarlo su questo post. Mi riservo per un secondo tempo una lettura più meditata con sviluppo di eventuali mie proprie riflessioni.
Like other European nationalist ideologies, anti-Jewish chauvinism plays also an important role in Zionism. Throughout European history, often when the ruling powers were confronted with a crisis, the cry went out "The Jew is to blame!" This often became a distraction for large sectors of the population. They no longer sought the cause of their problems in the ruling circles but would vent their anger and frustration on their Jewish co-citizens. They united with the rulers against the designated scapegoat, "the Jew."
The authoritative Encyclopaedia of Zionism and Israel (ed. Patai) explains anti-Semitism as follows:
Even though Zionism maintains its reputation as working in "defense of Jews all over the world", upon closer examination, one realizes that Zionism, itself, is one of the nationalisms practicing anti-Semitism. It is Zionists who have based their ideology on the notion that Jews are "an alien, hostile people, incapable of assimilation."
Theodor Herzl (1860-1904), the founder of modern Zionism, maintained that anti-Semitism is not an aberration, but a natural and completely understandable response by non-Jews to alien Jewish behavior and attitudes. The only solution, he argued, is for Jews to recognize reality and live in a separate state of their own. "The Jewish question exists wherever Jews live in noticeable numbers," he wrote in his most influential work, The Jewish State. "Where it does not exist, it is brought in by arriving Jews ... I consider this development as a Jew, without hate or fear." The Jewish question, he maintained, is not social or religious. "It is a national question. To solve it we must, above all, make it an international political issue."[2]
"Recognizing reality" means simply accepting this as an immutable situation. For Zionism, Judeophobia is not an ideological characteristic, a chauvinism, which must be learned and therefore also can be unlearned. Zionism prefers to give Judeophobia a physical character, created by the mere presence of Jews among Gentiles regardless of anything they do or do not do. This constitutes mere acceptance of the Judeophobic chauvinism. But Zionists go much further in their acceptance of anti-Semitism.
Les Levidow, observes:
In the study "Zionism and Anti-Semitism" one learns:
" In 1921, Germans in Germany were told that:
“We Jews are aliens… a foreign people in your midst and we… wish to stay that way. A Jew can never be a loyal German; whoever calls the foreign land his Fatherland is a traitor to the Jewish people“.[4]
This statement was made in 1921 by Jacob Klatzkin, "the second of two political Zionist ideologists in Germany at the time, where the Jews of Germany were enjoying full political and civil rights. It was he who had advocated undermining Jewish communities as the one certain way of acquiring a state."[5]
Judeophobes considered Jews to be non- or second class-citizens, outcasts, often forced to live in ghettos apart from the rest of the population. The principle tenet of the Zionist ideology concords with this view. The basic expression of Zionist Judeophobia is to be found in the attitude of Zionists toward Jews around the world.
In July 2004 speaking to visiting American Jewish leaders in Jerusalem, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said: "If I have to advocate to our brothers in France, I will tell them one thing - 'Move to Israel, as early as possible'. I say that to Jews all around the world, but there [in France] I think it's a must and they have to move immediately." He added: "In France today, about 10 per cent of the population are Muslims ... that gets a different kind of anti-Semitism, based on anti-Israeli feelings and propaganda."[6]
This interference in French domestic affairs received a prompt rebuff both from French officials and from French Zionist leaders.
"These comments do not bring calm, peace and serenity that we all need, (...) I think Mr Sharon would have done better tonight to have kept quiet." said Patrick Gaubert, of the International League Against Racism and Anti-Semitism (Licra). "It's not up to him to decide for us," said Theo Klein, honorary president of Crif, which represents French Jewish organizations.[7]
In all the excitement about the appeal to emigrate, Sharon's anti-Semitic association drawn between Muslim and anti-Semite passed unnoticed. With his statement, he shifted the weight of the blame for anti-Israeli feelings onto the Muslim faith and away from Israel’s blatant disregard for the human rights of the surrounding Arab populations. This also suggests: "Israel will not change its policies, it is the Muslims who have to give up THEIR claims to human rights!"
The former Israeli ambassador to France, Avi Pazner, drove in the nail even further to make the point, "Every time he meets groups of Jews, Sharon always calls on them to immigrate to Israel".[8]
In fact this repeated appeal for Jews to leave their homelands to go into exile in Israel is a continuation of the basic anti-Semitic tenets of historical European anti-Semitism: Jews and non-Jews cannot inhabit the same territory living in peace and mutual respect. They must be physically separated. Having accepted this myth as an absolute law of nature, Zionists intervene wherever possible to induce Jews to leave their homelands to move to Israel.
"For many years, the State of Israel and the adherents of Zionism in other countries have maintained the position that Israel is the “Jewish homeland,” and that Jews outside of Israel are in “exile,” and that a “full Jewish life” can be lived only in the Jewish state," writes Allan C. Brownfeld of the Washington Report on Middle Eastern Affairs.[9]
He gives the following example:
Israeli prime minister Sharon "has said time and time again that he sees immigration as one of the government's strategic missions."[12] Jewish immigration to Israel is the cornerstone of Zionism, says the Jewish national movement.[13] Israel is a country built on immigration whose leaders see the continuing influx of Jews as vital to its survival. [14]
The well-known columnist for the New York Times, Flora Lewis, relates the following enlightening anecdote:
As Uri Avnery writes:
The "Jerusalem Post" writes, "South African Jews are turning to Israel in reaction to a poor economy and French Jews are fleeing rising anti-Semitism, [Absorption Ministry spokesman Yehuda] Glick said. He noted that some 40 percent of France’s 600,000 Jews live close to Muslim neighborhoods."[22]
Despite the economic and security problems in Israel, the director of the Jewish Agency, Mike Rosenberg, "believed that adverse conditions for Jews elsewhere in the world would push them toward Israel. He noted perceptions [sic] of growing anti-Semitism in France and the uncertain economic situation in Argentina. (...) 'There is still a very great reservoir of potential immigrants for Israel,' he said. 'Our job is to create the conditions to harness it.'"[23]
The Israeli journal, Maariv reports how:
But this is not the only aspect of earlier European anti-Semitism that Zionism perpetuates. Another is how Rosenberg and others "create the conditions to harness" the immigration potential.
The second form of Zionist Judeophobic anti-Semitism involves the means used to force – or induce – Jews to leave their homelands for Israel.
Not only is Zionism unthinkable without anti-Semitism or its threat, Israel, as a political/economic entity, could also not maintain its present course, if it were not for periodic crescendos in, what becomes generally defined as, anti-Jewish sentiment in various wealthy countries around the western world with relatively, large or affluent Jewish populations. These periods of apparent intensification of Judeophobic anti-Semitism, heighten interest in Israel among Jews around the world. This interest is then expressed financially (donations, investment) politically (lobbying, electoral results based upon pro-Israel policy) and demographically (emigration to Israel). But it also makes official and left criticism of Israeli policy more difficult, because it becomes immediately defamed as anti-Semitism and is associated with Hitler. Politicians become more "receptive" to electoral pressure and lobby money in return for hypercritical, feigned outrage and breast-beating about the need to combat "anti-Semitism". For Israel this can also be useful in obtaining concessions in the form of new weapons systems, foreign policy changes, or special status and preferential favors not to mention favors of the financial sort.
The distinguished MIT professor Noam Chomsky explained the recent periodic crescendos in Judeophobic anti-Semitism in the media of the United States as follows:
Statistics another form of propaganda
With the intensification of the Israeli offensive against the Palestinians and neighboring Arab states, intensified also the criticism of Israeli policies particularly its gross violations of human rights. And corresponding to this rise in criticism of Israeli policy grew also the incidence of "anti-Semitic attacks" in those countries where criticism is loudest.
There, where there is no tangible anti-Semitism to be met, a specter of anti-Semitism is created in the media on the basis of unverifiable anecdotes, statistics, and vandalism, including acts of terrorism, carried out against Jewish individuals or Jewish property. These acts of vandalism – often remaining unsolved – become the "tip of the iceberg of anti-Semitism" in the given society – often targeting a specific group such as the Muslim sector of the population.
What is hardly apparent at first sight – and what few would want to believe even on taking a second look – is that these "crescendos" in what is “perceived” as expressions of "anti-Jewish" sentiment, are often campaigns initiated by Zionists and their allies.
The factual basis for this growth in statistical "anti-Semitism" rarely becomes known to the public. Therefore there is no possibility of verifying the truth of details behind what is being calculated. Just the same, when one does take a closer look at what information is available in the public domain, one begins to realize that Winston Churchill was right when he warned: "there are lies, damn lies and statistics."
Prime minister Sharon's appeal to French Jews to come to Israel, mentioned above, came shortly after the disclosure of a highly publicized incident of a young woman, Marie Leoné, who, in the company of her small child, reported having been molested on a regional commuter train in the Paris suburbs. She told police that she had been (mis)taken for Jewish, by a group of young North African Arabs and Blacks and had been pushed around and threatened with knives. The group, painted swastikas on her stomach – with magic markers – before fleeing the train. During the attack, which took place during rush-hour, none of the fellow passengers in the compartment, came to the young mother's aid or subsequently stepped forward as witnesses.
Upon receiving news of the attack, President Jacques Chirac made a press statement in which he said, "I have demanded that every effort be made to find those responsible for this shameful act in order to try and convict them with the complete severity of the law."
The State Secretary for Victims' Rights, Nicole Guedj, made an appeal for witnesses to come forward, to help find the aggressors, stressing that it is necessary that "severe and exemplary punishment be levied in a dissuasive manner." She informed the press that she had spoken to the victim by telephone.[27]
This outpouring of concern at the highest levels of government – a concern neither typical nor to be expected for victims of Arabophobic anti-Semitism or racist attacks – was short-lived. It turned out that the entire story was a hoax. The entire political spectrum in France – and its media – immediately jumped on the case, before even awaiting the results of the police investigations.
As much concern as the government officials publicly displayed for the presumed victim of this presumed "anti-Jewish attack," there was nothing but silence and disdain for the fact that the hoax represented a blatant anti-Arab/anti-Black attack. There was no call for conviction with the complete severity of the law. These same public figures are indifferent to Arabophobic anti-Semitism and racism. The only public personality on record, to have mentioned the victims of this hoax was Mme. Simone Veil, president of the Foundation for the Memory of the Shoah. In her speech at the commemoration of the anniversary of the round-up of France's Jews for deportation to Auschwitz, while deploring the rise in anti-Semitism, she also mentioned the "young Arabs and Africans [who] once again have been stigmatized."[28]
This fact alone helps point out that the claim that the government is against "'anti-Semitism' AND racism" is only a smoke-screen cliché to hide the fact that the government is itself anti-Semitic and racist. They simply make the stipulation that they don't want to be seen as Judeophobic anti-Semites.
Sharon's appeal also followed the publication of statistics, indicating that in the first six months of the year, (2004) France's Interior Ministry recorded 135 acts and 375 threats[29] of anti-Semitic attacks compared to 125 acts and 463 threats in all of the previous year.[30] "Racist attacks also rose: There were 95 attacks and 161 threats through June, compared with a total 232 reported in 2003."[31]
These statistics form the basis for the allegations – and the assumptions – that there is a rapid and widespread rise in (Judeophobic) anti-Semitism comparable to the 1930s, if not in all of Europe then, at least, in particular European nations, for example, in France.
Whereas the statistics pertaining to "anti-Semitic" acts and threats suffice to produce a major outcry of indignation and parliamentary resolutions for changes in the law, the rise in the statistics pertaining to racist attacks are passed over quasi in silence. This fact alone should place into question the sincerity of those shouting loudest for cutbacks in civil and human rights. Theirs is not an effort aimed at chauvinism, but a manipulation of chauvinism in order to strengthen the power of the state against disfavored or disgruntled minorities within the population. They are using the "perception" – to use the terminology of the Jewish Agency – of anti-Semitism in order to roll back democratic gains and move the country closer to a fascist order.
Chauvinism is chauvinism regardless of whom it is directed against. The tolerance of chauvinism, when directed against people of another race – which does not exclude Semites, since Arabs are not considered as “Aryan” or “white” Europeans – is the best way of measuring the general level of official chauvinism – anti-Semitism included.
One reason for this discrepancy between the reaction to a statistical rise in racist attacks and Judeophobic attacks is a discrepancy based on political consideration.
The question of "anti-Semitism" is political capital. Political forces have a political interest in quantifying the level of, and manipulating the perception of what qualifies as anti-Semitism in a given society.
One usually goes on the assumption that the original news reports of a suspected anti-Semitic aggression or the anti-Semitic background to an aggression pans out to have been correct. Just as in the case of the young French woman, who played out the hoax of an attack in the commuter train, other cases suspected to have had a Judeophobic anti-Semitic background, could just as well also turn out to be false. The public was informed that the commuter train incident was a hoax. Other hoaxes and misrepresentations are less widely known.
Qualifying anti-Semitism is a major political enterprise. A key element in this enterprise is the monopoly on the definition of "anti-Semitism" to exclude all non-Jewish Semites, victimized by anti-Semitic chauvinism. (See the chapter "Anti-Semitism and Arabs") This becomes particularly apparent in cases such as the hoax mentioned above or in the unsubstantiated claims that the culprits behind the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 were from the Arab world.
The second key element is the broad extension of the term "anti-Semitism" even when referring to what, at first sight, is apparently Judeophobic chauvinism. The strategy behind the application of this element is to remove the question of chauvinism from the notion of anti-Semitism.
Once upon a time, to be anti-Semitic meant harboring animosity toward Jews, as Jews, BECAUSE they are Jews. Anti-Semitism is no longer an anti-Jewish sentiment motivating a particular act, but is now taken to mean the presence of a Jewish "victim". Victim of anything – including a hoax. The motivation of the culprit – if the identity is known – plays no role. Chauvinism is rarely mentioned nor considered. More often mentioned is the fact that the supposed culprit is Muslim and that the altercation is in some way linked to the Israeli policy toward Arabs in the Middle East. (See Sharon's appeal to French Jews above.)
When verbal or physical altercations happen because of differences over money, women, football, the Middle East or simply because one of the parties is obnoxious, if one of the parties happens to be Jewish, regardless of which side of the argument (s)he happens to be on, the statistics can record a new "anti-Semitic" aggression or threat.
If a Jewish person happens to be the random victim of a mentally deranged assailant, (as in Epinay, France) it becomes a case of anti-Semitism for the statistics and an affair of state, even though the SEVEN other stabbing victims of the same assailant were non-Jewish.
When one examines the case of the commuter train hoax one notices several coincidences:
Alexandre Moïse, general secretary of the Zionist Federation of France, president of the Synagogue rue, St. Isaure and spokesman for the Likud Party in France, confessed in court to having sent himself threatening telephone calls (for which he swore out warrants). He explained that he staged the hoax "to render more credible the danger and risks he felt he was submitted to because of his public engagement." Moïse was sentenced to two months prison (suspended sentence) and a fine of € 750.[32]
Of particular importance among the "public engagements" was his successful censorship – through the Zionist campaign for the annulment of scheduled performances – of a popular Afro-French comedian, Dieudonné by several major stages around France because of his criticism of Israeli policies and the caricaturizing of Zionist chauvinism. There was muted protest against this criminalizing of innocent people in order to create a "perception" of Zionist victimization.
When windows are broken in Jewish schools or synagogues or other acts of vandalism, when tombstones are smeared with Nazi symbols, it is safe to assume that these acts of vandalism are initially recorded in the statistics as acts of "anti-Semitism," even though it is usually not known who committed these acts.
One must be skeptical about what the statistics are supposed to represent. The statistics may – but also may not – have taken into consideration that the motive behind the attack had nothing to do with ethnic identity. Therefore the statistics purporting to convey the trend relating to "anti-Semitic" (or even Judeophobic) bias in the society cannot be taken at face value. They are easily manipulated and are a means of manipulation.
The French government admits that most of the recorded "298 anti-Semitic acts" recorded in the first half of the year 2004 (as reported in August of that year) remained unsolved. This tally included "162 acts of property damage, such as graffiti or arson, 69 breaches of media law involving publication of anti-Semitic images or remarks, and 67 physical or verbal attacks." Though some of the cases were still being investigated in Aug. 2004, "others were dropped because the guilty parties were unlikely to be identified."[33]
As long as no guilty party is found, anyone could be a suspect and all suspects are considered innocent until proven guilty. So until one learns who actually committed the vandalism and if the vandalism was committed for reasons of Judeophobic chauvinism, it is also premature to conclude that it is was NOT committed by Zionists in order to gain credibility for the "perception" of a statistical trend indicating a rise in "anti-Semitism".
It is hardly safe to assume that, when the acts turn out, in fact, to be hoaxes or Zionist perpetrated, that they will be adjusted accordingly in the statistical representation. This is one reason why the cases that the statistics refer to are rarely made public even though many individual cases are initially loudly proclaimed anti-Semitic. A follow-up on the case often shows another background, or a hoax.
A Parisian Jewish social center was torched and destroyed in the night from Aug. 21 – 22, 2004. The fire police found swastikas, "Hitler was right" and "Death to the Jews"[34] inscribed on walls and doors inside the center.
Following the arson the French president, Jacques Chirac condemned "this despicable act" and promised "the absolute determination of the state to find the culprits behind this inadmissible deed." And Prime Minister, Jean-Pierre Raffarin paid a visit to the scene of the crime and declared that France would be extremely severe with those who engage in anti-Semitism.[35]
Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom flew hastily to Paris to hold talks with government officials and Jewish leaders following the arson. He too paid a visit to the destroyed center. With the burned-out building as a backdrop, Shalom told reporters "we should leave the French authorities to conduct their investigation." He added that it was "of little importance what happened here when we know that during the last six months there have been more than 170 anti-Semitic incidents [in France].[36]
As principal suspect in the arson police arrested a 52-year-old Jewish man. Reports the Jewish Journal of Los Angeles:
Neither the president, his prime minister nor the Israeli foreign minister found it necessary to call for an investigation into the background – e.g. whether there was a conspiracy perhaps linked to the Jewish Agency – behind the fire.
Considering that over the same period, there was also a rise in racist attacks, but without the grand declarations, the PR visits by heads of state to the bedsides of the victims, it becomes apparent that there is a calibration of victims: Jews are placed at the very top of political PR priorities and the other – and possibly more abundant – victims of chauvinist motivated criminality at the bottom. Government officials have to be seen as being active against (Judeophobic) anti-Semitism. For the second category there is no pressing need for intervention by government officials.
Given the political ethic already apparent behind this manipulation, it can be assumed that many of these cases are not listed as chauvinist hate crimes. If factually accounted for in the statistics, these would far surpass the cases of (Judeophobic) anti-Semitism. This, itself, is a chauvinist crime at state level.
On the contrary, the persecution that Jews suffered down through the centuries are now openly – and officially – being visited upon another group of Semites. No "benefit of the doubt" is bestowed upon the Arab victim of a racist/anti-Semitic attack. Unlike his Jewish brethren, he, in many cases may have to prove that the attack took place. This is not demanded of Zionist claims of being victims.
Very telling is the statement in the "Jewish Telegraphic Agency article that "these [hoax] cases are merely isolated incidents in a tide of nearly 300 reported acts of anti-Semitism." What they are saying in essence is, "here we were caught, now try to prove that the others were also hoaxes or self-inflicted."
These campaigns serve several purposes. They form the "perceptional" basis of a "catastrophic rise" in anti-Semitism. This is not only necessary for recruiting new support for the concept of Israel, "the Jewish state," but it also serves in silencing civil(ized) criticism of Israeli policy from sectors of the world's populations, and thwarts diplomatic initiatives at the international level.
This lays also the groundwork for drumming up support from (non-Zionist) Jewish and left sectors of populations abroad. They, in good faith in bogus statistics, jump onto the bandwagon in what they believe is a fight against "anti-Semitism." In reality, however, this is the promotion of a "perception" of an imaginary – or even self-inflicted – "anti-Semitism."[43] The purpose is to lend credibility to Zionists, protesting a given country's respect for the human rights and the national sovereignty of also Arab peoples and nations. Defamed as "pro-Arab" and therefore "anti-Semitic" – because critical of Israeli policy – these nations become targets in media campaigns claiming a "rise in anti-Semitism".
Sharon and immigration
For those who have not broken down the Zionist ideology, it would seem a contradiction for Zionists to be fighting to save Jews from anti-Semitism, by building up a "Jewish state" and, at the same time, submit Jews in the "Diaspora" to anti-Semitism or to an inflated fear of anti-Semitism. Actually it is quite simple.
Zionism has nothing to do with saving Jews from anything – and certainly not from anti-Semitism. The key is to be found in a misunderstanding.
Whereas Jews, the world over, see themselves as Jews. Zionists consider only those Jews engaged in furthering the Zionist cause as being “the true Jews.”
Zionists, (Jewish nationalists), as demonstrated above, are chauvinist also in relationship to universalistic Jews. They view them as weak and unwilling to do “the necessary” to create the “Jewish” empire. Zionists are convinced that only their cause is just. Being, in their eyes, the only "true" Jews and “chosen people,” they feel entitled to carry out any and all measures, regardless of how barbarian, to achieve their objectives. Their claim to speak in the name of all Jews is itself inherent Judeophobic anti-Semitism.
This is perhaps best expressed in an interview by Amos Oz in his book " Poh va-sham be-Erets-Yisra'el bi-setav" (1982, English title: In the Land of Israel, Vintage, 1984) . Amos Oz does not mention the name of Sharon, but uses the abbreviation Z. But the facts furnished by Amos Oz indicate that the person being interviewed is Ariel Sharon.[44] Sharon was forced to resign as defense minister, because of his role in instigating the massacre of more than 1,000 Palestinian women, children and elderly in the Sabre and Chatilla refugee camps. Oz's interview-partner gives his view of the "diaspora" Jews.
Recently, a group of "traditional Jews" addressed themselves, in an open letter, to the Office to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism, a propaganda organ created in the US State Department.
Noting, first of all, that they "are thankful that most countries do not endorse or promote anti-Semitism, [they feel themselves] compelled to express [their] concern for the actions of the so called 'state of Israel' which promotes anti-Semitism and fear in the worldwide Jewish community to lure Jews from their homelands."[46] They write further:
"The case of the Iraqi Jews is the most well known," writes Jean Shaoul[49], and continues: "and is documented in several books (see Moshe Gat's The Jewish Exodus from Iraq 1948-1951 and Shlomi Hillel's Operation Babylon[50]). The Zionist underground, backed by Mossad le-Aliya, the forerunner of the Israeli security service, sent agents provocateurs abroad to create conditions whereby Jews would leave their homes and come to Israel. As a result of Mossad activities, in the space of a few weeks more than 120,000 Jews—almost the entire community in Iraq—were forced to leave their homes and possessions for Israel. Until the onset of Zionist-Palestinian conflict and the inflaming of political tensions by Britain's stooge regime under King Feisal and Prime Minister Nuri Said in Iraq, Jews had lived there without incident for 2,500 years, since the Babylonian exile from biblical Palestine."
Shaoul explains further:
[1] http://www.aldeilis.net/zion/zionsym4.html
[2] Weber, Mark, "Zionism and the Third Reich" http://members.internettrash.com/library/zionism.htm
[3] Hertzberg, A. (1966). The Zionist Idea: A Historical Analysis and Reader. New York, Atheneum; includes a reprint of Leo Pinsker, Auto-emancipation quoted in Levidow, Les, Zionist anti-Semitism, "Return" (London), Dec. 1990, http://www.aldeilis.net/zion/zionrac12.html,
[4] "Zionism and Anti-Semitism," http://www.jewsagainstzionism.com/zionism/zanda.cfm
[5] ibid
[6] Burleigh, James, "Sharon To French Jews: 'Move To Israel As Soon As Possible,'" The Independent – UK, July 19, 2004
[7] French Jews 'must move to Israel' BBC, 18 July, 2004
[8] Keinon, Herb, "France says Sharon is unwelcome now," THE JERUSALEM POST Jul. 18, 2004
[9] Brownfeld, Allan C., "Israel and Judaism: Israel’s Aggressive Promotion of Aliyah a Rejection of Jewish Life Outside Israel" Washington Report, November 2004, http://www.wrmea.com/archives/November_2004/0411072.html
[10] ibid
[11] ibid
[12] Keinon, Herb and Hazan, Jenny, "PM to greet arriving French immigrants" Ha'aretz July 27, 2004
[13] Associated Press, "Livni: Jewish immigration to Israel is in 'tailspin'" MideastJournal.com June 23, 2003
[14] Anderson, John Ward, "Fewer Come to Israel, And Many Are Leaving" Washington Post, April 23, 2004
[15] Lewis, Flora, "When Making Peace isn't everyone's Primary Goal" International Herald Tribune, Oct. 4, 1996
[16] Avnery, Uri, A Jewish Demographic State, 12.10.02, http://www.gush-shalom.org/archives/article215.html
[17] Anderson, John Ward, "Fewer Come to Israel, And Many Are Leaving" Washington Post, April 23, 2004
[18] ibid
[19] Sheleg, Yair, "5762: Outbreaks of anti-Semitism and outpourings of solidarity" Ha'aretz, September 06, 2002
[20] Anderson, John Ward, "Fewer Come to Israel, And Many Are Leaving" Washington Post, April 23, 2004
[21] ... and the blotting out of the fact that a sizable portion of the Israeli population are non-Jewish, and discriminated against for this reason.
[22] Lazaroff, Tova, "Lazaroff, Israeli delegation in Argentina helping potential immigrants" Jerusalem Post Aug. 01, 2002
[23] Associated Press, "Livni: Jewish immigration to Israel is in 'tailspin'" MideastJournal.com June 23, 2003
[24] Bender, Arik, "JA to embark on massive French aliyah campaign" Maariv, June 13, 2004
[25] CB, L’Agence juive veut faire venir 30 000 Français en Israël en trois ans, L'Humanité, July 20, 2004, http://www.humanite.presse.fr/journal/2004-07-20/2004-07-20-397572
[26] Chomsky, Noam, Professor Noam Chomsky On: "Anti-Semitism, Zionism, and the Palestinians" Middle East Realities, March 22, 2005, www.middleeast.org
[27] Reuters, "L'agression antisémite du RER suscite l'indignation générale," July 11, 2004, http://fr.news.yahoo.com/040711/85/3ymrn.html
[28] Coroller, Catherine, "Vel' d'hiv: commémoration sur fond d'inquiétude" Liberation, July 19, 2004, http://www.minorites.org/article.php?IDA=2744
[29] What constitutes "a threat?" "I'll break your jaw" or simply a look as if to say, "why don't you leave me alone?" No one has qualified or quantified "threat." Given the fact that anyone who opposes Israeli military aggression, is perceived as a "threat" to the "existence of Israel" anything can be used to inflate the statistics of anti-Semitic "threats."
[30] Brownfeld, op cit
[31] AP/Reuters, France: Anti-Semitism is 'a reality that we must combat', Ha'aretz, July 26, 2004
[32] http://www.grioo.com/info2412.html# and http://www.proche-orient.info/xaudio_article.php3?id_article=24699
[33] Agence France Press, "French government tallies anti-Semitic acts" International Herald Tribune, August 27, 2004
[34] Coordination des Appels pour une Paix Juste au proche-Orient, (CAPJPO) Communiqué de Presse, Aug. 30, 2004
[35] Le Temps/AFP, L'appel du président du consistoire de Paris à «un peu plus de raison», Aug. 30, 2004 / Centre social juif : la piste antisémite écartée? http://up.www.lci.fr/news/france/0,,3171399-VU5WX0lEIDUy,00.html
[36] Carmel, Philip, Jewish Arsonist Worked for Paris Center, Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Sept. 9, 2003, http://www.jewishjournal.com/home/preview.php?id=12777
[37] Carmel, op cit
[38] ibid
[39] Coordination des Appels pour une Paix Juste au proche-Orient, (CAPJPO) Communiqué de Presse, July 14, 2004, http://www.legrandsoir.info/article.php3?id_article=1687
[40] Carmel, op cit
[41] CAPJPO op cit
[42] Carmel, op cit
[43] "Anti-Semitism" is in quotation marks because here it is used to mean exclusively Judeophobic anti-Semitism, which though not the most prevalent is the most referred to. Most people are still unaware that Arabophobia is also a form of anti-Semitism.
[44] Who is Ariel Sharon?, Interview by Amos Oz in 1982, http://www.voicesofpalestine.org/ArielSharon.asp
[45] Taken from an interview by Amos Oz with Ariel Sharon in his book, " Poh va-sham be-Erets-Yisra'el bi-setav", 1982, English translation at http://www.islamicparty.com/commonsense/33sharon.htm.
[46] Jews Against Zionism, "A Message to the Office to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism," http://www.jewsagainstzionism.com/news/newsletters/jaz111004.htm
[47] ibid
[48] ibid
[49] Shaoul, Jean, "Zionism's legacy of ethnic cleansing, Part 2—Israeli expansion creates more Palestinian refugees" 23 January 2001, http://www.wsws.org/articles/2001/jan2001/pal2-j23_prn.shtml
[50] For a first hand report from a participant in the Zionist underground, see also Giladi, Naeim, "The Jews of Iraq" The Link - Volume 31, Issue 2. April - May 1998, www.inminds.co.uk/jews-of-iraq.html
[51] ibid
[52] Avnery, Uri, Manufacturing Anti-Semites, Counterpunch, 28.9.02 http://www.counterpunch.org/avnery1002.html
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Sommario: 1. The End of Free Speech? Criminalizing Criticism of Israel. – 2. Zionist Judeophobic anti-Semitism. –
1. The End of Free Speech? Criminalizing Criticism of Israel? – By Paul Craig Roberts. Pubblico il testo come che si trova alla fonte su CounterPunch.
On October 16, 2004, President George W. Bush signed the Israel Lobby’s bill, the Global Anti-Semitism Review Act. This legislation requires the US Department of State to monitor anti-semitism world wide.To monitor anti-semitism, it has to be defined. What is the definition? Basically, as defined by the Israel Lobby and Abe Foxman, it boils down to any criticism of Israel or Jews.
Rahm Israel Emanuel hasn’t been mopping floors at the White House.
As soon as he gets the Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2009 passed, it will become a crime for any American to tell the truth about Israel’s treatment of Palestinians and theft of their lands.
It will be a crime for Christians to acknowledge the New Testament’s account of Jews demanding the crucifixion of Jesus.
It will be a crime to report the extraordinary influence of the Israel Lobby on the White House and Congress, such as the AIPAC-written resolutions praising Israel for its war crimes against the Palestinians in Gaza that were endorsed by 100 per cent of the US Senate and 99 per cent of the House of Representatives, while the rest of the world condemned Israel for its barbarity.It will be a crime to doubt the Holocaust.
It will become a crime to note the disproportionate representation of Jews in the media, finance, and foreign policy.
In other words, it means the end of free speech, free inquiry, and the First Amendment to the Constitution. Any facts or truths that cast aspersion upon Israel will simply be banned.
Given the hubris of the US government, which leads Washington to apply US law to every country and organization, what will happen to the International Red Cross, the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, and the various human rights organizations that have demanded investigations of Israel’s military assault on Gaza’s civilian population? Will they all be arrested for the hate crime of “excessive” criticism of Israel?
This is a serious question.
A recent UN report, which is yet to be released in its entirety, blames Israel for the deaths and injuries that occurred within the United Nations premises in Gaza. The Israeli government has responded by charging that the UN report is “tendentious, patently biased,” which puts the UN report into the State Department’s category of excessive criticism and strong anti-Israel sentiment.Israel is getting away with its blatant use of the American government to silence its critics despite the fact that the Israeli press and Israeli soldiers have exposed the Israeli atrocities in Gaza and the premeditated murder of women and children urged upon the Israeli invaders by rabbis. These acts are clearly war crimes.
It was the Israeli press that published the pictures of the Israeli soldiers’ T-shirts that indicate that the willful murder of women and children is now the culture of the Israeli army. The T-shirts are horrific expressions of barbarity. For example, one shows a pregnant Palestinian woman with a crosshairs over her stomach and the slogan, “One shot, two kills.” These T-shirts are an indication that Israel’s policy toward the Palestinians is one of extermination.
It has been true for years that the most potent criticism of Israel’s mistreatment of the Palestinians comes from the Israeli press and Israeli peace groups. For example, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz and Jeff Halper of ICAHD have shown a moral conscience that apparently does not exist in the Western democracies where Israel’s crimes are covered up and even praised.
Will the American hate crime bill be applied to Haaretz and Jeff Halper? Will American commentators who say nothing themselves but simply report what Haaretz and Halper have said be arrested for “spreading hatred of Israel, an anti-semitic act”?
Many Americans have been brainwashed by the propaganda that Palestinians are terrorists who threaten innocent Israel. These Americans will see the censorship as merely part of the necessary war on terror. They will accept the demonization of fellow citizens who report unpalatable facts about Israel and agree that such people should be punished for aiding and abetting terrorists.A massive push is underway to criminalize criticism of Israel. American university professors have fallen victim to the well organized attempt to eliminate all criticism of Israel. Norman Finkelstein was denied tenure at a Catholic university because of the power of the Israel Lobby. Now the Israel Lobby is after University of California (at Santa Barbara,) professor Wiliam Robinson. Robinson’s crime: his course on global affairs included some reading assignments critical of Israel’s invasion of Gaza.
The Israel Lobby apparently succeeded in convincing the Obama Justice (sic) Department that it is anti-semitic to accuse two Jewish AIPAC officials, Steven Rosen and Keith Weissman, of spying. The Israel Lobby succeeded in getting their trial delayed for four years, and now Attorney General Eric Holder has dropped charges. Yet, Larry Franklin, the DOD official accused of giving secret material to Rosen and Weissman, is serving 12 years and 7 months in prison.
The absurdity is extraordinary. The two Israeli agents are not guilty of receiving secrets, but the American official is guilty of giving secrets to them! If there is no spy in the story, how was Franklin convicted of giving secrets to a spy?
Criminalizing criticism of Israel destroys any hope of America having an independent foreign policy in the Middle East that serves American rather than Israeli interests. It eliminates any prospect of Americans escaping from their enculturation with Israeli propaganda.
To keep American minds captive, the Lobby is working to ban as anti-semitic any truth or disagreeable fact that pertains to Israel. It is permissible to criticize every other country in the world, but it is anti-semitic to criticize Israel, and anti-semitism will soon be a universal hate-crime in the Western world.
Most of Europe has already criminalized doubting the Holocaust. It is a crime even to confirm that it happened but to conclude that less than 6 million Jews were murdered.Why is the Holocaust a subject that is off limits to examination? How could a case buttressed by hard facts possibly be endangered by kooks and anti-semitics? Surely the case doesn’t need to be protected by thought control.
Imprisoning people for doubts is the antithesis of modernity.
Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan administration. He is coauthor of The Tyranny of Good Intentions. He can be reached at: PaulCraigRoberts@yahoo.com
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2. Zionist Judeophobic anti-Semitism. – Dallo stesso amico tedesco mi è stato segnalato un altro testo sul tema. Questa volta è disponibile il link originale, al quale si accede cliccando sul titolo del paragrafo. Si tratta di un vero e proprio studio sul quale occorre del tempo per esercitare la propria riflessione. Il testo non è recente; è del 2005. Ma non voglio indugiare nel pubblicarlo su questo post. Mi riservo per un secondo tempo una lettura più meditata con sviluppo di eventuali mie proprie riflessioni.
The Middle East Conflict: Back to Basics
Zionist Judeophobic anti-Semitism
By George Pumphrey
Zionist Judeophobic anti-Semitism
By George Pumphrey
Like other European nationalist ideologies, anti-Jewish chauvinism plays also an important role in Zionism. Throughout European history, often when the ruling powers were confronted with a crisis, the cry went out "The Jew is to blame!" This often became a distraction for large sectors of the population. They no longer sought the cause of their problems in the ruling circles but would vent their anger and frustration on their Jewish co-citizens. They united with the rulers against the designated scapegoat, "the Jew."
The authoritative Encyclopaedia of Zionism and Israel (ed. Patai) explains anti-Semitism as follows:
"In the age of growing nationalism, Jews were declared to be an alien, hostile people, incapable of assimilation. Their economic activities were especially attacked by anti-Semites, who tended to regard all Jews as potential Rothschilds. Capitalists and conservatives charged Jews with radicalism, while Socialists often denounced them as exploiters. Politicians found in anti-Semitic propaganda a convenient method of marshalling discontent. There arose specifically anti-Semitic parties, such as Karl Lueger's Christian Socialist Party in Vienna, whose successes so impressed the young Adolf Hitler." [1]Of course only mention is made of the country and historical period where strong anti-Jewish chauvinism was manifest in the population and where the state was actively engaged in promoting Judeophobic pogroms. This serves as confirmation of the Zionist allegation of the genetic Judeophobic "nature" of Gentiles, making Judeophobia a constant and omnipresent phenomenon.
Even though Zionism maintains its reputation as working in "defense of Jews all over the world", upon closer examination, one realizes that Zionism, itself, is one of the nationalisms practicing anti-Semitism. It is Zionists who have based their ideology on the notion that Jews are "an alien, hostile people, incapable of assimilation."
Theodor Herzl (1860-1904), the founder of modern Zionism, maintained that anti-Semitism is not an aberration, but a natural and completely understandable response by non-Jews to alien Jewish behavior and attitudes. The only solution, he argued, is for Jews to recognize reality and live in a separate state of their own. "The Jewish question exists wherever Jews live in noticeable numbers," he wrote in his most influential work, The Jewish State. "Where it does not exist, it is brought in by arriving Jews ... I consider this development as a Jew, without hate or fear." The Jewish question, he maintained, is not social or religious. "It is a national question. To solve it we must, above all, make it an international political issue."[2]
"Recognizing reality" means simply accepting this as an immutable situation. For Zionism, Judeophobia is not an ideological characteristic, a chauvinism, which must be learned and therefore also can be unlearned. Zionism prefers to give Judeophobia a physical character, created by the mere presence of Jews among Gentiles regardless of anything they do or do not do. This constitutes mere acceptance of the Judeophobic chauvinism. But Zionists go much further in their acceptance of anti-Semitism.
Les Levidow, observes:
"As largely or potentially assimilated Jews, the early Zionists of Western Europe came to doubt the possibility - or even desirability - of their full assimilation, as they encountered prejudice and barriers. They came to accept anti-Semitic racial concepts of the Jews as inherently incapable of integrating into the Western nations as full citizens. This fatalism was expressed by doctor Leo Pinsker, with a suitable medical metaphor, when he declared that 'Judeo-phobia is a disease; and, as a congenital disease, it is incurable' (in Hertzberg, 1966)."[3]Of course the Pinsker metaphor lends a permanent justification to Zionism and therefore creates an apparent absolute necessity for a Jewish state. If the "Jewish state" is necessary to protect Jews from Judeophobic anti-Semitism, the eradication of Judeophobic anti-Semitism relieves the Jews of the need to separate from the rest of their countrymen to go to the "Jewish state." Therefore Judeophobic anti-Semitism must be made to appear as a genetic characteristic of non-Jews to lend credibility to the thesis of anti-Semitism being a "national question" and not a question of a chauvinist ideology.
In the study "Zionism and Anti-Semitism" one learns:
" In 1921, Germans in Germany were told that:
“We Jews are aliens… a foreign people in your midst and we… wish to stay that way. A Jew can never be a loyal German; whoever calls the foreign land his Fatherland is a traitor to the Jewish people“.[4]
This statement was made in 1921 by Jacob Klatzkin, "the second of two political Zionist ideologists in Germany at the time, where the Jews of Germany were enjoying full political and civil rights. It was he who had advocated undermining Jewish communities as the one certain way of acquiring a state."[5]
Judeophobes considered Jews to be non- or second class-citizens, outcasts, often forced to live in ghettos apart from the rest of the population. The principle tenet of the Zionist ideology concords with this view. The basic expression of Zionist Judeophobia is to be found in the attitude of Zionists toward Jews around the world.
In July 2004 speaking to visiting American Jewish leaders in Jerusalem, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said: "If I have to advocate to our brothers in France, I will tell them one thing - 'Move to Israel, as early as possible'. I say that to Jews all around the world, but there [in France] I think it's a must and they have to move immediately." He added: "In France today, about 10 per cent of the population are Muslims ... that gets a different kind of anti-Semitism, based on anti-Israeli feelings and propaganda."[6]
This interference in French domestic affairs received a prompt rebuff both from French officials and from French Zionist leaders.
"These comments do not bring calm, peace and serenity that we all need, (...) I think Mr Sharon would have done better tonight to have kept quiet." said Patrick Gaubert, of the International League Against Racism and Anti-Semitism (Licra). "It's not up to him to decide for us," said Theo Klein, honorary president of Crif, which represents French Jewish organizations.[7]
In all the excitement about the appeal to emigrate, Sharon's anti-Semitic association drawn between Muslim and anti-Semite passed unnoticed. With his statement, he shifted the weight of the blame for anti-Israeli feelings onto the Muslim faith and away from Israel’s blatant disregard for the human rights of the surrounding Arab populations. This also suggests: "Israel will not change its policies, it is the Muslims who have to give up THEIR claims to human rights!"
The former Israeli ambassador to France, Avi Pazner, drove in the nail even further to make the point, "Every time he meets groups of Jews, Sharon always calls on them to immigrate to Israel".[8]
In fact this repeated appeal for Jews to leave their homelands to go into exile in Israel is a continuation of the basic anti-Semitic tenets of historical European anti-Semitism: Jews and non-Jews cannot inhabit the same territory living in peace and mutual respect. They must be physically separated. Having accepted this myth as an absolute law of nature, Zionists intervene wherever possible to induce Jews to leave their homelands to move to Israel.
"For many years, the State of Israel and the adherents of Zionism in other countries have maintained the position that Israel is the “Jewish homeland,” and that Jews outside of Israel are in “exile,” and that a “full Jewish life” can be lived only in the Jewish state," writes Allan C. Brownfeld of the Washington Report on Middle Eastern Affairs.[9]
He gives the following example:
"On a January 1996 visit to Germany, Israeli President Ezer Weizman declared that he “cannot understand how 40,000 Jews can live in Germany,” and asserted that, “The place of Jews is in Israel. Only in Israel can Jews live full Jewish lives.”The author also explains:
"Ignatz Bubis, [at the time] the head of Germany’s main Jewish organization, stated: “I have lived here since l945 and have met two new generations who simply do not identify with the Nazis. This is a new generation.”
"Arguing that a Jewish presence in Germany prevents Hitler from achieving his posthumous victory of a “Judenrein” Germany, [a "Jewless" Germany] he declared: “The full revival of the Jewish community in post-war Germany is important.” Weizman was not singling out German Jews with his comments, Bubis acknowledged: “He says the same thing to American Jews and Belgian Jews and in all other countries.”
"The former Israeli prime minister, Yitzhak Shamir, is quoted to have declared: “The very essence of our being obliges every Jew to live in Eretz Yisrael...In my opinion, a man has no right to consider himself a part of the Jewish people without also being a Zionist, because Zionism states that in order for a Jew to live as a Jew he needs to have his own country, his own life, and his own future.” This quote is to be found in the book published in 2000, Conversations With Yitzhak Shamir."[10]
This is nothing more than the practice of setting Jews apart from the rest of society, forcing them from their place as citizens of that country with full and equal rights and inducing them to come live in a ghetto.
"When Israel was first established, many prominent American Jews were concerned about the Zionist leaders’ contempt for Jewish life outside of Israel and their desire for a massive emigration of all Jews to the new state. In particular, they did not want Israel to interfere in the “internal affairs” of the American Jewish community.
"An historic exchange in l950 between the president of the American Jewish Committee, Jacob Blaustein, and Israel’s prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, sought to allay these fears. As summarized by the committee, the agreement stipulated that:
(1) “ Jews of the United States, as a community and as individuals, have only one political attachment, namely to the United States of America;
(2) that the Government and people of Israel respect the integrity of Jewish life in the democratic countries and the right of Jewish communities to develop their indigenous social, economic and cultural aspirations, in accordance with their own needs and institutions; and
(3) that Israel fully accepts the fact that the Jews of the United States do not live ‘in exile,’ and that America is home for them.
"Whatever David Ben-Gurion may have said in l950, the fact is that ever since the State of Israel has persisted in promoting the idea that Jews living outside of its borders are indeed in “exile” and that all Jews should emigrate to the Jewish state. This call for emigration has little to do with anti-Semitic incidents in countries such as France, for these calls are as vocal in countries such as the United States as they are in France.
"(...) This concept, repugnant to the vast majority of Americans of Jewish faith, who clearly view themselves as American by nationality, citizenship and political allegiance, and Jews by religion, should be publicly repudiated by the organized Jewish community."[11]
Israeli prime minister Sharon "has said time and time again that he sees immigration as one of the government's strategic missions."[12] Jewish immigration to Israel is the cornerstone of Zionism, says the Jewish national movement.[13] Israel is a country built on immigration whose leaders see the continuing influx of Jews as vital to its survival. [14]
The well-known columnist for the New York Times, Flora Lewis, relates the following enlightening anecdote:
"Some years ago, when Chaim Herzog was president of Israel, he invited me to lunch with a few men to discuss Israel's evolution. They were not orthodox but they understood the urge to emphasize tradition and difference in dress, in manner, in meticulous religious observance. "Why are there only some 15 million Jews in the world, instead of 80 million, 100 million, more after so many generations? one asked. "Its not because of the holocaust, it's assimilation. Survival is because of the orthodox who insisted on difference."[15]But Israel is in a deep crisis. For years immigration to Israel has been tapering off while emigration from Israel has been growing.
As Uri Avnery writes:
"'Experts' with computers are calculating what will be the percentage of Jews in Israel in 10, 25, 50 or a hundred years time. Will they be less than 78%? Or - God forbid! - only 75%? Will the womb of the orthodox Jewish woman, in addition to expected immigration, balance the production of the Arab uterus? And if not, what can be done? Some propose encouraging Jewish births while resolutely discouraging Arab natural increase. Some suggest preventing Jewish immigrants from Russia from bringing with them Christian family members (allowed by the Law of Return in its present form.) Some demand the immediate expulsion of all foreign workers, before they settle down and establish families. Some pray for a wave of anti-Semitism in France or Argentina (but definitely not in the United States), that will push multitudes of Jews towards Israel. Many, including members of Sharon's government, support the simplest solution: driving all Arabs out of the country."[16]The Washington Post explains:
After a two-year spike in immigration in 1990 and 1991, when about 375,000 people -- most of them from the Soviet republics -- poured into Israel, migration patterns remained fairly stable, with 60,000 to 80,000 new arrivals each year. Then in 2001, after the start of the Palestinian uprising, the number dropped to about 43,000. Last year, immigration plunged to 23,200, much of the loss due to a decline in arrivals from the former Soviet Union, according to immigration statistics. [17]The Post writes further:
The Israeli daily, Ha'aretz sheds light on the latest strategy for overcoming this crisis.
"Avraham Berkowitz, a rabbi in Moscow who is the executive director of the Federation of Jewish Communities in Russia and other former Soviet republics, claims that a reverse migration is underway between Israel and the former Soviet republics, with more Jews now returning than moving to Israel -- an assertion denied by Israeli officials. The Israeli government does not maintain up-to-date statistics on citizens who move away permanently. But other data reveal a remarkable trend: In the last two years, more Jews from the former Soviet Union have immigrated to Germany than to Israel, according to German and Israeli statistics. (...) From his work with Jewish leaders in 13 countries, he estimates that at least 75,000 Jews have returned to former Soviet republics from Israel in the last five years, even though many say they hope to go back to Israel someday. [18]
The Jewish Agency and the Absorption Ministry are targeting the Jewish communities of Argentina, South Africa and France as potential reservoirs of new immigrants, and for the first time are planning to use economic enticements to try to win immigration from those three Western countries. (...) France, where the 600,000 mostly North African Jews, the largest Diaspora community outside of the U.S., have been encountering a sharp rise in anti-Semitic incidents and the Agency is counting on their sense of isolation in a country with 6 million Muslims; and South Africa, where the country has seen a drastic drop in the standard of living due to declining foreign investment, as well as a steep rise in crime.The Zionists define their "problem" in their habitual – ethnic – way.
France has potential, say Jewish Agency officials like Mike Rosenberg, the current Immigration Department chief, because of the strong links between the community and Israel. But agency officials admit that French Jewry meanwhile regards the upsurge in anti-Semitism as a temporary affair resulting from the impact of the intifada. On the other hand, percentage-wise, immigration from Argentina, due to the economic crisis there, and France, in the wake of anti-Semitic incidents, surged. (...) The year saw some 600 anti-Semitic incidents [worldwide], of which 105 occurred in France. A total of 130 incidents were defined as violent.[19]
"Today, about 5.2 million Jews live in Israel, while about 4.6 million Palestinians live within Israel's borders, the West Bank and Gaza Strip. (...) At current rates, and absent a new influx of Jewish immigrants, Palestinians could outnumber Jews in less than a decade, creating what some Israelis see as a demographic time bomb for their state."[20]Of course the "time bomb" only exists to those who define Israel as a state with an ethnically pure population. Israel is a country with such a mixture of nationalities, races and cultural traditions thrown together and united only through the fact that each believes himself to be a "Jew," with each having a somewhat different idea what constitutes "a Jew." "Ethnic purity" under such conditions is only to be achieved with slight of hand. That slight of hand is the "union" created in the acceptance and support of the absolute power of the Israeli state. [21]
The "Jerusalem Post" writes, "South African Jews are turning to Israel in reaction to a poor economy and French Jews are fleeing rising anti-Semitism, [Absorption Ministry spokesman Yehuda] Glick said. He noted that some 40 percent of France’s 600,000 Jews live close to Muslim neighborhoods."[22]
Despite the economic and security problems in Israel, the director of the Jewish Agency, Mike Rosenberg, "believed that adverse conditions for Jews elsewhere in the world would push them toward Israel. He noted perceptions [sic] of growing anti-Semitism in France and the uncertain economic situation in Argentina. (...) 'There is still a very great reservoir of potential immigrants for Israel,' he said. 'Our job is to create the conditions to harness it.'"[23]
The Israeli journal, Maariv reports how:
"The Jewish Agency (JA) is about to embark on an extensive mission to try to persuade French Jews to make aliyah (immigrate to Israel). In the next several weeks hundreds of JA envoys will arrive at Jewish districts in Paris as part of an operation named "Sarsel Tehila" ("Sarcelles first." Sarcelles is a suburb of Paris). Maariv has found out that the Israeli government and the JA are preparing for an unprecedented operation in an attempt to persuade tens of thousands of Jews to immigrate to Israel within several months.The JA has denied the existence of these hundreds of emissaries, but the interest of the agency and the Israeli government in the Jews of France is no secret. (...) Sure is that the JA has opened offices in numerous big cities in France in order according to AFP, "to adapt the structure for the anticipated departure of 30, - 33,000 French Jews, (...) in the near future" The JA judges that this strategy is supported by the degradation of the anti-Semitic climate in France. [25]
A meeting on the subject - held last weekend - was attended by Immigration Minister Tzipi Livni, the Director-General of the Prime Minister's Office Ilan Cohen and JA Chairman Salai Meridor. The head of the JA's Paris delegation Menahem Gur-Ari said during the meeting that in a survey recently conducted in Paris, about 6% of Jews (30,000 of France's half a million-strong Jewish community) expressed willingness to come to Israel because of rising anti-Semitism and the feeling of lack of personal safety for their children in the future.
During the meeting it was decided to send hundreds of envoys to different cities across France, especially where a large Muslim population resides. (...) JA Chairman Salai Meridor said, "It is highly important to concentrate our efforts on bringing French Jewry to Israel. We must not miss out on this historic opportunity".
However, according to Roger Cukierman, President of "Conseil Representaif des Juifs de France" - the body that represents French Jewry, "Israel is bypassing us, bypassing our community leaders and I intend to express my objections to the Israeli ambassador". Cukierman added, "We should calm down. The French government is doing its best to overcome anti-Semitism and it is not the time to create a conflict with French authorities". Other community leaders expressed a less diplomatic approach. "It's a crazy decision", Izo Rozenman - one of the leaders of a Jewish secular organization in France - told NRG Maariv. "The French government is doing everything it can to battle anti-Semitism. This decision is irresponsible".[24]
But this is not the only aspect of earlier European anti-Semitism that Zionism perpetuates. Another is how Rosenberg and others "create the conditions to harness" the immigration potential.
The second form of Zionist Judeophobic anti-Semitism involves the means used to force – or induce – Jews to leave their homelands for Israel.
Not only is Zionism unthinkable without anti-Semitism or its threat, Israel, as a political/economic entity, could also not maintain its present course, if it were not for periodic crescendos in, what becomes generally defined as, anti-Jewish sentiment in various wealthy countries around the western world with relatively, large or affluent Jewish populations. These periods of apparent intensification of Judeophobic anti-Semitism, heighten interest in Israel among Jews around the world. This interest is then expressed financially (donations, investment) politically (lobbying, electoral results based upon pro-Israel policy) and demographically (emigration to Israel). But it also makes official and left criticism of Israeli policy more difficult, because it becomes immediately defamed as anti-Semitism and is associated with Hitler. Politicians become more "receptive" to electoral pressure and lobby money in return for hypercritical, feigned outrage and breast-beating about the need to combat "anti-Semitism". For Israel this can also be useful in obtaining concessions in the form of new weapons systems, foreign policy changes, or special status and preferential favors not to mention favors of the financial sort.
The distinguished MIT professor Noam Chomsky explained the recent periodic crescendos in Judeophobic anti-Semitism in the media of the United States as follows:
"You find occasional instances of anti-Semitism, but they are marginal. There's plenty of racism, but it's directed against Blacks, Latinos, and Arabs are targets of enormous racism. Those problems are real but anti-Semitism is no longer a problem, fortunately. It's raised, but it's raised because privileged people want to make sure they have total control, not just 98% control. That's why anti-Semitism is becoming an issue. Not because of the threat of anti-Semitism; they want to make sure there's no critical look at the policies the US (and they themselves) support in the Middle East. With regard to anti-Semitism, the distinguished Israeli statesman Abba Eban pointed out the main task of Israeli propaganda (they would call it 'exclamation', what's called propaganda when others do it) is to make it clear to the world there's no difference between anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism. By anti-Zionism, he meant criticisms of the current policies of the State of Israel. So there's no difference between criticism of policies of the State of Israel and anti-Semitism, because if he can establish 'that' then he can undercut all criticism by invoking the Nazis, and that will silence people."[26]Zionist propaganda has been rather effective in establishing a link between criticism of Israeli policy and "anti-Semitism."
Statistics another form of propaganda
With the intensification of the Israeli offensive against the Palestinians and neighboring Arab states, intensified also the criticism of Israeli policies particularly its gross violations of human rights. And corresponding to this rise in criticism of Israeli policy grew also the incidence of "anti-Semitic attacks" in those countries where criticism is loudest.
There, where there is no tangible anti-Semitism to be met, a specter of anti-Semitism is created in the media on the basis of unverifiable anecdotes, statistics, and vandalism, including acts of terrorism, carried out against Jewish individuals or Jewish property. These acts of vandalism – often remaining unsolved – become the "tip of the iceberg of anti-Semitism" in the given society – often targeting a specific group such as the Muslim sector of the population.
What is hardly apparent at first sight – and what few would want to believe even on taking a second look – is that these "crescendos" in what is “perceived” as expressions of "anti-Jewish" sentiment, are often campaigns initiated by Zionists and their allies.
The factual basis for this growth in statistical "anti-Semitism" rarely becomes known to the public. Therefore there is no possibility of verifying the truth of details behind what is being calculated. Just the same, when one does take a closer look at what information is available in the public domain, one begins to realize that Winston Churchill was right when he warned: "there are lies, damn lies and statistics."
Prime minister Sharon's appeal to French Jews to come to Israel, mentioned above, came shortly after the disclosure of a highly publicized incident of a young woman, Marie Leoné, who, in the company of her small child, reported having been molested on a regional commuter train in the Paris suburbs. She told police that she had been (mis)taken for Jewish, by a group of young North African Arabs and Blacks and had been pushed around and threatened with knives. The group, painted swastikas on her stomach – with magic markers – before fleeing the train. During the attack, which took place during rush-hour, none of the fellow passengers in the compartment, came to the young mother's aid or subsequently stepped forward as witnesses.
Upon receiving news of the attack, President Jacques Chirac made a press statement in which he said, "I have demanded that every effort be made to find those responsible for this shameful act in order to try and convict them with the complete severity of the law."
The State Secretary for Victims' Rights, Nicole Guedj, made an appeal for witnesses to come forward, to help find the aggressors, stressing that it is necessary that "severe and exemplary punishment be levied in a dissuasive manner." She informed the press that she had spoken to the victim by telephone.[27]
This outpouring of concern at the highest levels of government – a concern neither typical nor to be expected for victims of Arabophobic anti-Semitism or racist attacks – was short-lived. It turned out that the entire story was a hoax. The entire political spectrum in France – and its media – immediately jumped on the case, before even awaiting the results of the police investigations.
As much concern as the government officials publicly displayed for the presumed victim of this presumed "anti-Jewish attack," there was nothing but silence and disdain for the fact that the hoax represented a blatant anti-Arab/anti-Black attack. There was no call for conviction with the complete severity of the law. These same public figures are indifferent to Arabophobic anti-Semitism and racism. The only public personality on record, to have mentioned the victims of this hoax was Mme. Simone Veil, president of the Foundation for the Memory of the Shoah. In her speech at the commemoration of the anniversary of the round-up of France's Jews for deportation to Auschwitz, while deploring the rise in anti-Semitism, she also mentioned the "young Arabs and Africans [who] once again have been stigmatized."[28]
This fact alone helps point out that the claim that the government is against "'anti-Semitism' AND racism" is only a smoke-screen cliché to hide the fact that the government is itself anti-Semitic and racist. They simply make the stipulation that they don't want to be seen as Judeophobic anti-Semites.
Sharon's appeal also followed the publication of statistics, indicating that in the first six months of the year, (2004) France's Interior Ministry recorded 135 acts and 375 threats[29] of anti-Semitic attacks compared to 125 acts and 463 threats in all of the previous year.[30] "Racist attacks also rose: There were 95 attacks and 161 threats through June, compared with a total 232 reported in 2003."[31]
These statistics form the basis for the allegations – and the assumptions – that there is a rapid and widespread rise in (Judeophobic) anti-Semitism comparable to the 1930s, if not in all of Europe then, at least, in particular European nations, for example, in France.
Whereas the statistics pertaining to "anti-Semitic" acts and threats suffice to produce a major outcry of indignation and parliamentary resolutions for changes in the law, the rise in the statistics pertaining to racist attacks are passed over quasi in silence. This fact alone should place into question the sincerity of those shouting loudest for cutbacks in civil and human rights. Theirs is not an effort aimed at chauvinism, but a manipulation of chauvinism in order to strengthen the power of the state against disfavored or disgruntled minorities within the population. They are using the "perception" – to use the terminology of the Jewish Agency – of anti-Semitism in order to roll back democratic gains and move the country closer to a fascist order.
Chauvinism is chauvinism regardless of whom it is directed against. The tolerance of chauvinism, when directed against people of another race – which does not exclude Semites, since Arabs are not considered as “Aryan” or “white” Europeans – is the best way of measuring the general level of official chauvinism – anti-Semitism included.
One reason for this discrepancy between the reaction to a statistical rise in racist attacks and Judeophobic attacks is a discrepancy based on political consideration.
The question of "anti-Semitism" is political capital. Political forces have a political interest in quantifying the level of, and manipulating the perception of what qualifies as anti-Semitism in a given society.
One usually goes on the assumption that the original news reports of a suspected anti-Semitic aggression or the anti-Semitic background to an aggression pans out to have been correct. Just as in the case of the young French woman, who played out the hoax of an attack in the commuter train, other cases suspected to have had a Judeophobic anti-Semitic background, could just as well also turn out to be false. The public was informed that the commuter train incident was a hoax. Other hoaxes and misrepresentations are less widely known.
Qualifying anti-Semitism is a major political enterprise. A key element in this enterprise is the monopoly on the definition of "anti-Semitism" to exclude all non-Jewish Semites, victimized by anti-Semitic chauvinism. (See the chapter "Anti-Semitism and Arabs") This becomes particularly apparent in cases such as the hoax mentioned above or in the unsubstantiated claims that the culprits behind the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 were from the Arab world.
The second key element is the broad extension of the term "anti-Semitism" even when referring to what, at first sight, is apparently Judeophobic chauvinism. The strategy behind the application of this element is to remove the question of chauvinism from the notion of anti-Semitism.
Once upon a time, to be anti-Semitic meant harboring animosity toward Jews, as Jews, BECAUSE they are Jews. Anti-Semitism is no longer an anti-Jewish sentiment motivating a particular act, but is now taken to mean the presence of a Jewish "victim". Victim of anything – including a hoax. The motivation of the culprit – if the identity is known – plays no role. Chauvinism is rarely mentioned nor considered. More often mentioned is the fact that the supposed culprit is Muslim and that the altercation is in some way linked to the Israeli policy toward Arabs in the Middle East. (See Sharon's appeal to French Jews above.)
When verbal or physical altercations happen because of differences over money, women, football, the Middle East or simply because one of the parties is obnoxious, if one of the parties happens to be Jewish, regardless of which side of the argument (s)he happens to be on, the statistics can record a new "anti-Semitic" aggression or threat.
If a Jewish person happens to be the random victim of a mentally deranged assailant, (as in Epinay, France) it becomes a case of anti-Semitism for the statistics and an affair of state, even though the SEVEN other stabbing victims of the same assailant were non-Jewish.
When one examines the case of the commuter train hoax one notices several coincidences:
• The hoax implicates – not neo-Nazis – but young Arabs and Africans, thereby perpetuating the predominant (Arabophobic) anti-Semitism and racism already widespread in the society, in order to create a Jewish victimization overshadowing the already existent Arabophobic anti-Semitism and racism.This "anti-Semitic attack" was not rare or isolated. "Anti-Semitic" hoaxes are a Zionist stock in trade.
• The hoax takes place with grandiose political fanfare – in spite of possible doubts held by the investigating police. In this case the hoax was staged in close proximity to the publication of semi-annual statistics on anti-Semitism and racism in France and the commemoration of the WW II deportation of French Jews to Nazi concentration camps – thereby creating a false link between the inflated "perception" of Judeophobia today and that of the 1930s. This draws an artificial link between the supposed "anti-Semitism" of today with the genocide of the Nazis.
Alexandre Moïse, general secretary of the Zionist Federation of France, president of the Synagogue rue, St. Isaure and spokesman for the Likud Party in France, confessed in court to having sent himself threatening telephone calls (for which he swore out warrants). He explained that he staged the hoax "to render more credible the danger and risks he felt he was submitted to because of his public engagement." Moïse was sentenced to two months prison (suspended sentence) and a fine of € 750.[32]
Of particular importance among the "public engagements" was his successful censorship – through the Zionist campaign for the annulment of scheduled performances – of a popular Afro-French comedian, Dieudonné by several major stages around France because of his criticism of Israeli policies and the caricaturizing of Zionist chauvinism. There was muted protest against this criminalizing of innocent people in order to create a "perception" of Zionist victimization.
When windows are broken in Jewish schools or synagogues or other acts of vandalism, when tombstones are smeared with Nazi symbols, it is safe to assume that these acts of vandalism are initially recorded in the statistics as acts of "anti-Semitism," even though it is usually not known who committed these acts.
One must be skeptical about what the statistics are supposed to represent. The statistics may – but also may not – have taken into consideration that the motive behind the attack had nothing to do with ethnic identity. Therefore the statistics purporting to convey the trend relating to "anti-Semitic" (or even Judeophobic) bias in the society cannot be taken at face value. They are easily manipulated and are a means of manipulation.
The French government admits that most of the recorded "298 anti-Semitic acts" recorded in the first half of the year 2004 (as reported in August of that year) remained unsolved. This tally included "162 acts of property damage, such as graffiti or arson, 69 breaches of media law involving publication of anti-Semitic images or remarks, and 67 physical or verbal attacks." Though some of the cases were still being investigated in Aug. 2004, "others were dropped because the guilty parties were unlikely to be identified."[33]
As long as no guilty party is found, anyone could be a suspect and all suspects are considered innocent until proven guilty. So until one learns who actually committed the vandalism and if the vandalism was committed for reasons of Judeophobic chauvinism, it is also premature to conclude that it is was NOT committed by Zionists in order to gain credibility for the "perception" of a statistical trend indicating a rise in "anti-Semitism".
It is hardly safe to assume that, when the acts turn out, in fact, to be hoaxes or Zionist perpetrated, that they will be adjusted accordingly in the statistical representation. This is one reason why the cases that the statistics refer to are rarely made public even though many individual cases are initially loudly proclaimed anti-Semitic. A follow-up on the case often shows another background, or a hoax.
A Parisian Jewish social center was torched and destroyed in the night from Aug. 21 – 22, 2004. The fire police found swastikas, "Hitler was right" and "Death to the Jews"[34] inscribed on walls and doors inside the center.
Following the arson the French president, Jacques Chirac condemned "this despicable act" and promised "the absolute determination of the state to find the culprits behind this inadmissible deed." And Prime Minister, Jean-Pierre Raffarin paid a visit to the scene of the crime and declared that France would be extremely severe with those who engage in anti-Semitism.[35]
Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom flew hastily to Paris to hold talks with government officials and Jewish leaders following the arson. He too paid a visit to the destroyed center. With the burned-out building as a backdrop, Shalom told reporters "we should leave the French authorities to conduct their investigation." He added that it was "of little importance what happened here when we know that during the last six months there have been more than 170 anti-Semitic incidents [in France].[36]
As principal suspect in the arson police arrested a 52-year-old Jewish man. Reports the Jewish Journal of Los Angeles:
"Police said the man, identified only as 'Raphael B.' and described as unstable, is a former caretaker at the institution who had received free meals in return for his volunteer activities. It is believed that the center wanted to part company with the man, provoking what police think was an act of vengeance. In the aftermath of the attack, Jewish leaders sought to link the incident to recent cases in which judges had been lenient with anti-Semitic offenders." [37]The article, from the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, (JTA) gives the following background:
"The Jewish community could have been excused had its cries of anti-Semitism been isolated to one attack that turned out to have different motives. But the recent arson is only the latest example of politicians and community leaders reacting to an event with horror, only to have to ask questions later."In July, an incident in which a young woman claimed she and her baby were attacked on a suburban train drew fierce condemnations from politicians and religious leaders ' until it was discovered that the woman had made up the story.
"Similarly, the recent knifing of a yeshiva student in the Paris suburbs also apparently was not motivated by anti-Semitism.[38]A press communiqué of the French organization, Coordination des Appels pour une Paix Juste au proche-Orient, (CAPJPO) provides details to this case:
“The mentally deranged assailant had stabbed several persons of various origins (Jewish, Haitian, Algerian, and Portuguese), but the politicians were interested solely in the Jewish victim and portrayed the tragedy as an act of anti-Semitism.”[39]The JTA continues:
And police still are investigating claims by a rabbi that he was stabbed outside his synagogue in January 2003, as reports allege that the rabbi may have stabbed himself.[40]The CAPJPO communiqué explains further:
Rabbi Farhi falsely claimed that he had been stabbed by an individual screaming "Allah Akbar" [Allah, is great], police uncovered a non-anti-Semitic background to the story of someone having drawn a Star of David on the arm of a young girl in Montpellier, that the film producer, Elie Chouraqui, had manipulated a television report to suppose anti-Semitism of North African high school students in [the Parisian suburb of] Montreuil. [41]The article concludes:
"Less in the media spotlight is the burning last November of an unoccupied annex of a Jewish school in the Parisian suburb of Gagny. It looks less and less likely that the incident was motivated by anti-Semitism.How many of those "nearly 300 reported acts of anti-Semitism" fall into the same category of hoax, Zionist anti-Semitic attack or random victimization with a Jewish victim?
"Nevertheless, for Jewish organizations and for the government, these cases are merely isolated incidents in a tide of nearly 300 reported acts of anti-Semitism in France since the beginning of 2004."[42]
Neither the president, his prime minister nor the Israeli foreign minister found it necessary to call for an investigation into the background – e.g. whether there was a conspiracy perhaps linked to the Jewish Agency – behind the fire.
Considering that over the same period, there was also a rise in racist attacks, but without the grand declarations, the PR visits by heads of state to the bedsides of the victims, it becomes apparent that there is a calibration of victims: Jews are placed at the very top of political PR priorities and the other – and possibly more abundant – victims of chauvinist motivated criminality at the bottom. Government officials have to be seen as being active against (Judeophobic) anti-Semitism. For the second category there is no pressing need for intervention by government officials.
Given the political ethic already apparent behind this manipulation, it can be assumed that many of these cases are not listed as chauvinist hate crimes. If factually accounted for in the statistics, these would far surpass the cases of (Judeophobic) anti-Semitism. This, itself, is a chauvinist crime at state level.
On the contrary, the persecution that Jews suffered down through the centuries are now openly – and officially – being visited upon another group of Semites. No "benefit of the doubt" is bestowed upon the Arab victim of a racist/anti-Semitic attack. Unlike his Jewish brethren, he, in many cases may have to prove that the attack took place. This is not demanded of Zionist claims of being victims.
Very telling is the statement in the "Jewish Telegraphic Agency article that "these [hoax] cases are merely isolated incidents in a tide of nearly 300 reported acts of anti-Semitism." What they are saying in essence is, "here we were caught, now try to prove that the others were also hoaxes or self-inflicted."
These campaigns serve several purposes. They form the "perceptional" basis of a "catastrophic rise" in anti-Semitism. This is not only necessary for recruiting new support for the concept of Israel, "the Jewish state," but it also serves in silencing civil(ized) criticism of Israeli policy from sectors of the world's populations, and thwarts diplomatic initiatives at the international level.
This lays also the groundwork for drumming up support from (non-Zionist) Jewish and left sectors of populations abroad. They, in good faith in bogus statistics, jump onto the bandwagon in what they believe is a fight against "anti-Semitism." In reality, however, this is the promotion of a "perception" of an imaginary – or even self-inflicted – "anti-Semitism."[43] The purpose is to lend credibility to Zionists, protesting a given country's respect for the human rights and the national sovereignty of also Arab peoples and nations. Defamed as "pro-Arab" and therefore "anti-Semitic" – because critical of Israeli policy – these nations become targets in media campaigns claiming a "rise in anti-Semitism".
Sharon and immigration
For those who have not broken down the Zionist ideology, it would seem a contradiction for Zionists to be fighting to save Jews from anti-Semitism, by building up a "Jewish state" and, at the same time, submit Jews in the "Diaspora" to anti-Semitism or to an inflated fear of anti-Semitism. Actually it is quite simple.
Zionism has nothing to do with saving Jews from anything – and certainly not from anti-Semitism. The key is to be found in a misunderstanding.
Whereas Jews, the world over, see themselves as Jews. Zionists consider only those Jews engaged in furthering the Zionist cause as being “the true Jews.”
Zionists, (Jewish nationalists), as demonstrated above, are chauvinist also in relationship to universalistic Jews. They view them as weak and unwilling to do “the necessary” to create the “Jewish” empire. Zionists are convinced that only their cause is just. Being, in their eyes, the only "true" Jews and “chosen people,” they feel entitled to carry out any and all measures, regardless of how barbarian, to achieve their objectives. Their claim to speak in the name of all Jews is itself inherent Judeophobic anti-Semitism.
This is perhaps best expressed in an interview by Amos Oz in his book " Poh va-sham be-Erets-Yisra'el bi-setav" (1982, English title: In the Land of Israel, Vintage, 1984) . Amos Oz does not mention the name of Sharon, but uses the abbreviation Z. But the facts furnished by Amos Oz indicate that the person being interviewed is Ariel Sharon.[44] Sharon was forced to resign as defense minister, because of his role in instigating the massacre of more than 1,000 Palestinian women, children and elderly in the Sabre and Chatilla refugee camps. Oz's interview-partner gives his view of the "diaspora" Jews.
"Let me tell me [sic] what is the most important thing, the sweetest fruit of the war in Lebanon: It is that now they don't just hate Israel. Thanks to us, they now also hate all those Feinschmecker Jews in Paris, London, New York, Frankfurt and Montreal, in all their holes. At last they hate all these nice Yids, who say they are different from us, that they are not Israeli thugs, that they are different Jews, clean and decent. Just like the assimilated Jew in Vienna and Berlin begged the anti-Semite not to confuse him with the screaming, stinking Ostjude, who had smuggled himself into that cultural environment out of the dirty ghettos of Ukraine and Poland. It won't help them, those clean Yids, just as it did not help them in Vienna and Berlin. Let them shout that they condemn Israel, that they are all right, that they did not want and don't want to hurt a fly, that they always prefer being slaughtered to fighting, that they have taken it upon themselves to teach the gentiles how to be good Christians by always turning the other cheek. It won't do them any good. Now they are getting it there because of us, and I am telling you, it is a pleasure to watch."Sharon’s prognosis is on the way to becoming reality.
"(...)Soon their palaces will be smeared with the slogan: Yids, go to Palestine! And you know what? They will go to Palestine because they will have no other choice! All this is a bonus we received from the Lebanese war. Tell me, wasn't it worth it? Soon we will hit on good times. The Jews will start arriving, the Israelis will stop emigrating and those who already emigrated will return. Those who had chosen assimilation will finally understand that it won't help them to try and be the conscience of the world. "[45]
Recently, a group of "traditional Jews" addressed themselves, in an open letter, to the Office to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism, a propaganda organ created in the US State Department.
Noting, first of all, that they "are thankful that most countries do not endorse or promote anti-Semitism, [they feel themselves] compelled to express [their] concern for the actions of the so called 'state of Israel' which promotes anti-Semitism and fear in the worldwide Jewish community to lure Jews from their homelands."[46] They write further:
"Without the threat of anti-Semitism as a motivation for immigration the Zionist state would cease to exist as the so-called 'Jewish State'.And they draw the conclusion that:
"Recent analyses of Israel’s immigration/emigration ratio indicate that without the continued immigration of Jews to this touted 'refuge for Jews' (which is in fact probably the most dangerous place on earth for Jews) within a decade the Jewish population will be in the minority. Historically there has been a direct correlation between increased immigration to the Zionist state and increased anti-Semitism in other countries. Without a Jewish majority the state will simply become another Middle-Eastern country without a 'cause'.
"To retain their power and world influence the leaders of the Zionist state have a vested interest in the escalation of anti-Semitism as a motivation for the Jewish immigration needed to keep a majority Jewish population in their country."[47]
"As the recently created 'watch dog' for world anti-Semitism your mandate is to investigate, expose, and sanction countries practicing and promoting anti-Semitism. The Zionist state called 'Israel' should be at the top of your list. We urge you to take action."[48]Zionist creation and manipulation of fears of a rise in "anti-Semitism" is no new phenomenon.
"The case of the Iraqi Jews is the most well known," writes Jean Shaoul[49], and continues: "and is documented in several books (see Moshe Gat's The Jewish Exodus from Iraq 1948-1951 and Shlomi Hillel's Operation Babylon[50]). The Zionist underground, backed by Mossad le-Aliya, the forerunner of the Israeli security service, sent agents provocateurs abroad to create conditions whereby Jews would leave their homes and come to Israel. As a result of Mossad activities, in the space of a few weeks more than 120,000 Jews—almost the entire community in Iraq—were forced to leave their homes and possessions for Israel. Until the onset of Zionist-Palestinian conflict and the inflaming of political tensions by Britain's stooge regime under King Feisal and Prime Minister Nuri Said in Iraq, Jews had lived there without incident for 2,500 years, since the Babylonian exile from biblical Palestine."
Shaoul explains further:
Israel was not the destination of choice for the Iraqi Jews. A privileged few, those with money and connections, went to the West. But the majority lived in Israeli camps, where food and medicines were in short supply, until homes in “development” towns could be built on the ruins of Palestinian villages.Uri Avnery puts the intrinsic need for Judeophobia by Zionists in a nutshell: "There are people in Israel, people who secretly wish for the victory of anti-Semitism everywhere. That would confirm another Zionist myth on which we were brought up: that Jews will not be able to live anywhere but in Israel, because anti-Semitism is bound to triumph everywhere."[52]
In subsequent years, entire communities of Jews from all over the Middle East and North Africa, who had had no interest in Zionism and had not faced discrimination or the anti-Semitism so prevalent in Europe, came to Israel They now form the majority in Israel.[51]
Berlin, Germany
July 24, 2005
July 24, 2005
[1] http://www.aldeilis.net/zion/zionsym4.html
[2] Weber, Mark, "Zionism and the Third Reich" http://members.internettrash.com/library/zionism.htm
[3] Hertzberg, A. (1966). The Zionist Idea: A Historical Analysis and Reader. New York, Atheneum; includes a reprint of Leo Pinsker, Auto-emancipation quoted in Levidow, Les, Zionist anti-Semitism, "Return" (London), Dec. 1990, http://www.aldeilis.net/zion/zionrac12.html,
[4] "Zionism and Anti-Semitism," http://www.jewsagainstzionism.com/zionism/zanda.cfm
[5] ibid
[6] Burleigh, James, "Sharon To French Jews: 'Move To Israel As Soon As Possible,'" The Independent – UK, July 19, 2004
[7] French Jews 'must move to Israel' BBC, 18 July, 2004
[8] Keinon, Herb, "France says Sharon is unwelcome now," THE JERUSALEM POST Jul. 18, 2004
[9] Brownfeld, Allan C., "Israel and Judaism: Israel’s Aggressive Promotion of Aliyah a Rejection of Jewish Life Outside Israel" Washington Report, November 2004, http://www.wrmea.com/archives/November_2004/0411072.html
[10] ibid
[11] ibid
[12] Keinon, Herb and Hazan, Jenny, "PM to greet arriving French immigrants" Ha'aretz July 27, 2004
[13] Associated Press, "Livni: Jewish immigration to Israel is in 'tailspin'" MideastJournal.com June 23, 2003
[14] Anderson, John Ward, "Fewer Come to Israel, And Many Are Leaving" Washington Post, April 23, 2004
[15] Lewis, Flora, "When Making Peace isn't everyone's Primary Goal" International Herald Tribune, Oct. 4, 1996
[16] Avnery, Uri, A Jewish Demographic State, 12.10.02, http://www.gush-shalom.org/archives/article215.html
[17] Anderson, John Ward, "Fewer Come to Israel, And Many Are Leaving" Washington Post, April 23, 2004
[18] ibid
[19] Sheleg, Yair, "5762: Outbreaks of anti-Semitism and outpourings of solidarity" Ha'aretz, September 06, 2002
[20] Anderson, John Ward, "Fewer Come to Israel, And Many Are Leaving" Washington Post, April 23, 2004
[21] ... and the blotting out of the fact that a sizable portion of the Israeli population are non-Jewish, and discriminated against for this reason.
[22] Lazaroff, Tova, "Lazaroff, Israeli delegation in Argentina helping potential immigrants" Jerusalem Post Aug. 01, 2002
[23] Associated Press, "Livni: Jewish immigration to Israel is in 'tailspin'" MideastJournal.com June 23, 2003
[24] Bender, Arik, "JA to embark on massive French aliyah campaign" Maariv, June 13, 2004
[25] CB, L’Agence juive veut faire venir 30 000 Français en Israël en trois ans, L'Humanité, July 20, 2004, http://www.humanite.presse.fr/journal/2004-07-20/2004-07-20-397572
[26] Chomsky, Noam, Professor Noam Chomsky On: "Anti-Semitism, Zionism, and the Palestinians" Middle East Realities, March 22, 2005, www.middleeast.org
[27] Reuters, "L'agression antisémite du RER suscite l'indignation générale," July 11, 2004, http://fr.news.yahoo.com/040711/85/3ymrn.html
[28] Coroller, Catherine, "Vel' d'hiv: commémoration sur fond d'inquiétude" Liberation, July 19, 2004, http://www.minorites.org/article.php?IDA=2744
[29] What constitutes "a threat?" "I'll break your jaw" or simply a look as if to say, "why don't you leave me alone?" No one has qualified or quantified "threat." Given the fact that anyone who opposes Israeli military aggression, is perceived as a "threat" to the "existence of Israel" anything can be used to inflate the statistics of anti-Semitic "threats."
[30] Brownfeld, op cit
[31] AP/Reuters, France: Anti-Semitism is 'a reality that we must combat', Ha'aretz, July 26, 2004
[32] http://www.grioo.com/info2412.html# and http://www.proche-orient.info/xaudio_article.php3?id_article=24699
[33] Agence France Press, "French government tallies anti-Semitic acts" International Herald Tribune, August 27, 2004
[34] Coordination des Appels pour une Paix Juste au proche-Orient, (CAPJPO) Communiqué de Presse, Aug. 30, 2004
[35] Le Temps/AFP, L'appel du président du consistoire de Paris à «un peu plus de raison», Aug. 30, 2004 / Centre social juif : la piste antisémite écartée? http://up.www.lci.fr/news/france/0,,3171399-VU5WX0lEIDUy,00.html
[36] Carmel, Philip, Jewish Arsonist Worked for Paris Center, Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Sept. 9, 2003, http://www.jewishjournal.com/home/preview.php?id=12777
[37] Carmel, op cit
[38] ibid
[39] Coordination des Appels pour une Paix Juste au proche-Orient, (CAPJPO) Communiqué de Presse, July 14, 2004, http://www.legrandsoir.info/article.php3?id_article=1687
[40] Carmel, op cit
[41] CAPJPO op cit
[42] Carmel, op cit
[43] "Anti-Semitism" is in quotation marks because here it is used to mean exclusively Judeophobic anti-Semitism, which though not the most prevalent is the most referred to. Most people are still unaware that Arabophobia is also a form of anti-Semitism.
[44] Who is Ariel Sharon?, Interview by Amos Oz in 1982, http://www.voicesofpalestine.org/ArielSharon.asp
[45] Taken from an interview by Amos Oz with Ariel Sharon in his book, " Poh va-sham be-Erets-Yisra'el bi-setav", 1982, English translation at http://www.islamicparty.com/commonsense/33sharon.htm.
[46] Jews Against Zionism, "A Message to the Office to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism," http://www.jewsagainstzionism.com/news/newsletters/jaz111004.htm
[47] ibid
[48] ibid
[49] Shaoul, Jean, "Zionism's legacy of ethnic cleansing, Part 2—Israeli expansion creates more Palestinian refugees" 23 January 2001, http://www.wsws.org/articles/2001/jan2001/pal2-j23_prn.shtml
[50] For a first hand report from a participant in the Zionist underground, see also Giladi, Naeim, "The Jews of Iraq" The Link - Volume 31, Issue 2. April - May 1998, www.inminds.co.uk/jews-of-iraq.html
[51] ibid
[52] Avnery, Uri, Manufacturing Anti-Semites, Counterpunch, 28.9.02 http://www.counterpunch.org/avnery1002.html
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1 commento:
Caro prof.,
rubando un po' di tempo alla famiglia ed agli altri impegni quotidiani, sono riuscito oggi a tradurre il primo articolo, quello tratto da Counterpunch (è sul mio blog, qui -> http://cittadiariano.it/blog/huey/2009/05/censura-la-criminalizzazione-delle-critiche-ad-israele/).
Purtroppo il secondo, un vero e proprio saggio esaustivo e completo, meriterebbe molto di più di essere tradotto, ma temo che sia aldilà delle mie possibilità di traduttore non professionista (più che altro, per la mancanza di tempo da dedicare all'opera).
Non dispero di metterci mano, perché sarebbe una degna opera divulgare il testo in italiano, ma l'opera potrebbe richiedere tempi lunghi.
Alla prossima.
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