This is the first of two-parts on anti-semitism. First the perspective of Jews attending the GA in Israel:
“The current pro-Israel mood in the United States is a far cry from the anti-Israel mood in Europe, but there is no guarantee that things will stay that way. “In the San Francisco area, actually, Israel’s image is starting to change,” Lurie says. ‘We’ve got all these local college students who are liberals and radicals, and they’re very sensitive to injustice and discrimination. They head for the barricades whenever they hear a sad story. Today, the Palestinians are the story.’”
“‘If the intifada doesn’t end soon, Israel is liable to lose its preferential standing in American public opinion. At this point, America is pro-Israel, and the TV networks are very nice and understanding toward Israel and the way it operates. But other currents, bubbling below the surface, are telling Americans that Israel is an occupier and an oppressor. This idea isn’t fully rooted yet, but another five years of graphic images from the territories, and we’ll start feeling it. As Americans and Jews.’”
There is an old Yiddish joke that goes like this: “The Archduke Francis Ferdinand, heir-presumptive to the throne of Austria-Hungary has just been assassinated. All of Europe is on the brink of war. Two Jews in Minsk are discussing the situation. One says to the other: ‘War might break out! Thousands will die.’ Responds the other: ‘Yes, but is it good for the Jews?’”
Thousands of people have died in the Israel/Palestine conflict, a large number of them children. Tens of thousands of people have been injured and are left with life long disabilities. Many more are out of work or slipping into poverty. Children are malnourished because of great poverty. In relative and absolute terms the brunt of this suffering is hitting Palestinians far more than Jewish Israelis. But what worries the Jewish “leaders” interviewed in this article? Do they care about the suffering of the Palestinians? Not one little bit.They don’t even seem so preturbed about the suffering of the Israelis. Their biggest concern: “What will the goyim think.”
“The Palestinians used the intifada to destroy Israel’s image as a moral, humane country.” So says Shmuel Trigano, a “prominent French Jewish intellectual.” Not Israel has become an immoral, inhumane country. No. It’s impossible, says Mr. Trigano, that the “victims of the Holocaust” can themselves be child killers. It just can’t be! Must be those damn Palestinian children! Why don’t their parents ship them off to summer camp so they won’t be in the line of fire of Israeli tanks’ and guns’ indiscriminate fire? How dare they die and make us look bad? (As Mr. Trigano was attending the conference at some fancy hotel in Jerusalem, a 10 year old Palestinian boy living in wretched poverty was shot dead by gunfire from a passing Israeli jeep, as we was walking home with his father. There were no skirmishes or Palestinian gunfire in the area).
“Brazilians used to love Israel, but now they say Israel is killing the Palestinians. Even when Israelis are hurt in terrorist attacks, they say on TV that it’s because of the occupation. The intifada has changed the lives of Brazilian Jews because it comes into our living rooms. Hardly a day goes by that we don’t see footage of dead Palestinians. And they always show Israeli tanks and soldiers shooting. It’s very painful. Because what happens to you, affects us. It’s true that in Brazil, they don’t speak badly of Jews, but it’s not pleasant to see how they portray Israel on television.” Does it bother this young woman that Palestians are dying by Israeli tanks and bullets? No. What bothers her is what will the goyim think? How dare those cameras roll when Israel turns it’s mighty fire-power on unarmed civilians!
Even Brian Lurie, who is quoted up top, and who at the end of the article urges Sharon to withdraw from Gaza and the West Bank, does not utter one word about the suffering of the Palestinians. And he is a Rabbi, a man supposedly imbued with Jewish values. He seems to have forgotten these Biblical verses: “You shall not oppress the sojourner in your land. The stranger who lives with you shall be treated as one born among you, and you should love him as yourselves. For you were strangers in the land of Egypt.” (Leviticus 19:33-34)
Of course, one can’t deny that Jews are becoming targets — the horrific attack in Turkey this week being just the latest example. While I have often noted that the most dangerous place in the world for Jews is in Israel (which turns the Zionist narrative on its head), there is no doubt that Muslim extremists are targeting all Jews as part of their war on Israel. But let us not forget the role Israel played, especially the Israeli right, in the creation and spread of Muslim extremism. It was a Likud government which played a decisive role in the creation of Hamas. The Israeli right has played a pivotal role in turning what was a political conflict into a religious holy war, by strengthening these Muslim extremists as a counter weight to Palestinian secular nationalists. The parallels to the U.S. creation of Al Queda, and the “crusade” that Bush and Boykin are leading against the Muslim world, should make all Americans, not just Jews, start losing sleep.
Many years ago when I was in high school I was walking down the street and I saw an old man struggling with some package. So naturally I helped him lift it up on the curb. He turned to me and said: “You are Jewish, right?” When I responded yes, he quoted to me a famous Rabbinic expression: “The Jews are the merciful sons of the merciful.” How the mighty have fallen.
