To the Jews of Europe: It’s time to leave

Economic troubles. War. Unrest. The world in turmoil. And, as always, the world’s scapegoat: The Jews.

The signs are all over.

To some extent I thought I was inured. I grew up in postwar apartheid South Africa where a subtle undercurrent of anti-Semitism was a fact of everyday life. So while I was disturbed by manifestations of mob anti-Semitism, I was also less vulnerable to shock.

[…] But my sanguine state ends abruptly when I am out walking on Saturday. A hundred yards from my front door, I encounter the slogan, freshly painted in yellow, across the pavement: ‘Kill the Filthy Jews’.

It is once again sanctioned by governments.

Ben Shimol added that in recent days, swastikas have been spray painted on the walls of the Caracas synagogue and a Palestinian flag was waved during a parliament session.

The words are reminiscent of the beginning of the Nazi years:

The week-end before, some people wrote, “We will kill you” on the door of one of the biggest synagogues in Izmir resulted in the closing down of synagogues. Near Istanbul University, a group put a huge poster on the door of a shop owned by a Jew: “Do not buy from here, since this shop is owned by a Jew.” A group put posters on his wall saying that: “Jews and Armenians are not allowed but dogs are allowed.” Some young people are even threatening others with violence if they are seen as pro-Israel in social networking websites such as Facebook and Hi5.

People call today for Jews to “go back” to the ovens …

“Go back to the oven,” she shouted, calling for the counter-protesters to die in the manner that the Nazis used to exterminate Jews during the Holocaust.

“You need a big oven, that’s what you need,” she yelled.

as if Jews ever got out of the ovens of the death camps, once they went in.

And they chant for the death of Jews today by poison gas, under the guise of Palestinian “solidarity”.

“Hamas, Hamas, Jews to the gas.”

Not Israelis. Not Zionists. Jews.

Meantime, there is a difference. In the 20th century, the League of Nations did not aid and abet the vilification of the Jews. The same cannot be said for its successor, the United Nations. The Durban II conference barrels down the mountain, its message being crafted by the state that regularly calls for the destruction of Israel, and denies the Holocaust.

Israel attacked Hamas, and the rest of the world attacked Jews. Not Israelis. Not Zionists. Jews.

The number of anti-Semitic attacks around the world during Israel’s three-week military operation against Hamas in Gaza was up more than 300 percent compared to the same period last year, reaching a two-decade high, according to figures released Sunday by the Global Forum Against Anti-Semitism.

[…] The violent assaults included attacks against both synagogues and Jewish communities, as well as vandalism of privately owned Jewish property, the report said.

The number and intensity of anti-Semitic incidents during the Gaza assault were “unprecedented” in the last two decades, said Jewish Agency official Amos Hermon at a press conference at Jerusalem’s Jewish Agency headquarters, where the report was released.

Yesterday, I learned a new slogan from reader Mike S., who sent me the story of the South African Jew in the beginning of this post. “Strong argument for “For every Jew a .22” he wrote.

It is a strong argument. But only in America, where you can fairly easily get a .22, even in places where handguns are hard to find. It’s harder in Europe and Australia. In South Africa? In Muslim states? Please.

And that’s where Jews are most at risk—where they can’t defend themselves.

This Jew has her .22. And her .38, and will likely have more as the years go by. But I’m not really afraid that I’ll need to defend myself from the haters here. This is America. We didn’t let a crowd of bigots march on a mosque in Chicago after 9/11. We won’t let a crowd of bigots march on Jews anywhere in this country. And our police will absolutely not retreat the way the police of London have been taught to do before angry crowds.

But here isn’t where the problem is.

They’re coming for Europe’s Jews again.

At my dinner table on Friday night, a holocaust survivor admits that she is trying to persuade her son to take his family out of Europe to America, Canada, Australia, Israel . . . ‘They say they can’t leave me, but I tell them: “Go, get out. My parents left my grandparents behind in Berlin and brought me to safety in England. Now I want you to leave so that my grandchildren will be safe.”’ There is an unbearable desperation in her plea. But she has a point.

It’s time to leave.

One of the women had just returned from Amsterdam where she found herself in the middle of one of those militant pro-Palestinian demonstrations with masked demonstrators (some native European) shouting “Hamas! Hamas! Jews to the gas!” To say she was upset was an understatement, but both she and de Winter expressed some optimism about the situation in Holland. Well, maybe it was more Leon. The public and politicians, he said, unlike the ritually-leftist media, increasingly understood what was really going on and were beginning to react accordingly.

Don’t believe it. It’s time to leave. The world has never yet lied to us when it has promised to murder Jews.

Do you know what day the UN has chosen to open its Durban Conference on Racism?

April 20th.

The anniversary of Hitler’s birthday.

It’s time to leave.

The 20.000 people demonstrating in Paris were not in the streets to claim peace but to shout that Israel should be destroyed. Israeli flags were burned, the support was for Hamas, not Fatah (as you know, this organization has betrayed his own people), and you could see giant pictures of Nasrallah. One of the sentences you could hear, repeatedly, was “Death to the Jews and the Zionists”. This was going on in Paris among other places. Two weeks ago the demonstrators stopped Place de l’Opera, shouted Allah is great and prayed [to] Allah. This is a fact, not bad science-fiction. In Mulhouse, the demonstrators wanted to end the day at the synagogue, and destroy it. The police prevented it.

It’s a pretty bad time right now to pray in a synagogue in the eastern part of France — bombs are being thrown once in a while, let’s say once a week — or in a Parisian suburb.

It’s time to leave.