Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News: antisemitism

Showing posts with label antisemitism. Show all posts

Wednesday, May 29, 2024

Spain has a Nasty Habit of Expelling Jews (Judean Rose)

Expulsion of the Jews from Seville, oil on canvas, Joaquín Turina y Areal

Disclaimer: the views expressed here are solely those of the author, weekly Judean Rose columnist Varda Meyers Epstein.

Spain has a nasty habit of expelling Jews. First from Spain, then from Portugal, and now, most recently, from Israel, the Jewish State. The Jews were informed of the coming expulsion by way of a televised speech given by Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez. Jews are to be expelled from Judea, Samaria, and the Western Wall, and the Temple Mount, among other places. With the Arabs to be ensconced there, in their stead.

Spain formally recognizes Palestine as a sovereign nation!

Palestine will be made up of West Bank and Gaza — connected by a corridor — with East Jerusalem as the capital.

Spanish PM Pedro Sanchez today. pic.twitter.com/puvPTREgw9
— S.L. Kanthan (@Kanthan2030) May 28, 2024

The last time around, Spain expelled the Jews because they wouldn’t accept Jesus Christ as their lord and savior. This time it’s because they want the Jews violently crushed; pushed into the sea; and eliminated, once and for all. Spanish Deputy Prime Minister Yolanda Diaz made this clear, made Spain’s intentions clear when she declared, "From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” in a video she published on May 24, for public consumption.

The expulsion of the Jews from Spain was one thing. At least then, in 1492, Spain was expelling the Jews from sovereign Spanish territory. They didn’t want the Jews; they didn’t like the Jews; they wanted to punish the Jews, so they ousted them from their country.

Not that they did it nicely. According to the Jewish Virtual Library, the expulsion was rough and many Jews did not survive:

Tens of thousands of refugees died while trying to reach safety. In some instances, Spanish ship captains charged Jewish passengers exorbitant sums, then dumped them overboard in the middle of the ocean. In the last days before the expulsion, rumors spread throughout Spain that the fleeing refugees had swallowed gold and diamonds, and many Jews were knifed to death by brigands hoping to find treasures in their stomachs.

The Alhambra edict of expulsion

But at least in 1492, Spain expelled Jews from its own sovereign territory: Spain. Today, in 2024, Spain is spearheading an expulsion of the Jews from territory not its own. This time, Spain is expelling Jews from the sovereign State of Israel, holy indigenous Jewish land.

The Grand Inquisitor friar Tomás de Torquemada in 1492 offers to the Catholic Monarchs the Edict of expulsion of the Jews from Spain for their signature. Oil on canvas, Emilio Sala y Francés (1889)

All of Israel is holy to the Jews, of course. But Jerusalem is the holiest of holy Jewish real estate, and Spain is not Israel. Spain doesn’t get to decide that Israel is now “Palestine.” The Spanish prime minister doesn’t get to declare that Jews can no longer pray at the Western Wall or visit the Temple Mount—even if 140 other countries have already declared it so. Even if all the countries in the world declare it so. It doesn’t matter. This is land that will always belong to the Jews.

Yet here Spain is, declaring that it now recognizes Judea, the place from whence the Jews hail, the place that gave the Jews their name, as “Palestine.” Here is Spain, saying that from now on “East” Jerusalem is really “Palestine.” Here Spain is, stealing Jewish indigenous territory and giving it to terrorists who have promised not to stop massacring Jews until all of them are dead—it’s in their charter.

It’s surreal the way Spain and its cohorts have cut up and parceled out bits of the holy unified capital of Israel to the very people who beheaded Jewish infants, raped Jewish women, and burned families alive in their homes a short time ago. It’s not as if anyone can deny these things happened (though they do). The perpetrators proudly recorded it all for posterity with their GoPro cameras.

From PMW: "Following Norway, Ireland, and Spain’s recognition of a Palestinian state last week, PA Chairman Abbas’ Fatah Movement published the above cartoon. It shows exactly what
'Palestine' the PA and Fatah say, the European countries endorsed.
"The cartoon shows 'Palestine' having replaced the entire State of Israel and the PA areas. The map is formed by three arms painted in the colors of the flags of the three European countries. The 'Norwegian' arm writes the word 'Palestine,' the 'Irish' arm waves a Palestinian flag, while the 'Spanish' hand makes a V-sign with its fingers, signifying 'victory.'”

Here is the key point that Spain will need to absorb: Israel. Doesn’t. Belong. To. Spain. Israel also doesn’t belong to Ireland, or Norway, or to any of the other 140 countries that, according to Pedro Sanchez, have already decided that Israel has no claim to its own sovereign Israeli territory.

And yet, Israel is a sovereign country. Spain, Norway, Ireland—and the others chiming in—not one of them has the right to declare “Palestine” on land that belongs to others—it’s pure hubris—but the world especially has no right to “recognize” Palestine on Israeli soil, and certainly not after the atrocities of October 7, and while Israeli hostages are yet being starved, raped, and tortured by the very people recognized by Spain et al., as the new owners of Jewish Israeli land.

We don’t want these Hamas and Hamas-loving people next to us or near us, especially when 71 percent of them still think October 7 was “correct.” Give them Madrid, Dublin, or Oslo—territory that belongs to you and your ilk—you deserve them.

Once upon a time, in Spain, the Jews had no agency. But in Israel, now, we do. It’s our land, and you are not the boss of it. You have no say over our territory. And you surely will not push us into the sea.

***
On a lighter note, I would be remiss in not finding a way to work in the following classic Inquisition-themed comedy clips. Only Mel Brooks or Monty Python could get away with this--only they would see the Inquisition as comedy gold. (Viewer Discretion Advised)

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!

Bambie Thug and the Jew-Hating Ire of Ireland (Judean Rose)

Disclaimer: the views expressed here are solely those of the author, weekly Judean Rose columnist Varda Meyers Epstein.

Bambie Thug represented Ireland at Eurovision, one might even say admirably so. The singer’s hatred for the Jewish people and their state indeed typify the Jew-hating sensibilities of Irish society. Ireland only yesterday in fact, announced that it would recognize a terrorist state run by Jew-hating rapists and baby killers on sovereign Israeli soil. So one can’t really blame Thug, who prefers the pronouns “they” and “them,” if they cried when Israel qualified for the Eurovision finals.

“I cried with my team,” they said.

@newstalkfm “I cried with my team" - Ireland 🇮🇪 Eurovision finalist, Bambie Thug's reaction to Israel qualifying for the Eurovision Grand Final #eurovision2024 #eurovision #eurovisionsongcontest #bambiethug #ireland #israel ♬ original sound - Newstalk

How exactly did Bambie Thug use the Eurovision song contest to express their hatred of Jews?

The non-binary singer took an aggressive anti-Israel stance, including calls to remove Israel from the competition, wearing a keffiyeh, smuggling a watermelon-shaped plushie to the grand final, and attempting to go on stage with the word "ceasefire" written on their face.

Oh, well. Perhaps Bambie Thug felt a bit better this week when the International Criminal Court (ICC) announced it would be issuing arrest warrants for Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. Of course, the singer’s relief would have been tempered by the knowledge that arrest warrants would also be issued to Hamas leaders Yahya Sinwar, Ismail Haniyeh, and Mohammed Deif. But Thug would understand why drawing a moral equivalence between Israel and Hamas was important. Which is why the intention of the court was first broadcast to the media by ICC Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan, and sensationalized by CNN’s own Jew-hating Christiane Amanpour.

Bambie Thug would be feeling better still when three countries, including Ireland, announced they were to recognize Palestine as a state, only two days later. “Recognition is an act of powerful political and symbolic value,” said Irish Prime Minister Simon Harris at a special news conference in Dublin.

Israel understands that symbolism quite well. Ireland is rewarding Gaza for the October 7 massacre by gifting it with Israeli territory. Or put another way, symbolically stealing Israeli territory for Hamas, archenemy of the Jews. Think of it as an Irish, Spanish, and Norwegian love note to the terrorists who gang rape and torture Jews and burn Jewish babies alive.

Back in March, Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar paid a visit to the U.S. At his first stop, in Boston, he spoke at the JFK Library, and used the occasion to accuse Israel of imposing “collective punishment” on Palestinians, and reacting in a manner that he claimed was out of all proportion to the October 7 massacre. These events prompted a short piece in Mosaic Magazine on Why Ireland Hates Israel:

[Retired Jewish Irish politician Alan] Shatter cited the close relationship between the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and the IRA, which dispatched its operatives to the Middle East for military training in Palestinian camps, as a key factor. “Their strong bond, which still exists, was reflected in these huge murals in nationalist areas expressing solidarity with the Palestinians,” he said. . . . Central to this position was the refusal of the IRA and Sinn Fein, its political wing, to recognize that Jews are indigenous to the land of Israel. . .

. . . Anti-Semitism in Ireland has become “blatant and obvious,” Shatter said. There is little sympathy for the right of the Jews to national self-determination, despite the fact that “Sinn Fein fights for exactly this for the Irish,” he noted. Although he is a storied writer who has published several books, Shatter’s latest manuscript—provocatively titled So You Have a Problem with Jews?—remains unpublished, with one imprint informing him that he was being turned down because “there’s no interest” in Ireland on the topic of anti-Semitism.

Perhaps the greatest irony in Irish antisemitism is that there are also almost no Jews in Ireland. According to the Institute for National Security (INSS), “Ireland has a small Jewish community, numbering about 2,700 (of which close to 500 are Israelis who have moved there in recent years) and totaling about 0.05% of the country’s total population.”

Such a tiny community to be the target of so much Irish hate. No wonder Ireland has to look farther afield at Israel to get its Jew-hating jollies. Bambie Thug, for example, had to travel all the way to Malmö, Sweden. But Thug could have just as well stayed home, permeated as Ireland is with hate for Jews and Israel.

What drives all this Irish hate, and how does it manifest? David Collier wrote an investigative report on antisemitism in Ireland. The report begins with an executive summary of Collier’s conclusions:

➢ In Ireland, anti-Jewish racism spreads within the corridors of power and unlike in the UK or US, appears to be as much driven from the top down as the reverse.

➢ Some Irish politicians are obsessed about attacking Israel and Zionism, treating it in a manner different from the way they treat all other international issues.

➢ Irish politicians share material that is clearly fake and that comes from social media accounts that are blatantly antisemitic.

➢ One TD even liked a post that seems to suggest Hitler ‘may not have been too far wrong’.

➢ The argument that allegations of antisemitism are about stifling ‘criticism of Israel’ is used to shield some of the most horrific anti-Jewish racism imaginable.

➢ The problem stretches across politics and NGOs and spills onto the street. There is little political will and few voices to counter it. This has led to a proliferation throughout the Irish mainstream.

➢ In almost every town analysed, many of the key ‘activists’ have a history of sharing antisemitic content or giving voice to antisemitic ideology. There is even little or no reaction to activists sharing Holocaust Denial.

➢ Antisemitism is a key motivator in anti-Zionist activity. The people who share antisemitic ideology are often those handing out leaflets, organising the protest and starting groups in their local areas.

➢ These anti-Zionists view Zionists as ‘global manipulators’, ‘thieves’, ‘bloodsuckers’ and as people ‘intent on destroying the world to fulfil their own evil agenda’. It is undeniably antisemitism.

➢ Traditional Christian antisemitism plays a significant role in compounding the problem in Ireland and Christian NGOs facilitate the spread of antisemitism there. ➢ In anti-Zionism, far-right and far-left merge. The report confirms the findings of previous research. It establishes beyond doubt the indivisibility of anti-Zionist protest and antisemitism. Antisemitism in all its guises must be called out. It has no place in public discourse

I asked Collier what he thought about Ireland’s recognition of Palestine as a state, and of Bambie Thug’s tantrum. “For years Ireland has been the most visibly antisemitic nation in Europe, and it comes as no surprise they would be leading the charge to recognise Palestine as a state – even after the Hamas atrocities of October 7. Ireland is now a country whose two most recognisable exports are antisemitism and Bambie Thug – and this says far more about them than it does about Israel."

There is a hugely ironic backstory to Bambie Thug’s obsessive Jew-hate, and it comes by way of “their” name. Some believe that the storybook, “Bambi: a life in the woods,” first published in 1922, by Felix Salten, is meant to be read as an allegory for Jewish persecution.

Screenshot from Instagram

Jack Zipes, a professor of German and comparative literature wrote a new edition of Bambi for its centennial birthday, “The Original Bambi: The Story of a Life in the Forest.” He stresses that Salten’s story was not meant to be the children’s classic we know from the silver screen. It was not even meant to be read by children:

Zipes explains that the original story was “’a book about survival in your own home.’ Disney's adaptation washed out much of the original meaning, he said.”

“All the animals have been persecuted. And I think what shakes the reader is that there are also some animals who are traitors, who help the hunters kill.”

In the book, Bambi does not suffer the same fate as in the Disney film. He ends up completely alone. In reality, it is a tragic story of the loneliness of Jews and other minority groups in early 20th century Europe.

Salten, the son of a rabbi who worked as a journalist in Vienna, changed his birth name from Siegmund Salzmann in his teens to obscure his Jewish identity.

"I think he foresaw the Holocaust," Zipes said.

Felix Salten at a young age

A later portrait of Felix Salten

The first edition of Bambi

In “Bambi Was Jewish” Judy Gruen writes that Salten was a Zionist:

The antisemitism he endured growing up and its growing menace during that era drew him to the writings of Theodore Herzl, particularly his pamphlet Der Judenstaat (The Jewish State). He viewed Herzl as a symbol of resistance and began contributing articles about Jews and anti-Semitism for Die Zeit as well as Herzl’s own weekly, Die Welt. He eventually traveled to Palestine to investigate how Jews were managing to realize the Zionist dream.

His professional success brought him wealth, and he summered with his family near Austrian forests, intensifying his lifelong affection for animals. He later owned a hunting preserve, but as his daughter, Anna, wrote, “Only very rarely did he fire a shot—and then only when the principles of game keeping demanded it.” His stories and novels about animals emphasized their powerlessness, a theme he continued for the rest of his life.

But his own assimilation was no help once the Nazis occupied Austria in 1938. The following year, Salten and his wife fled to Zurich, after the Swiss extracted a promise from him to stop writing about cultural politics. This limited him to writing far less marketable animal stories.

Salten had already realized that the assimilation he embraced would not protect him from rising antisemitism. He reveals this through the character of Gobo, a childhood pal of Bambi but much weaker physically and emotionally. Long assumed to have been killed, Gobo shocks the forest population by returning, very much alive, and bragging about having been rescued by “Him,” whom Gobo insists is not the evil threat everyone else imagines. Gobo wears a braided ring around his neck, placed by Him, which the deer believes is a special mark that will immunize him from any further danger.

After Bambi and the others scoff at his claims, he tells another friend, “He (Bambi) still can’t deal with the fact that I’ve become someone different. . . There’s no danger for me on the meadow! . . . What does he mean by danger? He means well enough and cares for me, but danger is something for him and the likes of him, not for me.” His confidence that his assimilation will protect him will soon prove as tragically naïve as that of Jews throughout the generations who made similar bargains.

Zipes writes that based on the author’s life experiences with antisemitism, “Bambi is indeed Salten, and Salten is Bambi. . . Just as Bambi becomes an intrepid roebuck, Salten rose to fame and then was belittled and alienated from Austrian and German culture. He was treated just like all the other European Jews in the 1930s and 1940s.”

Felix Salten with his children

Salten's books were banned by Nazi Germany in 1936. But his allegory for Jewish persecution lives on, not least of all in the form of Bambie Thug.

A thug whose lifeblood is "their" hate for the Jewish people.

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!

Antisemitism is personal—even when it’s only on Facebook (Judean Rose)

Disclaimer: the views expressed here are solely those of the author, weekly Judean Rose columnist Varda Meyers Epstein.

Antisemitism is personal. Like snowflakes—no wokeness intended—no two Jews experience antisemitism the same way. Even the same Jew will experience antisemitism differently when there are multiple incidents or when exposure to antisemitism is ongoing.

Social media antisemitism is probably the safest kind of antisemitism, because the antisemite hides behind a keyboard. An ugly comment, it must be acknowledged, is not the same as being beaten by gangs. Still, there is always the possibility that the online antisemite will doxx you, or use what you write to identify you to people who could do you real harm IRL (in real life).

The comments themselves range from brainless to so ugly that you gasp out loud from the shock of it. One particular antisemitic barb will make you giggle for its stupidity, while another will make you tremble, and your eyes well up with tears. Sometimes you feel a wry sense of the familiar. This is what it is. This is our lived experience, to be hated for false reasons or for no reasons at all.

Sometimes the hurt is compounded by the attitude of the people at the top. People like Mark Zuckerberg who has made his community standards such that horrific antisemitic comments and memes are left up, while our innocent pro-Israel memes and comments are removed when reported by Arabs and their supporters.

A pattern has developed wherein I report the offensive, antisemitic post and Facebook says no, it doesn’t violate its community standards. I then appeal where they allow it, and they say no again, and the vile antisemitic post stays up.

Here are some antisemitic comments and memes that I have reported over the past several weeks. Facebook has refused to take action:

In my personal experience of social media however, the worst offender in allowing antisemitic comments and online calls for genocide, is Quora. It’s all anti-Israel, antisemitic lies and propaganda posed as questions. Sure, you can report antisemitic questions and comments and they’ll be collapsed or deleted, but repeat offenders are never banned. I think about leaving or even muting Quora all the time, but I stay, mostly to encourage those still interested in learning the truth about the Jewish people and Israel.

Here’s a selection of 26 antisemitic Quora questions that have accumulated over the past 12 days and are awaiting my attention—for me to either reply or pass:

1. With the utmost respect intended, how is it possible for so many average Israelis on sites as this to defend their state's ongoing assault on Gaza, when even such mainstream " Western " sources like Oxfam attest to its singular level of brutality?

2. Why did Hamas commit terrorism against Israel which can annihilate itself entirely?

3. Does Satan support Israel victory over the people of Palestine?

4. Has Trump asked Netanyahu to cause maximum embarrassment for Biden, with Israel's assault on Gaza, by completely ignoring Biden's pleas for restraint?

5. Would there have been more outcry against Israel's actions if any major Fortune 100 companies had been headquartered in Gaza?

6. Would people who oppose Yemen's blockade of Israel-linked ships also have opposed the partisans who blew up Nazi train lines?

7. Why is Palestine more pro-American and trustworthy than Israel?

8. Are Israelis going to give the stolen land back to the Palestinians and stop their thieving ways?

9. Why doesn't Israel just give back the land it won and pretend the war never happened and we get a 2 state solution?

10. Why are Israelis basically flat out admitting to genocidal intent by calling approximately 1.15 million minors (including children) terrorists and "the enemy" when asked why Israel was withholding water, food and medicine from them if not genocide?

11. It’s only a matter of time until our generation is elected to office, and the rogue terrorist state of Israel will cease to exist, but what can we do in the meantime to stop Israel's bloodbath?

12. What is the reasoning behind Israel refusing to embed journalists to show the world Hamas is still aggressive and leaving the world to only see civilian suffering? [untrue]

13. It was just last year that Israel was funding Hamas millions of dollars in cash and weapons. What happened that made Hamas attack the people that support them?

14. Do you think Israel will rebuild Gaza for the Palestinians, or do you think they will just steal the land?

15. Why does Africa love Hamas so much, should Israel start a war with them?

16. Why do the Zionists in the social media persistently seek to dehumanize the Palestinians, despite having themselves been subjected to similar dehumanization tactics by Hitler that led to genocide against them?

17. Why does America seem unable to influence or control Israel, while other countries supporting Palestine exert more control over the situation?

18. Is Israel’s attack on Gaza legitimate?

19. Why am I seeing so many Israeli propaganda posts in my feed?

20. Polls show Israel has completely lost younger Americans with 74% or more disapproving of how it has handled the Hamas-Israel war. Has Netanyahu and his right wing government permanently damaged the US - Israel relationship or can it come back? [false]

21. Why was the USA disturbed by the disruption of navigation in the Red Sea and not disturbed by genocidal crimes committed by Israel in Gaza, but rather supported it in that?

22. Is the only way of stopping Israel's slaughter of Palestinian civilians in Gaza for ten [sic] USA to withdraw all support from Israel? If so, isn't it morally incumbent on them to do so?

23. Why is Western media calling the Palestinian genocide a war, and censoring people in support of Palestine?

24. Is Israel using artificial intelligence to deny humanity and wage war?

25. Is someone who supports both Israel in Gaza and Russia in Ukraine a pawn of the Likud?

26. Is it true that the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7th was relatively hilarious?

That last query was actually older, from early December 2023. I leave it in my inbox as a future reminder of a time when the world was once again overrun by masses of people rejoicing at Jewish suffering while too many watched on, indifferent. Atrocities are never hilarious. Good people know this. Yet Quora, as powerful as it is, with its 400 million active monthly users, leaves this question up on its website where it has sat now for seven weeks. Is Quora’s indifference to antisemitism evidence of malfeasance? Is Mark Zuckerberg’s refusal to ban evil antisemitic memes and comments, evidence of his malfeasance?

Which leads to another question: Are antisemitic evil, hate, and depravity still real if they exist only in the virtual halls of Quora and Facebook? The answer depends on your personal experience of antisemitism. One Jew will laugh off an antisemitic comment, or block it from their consciousness, while others may feel hurt or anger. But no matter how a Jew experiences antisemitism, some damage is done, even if the “damage” consists of absorbing the bitter lesson that not all, or even most people are good.

It’s a lesson that Jews have been forced to learn and relearn over millennia, a lesson that perhaps even Anne Frank was forced to learn in the end. We’ll never know, because Anne Frank was murdered before she could tell us, because she was a Jew.

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!

Antisemites framing the discussion so Israel can't win

Israel-haters/antisemites often use an exceptionally effective method to win in the court of public opinion, known a "framing." When one sets the ground rules of what is and is not up for debate, they can create a playing field where the Zionist or Jewish side cannot win. Forcing Jews to argue within those parameters gives them a huge handicap.

One classic example is to pretend that the history of Israel starts with modern Zionism. If you exclude any talk about the history of the Jews in the Land of Israel before the 19th century, they look just like the foreign colonialists that the haters claim we are.

With Operation Iron Swords, the framing has been elaborate and very effective.

The false framework goes like this:

* Telling civilians to move, whether within or without their territory, is a war crime.

* Neighboring countries have no obligation to accept refugees.

* Killing lots of civilians is a war crime by definition.

* Limiting humanitarian aid to a war zone is a war crime.

All discussions of the war on TV is bound by this framework. These four "rules" are not always explicit, which makes it harder to go against them. Who wants to see dead civilians?

The framing statements are incorrect. But the framework is carefully created to ensure that Israel cannot achieve its military objective of destroying Hamas.

* In fact, in a war zone, the attacker is obligated to tell civilians to move out of the war zone - which Israel has done and Hamas has tried to stop.

* While I don't think that Egypt is legally obligated to open its border, it never had a problem with taking in hundreds of thousands of other refugees from elsewhere. It certainly has a moral obligation to do so.

* Targeting civilians is a war crime. Knowing that civilians will die during an attack on a legitimate military target is acceptable as long as the casualties are not excessive, and international law has a much more liberal view of what is excessive than what Israel does.

* Israel has every right to inspect and limit aid to ensure that Hamas does not get it.

But the first four rules are accepted as the framework on CNN and Al Jazeera. Most news shows don't bother explaining the truth about international law because nuance is not TV-friendly.

Spokespeople on TV must break the framework by saying that they do not accept these parameters and creating their own, accurate framework:

* Hamas started this war with an unprecedented, horrific attack on Israel.

* Hamss has made it clear that they will never change or reform. This is who they are.

* The only moral choice is to utterly destroy them.

* Hamas has turned the entire Gaza Strip into a huge human shield for its army and vast subterranean military complex.

* Israel scrupulously follows international law even under these difficult constraints.

* Therefore, while Israel tries to minimize casualties, every civilian death is purely Hamas' fault.

How many TV shows or newspaper articles have you read that accepts these accurate statements as their framework?

It's going to be a long war, and Israel needs to reframe the discussion.

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!

Pure antisemitism in @BBCArabic: "Observant Jews consider spitting on Christians a holiday ritual"

Earlier this week, some religious Jews were captured on video spitting in front of Christian pilgrims in Jerusalem.

A thoroughly stupid extremist named Elisha Yered posted on X that the custom of spitting next to a church or near priests is an “ancient and long-standing custom.”

His statements and the spitting incidents themselves were roundly condemned by Israeli officials and prominent rabbis.

Rabbi Shlomo Aviner wrote Tuesday: “There is no Jewish law that you have to spit at idol worship. There is no such rule in the Gemara, nor in Maimonides, nor in the Shulchan Aruch. ... It simply causes disputes and quarrels and we lose from it. We have to educate the children to behave respectfully.”

Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi of Israel David Lau said, "These immoral phenomena have certainly nothing to do with Jewish law."

After an earlier such incident in the summer, many prominent rabbis condemned the practice, including Sephardic Chief Rabbi of Jerusalem Shlomo Amar issued a strong statement condemning the practice and said that those who spit at non-Jews are a chilul Hashem, desecrators of God's name, one of the most serious prohibitions in Jewish law:

But according to BBC Arabic, there are no rabbis who condemn spitting at or near Christians. On the contrary - religious Jews all agree that spitting on Christians is exactly how Jews are expected to celebrate Sukkot!

BBC Arabic released a video on their website and on X that both describes the spitting incidents and how Jews celebrate the Sukkot holiday, as if the two topics are related. Here's the headline translated into English:

One of the sections of the video says this (Arabic screenshot above; this is the screenshot translated into English:)

"Observant Jews consider spitting on Christians a holiday ritual."

Then they showed Yered's tweet.

Even the most disgusting apologists for the spitting don't say it is associated with celebrating Jewish holidays, let alone all religious Jews.

This is stright-up antisemitism and anti-Jewish incitement published by the BBC Arabic. And it isn't the first time....this week.

The BBC should not only remove the videos. They should not only publicly apologize - in English and Arabic - for posting these lies.

The BBC must immediately fire whomever wrote that hateful lie. That person has no journalistic integrity; on the contrary, the video producer is simply a hatemonger. If the BBC allows that person to remain in their job, any claims of impartiality that the BBC pretends to maintain are shown to be simple lies.

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!

Video: "The Dark Side of Roger Waters"

The Campaign Against Antisemitism has released a film called "The Dark Side of Roger Waters," featuring interviews with Jews whom he has worked closely with who say that Waters is (at least functionally) an antisemite.

It is well worth watching.

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!

UAE Foreign Minister condemns Abbas' antisemitic statements

Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, UAE Minister of Foreign Affairs, met with the leaders of Jewish groups at the UN today.

According to the Emirates WAM News Agency, "His Highness condemned the irresponsible statements made by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas regarding the Jews and the Nazi Holocaust."

The minister also said that the UAE rejects hate speech and extremism, contempt of religions, racism, and racist discrimination in all its forms.

As far as I can tell, this is the first Arab government official to publicly condemn Abbas' antisemitic statements.

This is not a small thing. He will take some heat for saying this, and he could have avoided the topic altogether.

He deserves thanks for destroying the Arab consensus of either supporting Abbas or staying quiet.

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!

Palestinians reject open letter against Abbas' antisemitism

As mentioned yesterday, a group of Palestinian expatriates issued an open letter over the weekend condemning Mahmoud Abbas' antisemitic statements. but really their letter was more anti-Israel than anti-Abbas, as they accused him of toeing the Zionist line.

We the undersigned, Palestinian academics, writers, artists, activists, and people of all walks of life, unequivocally condemn the morally and politically reprehensible comments made by President of the Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas about the Holocaust. Rooted in a racial theory widespread in European culture and science at the time, the Nazi genocide of the Jewish people was born of antisemitism, fascism, and racism. We adamantly reject any attempt to diminish, misrepresent, or justify antisemitism, Nazi crimes against humanity, or historical revisionism vis-a-vis the Holocaust.

The Palestinian people are sufficiently burdened by Israeli settler colonialism, dispossession, occupation, and oppression without having to bear the negative effect of such ignorant and profoundly antisemitic narratives perpetuated by those who claim to speak in our name. We are also burdened by the PA’s increasingly authoritarian and draconian rule, which disproportionately impacts those living under occupation. Having held onto power nearly a decade and a half after his presidential mandate expired in 2009, supported by Western and pro-Israel forces seeking to perpetuate Israeli apartheid, Abbas and his political entourage have forfeited any claim to represent the Palestinian people and our struggle for justice, freedom, and equality, a struggle that stands against all forms of systemic racism and oppression.

This letter, signed mostly by American and British citizens, was not meant for Palestinians to read. It was not translated into Arabic. It was meant for the West, as the signatories could self-righteously pretend to oppose antisemitism while at the same time attack Abbas, since they prefer Hamas and Islamic Jihad as more reflective of adhering to the Palestinian will.

The are just as antisemitic as Abbas is, but some of them try a little harder to hide it. (Some don't!) Many of them have engaged in Holocaust inversion themselves.

However, we do live in an online age, and it was inevitable that Palestinians would see this letter. And their reaction was anger at opposing antisemitism:

A statement issued by a number of expatriate Palestinian academics and activists, regarding what President Mahmoud Abbas mentioned during a recent meeting of the Fatah Revolutionary Council about the Holocaust, sparked disapproval and condemnation from various Palestinian circles, especially since the statement was fragmentary and consistent with the Israeli and Zionist campaign, and without reference to the occupation, its positions and policies announced by his senior leaders, which are based on the idea of denying the existence of a Palestinian people, in addition to the massacres committed against them.
Former Minister Hassan Asfour commented on this statement by the academics and wrote: “In a strange and surprising way, a group of Palestinian figures, including the names of ‘academics,’ ‘experts,’ and analysts, most of whom hold foreign American and British nationalities, issued a statement attacking the president’s speech about ‘Ashkenazi Jews’ and Germany...a revealing statement. Ignorance of history is not limited only to those who do not read it, but it seems that “understanding has become without teaching from the beginning of the line... Be ashamed and apologize to your people, you pretenders of knowledge.”

Notice that both the letter and the reaction by Palestinians accused their opponents of being on the same side as the Jews.

It is all theatre.

But it points to a rarely mentioned fact: the Palestinian academics in the West are eager to write papers and speak at panel discussions where they pretend to represent the majority of Palestinian. They claim to support progressive, liberal standards, but they most definitely do not. Their speeches about the Palestinian cause being liberal begin and end with the Jews; they really don't care when the Arab world shows its bigotry or when Palestinians themselves show their illiberal beliefs - anti-woman, anti-gay, anti-environment, anti-animal rights.

Like Yasir Arafat before them, they tailor their message to the audience, lying as easily as they breathe, and hoping the world won't see their hypocrisy.

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Read all about it here!

Over and over again: Mahmoud Abbas spouts Jew-hatred. He is pressured to apologize and does it again. And the world continues to respect him.

In April 2018, Palestinian Authority president and PLO chairman Mahmoud Abbas gave an antisemitic speech where he claimed that Ashkenazic Jews were not really Jews, that Jews throughout history including during the Holocaust were hated not because they were Jews but because of how they acted, that Jews were never persecuted in Arab lands and that Jews have no connection to the Land of Israel.

World leaders expressed outrage, and Abbas - under pressure - apologized.

In a statement released by his office, Abbas said he did not intend to cause offense in a speech to the Palestinian National Council on Monday, in which he claimed the Holocaust was driven not by anti-Semitism but by a reaction to the financial activities of European Jews.

In his speech, citing books written by what he described as Zionist Jewish authors, Abbas also re-aired a discredited theory that Ashkenazi Jews hail from Khazaria, an empire located in Eastern Europe, rather than the biblical Holy Land.

“If people were offended by my statement in front of the PNC, especially people of the Jewish faith, I apologize to them,” Abbas said in his statement. “I would like to assure everyone that it was not my intention to do so, and to reiterate my full respect for the Jewish faith, as well as other monotheistic faiths.”

“I would also like to reiterate our long-held condemnation of the Holocaust, as the most heinous crime in history, and express our sympathy with its victims,” Friday’s statement from Abbas said. “Likewise, we condemn anti-Semitism in all its forms."

A couple of weeks ago, Abbas repeated every single antisemitic point he made in 2018 - and added a few more.

From MEMRI:

Abbas: "The truth that we should clarify to the world is that European Jews are not Semites. They have nothing to do with Semitism.

"The story began in 900 CE, in the Khazar Kingdom on the Caspian Sea. It was a Tatar kingdom that converted to Judaism.

"[In the 11th century], this empire collapsed, and all its population left to the north and to the west. They left for Russia and Western and Eastern Europe. They spread there, and they are the forefathers of Ashkenazi Jews. So when we hear them talk about Semitism and antisemitism – the Ashkenazi Jews, at least, are not Semites.

"They say that Hitler killed the Jews for being Jews, and that Europe hated the Jews because they were Jews.

"Not true. It was clearly explained that [the Europeans] fought [the Jews] because of their social role, and not their religion. Several authors wrote about this. Even Karl Marx said this was not true. He said that the enmity was not directed at Judaism as a religion, but to Judaism for is social role.

"The [Europeans] fought against these people because of their role in society, which had to do with usury, money, and so on and so forth. Even Hitler...

"Everybody knows that during World War I, Hitler was a sergeant. He said he fought the Jews because they were dealing with usury and money. In his view, they were engaged in sabotage, and this is why he hated them. We just want to make this point clear. This was not about Semitism and antisemitism.

"As for the eastern Jews, they are Semites, because all of them originated in the Arabian Peninsula and they traveled to Al-Andalus, and then came back. We are familiar with this history.

"The Balfour Declaration saw the light of day only because of the complete agreement between Balfour and U.S. President Wilson. They were in full agreement about this phrasing. So America was a partner to the Balfour Declaration. Who invented that [Jewish] state? It was Britain and America — not just Britain.

"The U.S., who was not even a member of the League of Nations, force the League of Nations to include the Balfour Declaration in its covenant. I am saying this so that we know who we should accuse of being our enemy, who has harmed us and took our homeland away, and gave it to the Israelis or the Jews.

"In 1948, the population of Israel numbered 650,000 people. In 1948-1949, they occupied 78% of Palestine. 650,000 people were not enough, so Ben-Gurion complained to the British, to his friend Churchill. He said: 'Man, I have a problem. Get me the Jews from Europe. I am short [of people]. I have this vast land, but no population.'

"[Churchill] said: 'I cannot get you the European Jews. After the World War, they emigrated to different places, or settled [in Europe], or were killed. The only ones I can get you are the Jews of the Arab countries.' But Churchill said that there was no one else. Ben-Gurion said: 'God forbid! Do me a favor, I don't want the Jews of the Arab countries.'

"[Ben-Gurion] said: 'Brother, those Jews of the Arab countries are just like the Arabs. They look like Arabs. They have the same culture, same food. I don't want them.' But [Churchill] said: 'Do whatever you want. There is no other solution.'

"Not only did Ben-Gurion agree, he sent his people to Iraq, to kill, destroy, and plant explosives in synagogues, in order to force the Iraqi Jews to emigrate. This also happened in Egypt in 1956 – the Lavon Affair – and then in Morocco, and other countries. The Jews did not want to emigrate, but they were forced to do so, by means of pressure, coercion, and murder."

Abbas repeated the exact same lies he said in 2018 - that he "apologized" for.

And after his apology, everyone forgot about his antisemitism.

Just as the media has forgotten that in 2016, Abbas claimed that rabbis called to poison Palestinian water.. His office released a statement saying "President Mahmoud Abbas has affirmed that he didn’t intend to do harm to Judaism or to offend Jewish people around the world."

Of course, he didn't apologize for lots of other antisemitic statements. In January 2018 Abbas said that European Jews stayed in Europe to be slaughtered rather than immigrate to Israel. In 2015, Abbas said Jews "have no right to defile [the Temple Mount] with their filthy feet." In 2022, Abbas told German officials that Palestinians have gone through 50 "holocausts" at the hands of Jews.

Do you sense a pattern?

No, I don't mean the pattern of Abbas saying vile statements that prove that he is an antisemite. I mean the pattern of the media and world leaders feigning outrage every single time one of his Jew-hating statements makes it into the headlines - and then they go back to acting as if Abbas is a respected member of the world community.

Which means that world leaders, the media and human rights NGOs care as much about antisemitism as Mahmoud Abbas himself does, and their lip service of condemning his statements are exactly as sincere as Abbas' "apologies" are.