Bloodthirsty Liberal

Aunt Agatha would be unsurprised:

3,767 new immigrants from North America will have moved to Israel in 2009, an increase of 17 percent compared with 2008, which saw 3,210 newcomers from the US and Canada, the Jewish Agency for Israel announced.

Globally, there was also an increase of 17% in the number of new immigrants to Israel from around the world to over 16,200, excluding immigrants from Ethiopia.

The largest growth in percentage of immigrants by geographic area was from Eastern Europe (27%) and from the former Soviet Union (22%), followed by North America (17%).

Countries with the largest rise in the number of new immigrants included the UK, with an increase of 34%, to 835 new immigrants, Argentina (51% to 325), Spain (52%, to 38) and Scandinavian countries (104%, to 57 new immigrants).

Each of these countries has featured prominently in this blog, and not for good reasons.

Welcome to Israel, people. You have Hamass, Hezbollah, Al Aqsa, Islamic Jihad, PFLP, and Al Qaeda-affiliated elements to deal with—but after what you’ve been through, it’ll be a walk in the park. You are Jews in Israel. You are among friends. You are home.

Really, this is the mother lode of all such posts:

Palestinian antisemitism has long been recognized as a vehicle of hatred. From academics teaching that Judaism permits murder and rape of non-Jews, to religious leaders teaching that Islam demands the extermination of Jews, Palestinian antisemitism is a compelling force driving hatred and terror.

The Palestinian Authority depicts Jews as the archetypal force of evil throughout history. Jews are said to be responsible for all the world’s problems: wars, financial crises, even the spreading of AIDS. Jews are a danger to humanity.

Whereas this paradigm has been used before, the Palestinians take it a step further, turning demonization of Jews into the basis for Palestinian denial of Israel’s right to exist and a central component of Palestinian national identity.

Are you reading, Mr. President? You should be.

Because of Jews’ evil nature, according to this Palestinian principle, nations of the world have been involved in continuous defensive actions to protect themselves. The antisemitic oppression, persecution and expulsions suffered by Jews throughout history are presented as the legitimate self-defense responses of nations.

Ibrahim Mudayris, a PA religious official, delineated this ideology: “The Jews are a virus similar to AIDS, from which the entire world is suffering. This has been proven in history… Ask Britain!… Ask France!… Ask Portugal… Ask czarist Russia - who invited the Jews and they plotted to murder the czar!… Don’t ask Germany what it did to the Jews, since the Jews are the ones who provoked Nazism to fight the entire world” (PA TV, May 13, 2005).

The apex of this Palestinian ideology, and possibly its purpose, is to use this demonization of Jews as the basis for denying Israel legitimacy and to present Palestinians as the ultimate victims. According to this Palestinian model, the Jews, who are said to have no history in the land, would never have considered coming to “Palestine”: Europeans created Zionism as the final act in the long series of self-defense measures, to rid themselves of the “burden” of the Jews.

One could cite dozens of examples. The authors settle for a few.

They conclude:

In other countries, antisemitism has been a tool to promote hatred for a variety of internal reasons. As such, when hatred was no longer necessary, antisemitism as a government policy could be eradicated, as in post-Nazi Germany. But the goal of PA demonization of Jews transcends mere hatred. Antisemitism is its political tool to defame Zionism, deny Israel’s right to exist and create victimhood as the glue that cements Palestinian national identity. Because this political goal will exist as long as Israel exists, Palestinian antisemitism will be much harder to uproot.

So, it’s not about adding a rec room in Shiloh, or a half bath in East Jerusalem. It’s not really about the Jews at all. As usual, the pathology is about the sick, perverted mind that invents it. Blaming the Jews for the Palestinians’ woes is like blaming Jodie Foster for John Hinkley.

Don’t jump to conclusions. Hear the man out:

In a December 11, 2009 column titled “The Zionist Cockroach” in the Kuwaiti daily Al-Qabas, Kuwaiti columnist Fakhir Hashem Al-Sayed Rajab compared the Zionists to cockroaches capable of survival in any situation….

“There are [various] types of cockroaches: wingless, winged, German, American, Asian. Cockroaches are among the most primeval of the earth’s creatures; they can withstand harsher conditions than any other creature, and adapt rapidly to their environment. They say that there are 4,000 kinds [of cockroaches]. The cockroach can survive a week or two without its head, and a month without food. It can withstand many times more radiation than a human can, and will fight to survive.

“I compare the Zionist to the cockroach.

See, that’s not so bad. Admiring, almost.

Let’s see how he continues:

For thousands of years, the Zionist has fought [to remain] alive, by all possible means: plunder, exploitation, deceit, killing, and ‘laying [its] eggs’ across the world so that its offspring will continue to exist until Judgment Day.

“The Zionists have managed to quietly take over the world, imperturbably… and now they are the most powerful force in the world – not in physical strength and weapons stockpiles, but in their power of thought, economics, and planning in all countries, so that [these countries] obey them, and whoever opposes them must watch out. A simple declaration against them means a cruel attack by them – and antisemites beware!

We, and he, should have stopped when we were ahead.

It’s not about the settlements, people. It’s not about the settlements.

PS: Can any Zionists out there confirm or deny that you lay eggs? As descendants of apes and pigs (so I read), you are surely mammalian. But evolution is already irrelevant to this discussion.

Aggie and I have noted several recent despicable acts, statements, and decisions to come out of Britain.

This one should stand proud with its colleagues:

The British Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that a London Jewish day school used racist and discriminatory practices against a boy who was not accepted to the school because his mother is not considered Jewish by Orthodox Jewish law, the British Broadcasting Authority reported.

According to the court ruling, the school’s policy of measuring students’ Jewish identity based solely on Orthodox Jewish law is unlawful and breaks race relations legislation.

Earlier this year, an appeals court ruled that the Jews’ Free School, located northwest of London in Brent, was racist when it denied admission to a 12-year-old boy whose father is Jewish and mother underwent a Reform conversion that is not recognized by Orthodox law.

Maybe you and I wouldn’t agree with the school’s decision, but it’s a private religious school. Can’t it decide who meets its religious criteria?

Do we really want a state—a European state—labeling who is a Jew?

I’m also puzzled by the “racism” charge. The story doesn’t provide enough details about mom—only that she converted to Judaism. It’s not a surprise to me that an Orthodox school would find it hard to accept a Reform conversion. In actual racial terms, it would be like Bobby Seale accepting Al Jolson as a blood brother.

Again, I may not agree with the school, but unless Britain is also butting into Catholic schools and Saudi-sponsored madrasahs—what do you think—I am deeply troubled.

Fascinating history of the ties between the Zionist movement and the black civil rights movement, starting in the late 19th century and carrying on, through illustrious leaders in both communities, until the 50s and 60s. What happened then to break the bonds forged by oppression and aspiration?

Leftism:

THE SUBSEQUENT anti-Israel shift in African-American and African opinion - far from being a natural evolution of historical attitudes - was very much driven by the white leftist party line. It began as early as the 1956 Suez Campaign with Du Bois. During the Popular Front era when the Kremlin’s line had been pro-Israel, Du Bois denounced Saudi Arabia’s unrepentant continuation of the slave trade and criticized the Arabs for “widespread ignorance and poverty and disease and a fanatic belief in the Mohammedan religion.” U-turning after the new anti-Israel party line, Du Bois in a 1956 poem, “Suez,” portrayed Israelis as “the shock troops” of Anglo-American imperialists.

It’s not like we don’t already know this, but there’s a great history to be written (or read, if already written) about the Soviet poisoning of the Middle East with its support of Arafat and other quasi-fascistic figures there. Southeast Asia, Latin America, Africa—commie fingerprints are all over the place. But the Arab states have yet to be fully investigated—or at least reported.

Hanukkah, according to Wikipedia:

“commemorates the ‘miracle of the container of oil’. According to the Talmud, at the re-dedication following the victory of the Maccabees over the Seleucid Empire, there was only enough consecrated olive oil to fuel the eternal flame in the Temple for one day. Miraculously, the oil burned for eight days, which was the length of time it took to press, prepare and consecrate fresh olive oil.”

At the White House this year, the oil isn’t going to last quite that long [Hat Tip reader Judi]:

The White House’s forthcoming state dinner with the Prime Minister of India is expected to be larger than those of President Barack Obama’s predecessor, George W. Bush. But another upcoming White House event will be smaller than in years past: The White House’s annual Hanukkah party.

The guest list is expected to be shrunk by more than half, according to the Jerusalem Post. “Though several Jewish leaders expressed understanding for the economic and other reasons behind the cut, they acknowledged that it would likely help feed feelings in some quarters of the American Jewish community that the White House is giving them the cold shoulder.”

The move comes on the heels of Obama’s cancellation of an appearance before the General Assembly of North American Jewish Federations last week.

The White House’s decision is likely a response to tough economic times and a desire to keep the holiday festivities reasonable.

Hey, we understand. Everybody’s playing less golf these days, going out on fewer “date nights”. Well, almost everybody.

I wonder who this was intended to offend more, Jews or oil drilling advocates. If Sarah Palin were president, we’d have enough oil to light a billion menorahs for eight, nine, ten days—however long you want. And our policy toward Israel would be a whole lot friendlier.

They’ve got to be carefully taught:

A televised memorial ceremony for Yasser Arafat included a video clip of Palestinian children delivering messages in honor of Arafat. It is noteworthy that even though this clip was prerecorded and edited, the organizers of the PA’s official ceremony chose to include hate speech and libels that demonized Jews and glorified violence and Martyrdom. [What do you mean “even though”? Should read “especially though”. Ed.]

…

This children’s section in the special memorial indicates the PA’s success in transmitting to the next generation of Palestinian children hate libels that demonize Jews. Including these hate messages in the ceremony also shows that the PA approves of, and wants to publicize, the values of hatred, violence and Martyrdom that the children have adopted.

The following is the transcript of excerpts of the children’s messages:

Ceremony host: “Blessings to Yasser Arafat, and here are messages from the children of Palestine.”

Boy: “I was very, very sad when Arafat died as a Shahid (Martyr), because he was a good man and he was a fighter. He did things through struggle, he participated in the struggle and did not make peace and so on. He wanted to fight.”

Boy 2: “Yasser Arafat was a very, very important president. He stood up to all the enemies and was not afraid of anyone. And anyone who approached - he managed to stop him. All the Jews and the Israelis and the people who are against us, were afraid of him. When he died, he died of poisoning.”

Girl wearing pendant in the shape of Israel: “I say that he died from poisoning by the Jews. That’s what I say.”

Boy 3: “Arafat used to say: “They want me dead, they want me prisoner, but I say to them: Martyr! Martyr! Martyr!”

Girl 2: “He [Arafat] was our former president. He was under siege in Ramallah, and when he was under siege we were very upset. The Jews poisoned him and I hate them very much. Allah will repay them what they deserve.”

Boy 4: “He [Arafat] died from poisoning by the Jews. Well, I don’t know what he died from, but I know it was by the Jews.”

Boy 5: “They destroyed his whole house and he was left in one room and in the end the Jews poisoned him and blamed someone else.”

Poisoned? If you call contracting a fatal disease from allegedly boning virile young Arab men poisoning, yeah I guess he was poisoned. Allegedly.

Just as we learned the Pledge of Allegiance and My Country Tis of Thee as children, the children of the nascent Palestinian state have learned “The Jews poisoned him and I hate them very much. Allah will repay them what they deserve.”

As they sow, so shall they reap. Which is why the Palestinians will end up killing themselves before Allah gets around to dealing with the Jews.

While the rest of the media portray Jews as instigators and rabble-rousers, daring to defile the Al Aqsa mosque with their Zionist cooties, I’d like to offer what I call a little perspective:

Something astonishing, even alarming, is taking place in the battle over the future of Jerusalem. Even as Palestinian rioters run amok on the Temple Mount, egged on by the radicals of the Islamic Movement, much of the anger and dismay in the Israeli and international press is being directed, ironically enough, at Jews who merely wish to visit the site.

Mustering all the righteous indignation at their disposal, the media have been filled in recent days with all kinds of pejoratives to describe them, ranging from “extremist” to “fringe” to “ultra-right-wing,’ as though a Jew’s desire to exercise his basic, fundamental rights somehow constitutes an act of provocation.

Local pundits and commentators alike have also joined the fray, going to great lengths to justify the restrictions imposed by the police on Jews wishing to visit the Mount, even accusing the would-be pilgrims of seeking to trigger a firestorm of Islamic fury. It does not seem to bother them one whit that the policy in place today is entirely discriminatory in nature, as the followers of Muhammad are allowed to visit and pray where Solomon’s Temple once stood, but not the followers of Moses.

…

Needless to say, this approach plays straight into the hands of our foes, whose ultimate goal is to wrestle the holy site away from us by denying its historical and spiritual connection with the Jewish people.

AND WHAT a sad and pitiful sight this is to behold. Before our very eyes, we are witnessing a concerted effort to delegitimize and even demonize our people’s most cherished dream: the longing for the Temple. The very aspiration that was born in the moments when Roman flames engulfed the Second Temple more than 1,900 years ago, and which was carried in Jewish hearts throughout centuries of exile, has now become an object of scorn, mockery and ridicule.

Make no mistake: This is nothing less than an unbridled assault on Judaism itself, and it is time for the derision and name-calling to stop.

This is what the site looks like now:

Very pretty.

But this is how it might have looked when “the followers of Moses” ran the place:

A little Masonic, if you ask me, but no less impressive for that.

Oh, and there was even a temple before that one that might have looked something like this (if you’ll allow the artistic license):

Yes, Virginia, there was a Solomon, and he completed his temple on Zion on or about 960 BC. Which gives the Jews about 3,000 years of history on the spot.

So when Ariel Sharon decided to drop by the site in September of 2000, or when other Jews do so today, there should be not a peep from the Palestinians or other Muslims who love their temple so—any syllable of which is pure, distilled, unadulterated anti-Semitism. They’re luck the Israelis don’t raze it to the ground and get busy on their Third Temple, one they have every right to build.

But that’s not for me to say.

I’m going to let this guy have the floor for a few moments:

Jacques Attali, a French Jewish intellectual and economist, believes that “there is no problem of anti-Semitism in France.”

“Zero! None whatsoever. It’s a lie. It’s a pure lie. Not true. There are some well-known anti-Semites, but it is not a problem at the national level,” he said in an interview with the Israeli newspaper Haaretz in Paris.

“There are more important things to discuss than my view on a nonexistent problem,” he told me last week in an interview conducted in the headquarters of his consulting firm.

…

He said that all the talk about anti-Semitism in France “is dangerous if not altogether organized propaganda by Israel.”

When the Israeli journalist noted that there is a trend among French Jews to immigrate to Israel because of the anti-Semitic atmosphere, Attali reportedly responded: “I think it is not true. I think it is propaganda, Israeli propaganda.”

He added: “There are some French Jews who take a two-week holiday in Tel Aviv and then they are back to Paris or elsewhere. There are French Jews who buy apartments in Israel the same way the British buy apartments in the south of France: for vacations.”

Okay, contrary to what we thought and have reported ad nauseam, there is no anti-Semitism in France (just anti-Semites), and Jews aren’t staying away from the place in droves (just vacationing in Israel). And anyone who says otherwise is spreading Zionist propaganda.

Well, good, glad to hear it. I’m always happy to be educated. Did someone get a comment from Ilan Halimi, by the way?

But then, if he hadn’t stretched credulity already, he busted the thing wide open:

“France has the most modern Jewish community and the most modern Arab and Muslim community. It is absolutely crucial for there to be success in relations between Jews and Arabs in France. It’s crucial to Israel and to the whole world for the two communities to get along. These relations are of strategic importance: if they cannot live in harmony here, they cannot live in harmony anywhere.”

Attali doesn’t believe that there is a problem of anti-Semitism among the Muslim community in France.

“Absolutely not. They are absolutely adamant to avoid it, wherever and whenever. Of course they are against the Israeli policy in the territories. Of course you can’t say there is no problem at all. You can always find crazy people in every part of society. But it’s not a political problem; it is not growing, and in fact it does not exist. If you look at the numbers you cannot prove it.”

That’s because they’ve already burned all the cars.

But let him finish:

He also said that “the survival of Israel needs 200 million Jews around the world, which means it’s a question of conversion. This question is not really addressed. We should have a much broader definition of who is a Jew, and active conversion.”

Two-hundred million Jews: from his mouth to God’s ears. Would it be uncharitable to point out here that the world might have 200 million Jews if the Muslims and Christians hadn’t spent the last two millennia trying to kill them all off?

Hey, he meant it as a compliment (at least I think he did):

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has called on students in his country to learn from the Jews how to make money through scientific achievements and wise real estate investments.

In a speech delivered during a ceremony opening the new academic school year at the Yildiz Technical University, Erdogan spoke about his close friend, late Jewish businessman Üzeyir Garih, who was stabbed to death in 2001.

“Garih told me that the Jews were oppressed throughout history, and therefore decided to nurture good scientists and know how to handle money well,” Erdogan said. “The Jewish people have had many important achievements in science. They have managed to make a lot of money with these inventions.”

Okay, Jews are great scientists and some of them are wealthy—but did you notice that small detail?

They still get stabbed to death.

But other than that, Jews are held us as role models.

Something this leader is most definitely not doing:

Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas says that the PA will continue to use “all means” to release all Palestinian prisoners remaining in Israeli prisons.

His statement in Arabic, in response to the release of 20 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for a video proving that Israeli hostage Gilad Shalit is alive, counters his statements to Western leaders that outstanding issues with Israel will be resolved through negotiations, not violence.

…

In the past, Abbas has emphasized his identification with imprisoned terrorists. In a February 2005 interview, he stressed that during the Terror War (Intifada), he was personally responsible for sending today’s imprisoned terrorists on their missions against Israelis. He euphemistically used the word “resistance” for the terror missions he directed:

“I sent my son, brother or others to carry out the duty of the resistance.”
Earlier in the interview he emphasized that the terrorists did what “we, we, [the PA] ordered them to do.”

In the five-year terror war orchestrated by Arafat and Abbas, which was based primarily on suicide terror against civilians in buses and restaurants, more than 1,000 Israelis were murdered.

In a different interview, Abbas sent “greetings of honor and esteem” to Palestinian terrorist murderers, as he singled out some of the most notorious killers.

“I send greetings of honor and esteem to all prisoners in the occupation’s jails. First of all to the veterans, and to chief prisoner Sa’id ‘Ataba [life sentence for murder in terror attack.] And to the [imprisoned] political leaders: Marwan Barghouthi [five life sentences for murder in terror attacks,] Ahmad Sa’adat [life sentence for murdering Israeli Minister of Tourism, Rehavam Zeevi] ‘Aziz Duick, chairman of the Palestinian Parliament, Hamas] Jamal Huweil [life sentence for planning terror attacks], Jamal Tirawi [life sentence for murder in a café suicide attack]: Greetings to you from our people.”

This supposedly “good” Palestinian leader, the one we keep nudging Israel to make nice with, is doing shout-outs to his terrorist homies. What a disgrace.

Jews make good scientists and good financiers, but they also make decent assassins when pressed. I hope this rat gets it in the Abbas some day.