Corona-mode museum visits

Today, I spent a few hours in Kassel’s wonderful Wilhelmshöhe museum, with its impressive collection of old master paintings. Tomorrow I will be visiting the Städel in Frankfurt to visit its En Passant - Impressionism in Sculpture exhibition. These are wonderful times to visit museums. They are delightfully empty and remind me of what museums used to be like in my youth – before mass tourism started filling museums with busloads of visitors, most of whom are totally uninterested and just chatter away, whilst their guides talk them through their visit.

To whet your appetite, this was Poussin’s idea of fun:

Zeev Sternhell

Professor Zeev Sternhell, who died last week at the age of 85, one of the world’s foremost authorities on fascism, was an Israeli historian and political scientist. Zeev Sternhell was also a vociferous opponent of Israeli right-wing politics and of the settlement and annexation policies of Israeli governments.

Sternhell did not mince his words and spoke of “growing Israeli fascism and racism akin to Nazism in its early stages.” 

Sternhell warned: “Like every ideology, the Nazi race theory developed over the years. At first it only deprived Jews of their civil and human rights. It’s possible that without World War II the ‘Jewish problem’ would have ended only with the ‘voluntary’ expulsion of Jews from Reich lands. After all, most of Austria and Germany’s Jews made it out in time. It’s possible that this is the future facing Palestinians.”

   

Sternhell’s voice will be sorely missed.  

Foreigners carrying dangerous viruses

To deliver BREXIT, Britain’s EU-phobic population, elected a prime minister who paraded his ineptitude for government by totally mishandling the COVID pandemic. To date the UK has more than 640 Corona deaths per one million, compared to Italy’s 570, France’s 440, Netherlands’ 350, and Germany’s 110. Well done Boris! Well done Britain!

Now, the population, which was sold lies about money flows to Brussels and EU control of British life, is being warned of the dangers lurking from foreigners carrying dangerous viruses. The British Home Secretary, Priti Patel, explained:

««Now we are past the peak of this virus, we must take steps to guard against imported cases, triggering a resurgence of this deadly disease... imported cases could begin to pose a larger and increased threat... they could become a higher proportion of the overall number of infections in the UK and therefore increase the spread of the disease. So, with far fewer people being infected in this country and the public having worked so hard to bring the R number down, any new arrivals entering the country with the disease during this next phase will have a much bigger impact – potentially causing a second wave.««

And so, starting this month, the UK introduced a 14-day quarantine for anyone coming from abroad.

The passionate anti-European, 48-year-old Priti Patel, was born in London to Ugandan-Indian parents who emigrated to the UK from Uganda in the 1960s. Before switching to a political career, Patel worked as a lobbyist for the tobacco and alcohol industries.

I don’t want to be your friend anymore

Occasionally even I get “friendship” offers on facebook. If it is someone I don’t know, I try to understand who they are and what their reason might be for wishing to “befriend” me. A few months ago, I was offered friendship by an activist in the Deutsch-israelische Gesellschaft (DIG), a German-Israeli friendship society. I was somewhat bemused, as DIG activists find views which are critical of Israeli government policy hard to take. Was Ms. X more broadminded than her breed, or did she befriend me thinking that I was a German speaking, Jewish, Israeli academic, who philosemites love to love? It was evidently the latter: today, I noticed that she had “unfriended” me. Ms. X no longer wants to be my friend.

First Concert

A few days ago, I went to my first concert since the beginning of corona lockdown. Provided distancing regulations can be met, Frankfurt now permits events with up to 100 people attending. In its hall of 1370 seats, the Frankfurt opera company organises such concerts, for which it is now allowed to sell 100 tickets.

Finally, the opportunity to go to a live concert again – It was a moving evening. The restrictions probably made it even more moving.

Frankfurt’s wonderful opera studio, members of the younger generation of soloists who get to start their professional lives at the Frankfurt Opera, accompanied by a pianist delivered an unforgettable evening. The final piece, an aria from Il Seraglio was even accompanied by an ensemble of a cellist, violinist, flautist, oboist, and pianist. Their sound was so rich that for a moment one forgot that there were only five of them and not a small orchestra. I am not normally a fan of a potpourri of arias – but this was just wonderful.

Having three free seats to the left and to the right and no one directly in front, is something I could get used to...

Heiko Maas – Incompetence

A few days ago, Heiko Maas, Germany’s Minister for Foreign Affairs, travelled to meet his Israeli counterpart Major General Ashkenazi, to inform him of Europe’s discomfort with Israeli plans to annex even more Palestinian land. 

Such words are like water off a duck’s back. Unless, important countries such as Germany read the riot act to Israel, and show willingness to follow their words with action, Israel will totally disregard them.

And it gets worse: Israel wanted Maas’ visit to produce even more mileage and concocted a ploy to humiliate both the Palestinians and Germany. This was achieved by preventing Maas from visiting Ramallah. Maas had planned a trip to meet the Palestinian leadership, before travelling on to Amman to see King Abdullah of Jordan. To prevent this meeting, Israel – which controls the Palestinian territories – informed Maas, that were he take the 20km. trip to Ramallah, and then back to the Tel-Aviv airport he would be quarantined for 14 days on his way back, before being allowed to leave. Shamefully, Maas gave in.  

Israel’s quarantine enforcement seems flexible: it conveniently forgot that according to its own quarantine regulations, Maas should have been quarantined upon arrival in Israel, before meeting with Israeli ministers. Moreover, thousands of Palestinians travel back and forth every day to work in Israel, without needing to quarantine. Quarantine was just a ploy.   

 

Two years ago, in his inaugural speech, Maas explained «I entered politics because of Auschwitz«. Does Auschwitz incapacitate him and renders him incapable of handling Israel/Palestine issues?    

Erlebte Geschichten

For German speakers:

WDR interviewed me for their series Erlebte Geschichten. Here’s a link to the 23-minute “monologue”.

Listen and (hopefully) enjoy.

The Law Abiding Citizen

A friend of mine recently told me of his predicament: his birthday was coming up and he did not know whether to invite friends for a drink during the Corona period. The current regulations are fairly strict: only members of two households were permitted to meet. Partying is more than frowned upon – it is forbidden. Some of the other states in Germany had already permitted up to 10 people to meet outdoors, his didn’t. Despite that, my friend decided to take the plunge and invited a few friends for drinks in the park near his home. Without noticing it, he had 26 friends who accepted his invitation. What now? He had more on his list. Could he ask even more people? He wanted my view.

I warned him that what he was doing was illegal. I looked up the regulations. They were strict. High fines could be levied on offenders.

As I saw it, there were two “what-if” issues: what if one of the guests turns out to have been infected. And, what if a nosy neighbour, or just another person in the park, would call the police.

I was not worried about the health hazard: after all, the party was in the open air, those who chose to attend, could decide what distance they wished to keep, what level of protection they chose and whether to accept or reject the offered food and drinks. After all there is no limitation on the number of people walking in the park.

The overzealous informer was a different matter. Neighbourhood attendants acting as informers are – say some defamers - a very “German” trait. 

My advice was to stop inviting and hope that those who weren’t asked would forgive him. And... establish four “centres”, none of which included more than eight guests...

Great party. Wonderful atmosphere.

House Concerts

In these times, in which many musicians have their performances cancelled and see their income collapse – some of my friends found a way of coming to their aid, by organising house concerts.

I have now been to three such concerts: a couple of musicians playing for a limited number of guests. The musicians have the double joy of being able to perform, as well as being paid. The guests enjoy a concert in concert-less times and the hosts are doing good.  

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.