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Stand for Israel Blog

Author of vile cartoon blames Israel for anti-Semitism

March 4, 2010

A German cartoonist who drew an image of a Jew about to eat a Palestinian child, with a glass of blood to wash it down, distanced himself from the cartoon following criticism of it — “because it can be perceived as anti-Semitic” – but then went on to blame the Jewish state for it anyway.

Walter Hermann’s caricature was visible as part of an enlarged photo of an anti-Israel demonstration, JTA reports. Until recently it was on display as part of a “Wailing Wall exhibit” in the center of Cologneby Hermann, but it has been removed from Cologne’s Cathedral Square.

We’re not sure what the “Wailing Wall exhibit” was, although its title is rather ironic. After all, the Western Wall of the Temple Mount got the nickname the “wailing wall” (which many modern Jews find a touch offensive) from the crying of Jews who would go there to pray for the restoration of the Temple, of Jewish sovereignty, and for God to stop the endless persecution of the tiny people.

In a remarkably un-self-aware statement distancing himself from his work, Hermann said that  Israel itself was to blame for anti-Semitism and should “avoid actions that can revive deep-seated, anti-Jewish sentiment.”

Meanwhile, according to German newspapers, the local prosecutor failed to bring charges of ” incitement to hate” because they were brought by non-Jews. He said he will consider charges only from Jewish groups since only complaints by the group affected can be considered.

Perhaps the prosecutor has forgotten that most of Germany’s Jews are not around to file complaints.

(Also, we wonder whether the infamously anti-Semitic cartoons in the Nazi rag Der Sturmer were also Israel’s fault.)

Report shows that London has become the epicenter of Hamas activity, Jews feel “under attack”

March 1, 2010

We’ve told you before how the British legal system is allowing itself to be used to harass Israelis — often at the behest of pro-Palestinian groups that are openly supportive of terror groups like Hamas.

Now, the Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center, a research center near Tel Aviv, has released a report showing that, beyond having a conveniently quirky judiciary, London has become the epicenter of Hamas’ political, propaganda and legal activities in Europe (click the link – that’s basically the report’s title).

Hamas operatives have been particularly successful in controlling the discourse regarding Arabs in Israel, and initiating widespread anti-Zionism throughout the UK.

Ironically, Hamas’ success is due to its taking advantage of Britain’s open society:

1. Political freedom and freedom of speech prevailing in Britain allows Hamas to incite against Israel, despite Hamas’ designation as a terrorist organization by the European Union. Though activities by terror groups is technically illegal in Britain, the legal system has shown great tolerance, which has been exploited by radical Islamic elements, including Hamas.

2.  A broad infrastructure of Hamas activists, supporters, and collaborators took refuge in Britain in the 1990s, which work with radical leftist organizations that are hostile to Israel and the West. This enables Hamas to reach British political, media and academic elites.

3. The UK is one of the world’s media hubs, especially for Arab s newspapers, and broadcast and electronic media. This gives Hamas access to key outlets to spread its messages throughout the Muslim world.

The report notes that much of Hamas’ propaganda work is targeted at children and that the organization is able to get money and supplies “for Gaza” (really, for Hamas) from British organizations and politicians.

None of this would come as a surprise to brilliant British firebrand Melanie Phillips, whose book “Londonistan” argued that British “benign neglect” has allowed radicals to gain way too much of a foothold in the city. In her blog, Phillips quipped that, now, it should be called “Hamasistan.”

Perhaps it’s not surprising, then, that Britain’s Jewish community reports feeling “under attack.” According to London’s Independent, Lord Mitchell, a Labor MP, ” praised the multi-cultural nature of London but pointed to rising incidents of anti-Semitism.”:

Stickers such as “death to Jews” had been displayed at some of the UK’s leading university campuses and had been “slow to be removed”, he said.

He told peers in a debate on tolerance in British society that universities had a “duty of care to all students and in many cases they are slow to uphold this duty”, citing free speech as the reason for not interfering.

Lord Mitchell said: “It may well come as a shock that the Jewish community in this country feels under constant attack.

“I don’t want to overstate the case but many Jewish friends have said to me that they felt more frightened, more threatened, than at any time in their lives.”

Rabbi’s Message: Anti-Semitism lingers, even in the West

February 5, 2010

Rabbi Eckstein’s message for this week: 

In some countries, anti-Semitic intimidation and violence are daily facts of life for Jews. Often, these are countries ruled by radical Muslim regimes hostile not just to Israel, but to the Jewish people as a whole.

In the West, we like to tell ourselves that public anti-Semitism is a thing of the past. And, indeed, it’s true that Jews throughout the Western world enjoy freedom of religion and freedom from fear and intimidation that is unheard of in most Arab and Muslim states. But then a story surfaces to remind us that what one author called “the longest and deepest hatred of human history” can not only live, but flourish, even in countries considered modern and “enlightened.”

In this case, the story that caught my eye comes from Sweden: “Threats and harassment are becoming increasingly commonplace for Jewish residents in Malmö in southern Sweden, leading many Jews to leave the city out of fear for their safety,” it begins, going on to say that crimes against Malmö’s Jewish residents doubled in 2009 from the previous year. This precipitous rise has created a climate of fear among the town’s small Jewish population. One father of two moved his family to Israel after concluding, “My children aren’t safe here. It’s going to get worse… Imagine that my family can’t feel safe in fantastic Sweden.”

That such a climate of anti-Jewish hatred could exist even in a democratic country like Sweden shows the pervasiveness and persistence of anti-Semitism. And the situation in Sweden is not unique. A recent study conducted by the Jewish Agency for Israel (JAFI) found that anti-Semitism across Europe has risen to a level not seen since World War II. The spike is part of a rising tide of anti-Semitism worldwide that is fueled not just by radical Islamists, but by the political far left and far right as well.

Statistics recently released by JAFI show that this rise in anti-Semitism has coincided with a rise in aliyah (immigration to Israel), making it clear that many Jews have come to their biblical and historic homeland to escape anti-Jewish hatred in their country of origin. In 2009, for instance, aliyah from the former Soviet Union, Germany, and Eastern Europe increased over 20 percent. Aliyah from English-speaking countries increased 18 percent, while aliyah from Western Europe and the Middle East increased 8 percent.

At The Fellowship, we are proud to support this movement of God’s people to Israel from “the four corners of the earth” through our On Wings of Eagles program. (In fact, just weeks ago, The Fellowship and its partners funded the historic aliyah of 81 Jews from Ethiopia—I encourage you to watch the video of their arrival in Tel Aviv on The Fellowship’s website). It is a prophetic movement that you can be part of simply by making a gift to Wings. When you do, you will not only be helping people escape poverty and anti-Semitism by coming to their biblical homeland—through Wings‘ klitah (resettlement) assistance, you will be helping to ensure that they can become full, productive citizens of Israel once they arrive in the Holy Land.

The Bible tells of a day when “The ransomed of the Lord will return. They will enter Zion with singing; everlasting joy will crown their heads. Gladness and joy will overtake them, and sorrow and sighing will flee away.” (Isaiah 51:11) Even as we pray for an end to anti-Semitism, let us also pray, and work toward, a day when each and every Jewish person who wishes to fulfill the dream of living in his biblical homeland will be able to do so. And let us also pray for the day when God will bless all his people with the precious gift of shalom, peace.

– Rabbi’ Yechiel Eckstein, Feb. 4, 2010

Where anti-Semitism, bad art, and an absence of taste collide

February 3, 2010

SFI did not have the privilege of living in an era in which art was created to elevate the human spirit or to add beauty to the world. Alas, we’re stuck in an age in which many self-described “artists” seek not to lift souls but rather to “challenge viewers’ perceptions” (What does that mean?) or sledgehammer through some heavy-handed political theme. However lame those agendas can be, there are the rare “artists” who produce work that is, simply, vile.

A Danish gallery–apparently to coincide with International Holocaust Memorial Day–exhibited a piece by someone named Marco Evaristti (whose previous “art” includes inviting gallery visitors to turn on blenders filled with goldfish): A large model of the entrance to Auschwitz, which he says includes enamel and gold fillings taken from teeth of Nazi victims.

See for yourself.

Evaristti–who was born Jewish and converted to Buddhism–has said that the work was meant “to relate to all the atrocities of the world which many tend to forget” and that he wanted to unite some of the most beautiful things in the world with some of the meanest.

We know that that sounds really profound and all. But, really, it’s just stupid. And utterly tasteless.

Some people have no respect.

http://www.mecontemporary.com/blog/blogpost-7.htm

Anne Frank’s protector passes away at 100

January 12, 2010

If long life is sometimes a reward for goodness done in this world, we know why Miep Gies lived to 100. 

Gies and several other non-Jewish Dutchmen hid Otto Frank’s family, along with four others, in a secret annex in Amsterdam during War War II. Gies had worked for Otto Frank as a secretary. Not only did she risk her life to provide them a safe haven–and bring them food and other necessities–but Gies made sure that the diary of Otto Frank’s younger daughter, Anne, didn’t fall into Nazi hands after they and the others hiding in the annex were captured by the Nazis.

Giep passed away yesterday at 100:

The family stayed in the secret room from July 1942 until August 4, 1944, when they were arrested by Gestapo and Dutch police after being betrayed by an informant. Two of Gies’ team were arrested that day, but she and her friend, Bep Voskuijl, were left behind — and found 14-year-old Anne’s papers.

“And there Bep and I saw Anne’s diary papers lying on the floor. I said, ‘Pick them up!’ Bep stood there staring, frozen. I said, ‘Pick them up! Pick them up!’ We were afraid, but we did out best to collect all the papers,” Gies said in a 1998 interview with The Anne Frank House in Amsterdam.

“Then we went downstairs. And there we stood, Bep and I. I asked, ‘What now, Bep?’ She answered, ‘You’re the oldest. You hold on to them. So I did.”

The girl had chronicled two years of the emotions and fears that gripped her during hiding, as well as candid thoughts on her family, her feelings for friend-in-hiding Peter van Pels, and dreams of being a professional writer. Mixed into the entries were the names of the Dutch helpers, who risked their lives to keep the family’s secret.

“I didn’t read Anne’s diary papers. … It’s a good thing I didn’t because if I had read them I would have had to burn them,” she said in the 1998 interview. “Some of the information in them was dangerous.”

The diary was sheltered in Gies’ desk drawer and later turned over to Otto Frank when he returned after the war as the only surviving resident of the annex. Anne died at northern Germany’s Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in 1945.

Her father published her diary, titled “The Secret Annex,” in 1947.

Despite the legendary hardship she endured during the German occupation, Gies never embraced the label of a hero.

“More than 20,000 Dutch people helped to hide Jews and others in need of hiding during those years. I willingly did what I could to help. My husband did as well. It was not enough,” she says in the prologue of her memoirs, “Anne Frank Remembered: The Story of the Woman Who Helped to Hide the Frank Family.”

“There is nothing special about me. I have never wanted special attention. I was only willing to do what was asked of me and what seemed necessary at the time.”

May her memory be forever a blessing.

France decides to get into “universal” harassment too

January 10, 2010

Oh, boy: The French government announced this week that it will set up a special judicial unit to investigate and bring charges against people accused of genocide, war crimes or crimes against humanity in France or abroad — utilizing the “universal jurisdiction” law that’s been used in other European states to threaten Israelis with arrest.

Fortunately, unlike British law, France requires some connection between France and the alleged crime. We’ll have to see if visiting Paris leads to harassment of Israeli officials.

We like his tune!

January 8, 2010

Pianist Evgeny Kissin

It’s no secret that many believe that the news division of the BBC, the UK’s prestigious broadcasting network, is wildly biased against Israel — sometimes to the point that it lacks credibility.

Unfortunately, the arts and media industries tend to follow the elite conventional wisdom (which, ever nuanced, goes something like: “Israel bad”) and rarely provides any sort of balance. So we were delighted to hear that Evgeny Kissin, 38, a child prodigy in his native Russia now widely regarded as one of the greatest living pianists, has accused the BBC of “slander and bias” against Israel, broadcasting material he describes as “painfully reminiscent of the old Soviet anti-Zionist propaganda.”

Kissin, who became a British citizen in 2002, said he intends from now on to speak out against media bias against Israel, which he sees as both fueling and being fueled by anti-Semitism.

H/t: The Jewish Chronicle’s ever-interesting Miriam Shaviv.

Universal harassment continues…

January 5, 2010

More stupidity this week thanks to Europe’s universal jurisdiction laws and the willingness of anti-Israel forces to use them dishonorably for political gain: A delegation of senior IDF officers had to cancel a planned visit to the UK to avoid being arrested upon landing.

The delegation included four officers with ranks of major to colonel who had been invited by the British Army. Alas, the Brits shame-facedly told their Israeli counterparts that they couldn’t guarantee that they wouldn’t be arrested.

Israeli officials said that, oddly enough, consistently trying to arrest Israeli officials will ”make it difficult for the two countries to maintain a normal relationship.”

That’s sort of the point, of course. And the Europeans, as of yet, aren’t really standing up to the clowns making a mockery of what actual war crimes are.

Advocacy info: Has Great Britain been a friend to Israel?

January 2, 2010

Note: This is the first in the series of posts that bring you useful background information about Israel that will deepen your understanding of the Jewish state and the conflicts she faces, and help you discuss these issues.

However painful it is for American lovers of Israel to see and hear bile spewed on the Jewish state by people who misunderstand or twist the historical record or taking her actions completely out of context, we have it much better than European Zionists.

Americans remain stubbornly pro-Israel, despite the relentless drumbeat of anti-Zionists deeply hostile to the Jewish people’s historical narrative and unfairly critical of any efforts Israel makes to defend herself (and not always intentionally so — many activists who work against Israel’s interests simply don’t understand the history and current context of the the Arab-Israeli conflict). Not so in Europe, where the conventional wisdom openly questions Israel’s very right to exist.

 Last month, England’s Spectator published the entirety of a lecture by British historian Andrew Roberts in which he set out how the UK has deviated from its early crucial role in establishing a national Jewish homeland.

  • For all the undoubted statesmanship implicit in Arthur Balfour’s Declaration of November 1917, promising “a National Home for the Jewish People” doesn’t mean that Britain has ever been much more than a fair-weather friend to Jewish national aspirations. 
  • There was the notorious 1939 White Paper, which severely limited Jewish immigration into Palestine at precisely the period of their greatest need, during the Final Solution. A total upper limit of 75,000 Jewish immigrants was set for the fateful years 1940-44, a figure that was also intended to cover refugee emergencies. The White Paper was published on 9 November 1938, the very same day as the Kristallnacht atrocities in Germany. The Manchester Guardian described the White Paper as “a death sentence on tens of thousands of Central European Jews,” which in sheer numerical terms was probably an underestimation.
  • In April 1948, Transjordan’s Arab Legion was actually commanded by a Briton, Sir John Glubb. On New Year’s Eve 1948, the British government actually issued an ultimatum to Israel threatening war if Israel did not halt its counter-attacks on Egyptian forces in Gaza and Sinai. Britain was the only country in the UN that came to Egypt’s aid in this regard.
  • Although Her Majesty the Queen has made over 250 official overseas visits to 129 different countries during her reign, neither she nor one single member of the British royal family has ever been to Israel on an official visit – even though Prince Philip’s mother, Princess Alice of Greece, who was recognized as “Righteous Among the Nations” for sheltering a Jewish family in her Athens home during the Holocaust, was buried on the Mount of Olives. As an act of delegitimization of Israel, this official boycott of royal visits is the direct fault of British Foreign Office Arabists.
  • William Hague, the shadow Foreign Secretary, called for Israel to adopt a proportionate response in its struggle with Hizbullah in Lebanon in 2007, as though proportionate responses ever won any victories against fascists. In the Second World War, the Luftwaffe killed 50,000 Britons in the Blitz, and the Allied response was to kill 600,000 Germans – twelve times the number and hardly a proportionate response, but one that contributed mightily to victory. Who are we therefore to lecture the Israelis on how proportionate their responses should be?

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