Protests against Israel took place around the world again yesterday. This time, the protesters were even more blatant about their ultimate goal: The destruction of the Jewish State.
Police estimated 6,000 people took part in two demonstrations in Germany’s capital Saturday. Though registered as anti-war protests, they included calls for “victory for Palestine” and an end to Israel’s “60-year occupation.”
Those are not unambiguous calls for a two-state solution. They are a call to Israel’s end, which is suddenly become an open call for the anti-Israel side. They’re not even ashamed of it any more.
The double standard is increasingly evident.
On Istanbul’s main commercial street, Amnesty International erected mock gravestones marked with “Killed while helping the injured” and “Died because of lack of medicines” to protest the killing of civilians in Gaza.
Funny, I don’t recall Amnesty ever erecting mock gravestones with “Killed while studying Torah,” “Killed while riding a bus,” “Killed while buying falafel,” or “Killed while dancing at a bar mitzvah” for the Israeli victims of Palestinian terror attacks.
And in the midst of the worldwide attacks on Jews, the Independent sees fit to classify these as serious attacks on pro-Gaza Jews—by Jews, of course. They have to go by the narrative that all Zionist Jews are violent.
British Jews have been attacked for expressing support for Palestinians suffering under Israeli military strikes in Gaza. Police confirmed yesterday that they have provided protection to a number of people believed to be victims of UK-based Zionist extremists angered by expressions of solidarity with Palestinians.
Are you ready for the fearsome attacks? Prepare yourselves, people: This is brutal stuff.
Rabbi Elchenon Beck, 39, was among six rabbis expressing support for Gaza’s Palestinians who were set upon by a gang of what they allege were Zionists while walking back from opposing rallies outside the Israeli Embassy on 6 January. “They were shouting and pushed someone to the floor, so we called the police,” Rabbi Beck said. “All the time they are trying to intimidate us, but we get used to it.”
Rabbi Aharon Cohen, a Palestinian sympathiser and member of the anti-Zionist group Neturei Karta, had his letter box destroyed by a powerful firework after attending the peace march in Manchester this month.
Yes, that’s really scary. It’s almost as scary as Jews being beaten, stabbed, and mobbed for holding pro-Israel views. Wait, no it’s not. (Which is not to say that I approve of rabbis pushing each other around. Argue, yes. Push, no.)
The double standard of the world is simply on permanent display now. When I see a headline like this:
Victorious, but vilified: Israel has ‘destroyed its image and its soul’
I have to laugh. Israel cannot possibly destroy its image, because the world has managed to do that for her. It’s like Israel’s critics’ memories have the lifespan of a fruit fly. Two and a half years ago, I wrote a post criticizing Tony Judt for pretending that Israel ever had been truly “liked” by the other nations of the world (with a few exceptions). In 1960, after Israel captured Adolf Eichmann, the UN passed a Security Council resolution condemning Israel—for kidnapping one of the architects of the Holocaust out of another country. Was there a word about Argentina sheltering Nazi war criminals? Of course not.
The United Nations misses no opportunity to blame Israel, and it never has. Israel had about three minutes of good will to bask in, right after the end of the Six-Day War. That was basically it. Four minutes after the war, the world was on the Arabs’ side, demanding the return of the conquered territories, including Jerusalem—even though the eastern part contained the Jewish Quarter (which was desecrated by Jordan during its nineteen-year annexation).
So please, opinion writers, spare us the hypocritical commiserating over how Israel has damaged its world image due to the war in Gaza. Israel hasn’t damaged her image at all. You’ve damaged it, and all the Israel-haters out there chanting Hamas slogans aren’t making us feel too confident that things will ever change.
What the world has done is exchange the word “Zionist” for “Jew”—for a while. Or “Israel” for “Jews.” Now it’s coming back into fashion to hate Jews again, using the excuse of the treatment of the Palestinians. The reasons behind that treatment are immaterial. It gives the Jew-haters the chance they’ve been looking for since the news of the death camps first hit the papers. Now, the David Dukes of the world are feted instead of hated. They’re quoted on educational listservs. And they’re out in public, shouting for the end of the Jewish State, at protests all over the world.
Don’t think we haven’t noticed. Spare us your crocodile tears for Israel’s “soul.” We don’t need them, and neither does she. Israel’s soul is intact. It is the souls of the deranged Israel-haters that need looking after.
Did this some of planet’s occupants suddenly come down with a really bad case of the STUPIDS? Or has the manner of infection become more insidious in the spread of this old contagion.
The CDC needs to add the STUPIDS as the newest STD to the list. How to combat this dread disease that seems to be spreading. How do we cure this plague?
Gasp! Not the dreaded mailbox firecracker bombers! Oh no, whatever will we do? The humanity! THE HUMANITY!!!
“Victorious but villified” is one way to put it. “Alive but abhorred” is another. “Living but not liked” is yet another. I think the Israelis will be able to deal with this, especially since the one way they could gain the good wishes of these people is to die.