Middle East Christians stuck in the Dark Age

In an article published in the Jerusalem Post, Oxford student Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi
reveals that anti-Semitism is rife among the churches in the Middle East. As the various Arab revolutions have increasingly taken on an Islamic flair and become discriminatory against their Christian populations, some Israelis have tried to identify more closely with their fellow Bible-believers.

Al-Tamimi, who has family in Baghdad, writes that Arab Christians in general view the turmoil caused by the "Arab Spring" as another chapter in the ongoing Jewish conspiracy to take over the world.

According to Al-Tamimi, Middle East Christians believe that all the deadly attacks on their own communities over the past decade have been perpetrated by "Zionist forces" intent on sowing discord, and not by Muslim fundamentalists, even if all the evidence points to Islamic terror.

These are not fringe accusations, warns Jawad, pointing out that major Christian figures in the Middle East have been repeating ancient blood libels against the Jews.

He concludes that most Middle East Christians simply have not moved beyond the Dark Age of Christianity, when the words of Scripture were twisted to demonize the Jews and turn them into the enemies of God.

Read Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi's post here.

The Full-Blown Return of Anti-Semitism in Europe

Guy Millière has written a revealing and chilling article. Read the full article here.After World War II, anti-Semitism seemed to disappear in Europe. It is back, to a very disquieting degree.

Although it is not exactly the same anti-Semitism that in the 1930s, it is not fully different.

The new, current anti-Semitism now adds on to the old kind, the demonization of the State of Israel. The Islamic view of Israel is now the dominant view of Israel in Europe. The idea that Israel is a “colonial power” that has “robbed” people of their land, and is an “artificial State”, even though the Jews have been on that land for three thousand years – and even though many states in the area, such as Jordan and Libya, and Iraq are even more illegitimate, their borders having been drawn on paper by the British in the 1920s – is a commonplace among journalists.

Hatred towards Israel is now the most widely shared sentiment among Europeans, whatever their place on the political spectrum. It is now through hatred of Israel, that hatred of Jews as annoying “troublemakers” can again express itself.

In the 1930s, Jews were accused of not being full members of the country where they lived. Today, the same criticism rises in a slightly different form: Jews are accused of the existence of a Jewish state, and are suspected of being too tied to that state to be full members of the country where they live.

More deeply, the Jews of Europe might feel that if they can paint the Jews as evil, then perhaps what their parents and grandparents did to them during World War II was not really so bad after all; you could even say they deserved what they got. As some Scandinavians put it, The Jews killed Christ; at least the Muslims did not do that.
The anti-Semitism of the 1930s led to the Holocaust, which led the Jews to flee to Israel, the only country that would take them in and not let shiploads of fleeing Jews sink at sea. Now, European anti-Semitism accuses the Jews of Israel's existence and of reminding them of the Holocaust by remembering it themselves.

Meanwhile, an increasing number of Europeans seem quite ready for another Holocaust: one that would be the annihilation of Israel.

If sacrificing Israel allowed non-Muslim Europeans to see Muslim anger disappear, they would be willing to make the sacrifice immediately. If, in order to accept the sacrifice with a clear conscience, non-Muslim Europeans have to caricature Israel ignobly, they will – and do. Anti-Israel cartoons fill European newspapers from London to Spain, and even receive awards. The Israeli army is often compared in European media to the Nazi army. The comparison is fully playing its role: if the Jews are Nazis today, it means that the Europeans did the world a favour in killing six million of them, and that the Europeans are not really guilty.

If Israel can be portrayed as a Nazi state, its destruction is acceptable, maybe even legitimate, maybe even desirable. The fact that Mein Kampf is a bestseller in the Palestinian territories and in most countries of the Muslim world is totally left out, just like the fact that many Jews living in Israel are survivors of the Holocaust committed in Europe sixty five years ago.

A survey conducted last year for the Friederich Ebert Foundation, a German think tank linked to Germany's Social Democratic Party, was eloquent. To the question: “Do you think that Jews abuse their status as victims of Nazism?” positive responses reached proportions hardly imaginable: 72.2% in Poland, 48% in Germany, 40.2% in Italy, 32.3% in France. Another question, “Do you understand why people do not like Jews?” generated results that must be faced. Number of positive responses: 55.2% in Poland, 48.9% in Germany, 40.2% in Italy. The question was not asked in France. In several polls conducted in Europe over the last decade, Israel was identified as the most dangerous country for world peace, tied with Iran.

The question: “Are you anti-Semitic?” was not asked anywhere. I have no doubt that, if asked the question, those who understand that “People do not like Jews”, and who probably do not like them either, would have said that they were not anti-Semitic.
The question, “Do you think that Israel is conducting a war of extermination against the Palestinians?” was asked. Positive responses : 63% in Poland, 47.7% in Germany.

Moshe Kantor, president of the European Jewish Congress, called the poll “very disturbing. The governments of Europe, and the European Union," he said, "would do well to wake up to this problem before it is too late.”

I criticise Israel, therefore I am not an anti-Semite

English MP Jeremy Corbyn has objected to an opinion piece by Leon de Winter in The Wall Street Journal. De Winter’s brief article, Anti-Semitism Is Acceptable Again, asked why people and organizations that present themselves as “progressive” team up with reactionary Muslims. The Free Gaza group, said de Winter, is just such a Leftist-Islamist alliance. Israel withdrew from Gaza five years ago, therefore Gaza is already free but that isn't enough for Hamas; it wants a Jew-free Israel too. The Gaza flotilla, he said, was “the perfect execution of a masterful piece of Islamist theatre”. It is acceptable once more to be an anti-Semite.

Corbyn, a political progressive who is not adverse to “teaming up” with radical Muslims, responded by saying that although “race hatred and discrimination of any description is wrong” de Winter should not “conflate criticisms of Israel with hatred of the Jewish people; they are NOT the same.”

I’m not saying Jeremy Corbyn is an anti-Semite but the way Corbyn and other critics of Israel respond to the charge that some criticism of Israel is anti-Semitic almost amounts to saying that being a critic of Israel is proof positive you are not an anti-Semite. Is there, one wonders, any form of condemnation of Israel that Corbyn and other progressives would acknowledge as clearly anti-semitic? For example, do false allegations of war crimes, the use of the term "apartheid" to describe the state of Israel and “Nazis” to describe Israel’s leaders and the denial of the right of the Jewish people to self-determination not qualify as anti-Semitism.

A few weeks ago, in an unprovoked attack, North Korea sunk a South Korean ship killing 47 people. Where was the world's outrage? In Pakistan, hundreds die in terrorist attacks every week and the Pakistani military kill hundreds of insurgents every month. Where are the expression of indignation from the rest of the world? The Turks killed hundreds of Kurds every year but where was the anger of the progressives? These, and many more conflicts around the world, cause far more deaths and injury than the justified Israeli assault on the Mavi Marmara last week. Yet, according to world opinion, Israel is a pariah state, the world’s leading terrorist organisation and the scum of the earth.

Jeremy Corbyn has shared a platforms with Abou JahJah, a Hezbollah supporter and Holocaust denier who founded the Arab European League, which posted racist cartoons aimed at Jews, including a particularly crude and obnoxious scribble of Ann Frank in bed with Adolph Hitler. Corbyn also spoke alongside Hezbollah MP, Hussein el Haj Hassan who objected to Lebanese children being taught about the diary of Ann Frank.

If Jeremy Corbyn really does believe that “race hatred and discrimination of any description is wrong” why did he join these Islamic radicals to protest against Israel? Perhaps in Corbyn’s book even Holocaust denial and crude cartoons that target Jews don’t yet qualify as race hatred.

Fear and Loathing in Sevenoaks

Following my blog about Mark Ellis' futile attempt to be elected to Parliament on 6 May, I wrote to him and to the local paper. I'll keep you posted if I receive a reply.

Dear Mr Ellis,

We received your Election Communication at our Head Office.

I am concerned that a man who has put himself forward as a parliamentary candidate subscribes to the ideas contained in the notorious anti-Semitic forgery The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion. I could not help but notice that you studiously avoid the quoting the full title, referring to it as “The Protocols of the Learned elders”. Neither could I fail to notice that you refer not to Jews but to “Khazars” and “Levantines”. This is both devious and disingenuous.

Though I am not a Jew, I admire and respect them. The Jewish people constitute 0.21% of world’s population yet they have made a contribution to civilisation out of all proportion to their size. For example, since the mid-nineteenth century 25% of world’s scientists have been Jews. In 1978, over half the Nobel Prize winners were Jewish, therefore in that year over 50% of the main contributors to the progress of mankind came from less than 1% of the world’s population! The world has benefited from this tiny people group in every area of human achievement and we all owe a debt of gratitude to them in many ways.

We have also benefited spiritually from the Jews. The Bible is Jewish; the gospel Christian ministers proclaim came to the nations through Jewish apostles; the Christian God revealed himself first to Jewish patriarchs and prophets; and Christians trust a Jew for their salvation.

Your tract demonstrates that you lack the moral integrity, intellectual rigour and spiritual rectitude necessary for high office. The last person to be elected to government by blaming the Jews for the ills of his country was Adolph Hitler. Thankfully you possess neither his personal charisma nor his eloquence.

Suffice it to say that on 6 May my cross will not appear next to your name on the ballot form.

Yours sincerely,

Vote, Vote, Vote for Mark Ellis

Today I received an “Election Communication” in the form of a tract from one of our “Independent” candidates. Mark Ellis thinks we should all vote for him because he has four science “A” levels; he attended Bristol Veterinary College; he was a “Friend and helper of Vice Marshall Bennett [who lost his deposit in the 1967 Nuneaton By-Election as a candidate for the now defunct far right British Party] who, apparently, “was aware of a frightful conspiracy”.

This will be Mr Ellis’s fourth attempt to be elected to Parliament on an anti-Semitic platform. Ellis believes the Jews operate behind the scenes to implement their dastardly plans for world domination as outlined in the “Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion”. He doesn’t mention the Jews so he resorts to calling them “Khazars”, “Levantines” and “Cons” (Old-Cons as opposed to Neo-Cons).

These men in the shadows are responsible for all that is wrong with Britain from postal voting frauds to the closing of “1/3 of our railways”. The closing of railways is, according to Ellis, particularly perfidious because railways “stimulate interest in mechanisms”.

So, if you live in Sevenoaks and have half a mind to vote for an anti-Semitic conspiracy theorist, that’s all you’ll need.

To see Ellis' Election Communication click here.

Is Yossi Benayoun a victim of anti-Semitism?

I’m not a football fan but my attention was caught by an email I just received from Sirajin M. Rollings-Kamara, who styles himself Goodwill Ambassador for the Sierra Leone Israel Friendship Society. It concerns the Israeli-born Liverpool player Yossi Benayoun, who is also captain of the Israeli national team.

Benayoun, says Rollings-Kamara, is rated by Liverpool fans all over the world as the game-maker for his team. He is the perfect player and does everything needed and necessary but Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez does not seem to like him. Benayoun plays reserve, says Rollings-Kamara, but when he comes on field he turns the match around and when he does not play, Liverpool is in trouble. Why then is the Liverpool manager reluctant to play Yossi.

Yossi is rated one of the best players in England and the answer could be that the Liverpool manager is an anti-Semite.

Help me all you Liverpool fans. Is Benayoun as good as Sirajin M. Rollings-Kamara says? Is he constantly sidelined by his manager? Is the Liverpool manager anti-Semitic? Is Rollings-Kamara seeing anti-Semitism where it does not exist? Let me know what you think.

Israelis View Foreign Media as ‘Anti-Semitic’

According to Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu on the Arutz Sheva website:

Nearly three-quarters of Israelis view the foreign media as being negative towards Israel, according to a recent poll revealed by Professor Avraham Tzion of Ariel University Centre, located in Samaria. Speaking at the annual conference on media and communications held there, he said the survey also showed that 88 percent of the respondents cited anti-Semitism as the main reason for Israel's negative image.

The Palestinian Authority’s information campaign and poor public relations by the Israeli government were close behind as reasons for the bad image.

The poll of 500 Jews from all sectors of society also revealed that about two-thirds view foreign reports in Judea and Samaria as being unfair and unreasonable.

Left-wing groups, such as Peace Now and B’Tselem, were viewed as contributing to Israel’s negative image by 64 percent of the respondents, while residents of Judea and Samaria (“settlers”) and nationalists, known as the “right wing,” were blamed by 58 percent.

U.S. President Barack Obama ranked relatively low as being a cause of the negative impression, with half of the respondents blaming him.

A breakdown of the statistics disclosed that anti-Semitism was cited more often as the main reason for Israel's image problem among female respondents and people under the age of 35. Respondents who defined themselves as on the right side of the political spectrum were inclined to point the finger left-wing groups and President Obama, besides anti-Semitism.

Those on the left end of the spectrum blamed the government’s information campaign and “settlers” as the main negative influences.

One surprising result of the poll was that 18 percent of Israelis are not aware of the legal standing of Judea and Samaria.