April 8, 2013 | 12:08 am

Doing Well, Thank You.

Posted by Ariel Blumenthal

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The Irish Teachers Union members are oblivious of the symbolic week they had picked to adopt an academic boycott on Israel. One may argue the justice behind this move; I’d argue it has nothing to do with justice. Even the grimmest Apartheid reality the Irish teachers may imagine to be going on in Israel would leave them with much more evil candidates for a boycott. But the Irish teachers would not boycott China for the unchallenged annihilation of Tibet and Tibetan culture, would not seek academic retaliation on Iraq and Egypt for a tsunami of fleeing Christians, they have no issues with Syria for the horrors we all know about -- it’s a gruesome, long list.

This sort of unfounded singling-out is primitive, vicious and disconnected from reality as Antisemitism has always been. You won’t find “justice” among it’s motivations.

Venezuelan front runner and Chavez lackey Nicolas Maduro goes antisemitic on his opponent Enrique Capriles, who had a Jewish grandparent. Capriles is, therefore, a Zionistic agent - and that’s that. Maduro also told thousands of supporters that his late master Hugo Chavez had tweeted him - an analog tweet that is, through a beak of a bird. Antisemitism has always been ridiculous, psychotic.

On the occasion of Holocaust Memorial Day (and that’s where the Irish teachers had struck symbolism), Israeli Ha’aretz reports a rise of 30% in antisemitic incidents in 2012. Antisemitism is doing well, thank you. Professor Krzysztof Jasiewicz, an esteemed Polish historian, said this week that the Holocaust was the work of the Jews. No typo here. The head of Rome’s Jewish community Riccardo Pacifici warned of “The end of the good days”, saying that Jews should “get ready to leave”. The good days, turns out, lasted less than 70 years.

Antisemitism is rising. And while Western governments take some measures, the reaction of the world this time around is not yielding very good results.

Jews leave Malmö, Sweden, because of violent attacks by Muslim immigrants, and mayor Ilmar Reepalu says that “If Jews want to leave that is not a concern for Malmö.” The mayor believes that the right-wing Democrats party had “infiltrated” Malmö’s Jewish community in order to turn it against Muslims. In reaction to the very un-European violence against a group of Jewish demonstrators during the last Gaza fighting (“Hitler Hitler!” chants, home made bombs, evacuation and all), Mayor Reepalu blamed the Jewish crowd for supporting Israel’s position. You probably think: Where is freedom of speech? Not in Malmö, Sweden I’m afraid. The Jewish demonstrators were merely expressing sympathy for “all civilian victims” in Gaza and Israel - they’d already not dare to say anything more pro-Israeli than that in Malmö. Jews attacked? Authorities blame the attacked? That’s too closely familiar.

What had civilization learnt from the Holocaust? One of the important lessons is to protect minorities from hatred, harassment and violence. Under this very protection, ironically, Islamic antisemitism thrives and it’s irrational, dogmatic and paranoid. Is this a correct turn of events? These are the same Jews, after all. Political correctness cannot be the right answer to Nazi horrors if it allows for rhetoric and intentions equally horrifying as the Nazi’s.

I’m afraid there’s no place for Holocaust-fatigue. A message heard so many times may become old and tiring, especially when the world we live in today is so different. Unfortunately we see that antisemitism persists through cultures and political systems - god knows why. It hides behind political excuses that are no more credible than the 19th century libel.

But through all its reincarnations it retains its language, the language of hatred. This is the sign that we cannot afford to miss.

Listen.

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April 5, 2013 | 2:09 pm

The Cancer Intifada

Posted by Ariel Blumenthal

Malek Nasr A-din entered Caffit Cafe in Jerusalem, gun at hand, suicide belt ready to go. But something happened to Malek: He decided not to blow himself up. He turned around and hurried out of the coffee shop. The patrons finished their cups and went on with their lives.

One of the people sending Malek on his suicide mission that Sunday in 2002 was Maisara Abu Hamdiyeh. Hamdiyeh was arrested, convicted and imprisoned; on Wednesday he died of cancer in a hospital in Israel, at 64. His death triggered a series of prison riots.

It’s only natural that Palestinians held in Israeli jails are the pinnacle of Palestinian mythology of heroism and sacrifice. The fact that these heros are the likes of Hamdiyeh, who was doing time for putting together a hair-raising orgy of blood and religious fantasies, is an indication of a deep cultural malaise.

Hundreds riot in the West Bank immediately after Mr. Hamdiyeh’s death. Two men are killed - both healthy and much younger than Hamdiyeh was. It’s unclear how much of a leader or a follower the Palestinian Authority is in this; Whatever the balance may be, the Authority seems happy to participate in an reckless escalation, and death from cancer, so it seems, is a reason to recklessly escalate.

Even more frustrating is the Authority’s choice to reject the civilized alternative at hand: Dr. El-Alul, the top Palestinian pathologist, conducts the autopsy together with his Israeli counterpart Dr. Liss. Reason of death: Cancer, the kind common with heavy smokers like Hamdiyeh. President Abbas, nevertheless, announces through his spokesperson that “The Palestinian presidency holds the government of Netanyahu responsible for the martyrdom” (echoing the well-nurtured myth that Israel killed Yasser Arafat), and Secretary of Prisoners Issa Kara’ke tells the mourning family that “It’s time to turn to the International Court in Hague in regards to the prisoners”. Inversion complete: Terrorists don’t go to Hague, those who put them in prison do.

The prospects of political exploitation of the legal procedure is precisely why both the United States and Israel refuse to be states parties to the Statute of the International Criminal Court. The Palestinians have been throwing fervent glances at the international legal system that the UN nod last November made available to them, with two targets in mind: Delegitimization of Israel, and impunity for their own foul acts. Both goals are as contradictory to the reason this court was established as they are to justice itself. Abuses of progressive legal systems in Belgium, Spain and the UK by pro-Palestinian activists had already led to some restrictions in Universal Jurisdiction legislation - Damage inflicted under the Palestinian banner, and goes unnoticed by a civilization that holds the ideas of Universal Jurisdiction dear.

There’s a constant campaign going on in (and by) the Palestinian Authority to glorify the prisoners and their violence - It’s only natural. Generation after generation, indiscriminate killing - terrorism - is further cemented as the glorious, honorable Palestinian way. [see many examples from Itamar Marcus and PMW here] Fire fed, rage nurtured, fantasies encouraged - any day is a good day for an Intifada, be it because of death of cancer, or any other occasion.

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March 24, 2013 | 6:22 pm

Apology? Extortion.

Posted by Ariel Blumenthal

On Thursday, as President Obama was getting ready to deliver his vision of peace to Israeli students, the alternative to that vision was typically expressed by a rocket attack from Gaza. On Thursday morning the contrast between the two visions was clearly illustrated; Just a day later the violent alternative received a tremendous boost.

Hamas applauded Turkish PM Erdogan on finally getting his apology, declaring it “A victory” - and so they should: The effort to rescue the Hamas regime in Gaza, taken by the Turkish Islamist organization IHH three years ago, ended Friday with their calamitous moral victory. Since IHH radicals on board of the Mavi Marmara are still too often related to as “carrying humanitarian aid” and as “peace activists”, I’m inclined to remind my readers who they were, via this 3:35 video I made with my friend Guy Ross:

No, these were no peace activists attacked by ruthless commandos while selflessly seeking justice; These were fanatic Islamists confronted with paint guns while seeking martyrdom and itching for a holy fight. These “peace activists”, die-hard supporters of Hamas and the alternative it offers to the region, were never looking for peace. And on Thursday morning, back in their homes in Turkey, they were very happy to see some rockets flying into Israel. These are the people granted an apology.

Beyond the context of intent and ideology, there’s also the issue of affiliation. Three years ago the Muslim Brotherhood was unknown to the Western public; Today it’s a household name, making the significance of IHH’s ties to the global Brotherhood clear. A report by the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs showed that “The IHH ... was an integral part of a Turkish Muslim Brotherhood network” and that “Since 2006, Turkey has become a new center for the Global Muslim Brotherhood, while the Hamas regime in the Gaza Strip acted as the main axis for this activity.” You can’t expect the IHH to care for Shiites, or even non-Brotherhood Sunnis (like the Palestinian Authority). The flotilla was an act of alliance between Muslim Brotherhood affiliates; The thin veneer of “humanitarian aid” that miraculously still holds, was intended for those who are foolish enough to still believe in it.

Erdogan did not hesitate to throw his weight behind the IHH and keep it there for three years. The PM and his Justice and Development party, (which last year received Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal with a standing ovation and “damn Israel!” chants), are Brotherhood sympathizers, if not affiliates themselves. The moral ramifications are to be expected.

Erdogan doesn’t think Hamas is a terrorist organization, but calls Israel a “terrorist nation”. He takes no notice of Hamas’ violence and accuses Israel of genocide in Gaza, while ironically facing a very similar situation with the Kurdish PKK, a challenge he responds to with lethal ferociousness. Describing Erdogan as a non-objective mediator is an understatement. In 1998 he said that “the image of the Jews is no different than that of the Nazis”; In 2011 he rallied an Arab League meeting: “Israel must pay the price for its aggression and crimes.” He told his Parliament that Israel is engaged in ethnic cleansing; He said that “Israel is inexplicably cruel” and “hiding behind the Nazi Holocaust”. Some classic Antisemitic themes? Here you go: “The world media is under the control of Israel” and “Wherever Jews settle, they make money.” Bizarro roots? By all means: Back in 1974 Mr. Erdogan wrote, directed and starred in the play “Maskomya” about a Free-Mason - Communist - Jewish (Mas-Kom-Ya) evil conspiracy.

And finally, just three weeks ago he told a press conference in Vienna that Zionism is a crime against humanity. This coming from the PM of Turkey, whose nationalism cost an enormous number of Armenian, Greek and Kurdish lives - is infuriating. This is the man granted an apology...? The game of apologies in the Middle East is a one-way affair: the provocateur demands it, the provocateur is granted it.

Commentator Robin Wright was correct to say on Friday’s “Left Right & Center” that the apology “was the most important thing to come out of Obama’s visit”. The diplomatic necessity for Turkish-Israeli cooperation in light of the chaos in Syria is clear; Access to NATO facilities in Turkey and the dismissal of abusive legal charges against Israeli officers are just two of many immediate benefits. It’s a prospect you can’t refuse.

This is an artificial apology, a product of extortion. Israelis don’t believe in it, their PM had to eat a dish-full of frogs in order to make the call. The Turkish PM will escalate again very soon - he won’t be able to help it. It’s the ideology, stupid. Did I hear reconciliation? Erdogan was remarkably quick to cool it down on Saturday using confrontational language the world has grown so deaf to identify.

The moral consequences are devastating. If I were an Islamist anywhere in the world - I’d be launching a new flotilla tomorrow. For the rest of the world, the understanding of good and bad intentions, violent and peaceful ideologies and the very principle of justice, is more blurry today. As I wrote here yesterday, reality and perception are growing further and further removed.

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March 23, 2013 | 11:22 pm

A Meaningful Ovation

Posted by Ariel Blumenthal

“Just as Israelis built a state in their homeland,” says President Obama, “Palestinians have a right to be a free people in their own land.” Standing ovation, the crowd goes crazy. Who is that audience so passionately endorsing Obama’s vision of peace? The Norwegian Parliament? Democratic convention-goers? Perhaps an Arab crowd in Egypt or Ramallah? Non of the above; Those were in fact Israeli students in Jerusalem.

This was another powerful speech, masterfully delivered. But for me the enthusiastic applause the President received multiple times on the Palestinian issue were the main story of the night.

Marco Werman, host of “The World” on PRI, didn’t get as excited on Thursday’s show, saying that “The President’s speech was interrupted several times by applause, but he was heckled too” (The heckler was an Arab-Israeli student who thought the speech was “extremist and Zionistic”). NPR commentator E.J. Dionne spoke Friday of Obama’s message to Palestinians that “Israelis in their heart of hearts think that peace is a good thing.” hold on - Heart of hearts? Israelis, that in 65 years of statehood yield a gazillion peace songs? Whose Oscar-nominated films are statements for peace, every single time? Israelis, who never seize to talk about peace -- This cheering crowd?!

Call me sensitive, but reports like these - redundant and single-minded, make me uneasy. Judging from such and similar examples, it seems - this week more than ever, that reality and perception are growing more and more removed.

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March 23, 2013 | 11:22 pm

A Meaningful Ovation

Posted by Ariel Blumenthal

“Just as Israelis built a state in their homeland,” says President Obama, “Palestinians have a right to be a free people in their own land.” Standing ovation, the crowd goes crazy. Who is that audience so passionately endorsing Obama’s vision of peace? The Norwegian Parliament? Democratic convention-goers? Perhaps an Arab crowd in Egypt or Ramallah? Non of the above; Those were in fact Israeli students in Jerusalem.

This was another powerful speech, masterfully delivered. But for me the enthusiastic applause the President received multiple times on the Palestinian issue were the main story of the night.

Marco Werman, host of “The World” on PRI, didn’t get as excited on Thursday’s show, saying that “The President’s speech was interrupted several times by applause, but he was heckled too” (The heckler was an Arab-Israeli student who thought the speech was “extremist and Zionistic”). NPR commentator E.J. Dionne spoke Friday of Obama’s message to Palestinians that “Israelis in their heart of hearts think that peace is a good thing.” hold on - Heart of hearts? Israelis, that in 65 years of statehood yield a gazillion peace songs? Whose Oscar-nominated films are statements for peace, every single time? Israelis, who never seize to talk about peace -- This cheering crowd?!

Call me sensitive, but reports like these - redundant and single-minded, make me uneasy. Judging from such and similar examples, it seems - this week more than ever, that reality and perception are growing more and more removed.

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March 20, 2013 | 1:50 pm

New Approach Please

Posted by Ariel Blumenthal

“I hope that he [President Obama - A.B.] will see our life here, and will want to do something about it,” said an anonymous Jerusalem teenager to Israeli radio in anticipation to President Obama’s visit to the country. There’s no doubt that the President had seen and heard a lot during his short visit. In his press conference with Netanyahu, Obama spoke unusually about that complexity of the Palestinian-Israeli issue; Hopefully he’d left the region with some new, first-hand insights into why this conflict is so damn unsolvable.

On the eve of the historic visit NPR chose to bring us more of the same: Sheera Frenkel’s redundant account about Israeli settlers and Palestinian drivers. Listening to Frenkel’s report one may think that if only Israel had stopped building a house, a road - something, all will be well.

But the fact of the matter is that generations of international peacemakers, who had largely adopted that very narrow and historically implausible vantage point, failed - the conflict still rages. And when the such a large portion of the discourse is occupied by Palestinian victimhood - a symptom, not a cause - you know that something is amiss.

Something is amiss. Peace is made with sanity. It works pretty well with the sane nation of Jordan: King Abdullah told Jeffrey Goldberg on Monday’s Atlantic  that his relationship with Netanyahu, at the center of Israel and Jordan’s joint action to keep the Syrian conflict from spilling over, is “very strong”. King Abdullah clearly understands where stability is maintained in this neighborhood. He sees Israel as an ally in contrasting the “Iranian-led Shia crescent” to his East as well as the “Muslim Brotherhood crescent developing in Egypt and Turkey”. As his father Hussein before him, King Abdullah chooses progress over destruction for sectarian, religious or nationalistic reasons.


Remember this: Over 50% of Jordanians are of Palestinian origins; Jordan occupied the West Bank prior to 1967, and was part of that same British Mandate that controlled today’s Israel and West Bank. Save the Israelis and Palestinians themselves, no other country is as immersed in the conflict as Jordan. All odds are for Jordan being yet another scene of violence and chaos, but --

Sanity. It works.

The Palestinians are far from having made a similar choice. To get there they will have to divorce Hamas as an ideology and a choice - not only an organization. And there’s more:

In the past 2 months Itamar Marcus of Palestinian Media Watch brought his piles of evidence of Palestinian attitude-problem to shocked British and Norwegian Parliaments. On a March 17th session of the British Parliament, MP Gordon Henderson described the findings: “It is clear that a culture of hate has wormed its way into the very fibre of Palestinian society. Incitement to hate is pervasive in Palestinian school textbooks, on television programs and at cultural and sporting events.” He concluded: “No peace agreement will be able to guarantee ... peace, if a generation of Palestinians is growing up indoctrinated to hate Israel, Jews and the West."

Norwegian MPs were disturbed by their aid Euros being used towards salaries for convicted terrorists. “It almost seems to be an aid program to terror-convicted prisoners” said MP Peter Gitmark on February 28th, and Morten Høglund, Foreign policy spokesman for the Progress Party said “You have to send a clear political signal that we, as a donor country, also want to reinforce the peace process. I think anyone who sees this realizes that this contributes to the opposite ... We must fight fire with fire and say that we will stop the aid unless the PA takes immediate action to stop this type of hate message."

A paradigm shift strong enough to replace failure with success and peace has to include the replacement of Palestinian victimization and hate with clear decision and dramatic shift into the language of peace. It seems to me that Obama understands it, I just hope he doesn’t pay too much attention to Sheera Frenkel’s reports.

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March 11, 2013 | 12:48 am

Dutch Symbolism

Posted by Ariel Blumenthal

Every so often the symbolism of an event would be multiplied by great timing. Such was the Dutch government recommendation to label goods from Israeli settlements in the midst of the kidnapped UN soldiers crisis in Syria. The connection? The inclusion of the Golan Heights in the recommendation.

Equating the territory that was taken from Syria in 1967 to the West Bank makes a clear statement: just like the Dutch government would like to see the West Bank under Palestinian control, so it would like to see the Golan back under Syrian sovereignty.

When the recommendation was issued on Thursday, as Golan settlers were working on their soon-to-be-labeled juices, apples and wines, the UN was handling the kidnapping of 21of its UNDOF soldiers by fighters across the border, in a country with no government, no law and no compassion.

There’s no problem of self-determination in the Golan. The non-Jewish population is Druze, and the Druze views on issues of nationality allow for relationship with the state of Israel that is entirely different than the Palestinians’. The Druze serve in the Israeli army - the ultimate symbol of shared fate, and are not opposed to Israeli rather than Syrian control (in light of the past two years - who can blame them?)

Syria has been under decades of Assad family tyranny that crushed human rights, killed 30,000 in the Hama 1982 uprising and tens of thousands in the current one. Externally, the regime attacked Israel 3 times in 25 years, had de-facto occupied Lebanon for 30 years assassinating local leaders at will, and made Syria a poster boy for the ideology that tilts this region towards violence rather than peace, by aligning and supporting Iran, Hezbollah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, PFLP, and many others over the years. Now, there’s not even a Syrian state to speak of or with - still the Dutch government saw it appropriate and just to make the call on the Golan Heights.

When a burglar robs someone’s house, or kills or rapes, justice is very clear. But in the non-mundane reality of international relations the idea of justice is a complex one. Just three weeks ago 7 fighters injured battling Assad’s forces fled to the border to seek care in Israel. Is it just, in light of that, to call on the Druze of the Golan to become Syrians? What values are manifested in the removal of population from a reality of freedom and prosperity to a much worse life?

With many arguments for justice weighing against it, the Dutch government had decided to focus on a single angle of justice: the need to revert back to Syrian sovereignty that lasted 23 years (1944-1967) and ended 46 years ago. It would be unsurprising if an entirely different view of justice emerges in other instances, when Israel is not concerned.

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February 1, 2013 | 2:27 pm

About the Apes and Pigs

Posted by Ariel Blumenthal

Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi was put on the spot in Germany Wednesday. Georg Mascolo from Der Spiegel asked the President about a 4:42 min video surfacing on the web of him making a case against Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, at the height of which he calls the Jews “the descendants of apes and pigs”. Morsi, clearly irritated by the question, clarified that he’s “not against the Jewish faith” and that "the quotes were taken out of context”, the real context being “the continuing Israeli attacks on Palestinians, the bloodshed of Palestinians.” (Watch the event here @~29:00)

The Jews as apes and pigs tradition has an interesting background worthwhile to look into:

The source is a recount of God turning some (not all) Jews into apes and pigs as a punishment for not observing the Shabbat. The story is mentioned 3 times in the Qur’an (Suras 2:65, 5:60 and 7:166), for example:

5:60 “...They [Jews] are those whom Allah has cursed; who have been
under His wrath; some of whom were turned into apes and swine...”

The story has sparked a division among Muslim scholars as to whether today’s pigs are descendants of the Jews who were turned into pigs, or whether those Jewish pigs eventually died out. (A more complete explanation from AnsweringIslam.org); I couldn’t find a similar discussion about today’s apes.

The apes and pigs reference stemming from these Qur’anic recounts is used as an expression of religious hatred towards the Jews, a particular choice of wording mostly paired with violent speech of the explicit kind. The reference was used on Hamas TV (Al Aqsa) (and here), in an introduction to a speech by the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, in a suicide bomber’s farewell video, in sermons on Palestinian Authority TV (and here, here), on Al Rahma TV (Egypt), on Kuwait TV, by deputy speaker of Hamas parliament, by deputy rector of Egyptian Al Azhar University on Iranian TV, and also by Mohamed Morsi, whose Muslim Brotherhood affiliation makes this choice of rhetoric entirely unsurprising.

The apes and pigs reference is an Islamic adjective; A religious curse - like you’d imagine a fanatic Christians speaker cursing gays. And that’s something an Islamist President might do every once in a while: curse.

Spinning it to the context of the “bloodshed of the Palestinians” is based on Morsi’s belief that mentioning Palestinian victimhood automatically dissipates any previous suspicions of anti-Jewish air. A variation on the theme: You hear a lot of Antisemitic statements that are being laundered as referring not to “the Jews” but to “the Zionists”, or not to “The Israeli people” but to the “Israeli occupation” or the “Israeli regime”. So how do you get a blank license to hate speech? Speak about Palestinian suffering or refer your statement to the ultimate villain and you're in the clear. This is the essence of the efforts to delegitimize Israel.

In fact, the dogmatic anti-Jews ideology behind the apes and pigs reference is substantive and broadly promoted by Islamists worldwide, it cannot be hidden. The current video is not the first or last time Morsi is ever to express the Muslim Brotherhood’s ideology towards the Jews; He has to make this one go away, and be careful not to get busted in the future.

I’m thankful that Georg Mascolo raised the important issue of the apes and pigs. Equally consequential in the video is the occasion for which Morsi had summoned the apes and pigs reference: In his video speech he said that peace talks with the Zionists are “a waste of time and opportunities” and that you either accept “everything they want, or else it is war". All or nothing, war until victory, no compromise. Peacemakers in Germany and around the world should take note of the Muslim Brotherhood’s idea of conflict resolution as expressed by Morsi in this video. Making his rejection of compromise and peace louder, firmer and more committed is the real context in which the apes and pigs were mentioned.

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