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January 7, 2009 | 9:42 pm

More hate: Anti-Israel protester tells Jews ‘go back to the oven’

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

The above video is of an anti-Israel demonstration held last week in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. I learned about it from Jeff Jacoby’s column in today’s Boston Globe titled, “Yes, it is anti-Semitism.”

The quote that jumped out to me was when one protester shouted, “Murderers! Go back to the ovens! You need a big oven.”

You can hear that little bit of hate at the 3:25 mark, but there are plenty of other choice comments. And they are not unique to this protest in Florida. We’ve heard similar sentiments in Los Angeles and read them in the Arab-American press. Here’s a list of other anti-Semitic incidents that have occurred since the war began. These comments and actions form the basis of Jacoby’s argument, which begins:

CRITICIZING Israel doesn’t make you anti-Semitic: If it’s been said once, it’s been said a thousand times. Yet somehow that message doesn’t seem to have reached the hundreds of anti-Israel demonstrators in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., who turned out last week to protest Israel’s military operation in Gaza. As their signs and chants made clear, it isn’t only the Jewish state’s policies they oppose. Their animus goes further.

Demonstrators chanted “Nuke, nuke Israel!” and carried placards accusing Israel of “ethnic cleansing” and bearing such messages as: “Did Israel take notes during the Holocaust? Happy Hanukkah.” To the dozen or so supporters of Israel gathered across the street, one demonstrator shouted: “Murderers! Go back to the ovens! You need a big oven.”

The Arab-Israeli conflict induces strong passions, and the line that separates legitimate disapproval of Israel from anti-Semitism may not always be obvious. But it’s safe to assume the line has been crossed when you hear someone urging Jews “back to the ovens.”

The Danish website Snaphanen posted a photo the other day of a pamphlet being distributed in Copenhagen’s City Hall Square. On one side it proclaimed: “Never Peace With Israel!” and “Kill Israel’s People!” On the other side: “Kill Jewish people evry where in ther world!” The leaflet’s spelling left something to be desired, but its message of genocidal anti-Semitism couldn’t have been clearer.

Likewise the message in Amsterdam on Saturday, where the crowd at an anti-Israel rally repeatedly chanted, “Hamas! Hamas! Jews to the gas.” And the message in Belgium, where pro-Hamas demonstrators torched Israeli flags, burned a public menorah, and painted swastikas on Jewish-owned shops.

Only marginally less vile is the message that has been trumpeted at demonstrations from Boston to Los Angeles to Vancouver: “Palestine will be free/ From the river to the sea” - a restatement in rhyme of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s call for Israel to be “wiped from the map.”

Let’s say it for the thousand-and-first time: Every negative comment about Israel is not an expression of bigotry. Israel is no more immune to criticism than any other country. But it takes willful blindness not to see that anti-Zionism today - opposition to the existence of Israel, rejection of the idea that the Jewish people are entitled to a state - is merely the old wine of anti-Semitism in its newest bottle.

I couldn’t agree more.

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Wow…I saw this type of thing coming from France and Belgium too…and yes..this crosses the line beyond healthy ‘criticism’...unbelievable! It makes me sad and mad.

Comment by syd on 1/08/09 at 12:34 am

Don’t forget this cuts both ways.

Max Blumenthal reports:

Pro-Israel Rally Calls for ‘Wiping Out’ Palestinians

”“But hatred was plentiful at the rally Paterson addressed. Right in front of the stage, a man held a banner reading, “Islam Is A Death Cult.“ Rally attendees described the people of Gaza to me as a “cancer,“ called for Israel to “wipe them all out,“ insisting, “They are forcing us to kill their children in order to defend our own children.“ A young woman told me, “Those who die are suffering God’s wrath.“ “They are not distinguishing between civilians and military, so why should we?“ said a member of the group of messianic Orthodox Jewish Chabad-Lubavitch group that flocked to the rally.

No one I spoke to could seem to find any circumstance in which they would begin to question Israel’s war. No number of civilian deaths, no displays of extreme suffering—nothing could deter their enthusiasm for attacking one of the most vulnerable populations in the world with the world’s most advanced weaponry. There are no limits, no matter what Israel does, no matter how it does it.

The rally made me think of a passage in “The Holocaust Is Over, We Must Rise From Its Ashes,“ a powerful new book by former Israeli Knesset speaker and Jewish National Fund chairman Avraham Burg:“

“If you are a bad person, a whining enemy or a strong-arm occupier, you are not my brother, even if you are circumcised, observe the Sabbath, and do mitzvahs. If your scarf covers every hair on your head for modest, you give alms and do charity, but what is under your scarf is dedicated to the sanctity of Jewish land, taking precedence over the sanctity of human life, whose ever life that is, then your are not my sister. You might be my enemy. A good Arab or a righteous gentile will be a brother or sister to me. A wicked man, even of Jewish descent, is my adversary, and I would stand on the other side of the barricade and fight him to the end.“

Comment by LanceThruster on 1/14/09 at 11:39 pm

Lance, those comments are a response to the vicious condemnation Israel experiences while the world looks away when they are in difficulty. The failure of some to question “Israel’s war” is a failure to accept the indefensible which people like yourself specialise in - namely ignoring the vicious hatemongering of the Palestinians who brainwash their children and celebrate their martyrdom, while walking away from every single peace treaty.

Is it really so terrible to call Islam a death cult when it is the chief source of terror today throughout the world? Is it really so bad to say “the Palestinians make us kill their children” when Hamas is on record as having used human shields? Seems so many people like yourself object to the truth when it doesn’t suit.

The fact of the matter is that all Israeli demonstrations are peaceful while the huge number of pro-Palestinian demos around the world are typically aggressive, intimidating and sometimes violent. It is no coincidence they are very heavily policed. This is what the article points out - again don’t be afraid of the truth. Its a wonder why we aren’t all asking ourselves why are these people are acting so savagely?

Comment by Robbo on 7/29/10 at 9:20 am

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