Europe: antisemitism has entered the bloodstream

Antisemitism has entered the bloodstream, by Hans Rustad (via Norway, Israel and the Jews blog)

The revelation that Wikileaks’ contactpersons in Sweden and Russia are the notorious antisemite Israel Shamir and his son Johannes Wahlström, is an indication that antisemitism now has entered the bloodstream of the establishment.

For people outside of Europe this is very hard to fathom. It has to do with a much deeper development in Europe, one that should worry Americans. Europe is shifting, groping, undergoing a major transformation, and people within the media establishment are allowing extremists to play a role. That is because political correctness, as practised in Europe, dulls the senses and deprives people of normal reflexes. Extremists may enter the fray, unnoticed.

Under normal circumstances Wahlström would never have been given a second chance. He burned his bridges when he wrote an article for a leftist magazine, Ordfront, back in December 2005, alleging that Israel controls Swedish media. This in itself was not shocking. That is staple food on the left. What caused an uproar was that he cited two of Swedens most experienced and renowned Middle East correspondents, Peter Löfgren from Swedish Television, and Lotta Schüllerqvist from Dagens Nyheter. It was they who explained how Israel rules and manipulates and bullies Swedish editorial rooms and journalists. Except for one thing: they never said as much. It was all a lie. Wahlström invented the whole story. He met both of them, but never bothered to write down their real replies, instead he invented what he wanted them to say.

He used them cynically, arrogantly and one must say – stupidly. How could he possibly expect to get away with it? He did not of course. Both Löfgren and Lotta Schüllerqvist wrote scathing denounciations and the editor of Ordfront was obliged to retract.

Read the whole piece on Document.no

- Harry's Place has been following the Julian Assange/Israel Shamir connection

- Andrew Brown also wrote about the connection in The Guardian : WikiLeaks and Israel Shamir - WikiLeaks is represented in Russia and Scandinavia by a father and son team with a disturbing record of antisemitism

Google founder: "My family left Russia because of anti-semitism"

Article by Tom Gross @ Mideast Dispatch:

"Google founder Sergey Brin, who stayed on in Israel for a few days after the conclusion of last week’s 60th anniversary celebrations, has told the Israeli daily Ha’aretz that “anti-Semitism was the main reason his family left Russia.”

As I mentioned in a previous dispatch, Brin, 34, was in Israel for President Shimon Peres’ presidential conference “Facing Tomorrow,” and took the opportunity to visit Google’s growing Israeli offices. He said Google is also considering buying some Israeli hi-tech start-up companies.

Brin was born in Moscow in 1973 to Jewish parents. His father, a would-be physicist, was banned from Moscow University under a Communist Party decree banning Jews from physics departments.

Ha’aretz writes: “Mikhail Brin decided to study mathematics instead, and was offered a place although the entry exams for Jews were sat separately, in rooms that were notoriously known as ‘the gas chambers.’ In 1970, he graduated with distinction. Later, he gained his PhD from the University of Krakow, and worked for the Russian economic policy-planning agency.

“Sergey’s mother, Evgenya, worked in the research lab of the Soviet gas and oil institute. Like her husband, she had struggled against the anti-Semitic discrimination which prevailed in the Soviet academia, and defied it.

“... The Brins decided to leave Russia in 1977. Despite the fear of being declared “refuseniks,” Evgenya was adamant to leave.

“In 1978 they applied for emigration permit, and as a result Mikhail was fired and Evgenya had to resign. The family barely got by for several months until their application was approved in 1979. Shortly afterwards, the gates of the Soviet bloc were hermetically closed for emigration.”"