Germans abusing Jews

It is election year in Germany and, not surprisingly, German politicians are competing with each other. It is difficult to compete on climate change and green issues, as these have by now become generally accepted by almost all parties.  This is where Jews come in usefully.

 

In the past, those who opposed communism spoke of Jews as spreaders of the red plague, whilst the opponents of capitalism were able to point to the mega-rich Jews, Rothschild etc. Then, of course, there were the days, when it was “blame the Jews” for an out-of-control disease, for a poisoned well or for a child gone missing.  Will an ardent archive-digger ever find a document in which a Prince’s adviser, teaches him about this useful instrument of blaming Jews to divert blame from himself?

 

They continue to instrumentalise us. Fortunately, they do so with devised love instead of with real hate. Germany – with the corpses still so close to the ground – is understandably an extreme example. Already in the last general election (2017) Germany’s fascist AfD party thought nothing of claiming to be the “only guarantor for a Jewish life in Germany”. In their case, guaranteeing Jewish life conveniently meant ridding the country of Muslims.

 

Now, after a week in which the Israeli air force pounded Gaza, killed a couple of hundred Palestinians, including more than 100 children, ALL German politicians from the extreme right to the left competed with each other in announcing their “I stand with Israel”. In the parliamentary debate about the situation, only one, only one party (the left-wing Die Linke) made the point that not only Hamas rockets but also the bombing of densely populated areas in Gaza by Israel is contrary to international law. 

 

Not to be outdone by the fascist AfD, Bavaria’s prime-minister, Markus Söder, now wants to expel Antisemites. Going by the definitions of Antisemitism, which Germany has adopted, it would have to expel some 20-30% of its own population. That plan would probably not bring Söder many votes. But Söder, of course, has no such plan, he is simply winking at the right-wingers, who want asylum-seekers expelled.  Translate “We will fiercely combat antisemitism” to “Vote for me and I will get rid of the asylum seekers for you”

 

German politicians should stop abusing Jews for their own needs.

Israel and Palestine – International Criminal Court

The International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague has ruled that it has jurisdiction to investigate alleged war crimes by Israel in the Occupied Territories. This might lead to the ICC issuing arrest warrants against Israeli officials and military leaders. Israel – as usual – reaches to its proven and successful hammer and cries Antisemitism.  

 

Anyone who believes that Israel has no right to take over and settle Palestinian lands conquered in 1967 with its own Jewish population, anyone who believes that what Israel does in scandalously criminal, anyone who believes that military control over millions of Palestinians is not only damaging to Palestinians but also has a corrupting effect on the Israeli population and causes Antisemitism, thereby endangering the Jewish people as a whole – should support bringing an end to the Occupation.

 

Israeli voters have proven to be stubborn opponents of any retreat from the Occupied Territories. They support governments that systematically slice Palestinian land and settle Jews on this land. It seems that only trauma, will bring about change in this attitude. A serious war with tens of thousands of dead would be such a trauma. Those who want to prevent this kind of trauma, should support the softer kind: effective sanctions that will force Israel to abide by UN resolutions and International law.

 

The ICC decision is a welcome step.  

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.

Will Germany ban Daniel Barenboim?

The German culture festival Ruhrtriennale is not taking place this year due to the corona virus, and yet it is not short of publicity.

The Central Council of Jews in Germany demanded the dismissal of the festival director. Felix Klein, the Federal Government's Anti-Semitism Commissioner almost ordered that the invitation of a renowned African historian and philosopher, who was to open the festival, be cancelled. In response, Israeli and Jewish scientists countered with a petition calling for the dismissal of the German government official, Klein.

So what is going on here?

Why can an award-winning intellectual such as the Ruhrtriennale speaker be silenced in a country where freedom of expression is enshrined in the Constitution?

The enabling mechanism behind it is called "accusation of anti-Semitism".

It is with this instrument, that censorship is very effectively exercised. What exactly anti-Semitism is, and thus what is considered "anti-Semitic", is something experts disagree on. That has not disturbed one country after another to succumb to pressure and adopt the so-called IHRA “working definition” which in fact is no definition at all. The point to understand is that the IHRA construct was created by interest groups, by a lobby dominated team.

Intensive lobbying by Israel and some Jewish organisations ensured that, with the help of this “working definition”, certain criticism of Israeli politics could be classified as anti-Semitic.

The next step for Israel and its helpers in German politics and media was to use the anti-Semitism contention to take action against the so-called "BDS initiative". Many are uncomfortable with the notion of boycotts in general, some are only uncomfortable with the boycott of Israel, but like it or not, we should bear in mind that BDS is a non-violent Palestinian movement that aims to put pressure on Israel by isolating it economically and culturally.

Last year, under pressure of lobby activists, Bundestag, the German parliament passed a notion stating that BDS was antisemitic. An open letter to the German government, signed by hundreds of Jewish and Israeli scientists, clearly expressing their opinion – whether BDS supporters or not – that BDS was not anti-Semitic, did not dissuade that group of German parliamentarians. They evidently know better... for which they were applauded by Israel. The Bundestag resolution further requires that no organisation, that directly or indirectly benefits from public funding, give a stage to speakers promoting BDS.

Back to the Ruhrtriennale festival: the subject of the lecture, that triggered this excitement, was neither BDS, nor Israel or Palestine. Alleging that he was a BDS sympathiser sufficed. That made him unacceptable to his accusers. So, the question arises whether the Bundestag resolution should mean that any person outing himself or outed as a BDS supporter should be subject to an across-the-board boycott in Germany? Should lectures that are not attempts to proselytize for BDS be prohibited? How far does Germany want to go with this? Will the next step be the burning of the man’s books?

If so, what about Daniel Barenboim, who in 2015, said that BDS was right - adding that he found a general ban on contact with Israelis to be counterproductive. In a different context, Barenboim said in 2018, that he was ashamed of being an Israeli.

Does this German censorship squad have the guts to demand the dismissal of Barenboim as director of the State Opera? Or do they only show courage when it comes to an African professor or a festival director in North Rhine-Westphalia?

Let's take it even further: Should Germany’s current media star, corona expert and virologist Professor Christian Drosten, turn out to be a BDS supporter, will he still be permitted to weekly brief us on TV, or would he also be banned from the public?

An anti-Semitism accusation is one of the most potent weapons of defamation these days - and criticism of Israel's politics quickly makes one suspect in Germany of being anti-Semitic.

In fact, this strategy is working. Because very few Germans express themselves publicly in any way that could be perceived by anyone as critical of Israel. One should not underestimate this self-censorship. Because the price is high.

The German escape into silence when it comes to Israel is dishonest. And in the long term, this abuse of the concept of anti-Semitism will not serve Israel or the Jewish people well.

Aspects of life in a Ghetto

I had many reactions to my op-ed in Haaretz. Most were favourable. Some disapproving. A German friend of mine, who first wanted to recommend the article on her own page, told me that he decided not to do so. He told me, that when his partner heard that he was going to recommend the article, she advised him against it. “David can write these things, which I fully agree with,” she said “but if we recommend them, we will be accused of being antisemites.” This reality, in which Germans are afraid to say what they think, lest they be accused of something which they are not, proves loud and clear, how right my call for normalisation is.   

Hopefully the German Jewish community...

Here’s a link to an article of mine that was published yesterday by the Israeli daily Haaretz. The article asks but also answers the question « Do Jews have a future in Germany? And if so, what kind of future? «