The best response to the Goyim Defense League: Baseball bats

Haaretz reports:

A Reform synagogue in the southern U.S. state of Georgia hasn't experienced an antisemitic incident in its nearly 165-year history – until this weekend, when it was one of two congregations targeted by a neo-Nazi hate group.

“This is a congregation has been around since 1859,” said Rabbi Elizabeth Bahar, the spiritual leader of Temple Beth Israel in Macon, Georgia, in a phone conversation with Haaretz. ...

On Friday morning, she said, members of the congregation living in the nearby city of Warner Robins found antisemitic flyers outside their homes. They had been distributed by an organization called the Goyim Defense League, a white supremacist hate group active mainly on social media. According to the Anti-Defamation League, the GDL's main objective is “to cast aspersions on Jews and spread antisemitic myths and conspiracy theories.”

Later in the day, 15 members of the hate group held a demonstration outside the synagogue, where they had hung a life-sized doll in effigy from a street sign, wrapped in a rainbow flag, with a kippa on its head. According to Bahar, at least one of the demonstrators was wearing a t-shirt with a Nazi insignia on it and another had an Israeli flag tied around his foot.

Police arrived at the scene not long thereafter and arrested GDL leader Jon Minadeo II on charges of disorderly conduct and public disturbance after he continued shouting obscenities through a bullhorn despite being ordered to stop. He was released the following day.

On Saturday, a group of about 150 residents of Macon gathered outside the Reform synagogue, and in a show of solidarity and support, they held hands and surrounded Temple Beth Israel. “It was an impromptu gathering,” recounted Bahar, who said she was deeply moved. “We did not organize it.”

The GDL group showed up once again and tried to hold its own demonstration, which was soon broken up by police. From there, the group headed to the Atlanta suburb of Marietta, where it held another demonstration, brandishing Nazi flags, outside the local Chabad synagogue.

One reason it is important to define antisemitism accurately is because to combat it, one must understand the motivations of the antisemites and respond only in ways that dissuade them

In this case, nothing happened that would stop the Goyim Defense League. On the contrary, the community holding hands outside the synagogue, the police releasing their leader after less than a day, the outrage from the community, the media coverage, and the police breaking up the second demonstration on Saturday morning might have made the Jewish community feel somewhat better but it didn't do a damned thing to make the antisemites think twice about driving to a Chabad and resuming their public hate. 

If anything, the GDL is enthusiastic over the media coverage - they only have a handful of followers yet they have made international news, again. More antisemites would want to join the GDL after the events of this weekend. 

The responses are well meaning but ultimately they are counterproductive.

The GDL delights in using laws that protect free speech to spread their hate. They dance close to the line of legality and mock those who try to use those same laws to silence them. They know that, at worst, they might spend a night in jail - and as a result they will recruit many new members who are itching to publicly scream obscenities at Jews. 

In 1938, Nazis in America were way ahead of where the GDL is today. Also using freedom of speech, they held huge public marches and rallies, spouting off against Jews. 

A judge named Nathan David Perlman realized that the law was not an impediment to this incitement. So he decided to go outside the law.

Perlman called Meyer Lansky, New York’s famous Jewish gangster. 

“You got some boys who might want to punch a Nazi?” he asked.  

“I do, Judge,” Lansky replied. “Respectfully, you understand we can do better than punch? I know just the crew — in Brownsville. The boys in the press call them Murder, Inc.”

“I want you to do anything but kill them,” Perlman said. 

And that's what the mobsters did. Baseball bats, pool cues, throwing them out of windows - whatever was needed short of killing them. And the Jewish mobsters spread their campaign throughout the US, wherever the Nazis gathered.

The American Nazis cowered in fear and the attendance at their rallies evaporated (for the most part - they managed to have thousands of New York police protect them in their 1939 Madison Square Garden rally.)

Right now, the GDL is laughing at any legal efforts to stop them and residents holding hands in solidarity with Jews. They know that they are winning. 

But if they are beaten up, they won't be laughing. And more importantly, they won't attract more members.

Let the Jews attacking them be arrested. Let there be arguments in court as to whether someone screaming "Sieg Heil" into a microphone is tantamount to assault and reacting with violence is self-defense. There is even scientific evidence that hatemongering is more harmful than actual assault in the victim's brain - let them battle that out. 

Whether they win or lose is immaterial. The results are the important thing. And like their American Nazi forebears, these GDL thugs are cowards at heart. 

Find out where the GDL is planning to spread their antisemitic flyers and get ready for them beforehand, beating them up and chasing them out of the neighborhoods they are polluting. Let them call the police.

Beating up the neo-Nazis gives them a direct message that they will pay a real price for intimidating Jews. And doing it now ensures that we will not see them strengthen enough to hold mass marches down the streets of major cities in five years. 

Some things are worth literally fighting for. 

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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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11/21 Links Pt1: Qatar’s farcical World Cup begins; Time for the UN to Stop Funding Hate Groups; Hezbollah transporting hundreds of chemical weapons to Lebanon

From Ian:

Qatar’s farcical World Cup begins

Even before the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar kicked off, the tournament already had a hero: the former captain of the Iranian national team, Ali Daei.

Now retired and working as a coach, Daei is without question the greatest footballer Iran has ever produced, playing at senior level both in his home country and in Germany. Daei was even the world’s top international goal scorer until last year, when his haul of 109 goals was pipped by a certain Cristiano Ronaldo. Adored in Iran, he made 149 appearances for the men’s national team, including the World Cup tournaments of 1998 and 2006.

Daei is also a devout Muslim who once turned down a lucrative offer to appear in a beer ad in Germany on the grounds that the consumption of alcohol is proscribed by his faith. But as with many Iranians, in Daei’s case, belief in the religious tenets of Islam does not necessarily translate into support for the Islamic Republic that has ruled with an iron fist since 1979.

Last week, circumventing the restrictions imposed on internet access by the Iranian regime amid historic protests against its continued rule, Daei told his 10.6 million followers on Instagram that he had turned down an invitation to attend the competition from its Qatari hosts and FIFA, world soccer’s governing body.

Daei cited the protests that have convulsed Iran as the reason for his staying away from Qatar. He wanted, he told his followers, to “be by your side in my homeland and express my sympathy with all the families who have lost loved ones these days.” This was in keeping with Daei’s previous statements, such as his message to the regime declaring, “instead of suppression, violence, arrests and accusing the people of Iran of being rioters, solve their problems.” Daei also put his neck on the line last month when he publicly challenged the regime’s claim that a young female protestor in his hometown of Ardabil had died of a pre-existing medical condition, and not at the hands of police officers.

Daei’s announcement might be taken as evidence of the old observation that there are things in life more important than soccer. But in soccer-mad Iran, what happens with the national team both on and off the field frequently takes on a political significance unknown among those teams coming from democratic countries.

Iran’s World Cup appearances are invariably an opportunity for Iranians living outside their homeland to express their patriotism while loudly opposing the ayatollahs. In Qatar, they may even be joined in those protests by the players, who have been told by coach Carlos Queiroz that they are “free to protest as they would if they were from any other country as long as it conforms with the World Cup regulations and is in the spirit of the game.”

Certainly, that is a prospect which worries the Iranian regime. Speaking to the players as they were paraded in front of him before departing for Qatar, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi told them, “Some don’t want to see the success and victory of Iranian youth and wish to disturb your focus. Be very vigilant on this.” As much as that might sound like advice, it is in fact a threat – and given that the regime has murdered nearly 400 people and arrested more than 15,000 since the protests began in September, it is a threat that should be taken seriously.

The regime is taking all the measures it can to ensure that mass sessions of soccer watching don’t become the occasion for additional protests. To that end, they can count on their allies in Qatar, an obscenely wealthy Gulf emirate that thumbed its nose at the Abraham Accords with Israel some of its neighbors signed up to, and which continues to back the Hamas terrorist organization in Gaza.

Khaled Abu Toameh: Qatar's Double Game: Funding Islamists While Pretending to Be America's Ally

Hamas leaders [who have relocated to Doha]... are using Qatar as a base for calling for the destruction of Israel. Yet this does not seem to bother the rulers of Qatar or its allies in the West, including the US.

This is the same Qatar whose leaders claim that they condemn all acts of terrorism and violent extremism.

It is disquieting, to say the least, that a county that hosts the leadership of a Palestinian group that carried out thousands of terror attacks against Israel is talking about Qatar's desire to help eliminate terrorism and extremism.

It is also disquieting that Qatar... continues to pour millions of dollars into the Gaza Strip, thereby emboldening Hamas, whose leaders and charter champion violence and call for the destruction of Israel.

Haniyeh is not the only Hamas leader living under the patronage of Qatar. Several other Hamas leaders, including Khaled Mashaal, Hussam Badran, Izzat al-Risheq and Sami Khater, have also been welcomed to move their offices and homes to the Gulf state.

In addition to hosting the Hamas leaders and their families, Qatar has been providing millions of dollars to Palestinians in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.... [T]he Qatari aid indirectly helps Hamas to hold on to power. Qatar's beneficence exempts Hamas from its responsibilities towards the Palestinians living under its rule in the Gaza Strip and allows the terror group instead to direct its resources and energies towards building tunnels to attack Israel and manufacturing weapons, including rockets, in preparation for their next war to try to destroy Israel.

The Hamas leaders have often been criticized by Palestinians and other Arabs for leading comfortable lives in Qatar while calling on their people in the Gaza Strip to continue the jihad (holy war) against Israel.

Qatar, however, evidently cares nothing about the interests of ordinary Palestinians, such as boosting their economy and improving their living conditions. What it cares about is embracing the leaders of Hamas to make Qatar appear to the Arabs and Muslims as the main supporter of the Palestinian "resistance" – a euphemism for the "armed struggle" against Israel.

JPost Editorial: International scrutiny toward Qatar hosting World Cup

These games are as much about Qatar’s standing as an influential player in the Arab world and global affairs as they are about international football. Qatar has already put a great amount of money into foreign clubs and interests. Furthermore, the state-owned Al Jazeera has a tremendous impact on the Arab world and beyond. There are also questions regarding Al Jazeera’s role in Qatar winning the bid to host the tournament having reportedly offered FIFA vast sums of money ahead of the vote.

Al Jazeera’s broadcasts and stance are particularly pertinent in Israel’s case following the death of American-Palestinian reporter Shireen Abu Akleh in Jenin in May, as Palestinian terrorists clashed with IDF forces. The FBI last week said it would begin its own probes into the incident even though thorough Israeli investigations had concluded that she was likely killed accidentally by an IDF soldier during the exchange of fire.

From Israel’s viewpoint there are also heightened sensitivities due to Qatar’s financial support of Hamas’s regime in Gaza (although Israel has permitted the influx of funds as humanitarian aid.) In addition, Qatar maintains cordial relations with Iran, whose support of terrorism and human rights abuses are evident.

The slogan of this year’s World Cup is “Now is all.” The mantra seems to be an attempt to focus on the moment and put the criticisms to one side.

We respectfully suggest going beyond the “here and now.” It would be wrong to ignore the human rights issues and Qatar’s double game when it comes to support for terrorists.

Yet, the World Cup in Qatar could also be an opportunity for the small state to prove that this international mega-event was not simply “sportswashing.” It can significantly improve its treatment of migrant workers and gays, for example, without compromising its Muslim religious values.

Especially when it comes to the relationship with Israel, having hosted Israeli fans and media and permitted direct flights from Tel Aviv, Qatar could put its best foot forward and go a stage further.

Israel’s role in the Middle East has changed significantly since the signing of the Abraham Accords in 2020. Israel has had quiet ties with Qatar and even established an economic interest office in Doha in 1996 but it was closed during the Second Intifada in 2000.

Moving beyond the “Now is all” to official ties between Qatar and Israel would be a win-win situation and a fitting step to take when the World Cup is over.

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When "anti-Zionists" were antisemites of the Right

In the 1940s and 1950s, there was a burgeoning publishing industry of far-Right antisemites. 

Jack Tenney was a California state senator who published a number of antisemitic tracts in the 1950s - but he insisted that he was only anti-Zionist.

The cover for his "Zionist Network" was pretty much identical to Nazi antisemitic propaganda:

The inside cover of Tenney's book "Zion's Fifth Column" includes a quote where he insists he has nothing against Jews:

Of course. Tenney didn't think his hate of Jews was unreasoning. In "Zionist Network" he describes how close-knit Jews control the world.

Also similar to today's antisemitic anti-Zionists, Tenney creates a hit list network of Jewish organizations, similar to the Boston Mapping Project this year and much of what David Miller still does.

In "Zion's Fifth Column" he lists many Jewish organizations, along with the names of their officers. It is indistinguishable from what one can see in Electronic Intifada on any given day.

Another notable "anti-Communist"  publication was called Common Sense (not to be confused with a 1940s' magazine nor with Bari Weiss' current newsletter.) 

Reading Common Sense now shows a funhouse mirror version of today's anti-Zionists who are just as antisemitic as this publisher was. In many ways Common Sense resembles Arab media antisemitism, complete with Khazar conspiracy theories and railing against the Talmud.

Here are some of the top headlines of Common Sense, where Jews and Zionists are used interchangeably.

Especially notable is this cover, which is the obverse of today's Left accusing Zionists of weaponizing antisemitism. It turns out the far Right agreed with them!

Common Sense also included Holocaust denial.   It was partially funded by Benjamin Freedman, a famous antisemite and Holocaust denier. 

It had a circulation of about 50,000 and published up until about 1970. It was recognized as a hate group by the House Committee on Un-American Activities in 1954. While the Committee was associated with the Right, it recognized and condemned those who used anti-Communism as an excuse for their hate.

Communism’s present threat to the very survival of the United States and the rest of the free world has placed heavy burdens on the defenders of human freedom and dignity. The Committee on Un-American Activities is concerned to observe that this burden is being aggravated by certain individuals and organizations unscrupulously exploiting the menace of communism to promote other activities equally subversive and equally un-American. Such activities would destroy the very foundation work of the American Republic, if permitted to operate unnoticed or unchallenged. Committee investigations disclose that this organized activity falls into two patterns: (1) The neo-fascist organization which openly espouses a fascist regime for the United States; and (2) The organized hate group, which masquerades as a defender of our republican form of government yet conducts hate campaigns against racial and religious minorities in the infamous tradition of the fascist dictatorships. 

The Committee, which is now associated with the most extreme excesses of the Right, wrote this - something that you will hardly find either today's Left nor today's Right ever saying: "Those who would support the extreme right today do as great a violence to our national institutions as do those on the extreme left. "

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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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