Efraim Karsh: It's Anti-Semitism, Stupid
The truth of the matter is that since anti-Semites have never really distinguished among Zionists, Israelis and Jews (notwithstanding repeated protestations to the contrary), and since Israel is the world's only Jewish state, it has been tacitly construed as epitomizing the worst characteristics traditionally associated with Jews and has attracted the full brunt of anti-Jewish bigotry and hatred hitherto reserved for individuals and communities, not least because it has reversed the millenarian Jewish condition of dispersal, minority status and powerlessness. If prior to Israel's establishment Jews were despised because of their wretchedness and helplessness, they have hitherto been reviled because of their newly discovered physical and political empowerment.Hamas manipulated and intimidated the media in Gaza. Why was that kept from us?
So much so that 64 years after its establishment by an internationally recognized act of self-determination, the Jewish state remains the only state in the world whose right to self-defense, indeed to national existence, is constantly challenged.
In Lord Byron's memorable words: "The wild dove hath her nest, the fox his cove, mankind their country – Israel but the grave."
Let's review what we know.Doublas Murray: Are "Integrated Muslims" Integrated?
Indian television station NDTV broadcast and posted on its internet site on 5 August a report by Sreenivasan Jain showing rockets fired from a tent next to his hotel. In the accompanying text on NDTV’s website, Jain wrote that it was published "after our team left the Gaza Strip – Hamas has not taken very kindly to any reporting of its rockets being fired. But just as we reported the devastating consequences of Israel’s offensive on Gaza’s civilians, it is equally important to report on how Hamas places those very civilians at risk by firing rockets deep from the heart of civilian zones." In an article published subsequently, Jain wrote of "the fear which hobbles the reporting such material: fear of reprisals from Hamas against us", asking "how long do we self-censor because of the fear of personal safety in return for not telling a story that exposes how those launching rockets are putting so many more lives at risk, while the rocket-makers themselves are at a safe distance?"
The long Hamas record of shutting down news bureaus, arresting reporters and cameramen, confiscating equipment and beating journalists has already been documented by the Committee to Protect Journalists. In the latest conflict Hamas wanted to reduce the reports coming out of Gaza to what Reinhold Niebuhr once called "emotionally potent over-simplifications". Journalists from India, America, Norway, Italy, Spain, Australia, Canada and elsewhere are complaining. Will we now hear from the Brits?
Examples such as these seem to demonstrate what many people had already begun to observe on the streets among the anti-Israel crowds: that the protestors, who turn out in their thousands to spend weekend after weekend screaming hatred against Israel and Jews, are perhaps not, in fact, Islamists. Certainly, some of them are, but many are simply enraged Muslims. Some – just like Zayn Malik of One Direction – are people whom you would ordinarily have described as models of integration. Yet if it comes to any action of Israel's, they behave in a way no ordinary British person does or would.Noa Tishby: Artists without borders. Or facts.
This of course makes the challenge vastly bigger than many people may have thought. The problem is that a whole generation -- perhaps several -- has been taught to hate. What is notable, though, is that in a country such as Britain, most Muslims are descended from the Indian sub-continent. What is "Palestine" to them? It should have been nothing, or at least no more concern of theirs than anywhere else. But they do care differently about it. Perhaps it is part of the anti-Semitism that one British Muslim recently admitted to being "rife" and "the dirty little secret" among British Muslims.
What seems clear is that these otherwise '"integrated" people hate Israel and Jews because they have been taught to. They have been trained to carry over a bigotry and a bias that they may not even be aware of. It is a lot of hate to tackle, but it needs to be tackled, and it is important to start. The best place might be by tackling the lies and defamations that are allowed to go on underneath everyone's noses, such as the wholly frivolous -- and false -- accusations of Israeli "genocide," "war-crimes" and the like. It is going to require a lot of work, leadership, and the realization that the problem is worse than anyone had thought.
It is challenging for someone who did not grow up in the region, as I did, to decipher what the hell is going on over there. However I wonder if Cruz and Bardem got a chance to read the Hamas Charter before signing their letter. They would’ve found that when Radical Political Islam reaches Spain – and we all know that it eventually will – Ms. Cruz and Mr. Bardem may find themselves on the very wrong side of history. After all, folk singer Pete Seeger and actor Paul Robeson did find Stalin to be highly admirable at first, and when American POWs claimed to have been tortured by the North Vietnamese, Jane Fonda rushed to publically call them hypocritical liars. They were in fact brutally tortured. And I don’t think I need to get into Stalin.
Media is to blame as well: it covers Israel and Palestine obsessively, largely because Israel, as a flourishing democracy, provides a safe place from which to do that. You won’t see Selena Gomez make fact-finding tours in, say, Syria or Iraq. Skewed coverage results in skewed perception and artists are as susceptible to misinformation as much as everyone else.
Should public personalities choose to get acquainted with the facts, they will also find out that Israel is the only Western Democracy in what is effectively a whole region of failed states. More so, they may actually decipher values from propaganda. What do these people you say you support stand for? What do they want? How naked does Rihanna think she can get if Political Islam achieves its international goals? (h/t Yoel)