Israel’s offensive against Hizbullah in Lebanon has applied a dose of smoke to the anti-Semitic prairie dog colony, and little rodent heads are starting to poke up out of their holes.Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad thinks he has seen one peeking out in Germany — now what ever gave him the idea to look for Jew-haters there?
According to Deutsche Welle:
Two months after sending US President Bush a letter, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has written Angela Merkel a letter requesting aid in solving the Palestinian problem and dealing with Zionism.
[…]
“It’s all related to Germany and how we have to find a solution to the Palestinian problems and Zionism and so on. It’s rather weird,” said the official who saw the letter on Thursday.
[…]
The German official who read the letter said it was an “extremely touchy” subject, and added that the government did not yet know if or how it would respond. “There are a lot of propaganda phrases about Israel and the Jews in it.”
It’s hard to tell exactly how much anti-Semitism there is in Germany, since the country tries to discourage its public expression with strict laws against Holocaust denial. The protesters who staged the recent pro-Hizbullah demonstrations in Berlin were mainly composed of Lebanese, Palestinians and Turks. But there is widespread opposition in Germany to Israel’s current offensive, so there’s no telling how soon the silhouette of the German prairie dog will appear against the sky.
In other European countries the old pastime is becoming part of the mainstream. Just about everyone has seen the photo of the Spanish prime minister in a kaffiyah, but he’s not the only Spaniard suffering from Pali-envy: traditional anti-Semitism is staging a comeback in Spain. According to YNet, anti-Semitism is the latest leftist trend:
Although many experts had foretold of the imminent disappearing of European Jews, nobody expected such a virulent explosion of anti-Semitism in Spain, not even under a Leftist government.
The first signal came on Monday, 5 December, when during a dinner with the Benarroch family, Zapatero and wife began claiming what Vidal Quadras, member of the European Parliament, described on the radio as “a tirade of anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism”.
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By the moment the Benarroch couple had left the table to express their regrets, Zapatero was explaining his lack of surprise about the Holocaust: according to the people present, Zapatero claimed to understand the Nazis.
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The recent clashes with Hizbullah… have promoted the longest and hardest diatribes against Israel, forcing Zapatero to lose a cover for what it was long known in Spanish politics: His hate towards Israel, Jews and Zionism.
In the third day of such rants, before a gathering of the Socialist Youth Movement and a day before a demonstration against Israel, Zapatero showed at last his true colours: At the closing of the meeting he let the teenagers take pictures of him wearing a Palestinian kaffiyah.
After Los Reyes Católicos drove the Moors from Spain in 1492, they expelled the Jews, too. The Moors are back, but is it time to get rid of the Jews again? Some Spanish Jews think so:
The commotion caused in the Spanish Jewish community seems to be huge, especially taking in count that after some months of anxiety after his election, some Jews were feeling somewhat safe in Spain. Not anymore.
Some people were trying to alert the international community about what was boiling in Spain, but neither the OSCE nor the EUMC ever listened, preferring contacts with anti-Israeli NGOs based on the idea that anti-Semitism has to do with Arabs. Now the Spanish Jews are to pay the price for the international community’s inaction, once more.
And Spain is not the only country in Europe where Jew-hatred is outing itself. Last week a Norwegian newspaper saw fit to publish an obnoxious political cartoon. Here’s a summary of the story in Brussels Journal (the image is a scan of the Dagbladet page from Vårt Land):
…the cartoonist Finn Graff published an anti-Israeli cartoon in the popular Norwegian newspaper Dagbladet. The cartoon shows Israel’s Prime Minister Ehud Olmert as a Nazi commander in the concentration camp of Auschwitz. The scene comes from the movie Schindler’s List, in which the commander shoots down a random Jew from his balcony. For the sake of clarity: Finn Graff is the same cartoonist who declared only half a year ago that he would not draw a cartoon about Muhammad out of fear and “respect.” Apparently he has no problems with his fear, nor does he need to show any respect when he can insult Jews or Israel, or Christians for that matter.
Fjordman has reported on the extent of anti-Semitism in Sweden. France has its own problems with anti-Semitism, with North African “youths” in the vanguard. French Jews have been emigrating to Israel in record numbers. Expect more and more prominent voices on the Left in these countries to join the chorus as the campaigns against Hamas and Hizbullah continue.
It seems that Mr. Ahmadinejad might want to address a plenum of the European Union to solicit their advice — no need to stop with just Germany.
Danish commenters here at Gates of Vienna assure us that Denmark is an exception, that anti-Semitism there is rare and enjoys no social approval.
If they’re right, the Danish prairie dog may be the only one in Europe to stay resolutely in its burrow.
Hat tip for YNet article: Carl in Jerusalem.
Hat tip for cartoon: Tom Pechinski.
15 comments:
Then there is the umm irony of a certain Omar Bakri who has decided he'd like to be British again and be allowed to leave Lebanon.
Leave Bakri where he is. He is well protected by his beloved Hizbollah now. Nothing to worry about. Or is there....??
We have one too.. his name is Akkari. A salafist in cahoots with Abu Laban. He has apparently been evacuated and is now back in infidel Denmark. Shame.
Anti-semitism here in Denmark? No, not at any appreciative level. I know where I stand and I think my blog makes that clear. Obviously the imported scum are there, ranting and raving as usual, but on the whole, its all quiet on the eastern front.
From the Danish prairie :
I just returned home to Denmark from Corsica and one of the first things I noticed was yesterdays poll in Danish daily "Berlingske Tidende". Now, I know very well that polls normally means nothing, but this poll caught my eye :
Question : "Do you feel a closer relationship with Judaism than with Islam ?"
Yes : 71 %
No : 29%
Votes : 3,188
My first reaction was shock : 29% of Danes feel themselves related to Islam ? - This could not be the country I left only three weeks ago. Something must be awfully wrong, or I must be in another universe. But after a little reflection I realized what those numbers really mean :
Consider this : Denmark is a Christian, but secular country. If you ask a Dane about religious matters chances are that he will just shrug his shoulders and change the subject. It simply doesn't matter. Humbug and superstition, who cares ?
So, the expected answer to the question should really be : No : 100%. - We're not related to either.
But only 29% answered in the logical way. Which means that in this particular matter Danes - Christian or not - feel overwhelmingly in support of Judaism, doesn't it ?
No. It means that almost 100% of Danes support Israel.
The Vatican, in it's initial reaction to Israel's defending itself, seemed to find it's inner Pharisee saying that Israel's action was 'against international law.'
That Zapatero is being a leftist, an opportunist and an useful idiot to the cause of Islam is nothing new... unfortunately!
I haven't seen the poll that kepiblanc is referring to, but it is not surprising... the way it is put together does make it suspicious... Personally I would have to put my vote in the “No” column, not because I like Islam more than Judaism, but because I don't have a relationship with Judaism but am forced to have one with Islam on a daily basis. The Danish jews are very well integrated in the Danish society, and you don't notice them as jews but as fellow Danes, whereas the muslims are certainly sticking out in many ways loudly making their presense, origin and belief very noticeable. The practical difference... a jewish butcher would have a small sign in the window, stating that they are selling kosher products, whereas a muslim butcher would make “Halal” part of the name of the shop or at least advertise it with letters te same size as the name of the shop!
So yes I too am surprised that only 29% answered "No", both from the reasons Kepiblanc stated and the ones I did... but overall I think the question is irrelevant, a better question would be "Do you like Judaism better than Islam?" or come right out of the bush and ask "Does the state of Israel have a right to exist?"
Zapatero did permanent damage to Spain by unilaterally and abruptly withdrawing Spain's modest force from Iraq. For generations, both friends and enemies of Spain will know that Spain cannot be trusted.
BTW. The smile of Zapatero in the picture gives me the willies... makes me think of the Joker (it have about the same amount of warmth)
A Norway news article says the local Jewish organization warned their members to stop wearing their yarmulke...
LINK
"It comes after a Jewish man wearing a kippah, or yarmulke, was assaulted on an Oslo street Saturday. The Mosaic Religious Community wants its members to be careful"
From my experience of Germany there is not a lot of anti-Semitism largely because there are not so many Jews, but also because Germans today are very different from the caricature.
Germans as a whole are frightened of war and the chaos it brings. They lost 10.8% their population in war and have a desire for a Swiss-style peaceful existence.
On the other hand they have no love of terrorists or Muslims and more admiration for Israel than people acknowledge. Too many people live in the past and I have to say most of them are non-German who do so.
I don't suppose most Israelis are anti-British and anti-Christian, but no doubt I can find an opinion poll to show most are.
The main thing is to follow Polonius advice to his son:
See thou character. Give thy thoughts no tongue,
Nor any unproportioned thought his act.
Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar.
Those friends thou hast, and their adoption tried,
Grapple them to thy soul with hoops of steel;
where you can find friends hold on to them................
May God protect Israeli servicemen as they enter the dangerous days ahead !
Practically speaking, does it matter whether Europeans like the Jews? Shouldn't the question be whether they understand that the Jews and they have a common enemy?
I should point out that many US Jews are similarly pig-headed, still refusing to see that their best, and perhaps only,friend in the world is the so-called 'religious right'.
Clearly, there is much work ahead of us all.
It seems that Mr. Ahmadinejad might want to address a plenum of the European Union to solicit their advice — no need to stop with just Germany.
Ahmedinejad and Co. have, in fact, been soliciting EU members. Prodi in Italy and Meathead in Spain are already pretty well lined-out. I pretty well quit tracking the travels, exploits and adventures of Ahmed, Mottaki and Larijani a week or so ago back precisely because they become so obvious and monotonous in their efforts.
Now they've resorted to a direct appeal to the EU, saying a deal can be worked out if the Euro's just quit falling for the agenda and propaganda of those nasty AmeriNazi's.
If we had any sense at all, when one of those 3 jets off from Iran we'd shoot the bastard down and ask'em, 'Mechanical problems? Again?' ;)
t seems that Mr. Ahmadinejad might want to address a plenum of the European Union to solicit their advice — no need to stop with just Germany.
Germany has for several months past been arresting Iranian agents trying to procure parts for mobile launch systems from companies in Germany.
]The letter sent to Angela Markel is mentioned in today's Finamcial Times but will not be published - from comments you can take it that it is Neo-Nazi diatribes and
http://www.welt.de/data/2006/07/22/969009.html
claims a common Aryan ancestry between Persia and Germany and the common foe of Jewry and goes on to threaten Donald Klein, a 52-year old German Citizen arrested in Iran and sentenced to 18 months in January.
The German Govt will not respond
Mr. Zapatero is a pain in the ass. Look also at this demonstration.
Third photo, second to the left, a "gay activist" who dos not know the treatment given to gays by mohamedans.
Zapatero is what you get when the EU gives Spain a "Welfare Windfall" through the Euro offering low-interest credit
I've lived in Germany for years. On the whole, guilt over the Holocaust is high and active anti-semitism is low (as distingushed from mere indifference to Israel's fate -- or that of the US, or anyone else, which is fairly common).
But Merkel's cold dismissal of Ahmadinjad's letter is representative of Germans as a whole: "He's repeating the old thinking, which is completely unacceptable to us." This odd turn of phrase is commonly how Germans refer to Nazism. And the suggestion that Germans are still drawn to it is the #1 way to offend, infuriate, and alienate them.
If one could identify an overwhelming attitude in Germany, it's hostility toward Muslims. I would like to approve of this trend, but it's to the extent that mothers often won't let their kids play with the Turkish kids down the street. Voyager is right that Germans just want Swiss neutrality, but when jihad comes to Germany, the response will be ugly.
Like the rest of Europe, many measures short of force could be taken now to alleviate the situation, but instead they will wait until no option but force is left -- and it will probably be the sizable number of skinheads, not the government, that undertakes it. The feeling here just now is one of a delicate, uneasy peace.
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