Medieval style antisemitism in a modern European newspaper

Engage on the blood libel in the Swedish (leftish!) daily Aftonbladet, here - this just beggars belief.

Some typically astute reflections from PetraMB here

Four-year old abused by school racists

Here. It makes my blood run cold.

How to wreck a trade union

Modernityblog sums up the latest anti-Zionist and thoroughly antidemocratic shenanigans in UCU here. It truly beggars belief.

Two must-read pieces

When the CST say “Seven Jewish Children” is antisemitic, it is time to take the charge seriously, here

David T on the fight against anti-Semitism, here: "There are some who are prominent within anti-Zionism who are also opponents of anti-semitism. Andy Newman, and even George Galloway, have been fierce in their condemnation of anti-Jewish racism. Yet, when it comes to the crunch, they’re enthusiastic “neverthelessers”. You can’t cheer on Hamas - hand money over to Hamas, even - but either ignore or attempt to explain away their genocidal antisemitism, and still claim to be an anti-racist."

The Zionists are responsible!

This is funny. Click here for solid proof that the Zionists are responsible for.. well, pretty much anything. I wonder whether Stephen Sizer, that self-proclaimed opponent of all forms of antisemitism, used a technique like this when insinuating (in a book which has been warmly endorsed by many evangelical leaders) that Israelis were complicit in 9/11?*

* S. Sizer, Christian Zionism: Roadmap to Armageddon? (IVP, 2004), p. 251 footnote 170.

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The Times has helpfully compiled this list of Mahmood Ahmadinejad's various calumnies against Israel and the Jewish people. Amongst other things, he clearly believes Israel has no right to exist (and would therefore prefer to see another area of the world free of 6 million Jews); believes that the Holocaust never took place and, even if it did, was nothing to do with the Palestinians (therefore displaying culpable - or deliberate? - ignorance of the collaboration with Hitler of the Palestinians' wartime leader, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem); that Zionists are "are an organized minority who have infiltrated the world. They are not even a 10,000-strong organization"; and that Zionists are "are the true manifestation of Satan". However, as one Times reader comments, "At least he speaks his mind, which is more than can be said the Zionists and Neo-cons who rule this world through stealth and deception." Are there REALLY people who think like that?

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I'm pleased to see that the campaign by a small minority of members of my union, the University and Colleges Union, to instigate a boycott of Israeli academics, has failed: here

I previously posted on the proposed boycott here and here

Also interesting to note in passing that Richard Dawkins, more usually known for venomous attacks on Biblical creationists, is now apparently propagating the antisemitic myth that Jews disproportionately influence American foreign policy: here and here.

The weakness of the Zionist lobby II

I previously posted on this issue here. I'm pleased to see that Mearsheimer and Walt's book on the supposed strength of the Israeli lobby is getting negative reviews in the USA; sadly, I expect it's too much to ask that the same would happen in the UK.

Never again?

I found myself at Engage's inaugural North Western public meeting last night, which considered the resurgent threat of antisemitism and in particular the potential boycott of Israeli universities by my Union, the Universities and Colleges Union. One of the points which was made was that much discourse on Israel is now repeating the standard tropes of classic antisemitism.

One of the speakers, whom I found to be forceful and articulate, expressed the pessimistic view that the Arab-Israeli conflict is likely to get worse rather than better, and that pressure on Jews worldwide will rise even more. I hope for all our sakes that he's wrong.

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I've posted before on the the fact that the UN has generally failed to treat antisemitism with the seriousness it deserves, indeed in some cases has turned into an active purveyor of antisemitism, for instance at the Durban 2001 Conference on Racism. Concerning, then, that preparations for a "Durban II" conference are apparently led by such human rights luminaries as Libya, Cuba, Pakistan and Iran; the chances of the world's one Jewish state being given even a semblance of a fair hearing are minimal, even two years in advance.

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"Europe is reawakening its old demons, but today there is a difference. The old anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism have morphed into something more dangerous. Anti-Semitism today is officially sanctioned state ideology and is being turned into a mobilizing and organizing force to recruit thousands in a new crusade -- the word is chosen deliberately -- to eradicate Jewishness from the region whence it came and to weaken and undermine all the humanist values of rule of law, tolerance and respect for core rights such as free expression that Jews have fought for over time."

Read the full article by Dennis MacShane in the Washington Post here. MacShane correctly perceives that to wish for the destruction of Israel or to deny its right to exist amounts to nothing less than a desire for another area of the world to be free of six million Jews. I hope that British evangelicals, too many of whom have been led astray by anti-Zionist propaganda (and some of whom actively pedal such propaganda), will do the same.

The other calumny of Jeffrey John

Jeffrey John needs little introduction to British evangelicals: he made headlines in 2003 when he was the first person to have openly been in a sexually active gay relationship to be nominated to be a Church of England bishop. Owing to the consequent controversy, he was asked by archbishop Rowan Williams to stand down before he took up the bishopric. More recently, he has been rightly criticised by evangelical bishops for denying the doctrine of penal substitution. On Good Friday, however, he committed another calumny: he said that Jesus' Jewish disciples would have made "good Nazis".

Yes, he actually compared Jews to Nazis, a comparison which surely is as offensive as any, but sadly is all too widespread, whether in Ken Livingstone's likening of Jewish reporter to a concentration guard, or in the iniquitous inversion of terminology in the Arab-Israeli conflict where Israel is compared to the Nazi (the well-documented Nazi roots, shoots and salutes, of Islamic antisemitism notwithstanding).

I would hope that, if his statement was to become more widely known, the evangelical protests would be at least as loud as those over his sexual practices and doctrinal heresies; if not, it would sadly confirm the sneaking suspicion of many British Messianic Jews that antisemitism is British evangelicalism's "acceptable sin".

The weakness of the Zionist lobby

As Geoffrey Alderman wrote in last week's Jewish Chronicle, the US government is currently proposing to make a gift of some $20 billion of military hardware to Saudi Arabia and other Arab states in the region. Quite apart from her horrendous human rights record, Saudi Arabia does not recognise Israel, is technically still at war with Israel, actively participates in the Islamic boycott of Israel, does not permit a single Jew to live within her borders, and is one of the world's leading purveyors of Holocaust Denial literature. As Alan Dershowitz points out here (on page 12), this is not the first time the US has supplied military aid to the Saudis, Israeli objections notwithstanding. I hope this will be pointed out loud and clear to the next person (whether neo-Nazi, left wing journalist, Islamic propagandist, or Christian anti-Zionist) who suggests that American foreign policy is unduly influenced by Jewish neocons and the wicked Zionist lobby.

Great quote

"Anyone, however, who believes in presenting Israel as the scapegoat for Islamist violence is not only diverting attention from the goals of Islamism and its National Socialistzi heritage, but is also, by adhering to a new "the Jew is guilty" model, reconnecting with the ancient forms of European anti-Semitism."

From Matthias Kuentzel, National Socialism and Anti-Semitism in the Arab World, Jewish Political Studies Review 17:1-2 (Spring 2005)

Read the full article here

The Longest Hatred 14: Taking a stand Part II

By way of concluding this series, at least for the time being, it seems appropriate to reproduce a press statement issued earlier this year by the British Messianic Jewish Alliance. I played a very minor role in drafting the statement. The statement was published in just two Christian newspapers, the Baptist Times and the Church of England Newspaper. Unbelievably, one correspondent then wrote to the C of E Newspaper claiming there was no evidence of increased antisemitism in the UK!

An Appeal to the Leadership of the Churches from the British Messianic Jewish Alliance

It is with great concern that we witness the rapid growth of worldwide anti-Semitism, all too often these days in the guise of anti-Zionism.

We wish to express our concern that anti-Jewish sentiment is so frequently manifested in British society. We call upon the church to oppose it.

As Jews who are part of the church we are distressed to hear anti-Jewish attitudes expressed in the church and in the name of Christianity. We call upon our fellow believers from many nations to acknowledge that Jesus was a Jew, and to disavow all racism aimed at Jewish people both inside and outside the State of Israel.

We call upon the church to publicly affirm God's ongoing relationship with the Jewish people, and his determination to continue to work with them since he has not cast them away. Even more unthinkable [and insulting] would be the idea that a Covenant God should ditch his first choice in favour of another.

When we hear people in the churches suggesting that God's promises to us are null and void we are concerned, not just for what that says about us, but also for what it says about God, as if he were fickle. Our very existence on into the 21 st century speaks for itself. We are part of a large, diverse and vibrant Messianic Jewish movement that professes Yeshua [the name 'Jesus' in its Hebrew form] is Messiah, Saviour and LORD.

Strengthen us by defending us as your brothers and sisters in the faith.

Affirm us in the role we wish to play as Jews in the Body of Christ.

Recognise that it was through the Jews that the gospel came to all nations.

Stand by us, if you will, just as we stand by our fellow Jews today in the teeth of serious prejudice and threats.

Recognise and reject the politicisation of Christian theology regarding the Jewish people in order to promote a radically based anti-Zionist agenda.

These are the responses for which we look to you.

January 2007

The Longest Hatred 13: Taking a stand - Part I

If you've been following my postings on the persistence of antisemitism, even within the church, I hope you've been thoroughly sickened. I want to finish the series, at least for the time being, with a couple of posts some comments and suggestions as to what Christians can do to stand against it. Today, some thoughts from Richard Gibson on The Church that Hitler would be ashamed of. Richard concludes:

Such a church and such individuals within it would:
• Affirm God’s ongoing plan and purpose with the Jewish people.
• Would celebrate Jewish identity as part of God’s creation.
• Would reject all expressions of racial superiority in the name of theology.
• Would affirm that Jesus was a Jew. He was born a Jew, lived a Jew, died a Jew, rose from the dead a Jew and will return to rule the world as a Jew.
• Rejoice that the New Testament is a Jewish book.
• Remember that the disciples were Jews, Paul was a Jew, and all the first followers of Jesus were Jews and make sure its children’s material portrayed them as Jews rather than good Aryans.
• Teach that the Jews are not the Christ-killers, but that the Father sent the Son and the Son freely gave himself as a sacrifice for sin.
• Affirms that the Holocaust was not God’s judgement on the Jews, rather it was an anti-God act of pure evil.
• Would seek and yearn for the spiritual wellbeing of Jewish people and not withhold the greatest news that the Gentiles ever received from the Jewish people just because they are Jews.
• Would affirm and support the right of the Jewish people to live in peace and self determination in the State of Israel.
• Affirm the Zionist dream for an independent Jewish state in their historical and Biblical homeland and reject as evil and iniquitous the inversion of Nazi symbols and language to describe the Israeli-Arab conflict.
• Preach from the Old as well as the New Testament without hijacking Israel’s history for a cheap application for today’s Gentile Christian.
• Affirm that the New Testament is not the cause of anti-Semitism, it is its only real cure.

“What the Church has made of the New Testament in its relationships with the Jews has, it seems to us, poisoned the very wells of God which were meant for the refreshment of His people. In this sense it is the Church, it is the Christians who have made it almost impossible for the Jews to see Jesus, hidden from them as he is by the cruel mask of Christian anti-Semitism.” (Torrance & Lamont, Anti-Semitism and Christian Responsibility, The Handsel Press, 1986)

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At the moment it is the season for British trade unions to move towards imposing boycotts upon Israeli goods and personnel. Among the unions that have made moves in this direction is my own union, the University and Colleges Union. I do not intend here to rehearse exhaustively the debate as to whether such boycotts are “anti-Semitic” or “legitimate expressions of criticism of the Israeli government”. However, last year’s Report of the All-Party Enquiry into Antisemitism reasoned that such selective boycotts were "anti-Jewish in practice"; I also find the Engage response to the proposed boycott compelling.

Most worrying for me, though, is the fact that Tom Hickey, a leading proponent of the boycott, is happy to speak in front of a reading list which includes the work of Holocaust denier Roger Garaudy; another leading proponent, Tony Greenstein, has documented links to known antisemites (here and here. Proponents of the boycott routinely insist that they are “not anti-Semitic just critical of Israel”; could I be forgiven for expressing scepticism in the case of these two individuals?

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Q: WHAT DO ALL OF THE FOLLOWING HAVE IN COMMON?

"Everyone hates them [the Jewish people] because they're up themselves"

"Let's not be judgemental like those Jews"

"I always knew he was an ex-Yid"

"Don't trust her, she's Jewish"

"They killed the Lord Jesus" (for a detailed examination of why this statement is both wrong and dangerous, see here)

"The Jews still reject Jesus"

"Now you're a Christian you're no longer Jewish"

"Whoever says the gospel is for the Jew first should be punched in the mouth"

"The Holocaust never happened"

A: THEY ARE ALL STATEMENTS WHICH HAVE BEEN HEARD IN BRITISH CHURCHES, CHRISTIAN UNIONS OR CHRISTIAN GATHERINGS MY ME OR BY PEOPLE KNOWN TO ME IN THE LAST FEW YEARS.

SICKENING, ISN'T IT?

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I agree with Melanie Phillips that this little incident is not the BBC's finest hour.

I'll let LBF readers judge for themselves as to whether the Beeb's approach on this particular occasion reflects a "desire for full and open debate including legitimate criticism of Zionism" or "antisemitism".

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One would hope that the United Nations, an organisation founded in the ashes of the Holocaust, would take a lead in combatting this longest of hatreds. Sadly, the reality has been very different: the UN has more often that not signally failed not only Israel but also the Jewish people.

Some particular "lowlights":

- the UN's notorious 1975 "Zionism is racism" resolution, which was inspired in part by Ugandan dictator Idi Amin, three years after he had telegrammed the UN Secretary General applauding the Holocaust. The "Zionism is racism" motion was rescinded in 1991 after intense US pressure; unbelievably, some Christian anti-Zionists write approvingly of the original resolution and believe that the decision to rescind it was flawed!

- in 2000, the UN's World Conference against Racism turned into a racist conference against Jews. Israel and Israeli NGOs had previously been excluded from a regional pre-conference; at the Durban conference itself, copies of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion and literature glorifying Adolph Hitler were made freely available; Syria and Iran issued statements denying the Holocaust; a statement against antisemitism made by Jewish groups was struck out (a fate which befell no other statement issued by any other group): here and here

- the enduring double standard by which Israel alone has been singled out for condemnation while far worse human rights violations perpetrated by other nations are ignored. When challenged about this double standard, the UN attempts to bury the evidence: here (and, more generally, here)