Free speech in Germany

For German readers:

 

Here is a link to my short appeal to Mrs. Merkel, asking her to listen and take seriously the plea to put an end to the suppression of free speech and free artistic expression when it comes to virtually any matter pertaining to Israel.  The plea that was crafted and signed by prominent heads of important cultural institutions in Germany.  

 

Israeli, Jewish and philosemitic lobby groups who stand behind the climate of censorship have, not surprisingly, come out in an attack on this call for openness.

 

My commentary appeared in Tachles, the swiss Jewish newsmagazine.

(Some) German students and their warped minds

(Some) German students seem to have a warped understanding of what a university should be. To be fair to them, it is not the fault of the present generation: generations before them have blackmailed governments to turn institutions of research and higher learning into some kind of social laboratories, in which students decide whether they wish to attend or not, and in which students have gotten used to have a voice in the running of the university departments, in which they study.

 

And so, lecturers are prohibited, “for ‘data protection’ reasons”, from maintaining attendance lists. Nor may they make class participation a factor in a student’s seminar grade.

 

Occasionally students go beserk, as has recently been the case in one German university, where a body purporting to represent the students came out with a public statement censuring the department head for co-signing a petition calling the government to revisit its policies leading to grave constraints on free speech.

 

“Once again” the students’ statement reads, “the centre forces us to make a public statement. The head of the centre signed the plaidoyer on behalf of the entire institute. We as students were not included in any way.”

 

They were, indeed, not asked, nor should they have been. A university is not a joint venture but an institute which teaches and carries out research. Students can apply and if considered good enough, may come and attend classes to study. If they pass the required exams, they get a degree. That’s the deal, no more and no less.

 

Nobody forces anyone to study at a specific university. They can choose to study elsewhere.  The only way of dealing with such demands is showing those students the door. Unfortunately, the political class in Germany does not have the balls to do so.

German vaccination failure

Yesterday’s local newspaper in a medium-sized town in Germany, described the unclear arrangements for Covid vaccinations – in the beginning one will “have to improvise”, was the assessment.

 

Are the Germans out of their bloody minds? Have they not had enough time to prepare? Has the need to vaccinate just been sprung on them?

 

Whilst Israel has announced that all the over-60s will be vaccinated within three weeks, the assessment is that Germany will reach that stage in the summer of 2021!

 

Adding insult to injury, the Health Ministry has signed a contract with a PR agency to prepare a nationwide campaign aimed at convincing people to get vaccinated. Instead of informing those who want to get vaccinated how and when they can come forward, they will spend money trying to convince the antivac brigade.   

 

Jens Spahn, who thinks he is cut out to become German Chancellor, has failed and he should go.

 

 

   

Almost solitary travel

 Other than me and the viruses there does not seem to be anyone at the airports...Travelling from Germany to London and back.

 

 

 

Beitrag im Deutschlandfunk Kultur - Eine Liebe, die blind macht

German speakers can hear a five-minute broadcast of mine on German radio (Deutschlandfunk Kultur) on the subject of philosemitism, here.

 

 

An English translation is given as a separate blog item. 

Extra-judicial executions

It seems to be generally accepted that Israel is behind the assassination of the Iranian nuclear scientist last week. With this execution, the Trump-Netanyahu double act, in all likelihood, wanted to bind Biden’s hands with regard to the next administration’s Iran policy.

 

Most probably in response, Biden, in an interview he gave the New-York Times’ Tom Friedman, yesterday reconfirmed his approach that “if Iran returns to strict compliance with the nuclear deal, the United States would re-join the agreement as a starting point for follow-on negotiations, and lift the sanctions on Iran that Trump imposed.” 

 

That would be good news.

 

Israel literally is getting away with murder. They are not the only ones: the USA, Russia and Saudi-Arabia have also reportedly been trigger-happy as they pursue those who their rulers wish to remove. In Israel, killing a perceived enemy is a vote-getter, and such extra-judicial killings by the state are an almost certain recipe for political popularity. Therefore, whereas Israeli leaders almost never confirm killings, very often their evasive responses are given with a wink and a nod.

 

Such killings can be considered from three aspects: legal, moral, and practical. Curiously, it is most likely that many of these extra-judicial killings, which are obviously not legal and for which it would be difficult to build a moral case, are of no long-term practical value.

 

We need to openly discuss what means we allow our governments to use to “defend democracy”. Moreover, those European countries, opposed to extra-judicial killings by the state, should not let their allies get away with them.

Philosemitism in Germany

 

Here’s a translation of my broadcast on German radio. It deals with the prevalence of philosemitism in Germany and the damage it does.

 

A Love that blinds you

 

Some of you may be familiar with the iconic film adaptation of Tennessee Williams’ play "A Streetcar named Desire", with Marlon Brando and Vivien Leigh. It was marketed in Germany as "Endstation Sehnsucht", translated into English: «final stop – nostalgia«.

 

I was reminded of it, when I read in the papers that the city of Cologne – having painted one of its tramlines with large sized stars of David and inscriptions of the word "schalömchen” - a German cute-form of the Hebrew word shalom – now claims to have therby made a statement for democracy and against antisemitism.

 

Cologne's mayor declared, "it is a commitment to our Jewish heritage. This train makes it clear: Cologne is unthinkable without its seventeen-hundred-year-old Jewish community".

 

There you go. I don't know how many people in Cologne share their mayor's opinion that the city would be unthinkable without its Jewish community. But as with Tennessee Williams, longing and desire shine through. The longing for a supposed normality in which we Germans love "the" Jews. If we just paint "schalömchen" on our trams and all of us go to klezmer music events, everything should be fine again.

 

Philosemitism, the uncritical love of Jews just because they are Jews, regardless of their personality, morals or actions, is not just a German phenomenon: Trumps USA even offers it as an export commodity: After the US antisemitism commissioner declared his country to be the most philosemitic country in the world, he declared that he would develop and promote philosemitic narratives in other countries as well.

 

Is philosemitism really the solution?

 

Germany is understandably particularly sensitive to everything associated with Jews. It reacts emphatically when increasing antisemitism becomes more noticeable.

 

Some are therefore convinced that philosemitism is the right response to antisemitism. Such philosemitism usually also includes the Jewish state of Israel and the most active philosemites are often obsessed with Israel or Jewish issues. What we then experience is a coming to terms with the German past that sometimes reaches the point of absurdity.

 

The Schalömchen tramline is such an outgrowth of the philosemitism existing in Germany. Now, unlimited, unfounded, even if partly ridiculous love would not necessarily be a problem. And in the big picture, the question arises, why should one be seriously bothered by it?

 

At first sight there is no reason, and yet the philosemitic, positively conceived obsession, which in its compulsive enthusiasm is not unlike antisemitic fanaticism, leads to an abnormal and harmful agitation and political activity.

 

There is no reason to love Jews more than non-Jews.

 

Blind to Israeli human rights violations

 

If philosemitism forms such a protective shield over Jews and Jewish life that it becomes more and more trapped in a benevolent ghetto, then this does more harm than good.

 

If philosemitism blinds you to Israeli injustices or human rights violations, then it is more evil than good. In Germany, Israel-related philosemitism leads to de facto support of Israel's occupation policy, the colonisation of Palestinian territories and the oppression of their population. Every member of the German Bundestag ought to be aware of this.

 

When trying to combat antisemitism with philosemitism, it is worth remembering the saying of the Jewish parodist Robert Neumann: "Philosemites are antisemites, who love the Jews".

 

Twilight Zone

Some amazing twilights in recent days: 

 

 

Martyr or Traitor ?

After 30 years in a US jail, and five more years on parole, the American citizen Jonathan Pollard, who betrayed his country and stole reams of top-secret documents from his US Navy Intelligence office selling them to Israel, is now free to leave America, if he wishes.

For America the man is a traitor. Israel portrays him as a quasi-martyr.

 

Pollard was not an Israeli sent on a secret mission to steal documents in the United States. He is an American Jew, with a seemingly disturbed personality, who had a history of spreading fibs to exaggerate his own importance, and who had offered his services to several other countries, before closing a deal with a special unit of the Israeli secret service.  

 

It is not unusual for countries to go to extreme lengths in order to release their caught spies. One need only go back to some well publicised spy-swaps during the cold-war era. Israel, however, has turned Pollard into some kind of a Jewish martyr.

 

Both Prime-Minister Netanyahu and Israel’s President Rivlin have tweeted their delight with his release. “Now we will be able to welcome him and his family home after many difficult years of imprisonment and restrictions...” wrote President Rivlin, as if Pollard was a ‘Prisoner-of-Zion’ locked up by the Soviet Union, because of his wish to emigrate. Israel’s public outpour of “welcome home Jonathan” is unacceptable and way over the top.

 

                       We Want Pollard At Home

 

In the us-against-the-rest world-view that Israel propagates, it increasingly implicates the Jewish People. This is bad for the Jews. To put it bluntly, Israel’s actions can cause increased Antisemitism. In a standard question in polls measuring Antisemitism, interviewees are asked to agree/disagree with the statement «Jews are more loyal to Israel than to the USA« (or country of citizenship). The notion that Jews tend to be more loyal to Israel than to their country is considered to be antisemitic. Israel enabled Pollard to entrench this view.

 

Israel motivating diaspora Jews to serve her interests, has never really been a secret. There is an understandable logic for many Jews to have an emotional bind to Israel. Quite a few Americans of Irish or Italian descent know the feeling. But, if they cannot be relied upon to be loyal, one is justified in distrusting them and disliking them. Once such bias is ingrained, Jews will no longer be considered equal citizens. It is up to the leaders of diaspora communities to ensure that their members do not get pushed into such dilemmas, in which their loyalty to the country is eroded to serve Israel.

 

Pollard not only betrayed America; he also betrayed American Jews. By feeding the notion that Jews are not to be relied upon, he made their lives more difficult.

 

There is no reason whatsoever to celebrate this.

Antisemitismus Politik in der britischen Labour Party

Für Deutsch-Leser:

 

Antisemitismus Politik in der britischen Labour Party. Warum machen auch die Briten, mit Antisemitismus Politik?

 

Hier finden Sie einen link zu meinem Beitrag, der in Tachles, das Schweizer jüdische Wochenmagazin erschienen ist.

Can the USA be a reliable partner for us?

Several messages from friends, who seemed to be rather optimistic, despite the fact that Trump managed to command the votes of almost half of the country’s voters, found me rather surprised.

 

“I am very optimistic about the future of the USA”  or “It feels the world has moved back to being a better place”, “A good day for the frontier of freedom”, and even the hope that “the US finds back to being a legitimate world leader”.

 

Before we get too excited, we ought to consider the country's history. The country that started wars, claiming that it was trying to bring democracy to others, was never a true democracy itself. From slavery they moved into segregation,  and rampant racism is still part of the daily bread.  

 

If we needed any proof, how sick the US is, we need but look at those senior Republican politicians, who still come out in support of Trump and his machinations. We know from the near past how systematically partisan the Republicans on Capitol Hill act: During Obama's presidency, all they did was to put spokes in the wheels. The name of their game was to make Obama fail, in order to prove that he is a failure. Moreover, part of that was pure racism. This will not change. This will be exactly their game-plan for the coming four years.

 

Like most, I also prefer the US to the USSR system. But that should not blind us into becoming all poetic. Democrats as well as Republicans have led us with lies and deceit into unnecessary wars, with millions of dead and many more miserable and homeless. These wars served mainly an industrial-military elite. Much of it was and still is illegal and almost nothing was legitimate about them, nor were they good for the “frontiers of freedom”.   

 

The fact that by chance of birth, we happen to benefit from a decent standard of living, which to a not insignificant extent we owe to these wars and to the deals, which we have been making with corrupt regimes that happen to suit our needs, should not blind us to the truth.

 

We in Europe need to try hard and ensure that Western Europe becomes a stronghold of viable democracy. This is not easy, as we have, unfortunately, tied our hands in an EU partnership with Eastern European countries, that do not share democratic values. That should be our main goal for the next ten years. The United States is unlikely to be a relevant or reliable partner for this endeavour.

 

Freiburg - 2nd Lockdown

Just before the new lockdown came upon us, I managed to go to the opera in Freiburg (A very fine production of Peter Maxwell Davies’ Mr. Emmet takes a walk.)

 

Like all theatres during Corona, they were permitted to sell only very few tickets: 

 

 

They did, however, find a humorous way of filling the empty seats. 

 

 

The next day’s visit to the supermarket proved that Germans continue to have a thing about toilet paper. With the lockdown nearing, people were panic-buying again, and the shelves...empty. 

 

 

Covid – Understanding the Young - A Suggestion

After my Idiots or S***heads blog, in which I asked, “What should one wish all those, who do not even have the decency to respect the discomfort and the fears of others?”, I had a response from a friend of mine, that surprised me. Using rather strong language, he passionately objected to what I had written. He described how the lives of young people, such as his children, were significantly affected. He labelled the requirement to wear masks as a “muzzling ordinance” and spoke of the enormous impact on our social climate, which is increasingly characterized by fear and authoritarian official hyperactivity. In further correspondence, the extent of his anger became even clearer.

 

Is he right? Indeed, in this pandemic, the older generation – provided it stays healthy ­– is paying a much lower price than the younger ones. The retired are not losing their workplaces, and their income, in most likelihood, remains unchanged. Lifestyle-wise too, young people are required to give up more. As you get older, you normally stick to the friends you already have. Youth culture is very much about meeting new people, trying out. All of that, they are expected to give up. This is not easy. Nor, of course, is it easy for the old who live on their own, for whom, lockdowns can be very lonely.  

 

And this is where it becomes even more difficult. Most of those getting really sick are the very old and frail. So, why should the young, who can afford to get infected, as they are extremely unlikely to die, even if they do get infected, be prevented from going on with their lives, as usual?

 

This has become a moral dilemma. A dilemma leading, not only to creaking, but to real cracks.

 

Hospitals’ inability to handle too many cases at once, are the main reason for drastic lockdowns. To prevent Italy and New-York style hospital meltdowns, governments heighten our fears. But, as young people rarely get hospitalised, this fear message is not really convincing them.

 

Perhaps we should rethink.

 

Perhaps the way to go about it, would be for young people to be permitted to continue with their lives, whilst putting all the emphasis on defending the old? That is, defending the old, without keeping them locked inside their homes for the next six months. To that end, part of protecting the older people, would mean ensuring that when young people are out in shops, buses, restaurants, or any general-public crowded areas, they stick to the rules, wearing masks etc., with no ifs and buts. Not half-heartedly, without faking it, out of respect for the rest.

 

Regulating differential conduct within society will not be easy to implement. But it may reach many of those, who currently cannot be convinced. It could, therefore, be easier to promote and also easier to enforce.  

 

This is not an operational plan, but a concept, and I am eager to hear your reactions.

Is Netanyahu floundering?

These are exciting days in Israel. Because of increased frustration with Netanyahu’s mismanagement of Corona in the country, demonstrations against this corrupt man (referred to as CRIME-Minister by some), who is clinging to power, have really been gathering pace .

 

The two big questions are:

·      Will the demonstrations bring about Netanyahu’s departure?

·      What happens on n+1: the day after Netanyahu has finally gone?

 

And looming over is the question – is Israel on the verge of a civil war? And if so, how will it end?

 

Netanyahu has managed to tear the country apart and there is enormous hatred between his supporters and opponents. There are divides between the Orthodox, whose loyalty is being bought with government bribes, and the secular, Israel's real eonomic engine. Additionally, Netanyahu causes the rift between European and Oriental Jews to fester again. Another problem is the fact that the Party representing the Arab population of Israel (Palestinians who are Israeli citizens), constituting some 20% of the population, is not considered as a legitimate partner to govern with, by virtually any of the Jewish parties.

 

Whereas there may be sufficient hatred for civil war and a lot of mistrust, I do not believe that Israelis are at a stage, in which they will take up arms to fight each other.

 

Will Netanyahu be forced to leave? He knows that his next stop might be prison, and he will, therefore, not leave of his own accord. In the last few years, he has surrounded himself and given senior positions in his administration to the most primitive yes-sayers one can imagine. This is truly unpreceented in Israeli politics. A few of them serve mainly as virulent attack dogs, as they are sent daily by Netanyahu on confrontation missions with anyone he considers as an opponent. Currently in the news is Amir Okhana, as minister in charge of the police, he has been orchestrating police violence against the demonstrators.  

Demonstrations now take place three days a week, on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. And Netanyahu is panicking, which would indicate that he, at least, believes these demonstrations to be a threat. Senior members of his own party, wishing to save their house (and positions) before it becomes too late, might force his departure. To that end, demonstrations must continue. What the tipping point will be is hard to guess.

 

Whatever happens after the man is gone, it will unlikely bring true peace to the region, as the vast majority of the Israeli Jewish population supports political parties that have no plan or wish to end the occupation of the Palestinian Territories.  

Teaching Respect

With Corona infections on the rise again and as one country after the other is tightening regulations, a question that must be asked is why are there still so many who object to wearing masks?

 

Objections seem to come from three directions: those who object to government instructions per se and get more and more agitated by the notion that big brother is forcing all of this on them; those who do not believe that the masks are necessary (either because the virus is not so dangerous or because the masks are inefficient); those who find the masks too uncomfortable.

 

If, indeed, masks are the key to fighting the spread of the virus, then something must be done to ease the acceptance of mask wearing in the general population. The main educational thrust, to my mind, should be respect and empathy. Even if you don’t believe in the need for masks, even if you hate the government, even if it is really uncomfortable, wear the mask out of respect for others. Have empathy with their fears. 

 

 

Sad empty airport

They did not want me to take a photo of the totally deserted security area of the airport, in which some forty staff seemed to be waiting just for me.

 

On my way to the gate, I passed by a food counter. Does he expect to sell all those yummy-looking croissants, pretzels and sandwiches, I asked. No, the young man said. “We get fresh ones every day and then throw them away in the evening. There are so few passengers.”   

 

 

Integration in Germany

Integration seems to be working better than some may have expected: Seen at a butcher’s in a small village in the German region of Franconia is this offer of shashlik sold under the banner “honest, hearty, Franconian” 

 

 

Is Trump faking it?

 

Rulers who are not truthful about their health are not a new phenomenon. It is not only personal vanity, sometimes it is also about survival. Information about a ruler’s malaise can accelerate predators in their attempts to remove him. And yet, especially in extreme situations, such as war, one now expects to be reassured that the person leading the executive branch of the government is physically fit to do the job. This rarely works, as the immediate circle surrounding a ruler is very normally in awe of the person they are serving, and often more loyal to the person than to the institution. Hence, the annual ritual of the White House’s report on the results of the President’s medical tests, is probably more ritual than reliable information.

 

After four years of White House disregard for the truth, the question that begs to be asked in connection with Trump’s covid hospitalisation, is are we getting fake news yet again? Is Trump sicker than we are told? Or, perhaps, is he not sick at all? (other than in his head, which is not new).

 

Faking covid could be a brilliant move. After a period of having been “ill”, Trump would “recover”, thereby proving to the US electorate what a fit man he is – a man who, despite his age, has overcome the virus, is fit to handle any enemy and every problem.   

 

Most Americans vote for the same political party, throughout their lives. The main purpose of election campaigns is to convince the small percentage of the waverers. This year, there are unlikely to be many Democrats who can be convinced by Trumps past four years to vote for him. But there are Republicans, who are wavering. Trump needs to prevent any haemorrhaging of the traditional voters for Republican nominees. This might be achieved with such a show of physical strength.