What if the terrorists were Jews?, Douglas Murray

The Nazis and their acolytes exterminated 6 million European Jews, including 1.5 million children.  After the war surviving Jews did not carry out reprisal actions, no vengeance, no 'suicide bombings'.  Surviving Jews either left Europe or stayed and carried on with their lives.  Europeans know that and, sadly, knowing this many of them demonise Jews and Israelis in all impunity and with great pleasure.

Douglas Murray @ The Spectator

Yesterday another radical Muslim cell in the UK was found guilty of terrorism offences. Irfan Naseer, Irfan Khalid and Ashik Ali had hoped to carry out a wave of suicide bombings in Britain which would have exceeded 7/7 and rivalled 9/11 in terms of impact and casualties. They were radical Islamists, inspired by radical Islamist preachers and had travelled to Pakistan to receive training in bomb-making with the aim of blowing up British people. [...]

Let us imagine that the cell convicted of attempting to carry out mass murder on the streets of Britain were radical Jews rather than radical Muslims, inspired by Jewish preachers and trained by Jewish terrorist groups in the belief – mistaken or otherwise – that they were acting in the name of their Jewish religion.

Let us furthermore imagine that the recent cell of Jewish terrorists had not only been great admirers of Jewish terrorists who had carried out the largest terrorist attack in history on the United States, and Jewish terrorists who had blown up the London transport system a few years back, but had radical ideological Jewish allies who had done the same thing in Spain, America, India and many other countries around the world over recent years. Imagine, furthermore, that other extremist Jews had assassinated and attempted to assassinate film-makers, artists, writers, politicians and others across Europe over recent years for being critical of Judaism or doing things that they thought offensive to the Jewish faith. Imagine if someone who – because of all of this – had become a critic of some tenets of Judaism had just earlier this month narrowly survived an assassination attempt on him in his home.

Whether they meant to or not, Europe has put up a big 'not welcome' sign for Jews.

Esther, a young religious Israeli, explains why she is putting an end to Islam in Europe, a very successful blog and among the best (12 Aug. 2012):

I've been putting off writing this post, but I can't put this off forever: I'm closing down my blog. This blog has always been a hobby, and as happens in life, I've moved on to other things. I've also discovered that it's not really healthy for me to read thousands of news articles a day and to be aware of every tragedy and scandal across the continent. [...]

I've started this blog in November 2005. I've gotten interested in the subject of the Muslim community in Europe and had been reading other blogs dealing with the issue. At the same time I started learning Dutch with a Flemish friend. A whole new world of news and opinions opened up to me. But what really got me blogging was the realization that the Jewish community was being affected by this very debate, and that nobody else was blogging about that angle. This was brought home to me by the following story: A Dutch author published a thriller centering around a terrorism plot. To add a surprise twist, though Muslims were implicated, the terrorist turned out to be Jewish. That made me realize that Jews were no longer spectators in the game, they were being dragged in. 

Suddenly issues like kosher food, circumcision, head coverings, and religious practice were being questioned. The recent German court decision to ban circumcision, followed by similar decisions in Switzerland and Austria, comes as a final note to this blog. I agree with the commentator who wrote that "they've just made Judaism illegal".  [...]

1. As mentioned above, the Islam debate has serious implications for the Jewish community, which in my opinion will be worse than Muslim antisemitism. I've blogged about this in the past. But to emphasize the point: I'm a religious Jew. I cover my hair, I eat kosher food, I don't work on the Sabbath. I do a thousand and one things that I've seen Islam-critics rage against when done by Muslims. Although logically I understand the demand for assimilation, I also know it would means the end of European Judaism. Whether they meant to or not, Europe has put up a big 'not welcome' sign for Jews. 

2. Anybody who wants to understand current events, should learn history. The mantra 'Muslims are the new Jews' is usually repeated by people whose knowledge of history starts with the Holocaust. I've also seen Muslims being advised to learn from the Jews how to integrate and be politically active. My advice to European Muslims: pick up a book about Jewish-European history in the 18th-19th century. Jews were finally being recognized as equal citizens, but with the new rights came expectations and obligations. The debate on whether to assimilate, integrate or remain aloof raged within the Jewish community, and has not actually been decided to this day. It revolutionized Judaism, for good and bad. Every topic being discussed today was dealt with then, there's nothing new under the sun. Do people really think there's a quick fix for a problem which has been plaguing an ancient European minority for the past 200 years? 

How to tackle anti-Semitism in Europe: stop funding anti-Semites

Douglas Murray @ Gatestone Institute:

I was asked to Brussels to address the matter of what the European Union might do to tackle anti-Semitism. The answer is easy: "Stop funding anti-Semites." 

And so it was that I found myself once again in a meeting in the twilight world of Brussels -- an ugly city filled with ugly buildings, ugly overpriced food and overpaid officials. The objective of any visit must always be a hit-an-run: to get in and get out as swiftly as possible. The only reason to go is to try and inject some sense into a city so starved of it. When, therefore, asked to address the matter of what the European Union might do to tackle anti-Semitism, the answer is easy: "Stop funding anti-Semites." What is hard is that this is Brussels [see below], where words are meaningless and nothing makes any sense. Here is just one example: The Palestinian Ma'an News Agency is one of the most supremely anti-Semitic organs in the Middle East. Which I hope readers realize is putting it in the premier league of anti-Semitic slander.  Continue reading
______________________
About Brussels (in French):

Belgique: l'obsession anti-israélienne (1)

Belgique: l'obssession anti-israélienne (2)

And... the Russell Tribunal on Palestine, made in Brussels...
The final session of the RToP will take place in Brussels on 16-17 March 2013. On Saturday evening (March 16) a cultural evening will be organised (doors open 6.30pm/close midnight) where musical acts (including a performance from French band ZEBDA) will be mixed with political speeches by various jury members (tickets 10 euros at the door). Session itself will take place on Sunday from 9.30am until 1pm. Jury will comment on the final findings of the Russell Tribunal on Palestine. (Free. To register, email rtopinvitationgmailcom giving us your name, function, organisation/group/charity you belong too-if applicable-, and country you will be coming from. You will receive a confirmation email shortly thereafter). 

Anti-Semitism in Europe: Jews who can do so, leave Europe

"In an interview in a French magazine a few years ago, a man who survived the death camp in Auschwitz said: "In the 1930s, the pessimists found ways to survive; it was the optimists who died.""

Guy Millière @ Gatestone Institute (Anti-Semitism in Europe)

Jews who can do so, leave Europe. Those who do not have the means to leave know they must be extremely careful: it is dangerous again to be a Jew in Europe. It is even more dangerous to be a Jew who supports Israel. In 2012, the number of anti-Semitic crimes in France sharply increased. The six-month period that followed the March killings in a Jewish school in Toulouse were particularly harsh. The killer , Mohammed Merah, became a hero in many suburbs, his name on many graffiti. For some people, apparently, shooting children in the head just because they are Jewish is inspiring. Although acts such as as the killing in Toulouse had no equivalent elsewhere, France is not an exception: statistics show that insults, assaults, and cries of hatred against Jews multiply throughout Europe. Jewish schools, synagogues and Jewish cultural centers are everywhere threatened and urgently require more stringent security measures. Continue reading

'1938-style Jew hatred still alive in Belgium'

There are countless gatherings like these in Europe every year - and every body vows to combat anti-Semitism.  But nothing changes.  Last year, this year, next year the same ritual, the same solemn promises again and again.  One only has to look at how Europe treats the Roma population to understand that nothing will be done.

Pro-Hamas rally in Brussels (11 Jan. 2009)

'1938-style Jew hatred still alive in Belgium' By CNAAN LIPHSHIZ, JERUSALEM POST CORRESPONDENT 29/01/2012 - Edelstein tells European dignitaries that anti-Semitism rife in Europe.

The sort of anti-Semitic attacks that took place in Europe in 1938 are occurring here today, Public Diplomacy and Diaspora Affairs Minister Yuli Edelstein told European dignitaries and Jewish leaders on Thursday night.

“A brick hurled at a Jewish shop. A Molotov cocktail at a rabbi’s house. A Jewish girl attacked at school. These aren’t memories of Europe in 1938, but headlines in 2011,” Edelstein said in a speech at a ceremony in Belgium. Edelstein represented Israel at an event celebrating Belgium’s chairmanship of the intergovernmental Task Force for International Cooperation on Holocaust Education. Belgium will replace the Netherlands as the task force’s leader in March. Under Belgium’s chairmanship, the task force is to be transformed and renamed the International Holocaust Remembrance Organization. Some 300 people attended the ceremony in Mechelen where Edelstein spoke last week. “My concern is the escapism that occurs in these ceremonies,” Edelstein told The Jerusalem Post after his speech. “Conclusions from current incidents in Belgium, Holland and elsewhere must be drawn: Anti-Semites replace ‘Jew’ with ‘Zionist’ or ‘Israeli.’ They tell any blood libel and call it political debate.” 

Top antisemitic slur film director Lars von Triers wins best movie at European film awards

From Simon Wiesenthal's 2011 Top Ten Anti-Israel/Anti-Semitic Slurs list:

“I understand Hitler... He’s not what you would call a good guy, but yeah, I understand much about him and I sympathize with him a little bit. But come on, I’m not for the Second World War, and I’m not against Jews... I am of course, very much for Jews. No, not too much, because Israel is a pain in the ass… I’m very much for Speer. Albert Speer [Hitler’s Architect]… He was also maybe one of God’s best children… Okay, I’m a Nazi.”

Director Lars Von Trier was thrown out of the Cannes Film Festival after this rant,  May 18, 2011. He later apologized. READ SOURCE...

Did he apologize? Not really:  "In the October 2011 issue of GQ, Von Trier is quoted in an interview saying he was not really sorry for the comments he made, only sorry he didn't make it clear that he was joking. He added, "I can't be sorry for what I said—it's against my nature." On October 5, 2011, Von Trier was interviewed by police in Denmark about his remarks at Cannes. Afterwards, he announced that he had 'decided from this day forth to refrain from all public statements and interviews'."

And ...

BBC: Lars von Trier wins best movie at European film awards: Science fiction drama Melancholia, directed by Lars von Trier, was named best movie at this year's European Film Awards in Berlin.

Tutu tells European kangaroo court: Israel has forgotten the scripture

Europe may be facing a terrible financial crisis, but Europeans will always find plenty of money to demonise Israel.  An association in Belgium - which was not criticized let alone condemned by any of the numerous Jewish associations - has created a kangaroo court, pompously named Russell Tribunal on Palestine.  Thank you Europe, thank you Belgium.

NGO Monitor deconstructs the 'court': http://www.russelltribunal.org/ and Facebook page: Russell the Kangaroo

Their third session is being held in Cape Town and the star guest is Archbishop Tutu (in spite all their efferts he is the only famous person who accepted to be drawn into the Russell circus) who was only too happy to demonize Israel.

Source: South Africa Times

The suffering inflicted by Israel on the Palestinian people shows that it has forgotten the Jewish scriptures, Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu said on Saturday.

"They have forgotten their own history. They have forgotten what their own prophets have said about our God," Tutu said in his opening address to the International Russell Tribunal on Palestine.

"We worship a God that is naturally biased in favour of the suffering, the underdog, those who are suffering underfoot... God is always on the side of the oppressed. In the Holy Land, the Palestinian people are the ones suffering."

Germans use ‘anti-Israel’ Jews to soothe Holocaust guilt

Source: TJP, article by Benjamin Weinthal

Analysis: What mechanisms are causing some German educators, students, EVZ foundation employees to turn Israel into whipping boy for Europe’s guilt?

BERLIN – The Jerusalem Post exposé on the German Holocaust foundation Remembrance, Responsibility, Future (EVZ) in late September and October revealed that two of its Holocaust high school student programs were being fueled by hatred of the Jewish state.

What social and psychological mechanisms are causing some German educators, students and EVZ foundation employees to marginalize the Holocaust and turn the State of Israel into a public whipping boy for Europe’s guilt about the crimes of the Shoah?

In a series of interviews with leading Israeli and Dutch specialists last week and on Sunday, the Post examined the need of many Europeans to expunge feelings of culpability about the memory of their ancestors’ complicity in the Holocaust.

The EVZ used 38,690 euros ($53,687) to finance studentexchange programs in 2010- 2011, in which Israel was equated with the former repressive Stalinist East German state, and students published crude cartoons of Jews in a brochure. German taxpayer monies funded the speaking engagement of a hardcore anti-Israel Holocaust survivor, Hajo Meyer, at the Anne Frank high school in Gütersloh.

During Meyer’s talk with the students, he termed Israel a “criminal state” and equated the suffering of Palestinians to the persecution and mass murder of Jews during the Holocaust.

Dr. Manfred Gerstenfeld, the chairman of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs who authored a book on the abuse of the memory of the Holocaust, said that “comparing Palestinians with Shoah victims is part of the much broader distortion category of Holocaust inversion. These inverters portray Jews as Nazis. The few such Jewish ideological perverts get publicity because many more non-Jews want to hear these things from Jews.”

Gerstenfeld, who was raised in Holland and is an expert on modern European anti-Semitism, cited the writer Leon de Winter’s views about the “falsifiers of history” who impose higher ethical standards on Jews because of the Holocaust. “The writer Leon de Winter once said to me: ‘They present the Shoah as an educational institute for Jews to teach Jewish morals. In other words, the Nazis held courses in the concentration camps in order to imbue Jews with humanity,’” added Gerstenfeld.

How did anti-Semitism return to the very nations that pledged never to repeat it?

"How, then, did anti-Semitism return to the very nations that pledged never to repeat it? The cynical answer is that it never died, it merely went underground. There is a shred of truth to this, but very small. As a line of reasoning, it is deeply misleading. For the new anti-Semitism is only secondarily aimed at Jews as individuals. Its real target is Jews as a nation – in Israel."

Strange but typical reasoning.  European Jews believe that Europeans like them.  Antisemitism is just a huge misunderstanding and all is needed is more explaining and yet more explaining.  Indeed we need more explaining and all will be sweet and light.

Source: EJP (Those who deny Jews or Israel their freedom will lose, or fail to gain, their own, By Sir Jonathan Sacks, Chief Rabbi of the United Kingdom and Commonwealth)

For the Jews of Europe, these are the best of times and the worst of times. Take British Jewry as an example.

In the past 20 years we have built more Jewish day schools than ever before in our 355-year history. Culturally, a community deemed moribund a generation ago boasts a cultural center, a community center in the making, Jewish Book Weeks, arts, music and film festivals, and an adult-education event – Limmud – that has inspired offshoots in 50 other centers throughout the Jewish world.

Jews have achieved prominence in every field. Both parliamentary speakers, in the Commons and the Lords, are Jewish. We have had, in recent years, two Jewish lord chief justices, Jewish heads of Oxford and Cambridge, a Jewish editor of The Times and Jewish leaders of both the Conservative and Labour parties. Not only are Jews respected, but so is Judaism. The Jewish moral voice has become a significant part of the national conversation.

THESE ARE astonishing achievements. But they are clouded by the disturbing phenomenon of a new anti-Semitism spreading like a virus across Europe. This cries out for explanation. After all, after the Holocaust, if there was one thing on which people of goodwill throughout the world agreed, it was: Never again.

The entire post-war culture of the West – of the world – was tilted in that direction. Out of the determination that there should never be another Holocaust came the United Nations’ Declaration of Human Rights, the concept of a “crime against humanity,” the idea that racism is a vice, the movement for interfaith dialogue, and the historic shift in Christianity known as Vatican II, Nostra Aetate.

Most Europeans ignorant about the Holocaust

“Europeans have already forgotten the Holocaust and now politicians are making it official”

Six million Jews, of which 1.5 million were children, were exterminated by the Nazis and their willing executioners, but six decades later Europeans demonstrate a "disturbing lack of knowledge about the Holocaust".

European Jewish Congress (EJC) President Dr. Moshe Kantor slammed Belgian Justice Minister Stefaan De Clerck for his comments about forgetting the Nazi period, especially due to the current ignorance of Europeans about the Holocaust.

A recent European Jewish Congress survey on Holocaust awareness, undertaken in several European countries demonstrated that there is a disturbing lack of knowledge about the Holocaust.

The survey asked five questions about the Holocaust and found that many European respondents were especially ignorant as to the basic facts of the Holocaust. Two thirds of respondents under-45 surveyed did not know that six million Jews died in the Holocaust.

Similar ignorance was displayed to the question, “Who was Adolf Eichmann?” Only around a third of those under 45 in Europe knew that Eichmann was the chief organizer behind the Nazi mass murder of Europe’s Jews. [...]

The poll was conducted by Toluna on behalf of the European Jewish Congress using 3,233 participants.

Europe: yet another conference to discuss "assault on Israel’s legitimacy"

Stating and discussing the obvious.  But in the end nothing changes.

PARIS (EJP)----During a meeting in Jerusalem, European Jewish Congress President Moshe Kantor invited Israel’s Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to a European conference of heads of state to discuss the assault on Israel’s legitimacy.

The conference will take place in the coming months. Netanyahu confirmed his participation, the EJC said.

"This conference will be a vital step in the battle against the ongoing assault on Israel’s legitimacy" Kantor said. "This will be a top level meeting where we can make real headway to meeting this challenge in Europe which appears to be the beachhead of the delegitimization campaign."

According to the EJC, Kantor is expected to call for the adoption of "clear boundaries" to criticism of Israel, modeled on the working definition of anti-Semitism produced in 2005 by the European Union Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia (EUMC), an EU body which monitors racism and anti-Semitism in EU Member States.

Europe should follow Goldstone's lead, Daniel Schwammenthal

"The failure of the U.K. and France to oppose the report is particularly difficult to understand. Europe's two foremost military powers are themselves involved in asymmetrical conflicts against enemies that ignore the civilized world's rules of war. The Goldstone Report could have set a dangerous precedent, undermining their armies' ability to face off enemies hiding among civilian populations. And yet, then-Foreign Secretary David Miliband of the previous Labour government seemed to accept the moral equivalence the Goldstone report tried to draw between Hamas terrorists and democratic Israel: "We take seriously all substantive allegations of breaches of International Humanitarian Law by both sides during the Gaza conflict," he said at the time."


Source: EJP

After almost two years, Richard Goldstone finally retracted his war crimes accusations against Israel. "If I had known then what I know now, the Goldstone Report would have been a different document," the head of the U.N. Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict wrote in a Washington Post op-ed Friday. Mr. Goldstone has now confirmed that Israel did not intentionally target civilians, suggested that Israel's much lower estimates of Palestinian civilian casualties than those cited in his own report were probably correct and credited the Jewish state with conducting credible investigations into alleged wrongdoings by individual soldiers.

While this about-face is welcome, the report's many flaws were obvious from the start to any fair-minded observer. It's hardly surprising that Israel's enemies lapped up the Goldstone Report. But the responses of Israel's European friends were more disappointing. When the U.N. General Assembly voted on November 5, 2009 to endorse the report, many European Union countries failed to stand by their embattled partner. Cyprus, Ireland, Portugal, Malta, and Slovenia voted in favor of the U.N. resolution. Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Greece, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Romania, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom abstained.

European Gaza flotilla seeks EU political cover

In spite of all the problems, Europeans and the Euro media never give up on their favourite pastime:  Israel bashing.

Source: EU Observer (Second Gaza flotilla seeks EU political cover)

The organisers of a second flotilla aiming to break Israel's siege on Gaza are seeking EU diplomatic protection after Israeli commandos killed nine people and injured 52 during their first trip in 2010.

Speaking to EUobserver from Paris on Monday (4 April), Claude Leostic from Association France Palestine Solidarite (AFPS) said the group will next week send letters to top EU officials Herman Van Rompuy and Catherine Ashton urging them to threaten Israel with economic sanctions if there is a repeat of last year's violence.

The first Gaza flotilla ended in an Israeli commando raid which killed nine people and injured 52.

"The EU has been saying for a long time that the blockade is against international law. It has the means to apply economic pressure, to cancel its economic agreement with Israel. If they are serious about their position, they could send such a message. This would be a really good move," she explained.

The NGOs behind the project also expect several MPs from EU countries and MEPs from Brussels to join them when they set sail in late May. [...]

Photo: peaceful flotilla "militant".

When European leaders criticise Islam Israel-bashing comes next

After British P.M. David Cameron speech about multiculturalism (i.e. Islam), British Foreign Minister William Hague has harsh words against Israel.  This pattern is repeated time after time.

"The British and other European governments would be well-advised to put more real effort into improving the situation on the ground instead of just taking the backseat and leaving Israel, the only democracy in the region, alone. Talk is cheap, but action is what we need." (Ronald Lauder)

(EJP) --- The World Jewish Congress expressed disappointment about comments made this week by British Foreign Minister William Hague on the Middle East and Israel, calling them "one-sided".

In an interview with The Times in London, Hague said Israel should tone down what he tered its "belligerent" language amid the revolutionary tide sweeping the Arab world, when he was asked to comment recent statements made by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the situation in Egypt.

In a meeting earlier this week with a visting delegation of European parliamentarians, Netanyahu spoke of the possibility that the Islamists in Egypt would exploit the situation in order to gain governance over the country and lead it backwards, in fact warning that Egypt could become a new Iran. He said Israel had to be prepared for "any outcome" in Egypt and "to reinforce its might".

William Hague was quoted by the British newspaper as saying that "this should not be a time for belligerent language".

"It's a time to inject greater urgency into the Middle East peace process," he added.  He also demanded that the Obama administration give a timetable for bringing "greater urgency into the peace process" and for a peace settlement to be based on the borders prior to 1967.

On Wednesday World Jewish Congress President Ronald Lauder issued a strong statement on Hague’s comments. "Putting undue political pressure on Israel alone, completely neglecting its vital security interests, is counterproductive and unhelpful,” he said, criticizing Europe's political leaders "who on an almost daily basis go around the Middle East lecturing the Israelis about what they should do, and that they should do it now."

Spanish government sponsors PA TV ad calling for boycott of all Israeli products

Sadly, Europeans - even European Jews - are just not interested.  Spain is facing a terrible economic crisis but the Government will find plenty of money to finance this kind of vile anti-Israel incitement.

Source: Palestinian Media Watch

Last week Palestinian Authority TV started broadcasting an ad promoting the boycott of all Israeli products.

The ad is sponsored by the Spanish government, the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and AECID - the Spanish governmental humanitarian aid development.

The TV ad opens as a Palestinian boy enters a store and overhears a conversation. A customer informs the shopkeeper that "they're plastering the city with advertisements about boycotting Israeli goods." The shopkeeper argues that he has to offer Israeli goods because the Palestinian customers demand it. The customer agrees adding that "Israeli products are better than the local products." (Watch the video HERE)

The shopkeeper then ask the boy him what he wants. The boy looks at the Israeli products in the store and says: "I want Israeli chips." He takes the chips, walks to the door, and then hears gunfire, presumably from Israeli soldiers, and he decides that he will not buy Israeli goods. He looks to each side, drops the chips on the floor, returns to the shopkeeper and says: "I don't want the Israeli product, I want the Palestinian product."

The ad ends with this text on the screen:

"Don't prolong the occupation's life upon our land," while displaying the logo of the Palestinian NGO Health Work Committees, followed by the logos of the ad's sponsors:

"The Spanish government, the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and AECID (Spanish governmental humanitarian aid development), ACSUR (a Spanish non-profit organization), and Canaan Joint Development Project for Jerusalem (Palestinian)."

Holland: comparing persecuted Jews in the 30s to Muslims today

"Yet if the main threat is revolutionary Islamism and the collapse of national identity, stability, and democracy, then Europe is in a lot of trouble."

Source: Barry Rubin (What's Happening in Europe: Holland As A Case Study on Islam and Israel). Excerpts:

"Another development in Europe, however, is rising antisemitism. Here's an article providing examples of both sympathetic and unsympathetic reactions on the issue by various Dutch figures.

Having reliable statistics at last regarding the number of Muslims in Europe also makes it timely to discuss that issue. The European left often argues that Muslims face imminent persecution and even massive repression. One of the more sophisticated versions of this theme comes from the Dutch Labor Party journalist and intellectual Geert Mak in one of the country's leading newspapers:  "No, in the comparison between Jews and Muslims it's not about deportation and mass-murder. It's about the beginning, about the 1930s, when Jews felt themselves excluded and when it was spoken about them as it is now about Muslims."

Yet how can one deal with this issue without noting the fact that Islamists who are Muslim have committed more than 10,000 terrorist attacks in the last two decades? Or the fact that in many mosques in the West, preachers systematically incite hatred for Jews and Christians? Or that a whole series of special privileges are demanded by local Muslim leaders that break the Western democratic tradition of equal treatment under law? Or that the overwhelmingly main cause of growing antisemitism in Europe comes from the Muslim sector of the population?

Needless to say, Jews in the 1930s weren't doing any of these things. There was not a single incident of violence by Jews against the Christian majority. While Jews were sometimes accused of religiously preaching hatred against Christians, those claims were always false. And far from asking for special privileges, most Jews were trying desperately to assimilate culturally while the rest only wanted to be left alone. If one ignores these differences it is impossible to understand the situation today.

Here's one little detail reported by the French press agency, AFP that provides an ironic example of the problem. A Lebanon-born Swedish citizen named Munir Awad was arrested in Somalia in 2007 and again in 2009 in Pakistan on suspicion of involvement in terrorism. The Swedish foreign ministry helped get him freed on both occasions. Awad expressed his gratitude. Now Awad has been again arrested--in Sweden--after participating in a plot to "kill as many people as possible" in an attack on a Danish newspaper that published cartoons he found objectionable.

The call to boycott Jewish commerce is Europe’s oldest political appeal, Denis MacShane

"Kauft nicht bei Juden" will worsen the conflict, JPost

The call to boycott Jewish commerce is Europe’s oldest political appeal.

Kauft nicht bei Juden – “Don’t buy from Jews” – is back. The call to boycott Jewish commerce is Europe’s oldest political appeal. Once again, as the tsunami of hate against Israel rolls out from the Right and the Left, from Islamist ideologues to Europe’s cultural elites, the demand is to punish the Jews. That the actions of the Israeli government are open to criticism is a fact. But what are the real arguments?

Firstly, that Israel is wrong to defy international law as an occupying force on the West Bank. But what about Turkey? It has 35,000 soldiers occupying the territory of a sovereign republic – Cyprus. Ankara has sent hundreds of thousands of settlers to colonize the ancient Greek owned lands of northern Cyprus. Turkey has been told again and again by the UN to withdraw its troops. Instead, it now also stands accused of destroying the ancient Christian churches of northern Cyprus.  Does anyone call for a boycott of Turkey, or urge companies to divest from it? No. Only the Jews are targeted.

Or take India; 500,000 Indian soldiers occupy Kashmir. According to Amnesty International, 70,000 Muslims have been killed over the past 20 years by these soldiers and security forces – a number that far exceeds the Palestinians killed by Israeli forces in the same period. But the Islamic ideologues focus on Jews, not Indians.

We can't rely on Europe, warns Israel ambassador

"When push comes to shove, no-one in Israel really thinks that Europe will come to its aid." After Frits Bolkestein's warning, here comes another similar warning.
 
"A stark warning that Israel cannot rely on the support of European leaders in the battle against the deligitimisation and demonisation of the Jewish state was issued this week by Israeli ambassador Ron Prosor.

Source: Jewish Chronicle

At a packed meeting at London's New West End Synagogue, the envoy warned: "When push comes to shove, no-one in Israel really thinks that Europe will come to its aid."

He lambasted politicians who felt they were taking a sufficiently principled stand by simply stating that Israel had "a right to exist."  If he had found it necessary to state that Britain has a right to exist ,"people would wonder what I had been drinking?" he declared.

The ambassador also slated those who professed Israel's right to defend its people, yet took every opportunity to criticise it over actions such as the war against missile attacks, or the building of the anti-terror wall.

Israel, he said, was facing a "new kind of warfare," aimed at attempting to cast it out of the family of nations. "Our adversaries are crossing the line every day. There is more pressure, more demonisation."  It was also important to state, he said, that the international campaign in favour of a Palestinian right of return "would not result in a two-state solution but in the destruction of the state of Israel.""

More HERE

‘Kauft nicht bei Juden’ will worsen the conflict, by Denis McShane

In Europe, the obsession with Israel is total.  Pick up any European newspaper any day and the obsession is there for all to see - it is an obsession Europeans and Muslims share.  And things are not about to change. 

Source: The Jerusalem Post

The call to boycott Jewish commerce is Europe’s oldest political appeal. Kauft nicht bei Juden – “Don’t buy from Jews” – is back. The call to boycott Jewish commerce is Europe’s oldest political appeal. Once again, as the tsunami of hate against Israel rolls out from the Right and the Left, from Islamist ideologues to Europe’s cultural elites, the demand is to punish the Jews. That the actions of the Israeli government are open to criticism is a fact. But what are the real arguments?

Firstly, that Israel is wrong to defy international law as an occupying force on the West Bank. But what about Turkey? It has 35,000 soldiers occupying the territory of a sovereign republic – Cyprus. Ankara has sent hundreds of thousands of settlers to colonize the ancient Greekowned lands of northern Cyprus. Turkey has been told again and again by the UN to withdraw its troops. Instead, it now also stands accused of destroying the ancient Christian churches of northern Cyprus. Does anyone call for a boycott of Turkey, or urge companies to divest from it? No. Only the Jews are targeted.

Or take India; 500,000 Indian soldiers occupy Kashmir. According to Amnesty International, 70,000 Muslims have been killed over the past 20 years by these soldiers and security forces – a number that far exceeds the Palestinians killed by Israeli forces in the same period. But the Islamic ideologues focus on Jews, not Indians.

May we talk of the western Sahara and Morocco, or Algeria’s closure of the border there, making life far worse than that of Palestinians in Ramallah or Hebron? No, better not.

Voltaire – anti-Semite that he was – should be alive today to mock the hypocrisy of the new high priests calling anathema on the heads of Jews in Israel.

A new common European platform for the academic and cultural boycott of Israel (EPACBI)

In Europe pro-Israel and anti-Israel groups operate differently.  Pro-Israel groups operate on a national basis: if a nasty anti-Israel boycott campaign is run in Belgium or in France, pro-Israel groups in other European countries will not be interested.  Whereas anti-Israel groups operate at (1) national level, (2) intra-European level and/or at (3) international level.  A good example of this is the Russell Tribunal on Palestine which was initiated by a well respected Belgian, Pierre Galand, and has attracted people from all over the world.  The "Tribunal" was launched in Belgium without a single Jewish Belgian voice denouncing it (the reason being that they want exposure and it is better to keep a low profile - don't mention the problem and it will go away).  The Kangaroo court then went to Barcelona and there were a few local protests.  It is now having a session in London - a few UK blogs have objected (Harry's Place and Jewish Chronicle HERE, HERE and HERE), but nobody in France or Germany let alone in Belgium will be interested enough relay these protests. The Tribunal is scheduled to have session in South Africa and the U.S. (it will not end there) giving it a distinctively international imprint. Although this initiative may not amount to much, the cumulative effect of countless such Europe-wide initiatives should not be ignored. Many of these campaigns are funded by European governments and the European Union and there never seems to be any lack of funds to carry them out.

Paris Declaration of a European Platform for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (EPACBI)

French Mediapart gives the name of the organisers :

AKULBI : Akademisk og Kulturell Boikott av staten Israel (Norway)
AURDIP : Association des Universitaires pour le Respect du Droit International en Palestine (France)
BAB : Berlin Academic Boycott (Germany)
BRICUP : British Committee for Universities for Palestine (England)
CUNCAP : Comissió Universitària Catalana per Palestina (Catalonia)
ICACBI : Italian Campaign for the academic and cultural boycott of Israel (Italy)
PACBI : Palestinian campaign for the academic and cultural boycott of Israel (Palestine)
PSABI : Action Group at KTH for Boycott of Israel (Sweden)
Belgian and Dutch delegations were present at the launch of EPACBI (their website in 11 European languages ...).

"This declaration announces the establishment of a common European platform for the academic and cultural boycott of Israel. The national, regional and local organisations and movements adhering to this platform:

• Accept and promote the boycott of Israeli academic and cultural institutions and divestment from companies that contribute to Israel’s grave violations of international law and human rights;