Europe’s Estrangement from Israel —
by Frank Furedi, Pajamas media
I am standing in a queue waiting to buy a train ticket from London to Canterbury. A well-dressed lady standing behind me informs her friend that she “can’t wait till Israel disappears off the face of the earth.” What struck me was not her intense hostility to Israel but the mild-mannered, matter-of-fact tone with which she announced her wish for the annihilation of a nation. It seems that it is okay to condemn and demonize Israel. All of a sudden Israel has become an all-purpose target for a variety of disparate and confused causes.
When I ask a group of Pakistani waiters sitting around a table in their restaurant why they “hate” Israel, they casually tell me that it is because Jews are their “religion’s enemy.” Those who are highly educated have their own pet prejudice. One of my young colleagues who teaches media studies in a London-based university was taken aback during a seminar discussion when some of her students insisted that since all the banks are owned by Jews, Israel was responsible for the current global financial crisis.
Increasingly expressions of aversion towards Israel have assumed the status of a taken-for-granted sentiment in many sections of polite European society. Such attitudes are underwritten by powerful cultural forces that communicate the idea that Israel is a malevolent society sui generis. It alone faces regular demands for academic and commercial boycotts. In the media and popular culture it is often portrayed as an intensely racist and barbaric society. Once upon a time its opponents depicted Israel as a guard dog of the West; these days they are more likely to castigate it as the biggest threat to world peace and stability. For a variety of reasons, Israel has come to bear the cross of all of the West’s sins. In Europe in particular, there is a powerful sense of weariness towards Israel. “If only it would go away, then we would have a chance for peace in the Middle East” is the fantasy view of some European officials and writers. Europe’s population agrees. Islamic terrorism is often portrayed as the inevitable consequence of Israel’s policies.
In reality, many Western European officials are worried not just about peace in the Middle East, but also about managing the radicalization of their own Muslim population. Distancing Europe from Israel is seen as necessary for appeasing the anger of Europe’s Muslim population. From this perspective, the problem is not simply Israel but also Europe’s Jewish population. So in order to accommodate what are taken to be Muslim sensibilities, Jewish interests often become a negotiable commodity. For example, in England some teachers are reluctant to discuss the experience of the Holocaust in the classroom in case it alienates children from a Muslim background. An illustration of a similar dynamic at work is shown by the example of Denmark.
It is worth noting that historically Denmark is one of the most enlightened societies in Europe. During the Second World War it stood out as the one country where Nazis could find virtually no one who would collaborate with their anti-Jewish policies. That is why it is so sad to find out that a number of Danish school administrators have recently recommended that Jewish children [1] should not enroll in their schools. It all began last week when Olav Nielsen, headmaster of Humlehave School in Odense, publicly stated that he will “refuse to accept the wishes of Jewish parents” to place their children at his school because it would create tension with the Muslim children. Other headmasters echoed this sentiment, claiming that they were putting children’s safety first. Apparently they are worried that the enrollment of Jewish pupils would upset those of Arab descent and that such tensions could provoke violence. Whatever their intention, these pedagogues were signaling the idea that in the interest of “health and safety” the ghettoization of Jewish children was a sensible idea.
Thankfully many Danes were horrified by this episode, as are many Italians who were shocked when they discovered that a group of [2] trade unionists demanded the “boycott of all Jewish shops in central Rome linked to the Israelite community” on the grounds that these businesses “are tainted by blood.” And many decent people have felt more than a tinge of unease when confronted with the disturbing tendency for anti-Israeli protests to mutate into anti-Semitic ones. But European societies appear disoriented by events in the Middle East and unable to deal with their own problems, so they look for demons elsewhere.
Europe has distanced itself from Israel for decades and is being transformed in Eurabia. The truth is Israel has only one ally in the world and that’s America. And that will be sorely tested under a Europhile Obama Administration.
Comment by NormanF — January 18, 2009 @ 1:18 pm
we consistently see this pattern:the jihadis and their lefty bootlickers turn things upside down.
they fire a phosphorus rocket and then accuse israel.
they have irrational hatred for jews, so they demand that jews not be allowed to be in school with them.
it is the most twisted, orwellian distortion of current times.
jews and other decent people must demand otherwise: that these wackos curb their seething hatred.
Comment by bugsy — January 18, 2009 @ 1:44 pm
Jews!!!!! All the warning signs are clear: Either you vacate voluntarily the exile or eventually the exile will vacate you.
“For you are to pass over the Jordan to go in to possess the Land which the L-rd your G-d giveth you, and you shall possess it and dwell therein.” (Deuteronomy 11)
“And they scorned the desirable land.” (Psalms 106)
Can one look at a state that rises miraculously after two millennia and watch an ingathering of exiles from a hundred lands and not see in this the beginning of the great vision and redemption? Regardless of the sins and abominations in the land?
No, that which we do not wish to do, we do not.
“And when they came into the nations, whither they came, they profaned My Holy Name, in that the nations said concerning them: These are the people of the L-rd and they are driven forth from the land! But I had pity for My Holy Name which the House of Israel profaned among the nations whither they came. Therefore say unto the House of Israel: Thus saith the L-rd, G-d: I do this not for your sake O House of Israel, but for My Holy Name… And I will sanctify My great Name which hath been profaned among the nations which ye have profaned in the midst of them; and the nations shall know that I am the L-rd, saith the L-rd, G-d, WHEN I SHALL BE SANCTIFIED THROUGH YOU BEFORE THEIR EYES. For I will take you from among the nations and gather you out of all the countries and will bring you into your own land.” (Ezekiel 36)
“Not for our sake, not for our sake but unto Thy Name give glory… Why shall the nations say: ‘Where is G-d?’” (Psalms 115)
“Oh L-rd, what shall I say, after Israel hath turned their backs before their enemies… and what wilt Thou do for Thy great Name?” (Joshua 7)
“Israel’s degradation is the desecration of the Name of the L-rd.” (The Biblical commentator Rashi, Ezekiel 39:7)
The humiliation will come to an end. It comes to an end. The scriptures of the Almighty fairly thunder the Divine message: The L-rd, G-d of Israel, is stirring, the end of strength and power, of the strength and power and real presence of the G-d of Israel. He does, indeed, exist! Awesomely! “The L-rd reigneth; let the nations tremble!” (Psalms 99)
!
“As I live, saith the L-rd, G-d, surely with a mighty hand and with an outstretched arm, and with fury poured out, will I be king over you. And I will bring you out from the peoples… with a mighty hand, and with an outstretched arm and fury poured out.” (Ezekiel 20)
“Fury poured out.” Heaven help us!
But nothing moves the “religious” either. They have been inordinately twisted and corrupted by twenty centuries of abnormality. One simply cannot live as a minority for twenty centuries, two thousand years, supping at others’ tables, pleading for a smile, a tolerant act, love, and remain normal. One cannot live in a stranger’s home and remain stable. A minority must, of necessity, inherit insecurities, complexes, fear, instability. A minority must, of necessity, be exposed to and influenced by the majority culture that insidiously enters, corrupts, changes, lays its permanent hand on Judaism, so that the Jew, without realizing it, assumes the gentile value and assumes, too, that it is Jewish.
And no one can remain normal without a state, a nation, a concept of nationhood and statehood. The religion that was totally intertwined with land and earth and nation and power, becomes a pale, vapid set of rituals. When roots have lost their hold on the land, they slowly die of malnutrition.
And so, they discover a new Zion and a New Jerusalem in the filth and impurity of the Exile. They immerse themselves in a ritualarium even as they wave high the impure creeping creature. They become Americans or Englishmen or Frenchmen or Canadians of Mosaic piety, deeply pious piety. They stand firmly on the barricades to insure that their meat shall be more than merely kosher; that the gorgeous wig shall cover the rather plain woman as she wears her very expensive dress that overshadows her neighbor, but which properly covers the elbow as she installs her chandelier; that they shall live in the comfort of the swine and not have to risk the sufferings of the pure in Eretz Yisrael. What matter that the rabbis decree that “a man shall rather live in the Land of Israel in a city with a majority of heathens rather than in the Exile in a city with a majority of Jews.” What matter that the rabbis proclaim that “one who lives outside of Israel worships idols in purity…”? What matter that they intone that one who lives outside the land “is as one who has no G-d”? One knows how to explain away rabbinical injunctions when the spirit so desires…
And the Land of Israel remains for them “exile”. And nothing touches their conscience. And there is no shame, no shame.
“And they scorned the desirable land and believed not His word.” (Psalms 106)
“And the handlers of the Law knew me not.” (Jeremiah 2) “These are the Sanhedrin.” (Tana Dvei Eliyahu)
“What is the reason that the righteous shall not receive their full reward in the World to Come? It is because of the tininess that was amongst them.” (Sotah 48) “Tininess of faith.” (Rashi)
“You have shamed me, King of Khazars… For the Divine presence was prepared to descend upon the world as in the beginning, had all the Jews agreed to return to the Land with a willing heart. But only some returned and their leaders remained in Babylon desiring the Exile and their labor in order not to be separated from their homes and affairs.” (Yehuda Halevi, Sefer Hakuzari)
“There is not one in a thousand who is aroused to settle in the Land to dwell there… No one seeks its love… and does not expect to see it. It appears to us as we sit in comfort outside the Land that we have already found another Land of Israel and Jerusalem, similar to it…” (Yakov Emden, Prayerbook introduction)
“Ephraim, he mixes himself with the peoples; Ephraim is become a cake not turned. Strangers have devoured his strength and he knoweth it not.” (Hosea 7)
The Jew waits. He waits to be a victim, twice over.
By Rabbi Meir Kahane 1982
Comment by yamit82 — January 18, 2009 @ 1:54 pm
Gaza: satirizing world media
http://il.youtube.com/watch?v=EcBWOI5CW_8&eurl=http://blogs.jta.org/telegraph/&feature=player_embedded
EVEN YOU TUBE HAS JOINED THE ENEMY:
Friends, please forward !!!!
IDF “Israeli Defense Force”, the Israeli Army is having a broadcast on U Tube explaining what’s going on, and the U Tube wants to remove it by using the excuse as not too many people are logging in.
Please forward this email, so as many people
will log in and the IDF will be able to have its voice heard.
(The link is attached here below)
Thanks
http://il.youtube.com/user/idfnadesk
Comment by yamit82 — January 18, 2009 @ 2:10 pm
We Jews are a stiff necked people:
Last two Afghan Jews fighting each other
http://il.youtube.com/user/idfnadesk
http://il.youtube.com/watch?v=Dj8tqcFyPtU&feature=related
Comment by yamit82 — January 18, 2009 @ 2:27 pm
Scandinavians boycott Israel produce
Israeli fruit growers complain of the wave of order cancellations from Norway, Denmark, and Sweden after the start of Gaza operation.
Comment by yamit82 — January 18, 2009 @ 2:51 pm
I can’t wait till Britain is completely destroyed by the muslims they have embraced. They have chosen to side with evil and Europe will pay a steep price. Europe deserves to go up in flames. They should want islam to disappear from the face of the Earth. But instead it is the Jews they hate, despite their countries being destroyed by muslims.
Comment by Laura — January 18, 2009 @ 4:38 pm
Not since the Napolianic Wars has Britain won a war by it’s self and even then, they depended on their German allies. Because the Mandate to rule Palestine was taken away by the UN, the government of England has been against Israel. Now that England is being raped by the Muslims, they are losing again. Couldn’t happen to a better government.
Comment by Ed D — January 18, 2009 @ 5:12 pm
Yamit - I’m sure there’s a big Indian market for Israeli produce.
Comment by keelie — January 18, 2009 @ 9:10 pm
Right, I am not worried in the long term as Israelis, are quick on their feet and very adaptable to changes but in the short term it will be painful to many. Europeans never bought our products out of sentiment or price but either due to quality and or our uniqueness. They will come back because they have been spoiled and are very self indulgent.
Comment by yamit82 — January 19, 2009 @ 6:19 am
This is heartening news. It puts the “Anti-Semitic” issue in perspective. “Polite society” is on its way to the rubbish heap of history. My concern is with the man in the street who, it seems, still has a sense of right and wrong.
Comment by BlandOatmeal — January 19, 2009 @ 12:44 pm
That was funny, Yamit.
As for the fruits and vegetables, “An apple is an apple, no matter who eats it.” The same can be said about tomatoes. I dare say that even the “polite society” of Europe will put their politics aside in very short order, once they realize that their gastronomical senses have been deprived. In their heads they may hate Jews, but their bellies will have the last word.
Comment by BlandOatmeal — January 19, 2009 @ 12:51 pm
Why doesn’t Israel stop brown nosing the E.U. -stop pushing exports to Europe, withdraw from the European common market and finally gain a sense of self respect? Why can’t Israel be poorer but prouder? A little less concern for economic furtherment and greed.
Comment by palworthy — January 19, 2009 @ 1:16 pm
I guess for the same reason that Canada continues to kiss Americas ass.
Comment by yamit82 — January 19, 2009 @ 1:34 pm
Yamit: Even if someone agrees with you, nevertheless you still must be quarrelsome.
Comment by h peskin — January 19, 2009 @ 3:41 pm
I guess it’s part of my Jewish nature
Comment by yamit82 — January 19, 2009 @ 4:06 pm
Just remember that the anti-Semitic , anti-Israeli CBC executive is totally appointed by political patronage, and all the current top executive have been appointed by Conservative Stephen Harper. Even the new boss of Radio One appointed by Harper this summer is a former Nazi monopolist Sony chairman that will propagandize the public right in line with Harpers plans to put through Bill C-61 to give corporations absolute control over all digital media.
That’s YOU, Mr. Internet Freedom.
That bill has far reaching implications. It means if you copy the news you cannot play it more than once ( so no history of the digital news may be kept or owned) and technically you will have to ask permission of news providers to reprint their news stories or be sued if they don’t like you.
All that and much more.
Brave new world snuck in on Canadians when they weren’t looking.
Not even started.
…
Liberal or Conservative it makes no difference, it is the Canadian power elite , still 85 percent British heritage and British connected that calls the shots.
The face of Canada which is presented by the elite owned MSM is one big lie. Wise up.
Comment by Max — January 19, 2009 @ 8:54 pm
…
If you or anyone like you ever agrees with me that’s just one more reason to hope your head gets crushed by an Israeli bulldozer.
Comment by Max — January 19, 2009 @ 8:56 pm
[...] A nice web master added an interesting post today on Israpundit Blog Archive Europes Estrangement from Israel Here’s a small readingPet medicines like Frontline Plus, Frontline Top Spot. PetSafe Deluxe Little Dog In-Ground Containment- UP to 55 lbs (299.99) 269.95: PetSafe In-Ground Radio Fence (169.99) 149.95: PetSafe Stubborn Dog In-Ground Radio Fence System PIG00-10773 Deluxe Comfort Fit Little Dog Fence: 110 Lowest Price Guarantee; NEW PRODUCT; Dog Size: up to 55 lbs. pet containment system can be installed underground or above ground with Our PetSafe Deluxe Underground Dog Fence has a comfortable fitting dog collar. PetSafe Deluxe Little Dog In-Ground Containment- UP to 55 lbs- PetSafe Deluxe PetSafe Deluxe Little Dog In-Ground Containment- UP to 55 lbs. PetSafe Deluxe Remote Trainer- FOR PetSafe Deluxe Little Dog In-Ground Containment- UP to 55 lbs. PetSafe Deluxe Little Dog In-Ground Containment- UP to 55 lbs Details on PetSafe Deluxe Little Dog In-Ground Containment- UP to 55 lbs. The PetSafe In-Ground Deluxe UltraLight Receiver has 5 levels of correction to. PetSafe Deluxe Little Dog In-Ground [...] [...]
Pingback by Israpundit Blog Archive Europes Estrangement from Israel | Happier Pets — August 26, 2009 @ 5:23 am