Libya says it will quit international energy organizations that have Israel as a member. (They won't.)

The fallout in Libya of the discovery that Israeli and Libyan officials have been meeting secretly for years, and those officials denials, has prompted many other Libyans to pledge that they will never, ever, ever do anything that could be considered the slightest bit of normalization with Israel.

For example, the mayors of Libyan towns felt it was necessary to issue a statement that they "expressed their complete rejection of establishing any relationship of any kind with the criminal Zionist entity."

But perhaps the strangest announcement of people trying to out-Arab the Palestinians - who do indeed speak to Israeli officials - comes from the Libyan Ministry of Oil and Gas, which said 

The Ministry of Oil and Gas announces its rejection of state officials calling joining organizations or forums attended by the Zionist entity or in which it is a member, especially in areas related to the oil and gas sector.

I don't know how many international energy organizations Israel is a member of, but Israel certainly has been a member of the World Petroleum Council for decades - and so is Libya, and Iran,. 

All three are also members of the International Gas Union.

Is it really going to quit those organizations now? A Libyan boycott of these, and probably many more, international organizations that include Israel would only hurt Libya - it wouldn't affect Israel at all.

Moreover, Israel and Libya have both been members of these organizations for quite a while, and Libya never said a word against it - even though Libya's official laws rejecting normalization of Israel have been in force since 1957.

Just like the announcement of the mayors, this is all posturing. Libya was shamed by the foreign minister's meeting with her Israeli counterpart, and now they are scrambling to regain their "honor." Honor has nothing to do with reality - public declarations of solidarity with Palestinians mean much more than privately insulting them, or privately accpeting Israel's membership in these international organizations. 

Put it this way - none of Israel's enemies have quit the UN yet despite Israel being a member.

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Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism  today at Amazon! Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.  Read all about it here!

 

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1957 British "Adventures of Robin Hood" tackled antisemitism

This is an episode of "The Adventures of Robin Hood" called "The York Treasure"  that has a Jewish-themed plot, even though the word "Jewish" is (as far as I can tell) mentioned only once.

Joseph of Cordoba and his young friend Esther escaped from a pogrom of the Jewish community in York (described as "riots") instigated by a deserter of King Richard I's army named Malbete. He knew that the Jews had raised 1000 pounds to pay the captain of a ship who is bringing more Jewish refugees from Europe via the seaside town of Grimsby. Malbete started the pogrom to steal the money, but Joseph and Esther smuggled it out, and asked Robin Hood to help them bring it to the arriving ship at Grimsby. Meanwhile, Malbete enlists help from the Sheriff of Nottingham, Robin Hood's enemy. 

Antisemitism is seen during the episode as well, when Malbete rages against Jews in a tavern (also referring to the Crusades) and later when he promises his men that the Jews arriving from the boat will not be a problem: "Those scum don't fight." 

Obviously, they do.

Interestingly, the legend of Robin Hood occurs right in the timeframe of the destruction of York's Jewish community in 1190. The Jews were expelled from England altogether in 1290. So the episode did not take as many liberties with history as one could have imagined.

 

The TV show was produced by Hannah Weinstein, a Jewish left-wing political actress-turned producer who moved to England to avoid being blacklisted by McCarthyism. Many episodes of the series were secretly written by Americans who had been blacklisted, under assumed names. (The writer of this episode was "Clare Thorne," almost certainly a pseudonym.) 

Weinstein went on to a career in Hollywood in the 1970s.

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Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism  today at Amazon! Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.  Read all about it here!

 

Read More