Only Europe’s right continues to defend the Jewish state
martedì 3 luglio 2018 English 0 commenti
Il Giornale, July 03,2019
If someone showed Britain’s Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn or Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan footage of the waving of Israeli flags during a speech in front of a mass of people made by Matteo Salvini, Deputy Prime Minister of Italy and Interior Minister, at the his party’s – the League - annual gathering a few days ago in Pontida, Italy, both would undoubtedly interpret this in their own way and would probably say the following: the first would judge it as a “criminal sign” of the link between Israel and right-wing nationalism and populism; the other would see it as a sign of Islamophobia, blatant anti-Palestinian hatred and therefore anti-Arab.
As for Italian and European Jews, my people, many of them are asking themselves how to remove this bitter cup from their lips in order to continue to drink from the left's. Why? Because Jews and the Left have, for many good reasons been for many decades, that is, since the battle against Nazi-fascism and numerous persecutions, mutually bound, morally dependent, and even after history has gone down so many different paths, including that of Stalin’s murderous anti-Semitism, they struggle to pull off the umbilical cord.
The Jews are always very attentive to any signs of right-wing anti-Semitism (as they should be), but (quite wrongly), they aren’t so vigilant when it comes to the daily, deafening, anti-Semitic attack that, disguised as criticism of Israel, comes these days from not only the left, but also from Italy’s Muslim communities.
Salvini has proclaimed on several occasions that he is a friend of Israel: it is a fact to be appreciated, but also put to the test. All right-wing politicians in Europe are currently on trial, but it’s a good test, not a trap: Sebastian Kurz, Chancellor of Austria, seems sincere when he declares that his countrymen must take responsibility for their crimes against the Jews and declares his support for the Jewish State; also Hungary, beyond insisting that it’s not anti-Semitic, has sided against the ignoble attempt of "labeling" Israeli products adopted by the European Union; the Poles have gone to great lengths to reverse its Parliament’s resolution that absolved them of their crimes during the Holocaust; Romania, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, and perhaps Poland as well are at present seriously considering to move their embassies to Jerusalem. Are these countries alien to anti-Semitism? I would say no. Neither is Italy, this doesn’t mean however that Salvini should be compared to the latter simply because he belongs to the League Party. So are the current right-wing governments in Europe without anti-Semitic elements? No, of course not. But I challenge anyone to point out a single European country in which this monster has been eliminated within the echelons of the ruling class, both on the right and the left. This is the message that I – as a European Jewish woman – wish to impart.
Please, someone has to explain to me what this is, if not anti-Semitism, when at the time of the Intifada nearly two thousand Israelis were killed –suicide terrorists murdered men, women, and children - and no one in Europe lifted a finger or raised an eyebrow. What prevented the police from finding Ilan Halimi after he had been kidnapped in a Muslim Banlieue of Paris, where he was tortured to death? Perhaps the fear of calling out its Islamic citizens for their anti-Semitic attitudes… the only reasons for that ominous murder. In 2004, Romano Prodi, Italy’s former Prime Minister and then President of the European Commission, blocked the publicity of an investigation into anti-Semitism because Islamic anti-Semitism was emerging like a frightful Hydra. That Hydra has gone on - and continues to this day - to persecute and kill Jews in France, Belgium, England, and the Netherlands. It had become impossible to wear a kippà so much so in Berlin that on April 25th a demonstration took place in order that they could show it in peace. But in another demonstration in Berlin Hezbollah’s flags were seen waving and "Death to the Jews" was chanted, while human rights institutions actually lent their support to Hamas when they condemned Israel for defending its besieged borders. Is this anti-Semitism? Certainly. Is it the work of the right? No, it is left-wing anti-Semitic anti-Israelism.
Anyone who fears that an anti-Jewish wave may emerge from populism fails to take into account the fact that many of the elements that have made it a mass movement in the last century are missing: the Jews are not held responsible for the failure of the Euro or the EU, they are not anti-Western foreign conspirators suspected of having created discomfort, they have nothing to do with the immigration crisis that Europe is currently facing, if anything they are always accused by the left of being too Western, families, and conservative, they are never however linked to falling birth rates or to the crisis of the family ... in short, themes of interest for right wing anti-Semites. That said certainly the right has its Jew haters, you bet, in some cases they can be ultra, neo-Nazis, violent and dangerous, but Euro Critical Movements and governments these days can’t be perceived as an anti-Semitic danger per se, inasmuch as it exists, while the terrible wave of anti-Semitism that sweeps Europe, unprecedented since WWII, has by now completely different origins, on the left and in the Islamic world.
If someone showed Britain’s Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn or Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan footage of the waving of Israeli flags during a speech in front of a mass of people made by Matteo Salvini, Deputy Prime Minister of Italy and Interior Minister, at the his party’s – the League - annual gathering a few days ago in Pontida, Italy, both would undoubtedly interpret this in their own way and would probably say the following: the first would judge it as a “criminal sign” of the link between Israel and right-wing nationalism and populism; the other would see it as a sign of Islamophobia, blatant anti-Palestinian hatred and therefore anti-Arab.
As for Italian and European Jews, my people, many of them are asking themselves how to remove this bitter cup from their lips in order to continue to drink from the left's. Why? Because Jews and the Left have, for many good reasons been for many decades, that is, since the battle against Nazi-fascism and numerous persecutions, mutually bound, morally dependent, and even after history has gone down so many different paths, including that of Stalin’s murderous anti-Semitism, they struggle to pull off the umbilical cord.
The Jews are always very attentive to any signs of right-wing anti-Semitism (as they should be), but (quite wrongly), they aren’t so vigilant when it comes to the daily, deafening, anti-Semitic attack that, disguised as criticism of Israel, comes these days from not only the left, but also from Italy’s Muslim communities.
Salvini has proclaimed on several occasions that he is a friend of Israel: it is a fact to be appreciated, but also put to the test. All right-wing politicians in Europe are currently on trial, but it’s a good test, not a trap: Sebastian Kurz, Chancellor of Austria, seems sincere when he declares that his countrymen must take responsibility for their crimes against the Jews and declares his support for the Jewish State; also Hungary, beyond insisting that it’s not anti-Semitic, has sided against the ignoble attempt of "labeling" Israeli products adopted by the European Union; the Poles have gone to great lengths to reverse its Parliament’s resolution that absolved them of their crimes during the Holocaust; Romania, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, and perhaps Poland as well are at present seriously considering to move their embassies to Jerusalem. Are these countries alien to anti-Semitism? I would say no. Neither is Italy, this doesn’t mean however that Salvini should be compared to the latter simply because he belongs to the League Party. So are the current right-wing governments in Europe without anti-Semitic elements? No, of course not. But I challenge anyone to point out a single European country in which this monster has been eliminated within the echelons of the ruling class, both on the right and the left. This is the message that I – as a European Jewish woman – wish to impart.
Please, someone has to explain to me what this is, if not anti-Semitism, when at the time of the Intifada nearly two thousand Israelis were killed –suicide terrorists murdered men, women, and children - and no one in Europe lifted a finger or raised an eyebrow. What prevented the police from finding Ilan Halimi after he had been kidnapped in a Muslim Banlieue of Paris, where he was tortured to death? Perhaps the fear of calling out its Islamic citizens for their anti-Semitic attitudes… the only reasons for that ominous murder. In 2004, Romano Prodi, Italy’s former Prime Minister and then President of the European Commission, blocked the publicity of an investigation into anti-Semitism because Islamic anti-Semitism was emerging like a frightful Hydra. That Hydra has gone on - and continues to this day - to persecute and kill Jews in France, Belgium, England, and the Netherlands. It had become impossible to wear a kippà so much so in Berlin that on April 25th a demonstration took place in order that they could show it in peace. But in another demonstration in Berlin Hezbollah’s flags were seen waving and "Death to the Jews" was chanted, while human rights institutions actually lent their support to Hamas when they condemned Israel for defending its besieged borders. Is this anti-Semitism? Certainly. Is it the work of the right? No, it is left-wing anti-Semitic anti-Israelism.
Anyone who fears that an anti-Jewish wave may emerge from populism fails to take into account the fact that many of the elements that have made it a mass movement in the last century are missing: the Jews are not held responsible for the failure of the Euro or the EU, they are not anti-Western foreign conspirators suspected of having created discomfort, they have nothing to do with the immigration crisis that Europe is currently facing, if anything they are always accused by the left of being too Western, families, and conservative, they are never however linked to falling birth rates or to the crisis of the family ... in short, themes of interest for right wing anti-Semites. That said certainly the right has its Jew haters, you bet, in some cases they can be ultra, neo-Nazis, violent and dangerous, but Euro Critical Movements and governments these days can’t be perceived as an anti-Semitic danger per se, inasmuch as it exists, while the terrible wave of anti-Semitism that sweeps Europe, unprecedented since WWII, has by now completely different origins, on the left and in the Islamic world.
Translation by Amy Rosenthal