Rattling the Cage: Provoking anti-SemitismLarry Derfner, The Jerusalem Post: First we left the Gaza Strip in bloodied ruins. Then we raised up a politician who, with his appeal to racism, militarism, fear of alien 'subversives' and the yearning for a strong leader, fits the classic, textbook definition of a fascist. And now, what is the talking point for our hasbara (spin) campaign? The surge in global anti-Semitism...
While there are certainly masses of anti-Semites who are incensed at Israel, they're not alone. Today the world is filled with people who are not anti-Semites yet who are incensed at the things this country has been doing. Lots of them, myself included, are Jews...
I think there's a way of at least bringing that level down, a way that might work as well if not better than stepping up the hasbara: Let's stop fighting immoral wars. Let's stop laying siege to a tiny, destitute country. (That might stop Gazans from firing rockets at us, too.). Let's stop holding 10,000 Palestinian prisoners. (That might also help us get Gilad Schalit back.)
And finally, let's stop electing fascists to the Knesset. And if this is too much to ask of ourselves, let's at least have the decency not to bring them into the government. And if even that's beyond us, if we're going to have fascists as cabinet ministers... then let's not complain about the next surge in global anti-Semitism, because we will have provoked that one, too.
Paul Woodward, War in Context: While many Jews must be deeply troubled by the degree to which Israel's actions have the effect of fomenting anti-Semitism, many a Zionist knows in his heart of hearts that the very thing that he fulminates against provides the lifeblood to his cause...
Before Israel came into existence there were Zionists who actually saw the objectives of Nazism as quite complimentary with their own goal of creating a Jewish state.
'The establishment of the historical Jewish state on a national and totalitarian basis, and bound by a treaty with the German Reich, would be in the interest of a maintained and strengthened future German position of power in the Near East.'
So declared Avraham Stern in 1941 when he proposed a formal military pact between the National Military Organization (NMO) -- in which Yitzhak Shamir, a future prime minister of Israel, was a prominent leader -- and the Nazi Third Reich. The NMO later became known as the Lehi group and also the Stern Gang.
The proposal, which became known as the Ankara document, concluded: 'Proceeding from these considerations, the NMO in Palestine, under the condition that the above-mentioned national aspirations of the Israeli freedom movement are recognized on the side of the German Reich, offers to actively take part in the war on Germany's side.'
