Macron's Overt Antisemitism - Tsvi Sadan ISRAEL TODAY

Macron's Overt Antisemitism

Tuesday, June 12, 2018 |  Tsvi Sadan  ISRAEL TODAY

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Anti-Semitism

Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's visit to France on June 5th yielded interesting statements from French President Emmanuel Macron. 

After going through the routine of condemning all forms of violence against civilians and committing France to the security of Israel, Macron's problematic ideas about violence and peace came when he "condemn[ed] all form of expressions to incite, made by certain groups, and I am thinking of Hamas here," as well as when he spoke about his disapproval of the moving of the US Embassy to Jerusalem, which led to "people dying"… in Gaza. "If this [move of the embassy] leads to people dying, it’s not a celebration," he said.

Macron, if he ever takes notice, could sue me for attaching antisemitism to his name, and if that happens, I will lose the case in a heartbeat, because Macron is not an anti-Semite. This being said, there can be no denial that Macron is using logical and moral arguments of the kind that will show their true colors only if taken to their logical conclusion, ad absurdum.

By today's moral standard, Israel would never have come into being for the simple reason that it is viewed as a white colonialist entity that displaced indigenous people and occupied their land. This argument, you might be interested to know, is the oldest anti-Semitic ploy in the book. This moral charge, echoed repeatedly in the Bible, has become the standard reason for opposing Jewish presence in the Land of Israel ever since. 

Now, since the Jewish people stand on the three-legged foundation of Torah-People-Land, removing one leg will bring an end to the whole thing called Israel. Antisemitism, therefore, goes far deeper than Holocaust-denial or raw hatred of the Jews. Fundamentally, antisemitism is any attempt to remove any one of these legs.

Concerning today's most pressing issue, the land, in his opening comments on the Book of Genesis, Rashi, arguably the most important Jewish interpreter of the Bible, explains why Genesis was even written. The reason, he argues, is written in Psalm 111:6: "He has shown his people the power of his works by giving them the lands of other nations."

Accordingly, Genesis was written in case "the nations of the world will say that 'you are robbers because you have occupied the lands of seven nations,' tell them that the Land is the Lord's. He created it and He gave it to whom He pleased." Rashi's answer is chillingly candid. Without divine decree, he seems to be saying, Israel is indeed a moral travesty.

In this scheme, overt antisemitism, which denies the very idea of a "chosen people" rightfully dwelling on the land of seven nations, becomes a morally-sound position that was, and still is, used against Israel. 

Consider the 1919 Paris peace treaty, which among other things approved the Balfour Declaration for a Jewish home in Mandatory Palestine. Leading up to this treaty was the King-Crane Commission that concluded that support for a Jewish state in Palestine would lead to violence since, due to Arab resistance, "only by force can a Jewish state in Palestine be established or maintained." If, as it is today, peace was the primary driving principal behind the superpowers' foreign policy, Israel would have never come into being.

Macron's logic and morality run along the same lines. If the move of the American embassy to Jerusalem breeds violence in Gaza, it is morally and politically imperative not to do it. Peace above all, even if it means the clogging of the arteries of Israel's heart, is good for Israel, and for the world, according to this moral anti-Semitic argument. To balance it off, Macron draws moral equivalency between Israel and Hamas by refusing to address this entity's expressed supreme goal of destroying Israel. Peace, the anti-Semites will argue, is more important than Israel.

Whether or not he realizes it, Macron is softly whispering, much like the famous MASH theme song, the lullaby of "suicide is painless. It brings on many changes." While for some it might be unwittingly done, this is part of a "valiant" European effort to euthanize Israel.

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What's the Deal With Kuwait, and Why's the World Ignoring It? - Tsvi Sadan ISRAEL TODAY

What's the Deal With Kuwait, and Why's the World Ignoring It?

Monday, June 04, 2018 |  Tsvi Sadan  ISRAEL TODAY

Kuwait calling for a UN resolution to set up an international "protection mission" for the Palestinians is just the latest in a long list of initiatives to condemn and vilify Israel by the oil-rich emirate. 

One need but recall the outrageous behavior of the speaker of Kuwait's National Assembly, Marzouq Al-Ghanim, during the Forum for International Parliaments held in St. Petersburg last October. "Occupiers and murderers of children," he lashed out at the Israeli delegation, who left the forum after Al-Ghanim said that Israel "represents the worst form of terrorism." For more than two years now, Kuwait Airways has been discriminating against Israelis, a practice that, by the way, was approved by a German court. In short, Kuwait, which owes its very existence to the West, has become a real menace for Israel. 

To better understand the behavior of Kuwait's de facto ruler, this 49-year-old billionaire who is largely filling in for the absent 89-year-old Emir Sabah Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, I spoke with Edy Cohen from the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies. Cohen, who has tens of thousands of followers on his Arabic-language Facebook page and is one of the very few Israelis invited to speak on Al-Jazeera, knows the Muslim world at least as well as the Muslims themselves.

Cohen says that Al-Ghanim's Israel-bashing is a shrewd tactic to gain popularity in the Muslim world. His reputation was badly damaged after his 2011 jailing of Kuwaiti lawmakers who protested against corruption. Al-Ghanim is now a hero of the Palestinians, who, we must not forget, cheered for Saddam Hussein. Streets in Nablus and Qalqilya are named after the Iraqi dictator, who famously invaded and tried to annex Kuwait. This thing, says Cohen, shows once again that Israel-hatred is what unites the otherwise deeply divided Muslims.

Kuwait's condemnation of Israel, says Cohen, is yet another severe case of hypocrisy. Few in the world have ever heard of "Bidoon," he says. Bidoon, translated "without," which is particularly prevalent in Kuwait, refers to a social class without rights. Cohen views these Bidoons as nothing less than 21st century slaves. It was Al-Ghanim himself who canceled the Kuwaiti law that granted citizenship and rights to more then 70,000 people living under the oppressive Bidoon status. This person who condemns Israel ceaselessly, who is feeding on the Palestinian hope of eradicating Israel, denies basic rights to his own people.

This is the new Kuwait, says Cohen, and it is a shame that the rest of the world continues to turn a blind eye toward the real villains in this region. Cohen concludes that all one really need to do to get away with despotism in today's Middle East is deflect one's own misconduct toward Israel.

An Israeli participating in the 2007 Jordan Rally poses with Kuwaiti sheikhs. Such a friendly encounter would today likely be frowned upon by Al-Ghanim's regime. (Nati Shohat/Flash90)

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Thou Shall Not Kill. Period. - Tsvi Sadan ISRAEL TODAY

Thou Shall Not Kill. Period.

Monday, May 28, 2018 |  Tsvi Sadan  ISRAEL TODAY

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Gaza

The so called "demonstrations" on the Israel-Gaza border are another form of military tactic used in the overall Palestinian war against Israel. The 60 Gazans killed while trying to cut the border fence were not asylum- or job-seekers. Their assignment was the same as a military assault vanguard. They were to break through the enemy's barriers in preparation for an all-out attack. Challenging the necessity to kill these Hamas spearhead troops amounts to challenging the army's right to eliminate any of its enemies.

Yet this is exactly what many Israelis are now saying; the clearest voice among them is perhaps Ruhama Weiss. In her May 18 column "Our Moral Desert in Gaza: This Isn't My Religion," Weiss charges Israel with murder for killing Israel's enemies. Weiss–a teacher, author and columnist for the daily Yediot Aharonot–sounds very much like those religious Jews who cheer for J Street and applaud _Rabbis for Human Rights, _groups rush to condemn Israel for what they perceive as crimes against humanity.

Wiess starts her diatribe with the assertion that Israel is a fascist state, one that teaches its citizens that love for one's country is more important than human lives. She gets it from a slogan she heard in her youth, that for Israel's sake "it is forbidden to receive from the state, one should only give." Wiess turns this slogan, that sounds very much like JFK's immortal "ask not what your country can do for you...," into a fascist state of mind that expresses Israel's existential fear. To overcome their fear of death, she writes, Israelis strive to become a part of something bigger than themselves, something will not die with when they do. In Weiss' estimation, this has produced in Israelis a sadistic love for country that's transformed them into murderous fascists.

This is why, even as Gazans were being killed while trying to violently infiltrate Israel to destroy her, Weiss couldn't stop crying. "I became utterly exhausted from seeing Jewish soldiers killing human beings … there are a thousand good reasons for the killing in Gaza and only one reason to stop it – it is immoral." Israel, she says, has failed to make "thou shall not kill" a part of its government policy. It never took peace too seriously. In her fantasies, had Israeli simply given all authority to the 10 wisest, most creative women in the country, peace could have already been achieved.

Weiss uses pseudo-biblical notions of morality to justify her ugly accusations, much in the same way others use human rights to justify their hatred of Israel. But just as accusations about genocide, apartheid or racism lack factual foundations, so, too, does Weiss' diatribe fall flat on its face. In her misandrist mindset, Weiss assumes, contrary to all available evidence, that Israel's male population simply does not want peace. She also assumes that Hamas would erase its charter that vows to destroy Israel if only 10 Weiss-like women would tell them to do so. 

Worse still is her assumption that "thou shall not kill" is a sweeping command. Weiss' ignoble interpretation, that fails to differentiate between murder and killing, inevitably makes God, who also commanded that "the murderer is to be put to death," nothing less of a murderer. And if God is a murderer, how much more Israel, whose soldiers dare to kill innocent protestors whose only crime was attempting to realize Hamas' dream of destroying the nation they were sworn to protect? Weiss' sick reasoning, then, is the same as that of her enemies, who gleefully share her pious view that being a murderer, Israel is to be put to death.

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Out of the North Evil Will Break Forth - Tsvi Sadan ISRAEL TODAY

Out of the North Evil Will Break Forth

Friday, May 18, 2018 |  Tsvi Sadan  ISRAEL TODAY

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Anti-Semitism

One must wonder why Turkish President Erdogan’s anti-Semitic rhetoric is brushed aside so lightly. Or, why Europe, enamored by the Palestinians whose dream is Israel’s annihilation, support the Iran nuclear deal.

Instead of reminding itself of the Iranian fascination with the Nazi concept of the Aryan race (under Nazi influence Persia has changed its name to Iran, or the land of the Aryans), Europe instead turns a blind eye to Iran’s expressed desire to exterminate Israel. It might be that in our strange world, where “Nazi” has become a swear word for those who don’t agree with our political views, the real Nazis are becoming invisible, thus free to pursue their own version of the "final solution."

So, let us be reminded. Speaking at the International Mount of Olives Peace Awards at the Cemal Resit Rey Concert Hall in Istanbul, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that the “Palestinians are the symbol of all oppressed people in the world because of the persecution, massacres and injustices they have been subjected to.” The future of humanity would be determined according to its stance regarding the Palestine cause and the question of Jerusalem, he insisted, adding that “either humanity will turn toward the light, freedom and moral values, or toward injustice and oppression.”

Erdogan’s vile words (there are many more examples) echo Hitler’s attitude toward the Jews. In his nauseating Mein Kampf, Hitler wrote that “the Jew offers the most striking contrast to the Aryan” – the ideal human being who has suffered from Jewish oppression for generations. By singling out the Palestinians as the symbol of all the oppressed peoples in the world, Erdogan has effectively leveled the same accusation, that Israel is this diabolical agent that ruins human society by hurting these pristine, Aryan-like Palestinians.

Likewise, the horrendous injustice Israel inflicts upon the Palestinians merits a universal campaign against the Jewish state, or, if you like, the launching of a holy war by the sons of light against the sons of darkness. Hitler said: “My conduct is in accordance with the will of the Almighty Creator. In standing guard against the Jew I am defending the handiwork of the Lord.”

Erdogan sees Israel as morally corrupt, a despotic entity that denies freedom and human rights, a pariah state that inflicts injustice upon peace-loving, innocent people. This is how Hitler viewed the Jews: “In the field of politics [the Jew] now begins to replace the idea of democracy by introducing the dictatorship of the proletariat … Economically he brings about the destruction of the State by a systematic method of sabotaging social enterprises … politically [the Jew] works to withdraw from the State its means of subsistence … culturally [the Jew’s] activity consists in bowdlerizing art, literature and the theatre … of religion he makes a mockery. Morality and decency are described as antiquated prejudices.”

Erdogan’s Nazi-like rhetoric came shortly after Mahmoud Abbas expressed his own support for Hitler’s views. The Holocaust was not caused by anti-Semitism, but by the “social behavior” of the Jews, including money-lending, the Palestinian leader spewed from his fortress in Ramallah.

The overwhelming Muslim support for Hitler should be too obvious to ignore. And yet, that's precisely what the international community does. This refusal to confront the new Muslim expression of Nazism allows the likes of Erdogan, Abbas and Iran's Ayatollah Khamenei to continue nourishing their phobia. In their make-believe world, Israel can be portrayed in any form they desire. Throwing facts at them, therefore, is as good as trying to convince Hitler that “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion” is a Russian hoax. In fact, the more harshly Israel condemns these figures, the more they are convinced of their own anti-Semitic conclusions. Hitler wrote that the Jews’ vigorous repudiation of “The Protocols” was “evidence in favor of their authenticity.” 

If the claims made in "The Protocols" were true, the new Nazis would have every right to rally the world in an effort to wipe Israel from the face of the earth. On the other hand, if Erdogan, Abbas and Khamenei are really manifestations of 21st century Nazism, then it is time to stop praising the Chamberlains, and to start looking for a Churchill.

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