The Anti-Semitism Europe Fails to See
sabato 14 novembre 2015 English 1 commento
Il Giornale, 14 November 2015The anti Semitic Milan attack didn't surprise Europe. Since quite a long time Europe is swept by the return of a mephitic anti-Semitic wind. When I was a small child I listened to the description of the wartime persecution of my family as a definitely closed parenthesis where the good triumphed over the bad. Now a paradoxical nightmare, the past that comes back, is the rule. This is how things go, and the first task is to take account of the shape anti-Semitism comes in today if one wishes to tackle it – knowing how very difficult is to eradicate such a deeply rooted disease.
The episode in Milan smacks of criminal mimesis: it looks like a copy of the knife attacks on Jerusalem’s people of the last few weeks. Indeed, the identification of the young haredi of Milan (religious and therefore Jewish in attire) with a hated Israeli looks beyond any doubt. Although homicidal attacks against Jews are not as frequent in Italy as they are in France, Belgium or northern Europe where Islamic immigration is greater, our memory dwells not only on the assassinations of Paris (Ilan Halimi and the Ypercosher supermarket), of Toulouse and of Brussels, but also on the murder of the child Stefano Tachè in 1982, guilty only of being at the synagogue of Rome when a Palestinian commando attacked it. That three years old Italian child was, for them, guilty of all the Israeli supposed sins.
In the last fifty years, anti-Semitism has taken advantage of the Arab-Israeli conflict, and now the phenomenon is even more widespread because it is socially supported by millions of immigrants. It is pervaded of the criminalizing mythology created by the Palestinians and by their allies that defines Israel as an "apartheid state", calls its soldiers "Nazis" and speaks about "occupation", implying that Israel must be wiped out, and stating even that Israel has perpetrated an "ethnic cleansing" when instead the number of Palestinians has multiplied... this, in addition to other lies.
During the Second Intifada, while cafés and buses were being blown up, nevertheless Europe boiled over with anti-Israel hate. The same during the Gaza wars caused by Hamas. Now, instead of showing solidarity with the Jews attacked with knives, the European press speaks of "cycle of violence" because the armed terrorists are being stopped. The right of self-defense is as usual denied. Anti-Semitism finds new ways of outraging the Jews in the name of its "criticism" to the state of Israel. In Sweden, the memorial day for Crystal Night has been organized banning the Jewish community from the celebrations. In Hungary, the anti-Semitic movement calls for lists of “traitor” Jews; the chanting of "death to Jews" has been heard through the streets of Berlin; scientists, intellectuals and artists are boycotted by European and American universities. Acts of vandalism have disfigured the cemeteries of many capital cities and various synagogues have been held under siege.
Nevertheless, nobody can say that there has been any serious reaction, just like no reaction ensued when the French Ambassador to the UK remarked during a social evening:"That shitty little country will bring us all to war ", or when an international cartoon competition was won by a Goya-style drawing of a blood-streaked, naked Ariel Sharon biting into the flesh of Palestinian babies. Just a few days ago Palestinians accused Israeli soldiers of killing young people to harvest their organs, while the same thing had been written four years earlier in the Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet.
Anti-Zionism in the form of an authentic Israelophobia is the new anti-Semitism, and it is against all Jews, in Israel and in the Diaspora. Since they are at school or in the campuses, the young people of western country build up a "narrative" of the State of Israel that has been created for the aim of incitement, where Israel plays the role of a cruel colonialist state.
Sadly, the truth has never had much effect on anti-Semitism, but, if we want to give it a try, it's very important to understand that the Europeans and the Americans youngsters, beyond the memory of the Shoah, should know the so many positive sides of the true Zionist and Israeli history. Wishful thinking, if we think that nowadays the EU’s incredible labeling of West Bank products represents again a form of criminalization that, ignoring history, brings to anti-Semitism in times of terrorism.
giovedì 19 novembre 2015 06:31:38
Dear Fiamma The implications of the Hitnankut- unilateral withdrawl from Gaza strip should be learbed and discussed - not ignored You can't pursue peace as if there were no terror when dealing with the terroristsPeter Rotberg Israel