Deja vu. It’s like I only just wrote about the same topic yesterday. But here we go, in another country: Anti-Semitic incidents in Australia were at an all-time high in July, coinciding with the war with Hezbullah. Once again, somebody please explain to me how attacks on Jews in Australia are a legitimate response to Israeli policies, because I seem to still be missing the point.
The number of anti-Semitic incidents during the Israel-Hezbollah conflict in July were the highest since records began in 1945, according to Grahame Leonard, president of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry.
“At 141, it was 60 per cent higher than the previous record. Many of these incidents were on campus, and the big growth was in Victoria,” Mr Leonard said.
And it’s not just that they were at an all-time high. This wasn’t the angle of the article. The article was about how Jewish Australian students are now in fear on their campuses, being harassed by radical left-wing student groups.
RADICAL left-wing groups at Melbourne universities are exploiting tensions in the Middle East to promote anti-Semitism and recruit members, according to Jewish student groups.
“There’s a real feeling of threat,” said Deon Kamien, Victorian president of the Australasian Union of Jewish Students.
He said Jewish students for the first time felt targeted as Jews, rather than supporters of Israel. “When they walk past socialist stalls (on campus) they feel very uncomfortable, especially when called ‘a f—ing Jew’,” Mr Kamien said.
Try not to choke on the irony in this description:
In one, a Liberal was grabbed by the throat and threatened. In another, security staff had to separate Students Against War and Racism and Liberal Club members waving Israeli flags.
You see, they’re against war and racism, but not against a little anti-Semitic action here and there. Because anti-Semitism isn’t racism, you see—the Jews aren’t a race, they tell us. But then it’s not anti-religion, you see, because the Jews aren’t just a religion. It’s the Catch-22, or should it be the Catch-Twenty-Jew?
Every which way we turn, we’re screwed.
So how about all that Islamophobia the Muslim groups are whining about?
Monash University Islamic Society president Adhnan Wazil said Jewish students had been quiet and there had been no problems for Muslims.
Uh-huh.
And, it turns out, this article is only Part One. Stay tuned for Part Two—I’ve found an in-depth report on Australian anti-Semitism on college campuses.
Well, so much for the idea that it’s just Zionists they oppose, not Jews.
But I take it that if Jewish students beat up some Muslims next time there’s a bus bombing or something in Israel that informed opinion would see it as an understandable if not quite condonable response to Middle East tensions…well, except for what Meryl keeps calling the Exception Clause: “except for jews.”
Anti-Semitism on any Australian campus is reprehensible, but at Monash University in Melbourne there’s a terrible irony involved. The university is named in honor of Sir John Monash (1865-1931), an accomplished civil engineer who became Australia’s greatest general in the First World War. Monash was a Jew, and in 1927 became the president of the Australian Zionist Federation.
Derick, your additional information made the news even more disturbing.