T. Belman. This isn’t about Smoltrich. Its about you and me and our right to demand that Israel be the nation-state of the Jewish people rather than a state of all its citizens. Rather than uphold diversity of thought it is an attempt to place right wing views beyond the pale. Of course, Haaretz agrees with them.
I expect more of this from the American Jewish community. It has already started, There is a constant drumbeat of Jewish establishment voices that place right wing views beyond the pale , as not being respectable and not being allowed into polite society.
British Jews rightly, and very explicitly, told Israeli politician and Jewish supremacist Bezalel Smotrich to get lost and go home. For Diaspora Jews, the era of sitting on the fence, and not just about Israeli racists, is ending
Far right MK Bezalel Smotrich speaks during a conference in Jerusalem, Israel last yearCredit: AP Photo/Sebastian Scheiner
Some organizations are boring by their very nature. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. If their function is to create a broad sensible consensus from a wildly disparate cacophony of opinions, then blandness is exactly what’s needed.
The Board of Deputies of British Jews is by necessity one of those boring organizations. As Rabbi Laura Janner-Klausner wisely says, there is not one Jewish community in Britain, but hundreds of them.
The Board needs to somehow represent all those hundreds of communities and Jewish organizations which are affiliated with it, bridging the differences in their religious outlook, political persuasions, their wildly different sizes and geographic locations across the British Isles. It also tries to represent the interests of Jews who are not affiliated with it.
So yes, for the past 262 years of its existence it has tried and invariably succeeded at being boring. That’s its job.
So when on Wednesday the Board suddenly tweeted Bezalel Smotrich, leader of the “Religious Zionism” party who had just landed in Britain to fuck off back to Israel, followers of the Board’s Twitter account wondered if it had been hacked. Further enquiries which elicited that it was legit didn’t dispel the astonishment.
OK, they didn’t actually say fuck off to Smotrich, but in many ways the wording of their tweet, which appeared in Hebrew, was even more offensive, calling him to “get back on the plane Bezalel, and be remembered as a disgrace forever.” This isn’t how the Board of Deputies is supposed to make its pronouncements.
Smotrich is of course worthy of such treatment: A Jewish supremacist who boasts that his wife didn’t want to give birth with Arab mothers in the room, says that Arab Israelis are “citizens, for now,” threatens ethnic cleansing and states that it’s a pity David Ben-Gurion didn’t “finish the job” with them back in 1948.
- ‘Get back on the plane’: U.K. Jewish body slams Israeli far-right lawmaker’s Europe tour
- Eric Zemmour isn’t France’s Donald Trump. He’s far worse
- Tucker Carlson’s anti-Soros crusade is a clear danger for American Jews
- From a respected Holocaust historian to a genocide denier
But Smotrich is not the first Israeli politician with similar opinions to visit Britain. The current Israeli ambassador to Britain, Tzipi Hotovely, espoused views which were arguably only one click away from the far-right (though to Hotovely’s credit, since becoming ambassador, she has shied away from anything remotely controversial), and she has cordial relations with the Board.
So why protest now? The Board could have simply ignored his presence in London. It would have been much more in character.
From what I gather, it was actually a tweet from Smotrich which sparked off the furore. Upon landing, he tweeted that he was in London for “a series of meetings with rabbis, community leaders and Jewish organizations.” For some reason, the Board’s leadership felt that it needed to make very clear that they were not going to be meeting him. And they could hardly have made it clearer.
In interviews with the Israeli media, Michael Wegier, the Board’s CEO, insisted that it had been necessary to tweet Smotrich for the sake of “consistency.” That as an organization that opposes antisemitism and all forms of racism and which stands up for Israel, they couldn’t allow the impression that they tolerated Smotrich and his views in any way. He mentioned how the Board only last week was part of the campaign against Amnesty International’s report accusing Israel of apartheid.
He could also have mentioned another recent, much longer campaign undertaken by the Board along with many other Jewish communal organizations against the wave of antisemitism within Labour, Britain’s main opposition party, during Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership. That was another period during which the Board felt compelled not to be boring and actually say controversial stuff.
Protesters hold placards and flags during a Jewish community demonstration against antisemitism in the Labour Party. Parliament Square, London. March 26, 2018Credit: \ HENRY NICHOLLS/ REUTERS
During the Corbyn years, small groups of Jews from the far-left who supported him would often try attack and delegitimize the Board for not representing all British Jews. It has been fascinating to see, in the aftermath of the Smoltrich tweet, Jews on the far-right making exactly the same claim.
Smotrich himself has jumped on the bandwagon and hit back, accusing the Board of being “taken over by a progressive left-wing minority” (which much have caused wry smiles to the progressive left-wing minority on the Board, which rarely manages to make itself heard) and representing only “two and a half people.”
Of course, Smotrich didn’t have to get on the first plane back to Israel. There were plenty of Jews in London, including leaders of Jewish nationalist organizations, who were more than happy to be seen meeting with him.
‘The nation of Israel lives’ vs ‘Kahane lives’: Kahol Lavan billboards in Ramat Gan, March 17, 2019Credit: AFPIt didn’t do Smotrich any harm back at home either. His allies in the opposition were quick to back him up. Likud tweeted that “Of course [the Board] wouldn’t treat post-Zionist MKs from the left who deny Israel’s existence as the nation-state of the Jewish people in such a fashion,” while Shas Leader Arye Deri said that “The shameful tweet by [the Board] spits in the face of the Jewish Diaspora, lovers of the Torah and the land of Israel.”
Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Yair Lapid commented: “I wouldn’t have used those words but we’ve warned in the past many times that allowing racist elements into the Knesset would harm us abroad.” Other Israeli politicians from the center-left were less diplomatic, welcoming the condemnation of Smotrich. In fact, we learned more from the reactions to the Board’s tweet than from the tweet itself, which is likely to be a one-off occurrence.
If this saga proves anything, it’s that there isn’t a split between Israel and the Diaspora over the occupation of the Palestinians, at least not in the way it’s usually portrayed. Jewish communities abroad are divided, over Israel and their own issues, just as much as Israel is.
But if a boring pro-Israel and quite conservative organization like the Board of Deputies feels the need to make such a clear distinction between the values it stands for, and those of an Israeli politician, who was only recently a minister in Netanyahu’s government and, for a while, also a political ally of Israel’s current prime minister Naftali Bennett, it proves that the divide is a much more fundamental one: About basic values.
Far right Religious Zionism head Bezalel Smotrich (R) and Otzma Yehudit head Itamar Ben-Gvir celebrating the exit poll results for the 2021 elections Credit: Rami ShllushSometimes the divide manifests itself over the Palestinian issue, but more often it’s a much more basic conflict which exists both in Israel and in the Diaspora: about the capacity to tolerate others and whether you insist that there is only one legitimate version of Judaism.
In this sense, Smotrich is in many ways low-hanging fruit. It’s easier to condemn him because he positions himself so clearly as an extremist, not only in his racism towards Arabs but in his contempt for the non-Orthodox Jewish streams and his homophobia. But Smotrich, whose list of neo-Kahanists and other assorted supremacists received only 5.1 percent of the vote in Israel’s last election, is only a small part of the problem.
There is a much wider coalition of intolerance, currently manifested in the “Netanyahu bloc” of parties who see Smotrich as a legitimate ally and embrace their Diaspora counterparts who, ideologically, are more than willing to fete him: The million American Jews who voted for Donald Trump, like-minded Jews in Britain and next week in France, Smotrich’s next stop. Jews who admire such leaders as Netanyahu, Trump, Vladimir Putin, Eric Zemmour and Viktor Orban and what that they stand for.
That is the deeper divide within the Jewish people across the world. It’s not a specifically Israeli, British or American problem. While many individual Jews, and Jewish organizations like the Board of Deputies, would prefer not having to choose sides, it is becoming increasingly difficult to remain boring and consensual and pretend it doesn’t exist. And if current trends continue, soon it will be impossible.
@Reader
When the left led the Zionist movement instead of opposing it. Golda Meir was the last of that generation. New biopic coming out in which she is played by a non-Jew, of course.
@Reader @ Reader
91-year-old Israeli woman dies, months after rocket strike
By Associated Press
February 6, 2022 at 5:05 p.m. EST
ASHKELON, Israel — A 91-year-old Israeli woman who was badly wounded by a Palestinian rocket attack last May died Sunday from complications from her injuries, her family said.
Naomi Pearlman, a Holocaust survivor originally from Poland, was injured when a rocket struck her home in the southern city of Ashkelon during last May’s war between Israel and Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip.
The blast killed her Indian caregiver, and both of Pearlman’s legs were amputated after the blast.
Her son, Shuki, told the state-run Kan broadcaster that his mother had been hospitalized since the rocket attack.
“She survived the Holocaust, raised a wonderful family,” he said. “If there was anyone who deserved to be called the ultimate survivor, it was her.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/91-year-old-israeli-woman-dies-months-after-rocket-strike/2022/02/06/0ca6ec22-8787-11ec-838f-0cfdf69cce3c_story.html
“Israeli Communities Near Jerusalem Security Barrier to Receive ‘High-Risk’ Status
—
https://www.jewishpress.com/news/israel/judea-samaria-israel/israeli-communities-near-jerusalem-security-barrier-to-receive-high-risk-status/2022/02/13/
She says Jerusalem Estates in central Jerusalem is across the street from her retirement home. How far is that from the barrier and did the authorities finally decide to provide protection because of Ben Gvir’s action which aside from its legal practical approach to the problem reminds me of this quote:
“Free speech means the right to shout ‘theater’ in a crowded fire.”-Abbie Hoffman
@ Reader
91-year-old Israeli woman dies, months after rocket strike
By Associated Press
February 6, 2022 at 5:05 p.m. EST
ASHKELON, Israel — A 91-year-old Israeli woman who was badly wounded by a Palestinian rocket attack last May died Sunday from complications from her injuries, her family said.
Naomi Pearlman, a Holocaust survivor originally from Poland, was injured when a rocket struck her home in the southern city of Ashkelon during last May’s war between Israel and Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip.
The blast killed her Indian caregiver, and both of Pearlman’s legs were amputated after the blast.
Her son, Shuki, told the state-run Kan broadcaster that his mother had been hospitalized since the rocket attack.
“She survived the Holocaust, raised a wonderful family,” he said. “If there was anyone who deserved to be called the ultimate survivor, it was her.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/91-year-old-israeli-woman-dies-months-after-rocket-strike/2022/02/06/0ca6ec22-8787-11ec-838f-0cfdf69cce3c_story.html
“Israeli Communities Near Jerusalem Security Barrier to Receive ‘High-Risk’ Status
—
https://www.jewishpress.com/news/israel/judea-samaria-israel/israeli-communities-near-jerusalem-security-barrier-to-receive-high-risk-status/2022/02/13/
She says Jerusalem Estates in central Jerusalem is across the street from her retirement home. How far is that from the barrier and did the authorities finally decide to provide protection because of Ben Gvir’s action which aside from its legal practical approach to the problem reminds me of this quote:
“Free speech means the right to shout ‘theater’ in a crowded fire.”-Abbie Hoffman
@ Reader
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/91-year-old-israeli-woman-dies-months-after-rocket-strike/2022/02/06/0ca6ec22-8787-11ec-838f-0cfdf69cce3c_story.html
“Israeli Communities Near Jerusalem Security Barrier to Receive ‘High-Risk’ Status
—
https://www.jewishpress.com/news/israel/judea-samaria-israel/israeli-communities-near-jerusalem-security-barrier-to-receive-high-risk-status/2022/02/13/
She says Jerusalem Estates in central Jerusalem is across the street from her retirement home. How far is that from that.
@Sebastian Zorn
Just found this.
A great interview with an elderly lady who just made aliyah (just FYI, I am not trying to talk you into anything and I am not naively idealistic about Israel).
She likely isn’t poor but anyway:
https://soundcloud.com/israel-news-talk-radio/if-not-now-when-returning-home
@Sebastien Zorn
What if Jewish lives are at stake here and you have to move there?
The left, BTW, had its way throughout the Mandate, and “there” proved to be a haven to whoever managed to get there from Europe.
This is in spite of the German army standing next door to Palestine.
@Reader I’m secular but I don’t care. Jewish lives are at stake and I have no plans to move there. But, it won’t be a haven for anybody if the left has its way.
@Sebastien Zorn
If what you are saying is true, Ben Gvir, et al. are only making it easier for the “infiltrators” to get entrenched and claim that Religious Zionists are stupid extremists.
Ben Gvir clearly wants to stir up trouble which will likely produce the result very different from the one he allegedly wants to achieve.
Of course, it is a lot of fun for the Diaspora armchair quarterbacks in the safety of their cozy dens and clutching their tasty bowls of popcorn to watch “both teams” clash.
When someone there gets hurt or bombed with the rockets from Gaza, or the new laws are adopted to “restrain the violent far right”, and worse, it is even more fun to watch and to feel righteous about “your team” who played so gloriously.
BTW, I don’t know about your level of Jewish observance, and it is none of my business but your idol Smotrich announced a couple of months ago that Jewishness is determined by religion only (not a literal quote but the meaning is the same).
This means that 80-90% of the Diaspora Jews are not considered Jewish by Mr. Smotrich, and if something was to happen to them, he wouldn’t shed a tear, and if any of them would want to make aliyah, he wouldn’t let them in (if it was up to him).
Actually, every Jew from the US (at least) needs a letter from an Orthodox rabbi who doesn’t happen to be on the Chief Rabbinate secret black list to show that he or she (and their mother) is Jewish.
And Ben Gvir is back. Can’t keep a good man down.
“Nothing will help them,” Ben-Gvir said Monday morning. “Until they don’t install proper security measures to Shimon HaTzadik (Sheikh Jarrah), my office will continue its operations.”
“Joint List MKs Ofer Cassif and Ahmed Tibi also took part in the clashes on Sunday evening, with video from the scene showing the MKs brawling with right-wing protesters and former Jerusalem deputy-mayor Aryeh King.’
Wow, the joint list has terrorists in the knesset and the police take their side!
https://www.jpost.com/breaking-news/article-696391
@Edgar Indeed! The very heights of stupidity and perfidy. Didn’t stop him from rising through the ranks. Was it because of his politics or his skill, I wonder. He implicitly compared a Palestinian terrorist to Jews in the Holocaust, the IDF soldier who shot him with a Nazi, and proto-Nazi Germany with present day Israel and then later refers to a village of Jews he wants to uproot, as “subhuman!”
Reminds me of how absurd it is to release convicted felons on parole because they were model prisoners in an unrelated context to the one that made them kill. Look at this guy’s military career. He played a leadership role in Operation Cast Lead among other things!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yair_Golan
@SEBASTIEN-
I think that’s the same Golan who was Deputy Chief-of-Staff a few years ago and on the verge of being appointed Chief. He made a speech on Holocaust day which showed very serious anti-IDF Lefty proclivities, arousing much public criticism, that I think prevented his appointment. He resigned and went into Lefty politics.
Sounds quite a stupid man. The kind who sticks out his right hand but turns left……Aheemm…
@KETZEL2
Hello, I’m glad to finally have met you. If you happen to find yourself logged in as Edgar G. please treat me gently. It seems to be a balky computer glitch.
I often follow the Hevron Ketzel(e), always a very interesting and generally right guy. You picked a good name.
@PELONI-
Yes, it’s happened to me a few time. Likely more than I’ve noticed. This time I just happened to notice.. I see my usual Log in name is back, I did nothing to make it so. Perhaps Ted did it..
Also, I was just being a little facetious.
@Reader
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/319980
The foxes are in charge of the hen house. As in America, without being legitimately elected.
@Reader
Why, is it a mystery? What makes you assume he hadn’t? The left has infiltrated the police, military, intelligence community, justice system and they want to relinquish these areas, make them judenrein and surrender them to the enemy.
@Edgar
When you see you are logged on as someone else, you might try logging out and logging back in. This usually remedies the issue when it happens to me.
@Sebastien Zorn
I already told you what he could have done instead of what he did.
More specifically, he could have talked to the head of the police, he could have investigated why the police acted the way it did, etc.
I cannot go into details because I am not an Israeli and, of course, not a member of the Knesset.
This means I simply don’t know enough to tell you exactly what he could have done.
In my opinion, he is either acting like an idiot or as an outright provocateur.
Maybe he is timing it for the riots to coincide with the presentation of the “Beilin’s” confederation initiative (another “painful concession for peace” – Oslo 3?).
Anyway, you know my opinion about this and I don’t want to discuss it anymore.
@Edgar G. I’m the real ketzel2. Used to be ketzel until we had to register. I also occasionally see I’m logged in as other random people. Have no idea why.
@Reader I remember when there was a demand from the local African-American community to move Alexander Hamilton’s House to Morningside Park because, being federally landmarked, it’s protected by Federal police. They figured they would have to protect the park and people in it while they were at it as the police were miserably failing to do. That’s what he was doing. But the police attacked him instead! There is no rule of law there, clearly. You say he could have done something else. What, pray tell?
This is the season for astigmatism and glaucoma, both affecting the hippocampus and pre-frontal lobe. I’m immune to both.
I see that I am logged in as Ketzel 2 TED ..who the blazes is Ketzel 2?.
I don’t even know Ketzel 1…!! Your naughty computer is taking liberties again I think..
@Sebastien Zorn
I missed the 1st time because you kept re-editing your post.
It is his business but he is going about it like an idiot and a provocateur who ends up endangering not only his constituents but the population of Israel.
Yes, I am seriously considering moving there (not to Jerusalem because it is too expensive for me), and I wish all the Diaspora Jews would start seriously considering moving there because things may change overnight – you know who gets blamed for every bad thing that happens, and Jews cannot defend themselves AT ALL in the Diaspora.
Israel also needs a big aliyah to populate the so-called periphery and judea and Samaria.
Don’t think you’ll be able to sit it out in the US, UK, etc. “while the Arabs are rioting in Palestine”.
That’s what they thought in Poland in1938 and in Hungary almost ’til the end of the war.
@Reader It was the second time. Are you saying that the police refusing to protect his constituents isn’t his business?
@Sebastien Zorn
What does “once again” have to do with it?
This is the 1st time you are asking me how I would deal with the problem.
Ben Gvir was already suspected to have been an agent provocateur in or around 2005.
I didn’t call him a sports match fan.
I was talking about people who root for politicians or parties the way they root for their favorite players or sports teams completely ignoring the fact that in politics the interests of the country and its population must prevail over political drama shows.
What would I do?
I would stay in my parliamentary office and try to advance the ideas of Religious Zionism through parliamentary means and through constructive and effective activities, organizations, and ideas instead of engaging in stupid, harmful, violent and provocative gestures which have already resulted once in rockets raining on the heads of the Israelis from Gaza, a rise in anti-Israel propaganda around the world, a rise of antisemitism in the Diaspora, and last but not least, in making Religious Zionists look like violent idiots who need to be “restrained”.
BTW, it seems that in Israel Religious Zionists are a bunch of young people who mostly engage in street protests which, at best, are completely useless and, at worst, give Religious Zionism a bad name (while remaining completely useless and ineffective despite being very loud and obnoxious).
I am simply speechless.
IDF Assists PA Arabs Infiltrating via Hole in Fence and Blocked by Bedouin Demanding Payment
Near the Meitar crossing for pedestrians, vehicles, and aggregates, located in the southern Hebron Mountains near the settlement of Meitar, there has been a tear in the border fence through which PA Arab infiltrators have been using for a long time to break into Israel illegally in search of work, according to a report by Rotter member Itai Shalom. This past Saturday night, a band of Israeli Bedouin surprised the infiltrators with a new business initiative, demanding a “transition fee” of ten shekels (roughly three dollars) from any Arab who wanted to go through.
The PA Arabs did not particularly like the initiative and a violent brawl erupted between the Bedouin and the Arabs, featuring stone-throwing resulting in several wounded.
Eventually, an IDF force arrived at the scene and helped the PA Arabs infiltrate safely into Israeli territory, according to Shalom.
The Mount Hermon Spokesperson issued a statement regarding the Meital crossing, saying: “During the evening there were a number of gatherings that led to riots and disturbances at the Meitar crossing. The riots stemmed from friction between Bedouin and illegal residents, and the Bedouin’s desire to collect transit fees. Army and police forces are at the scene and handling the incident. At this point the road is open and there are no disturbances.
@Reader
https://www.jewishpress.com/news/israel/israeli-arabs/ben-gvir-returns-to-shimon-hatzadik-government-wont-protect-local-jews-so-i-will/2022/02/13/
Just testing, TED says I’m logged out. and I didn’t log out-unless I was hypnotised. This seems to be O.K….so far..we’ll see after I press “Post Comment”. Here goes…
Add; well it seems to have been posted as usual. So I ‘m NOT logged out.
@Reader Once again: How would you deal with the problem, other than throwing around epithets like agent provacateur and sports match fan?
@Sebastien Zorn
But I wasn’t “quoting them”.
I was talking about what Ben Gvir allegedly was in 2005.
I made up my mind about this situation BEFORE I read what that Meretz person thought.
And I already pointed out in my previous post the implications (the important things) of Ben Gvir’s provocative and unnecessary behavior which ended badly last May.
Party affiliation is not the same as belonging to a sports team.
People can be right or wrong regardless of which political party they belong to.
@Reader Meretz is a Quisling party. Quoting them is suspect. What do you believe is really important?
@Reader The government is failing to protect Jews but is legally required to protect Knesset members. They burned this families house down thinking they were in it after burning their car 9 times. How would you deal with the problem, other than throwing around epithets like agent provacateur and sports match fan? And you are seriously considering movjng there? You think the UK is less safe? Seriously? Do you read the daily security news items from Israel? Do you blame Sharon’s setting foot on the temple mount with a security detail for the Oslo terror war the way liberals did? Instead of these neo-Nazi fakestinians?
@Sebastien Zorn
No.
What made you think that?
Besides, just because something a Meretz party member said agrees with what I said, doesn’t mean it is incorrect.
I want agent provocateurs to stop provoking Arab riots, rockets from Gaza, screams about the need to restrain the “Jewish extremist far right”, the need to split Jerusalem, etc.
And I want people to stop viewing events from the point of view of soccer fans watching a match with their favorite player and ignoring what is really important.
@Reader
ibid
Seems to me the area is already ablaze. Literally. Do you want another “disengagement?” We know what Meretz wants. Do you also believe appeasement brings peace?
Just as I thought:
The last time he did that, the riots in the neighborhood started followed by rockets from Gaza.
Around year 2005, some people said he was agent provocateur.
I hope it doesn’t end up the same as last May.
@SEBASTIEN-
Chomsky, Oy veh…A curse. He should have been sent to “The Chateau D’If”..
By “recent” I meant in the past couple of weeks, up to today. I could coin a phrase from “MAD Magazine” and say…”THIMK”..
The Twain story in not really connected, it just popped into my head as I was postin…Well..my sense of humour. Besides it’s a puzzle to me, my little book has all his short yarns, “The Jumping Frog” …,,”The good Little Boy”…”The Bad Little Boy”…and others,etc, all easily found elsewhere, but not the Cain and Abel story.
He gave whole lectures (performances) just on his Sandwich Island visit, (minus Cain and Abel) and though a bit long-winded at the start, are, as usual, hilarious.
@EDGAR Have to correct myself. A million years ago when I was a leftist, I thought antisemitism was a thing of the past and didn’t take it seriously. Complacency, I learned the hard way, is no virtue. We are not amused.
@Edgar I was talking abiout Whoopie. Smotrich is great. Ben Gvir, as well. He’s great.
https://www.jewishpress.com/news/israel/israeli-arabs/ben-gvir-returns-to-shimon-hatzadik-government-wont-protect-local-jews-so-i-will/2022/02/13/
@Edgar If you are referring to me, I went from Zionist upbringing to anti-Zionist in the late 70s, anti-Zionist to genuine Two Stater “Zionist” in the 90s, and two stater to right wing Zionist 22 years ago. Is that your idea of recent? It was understandable for my generation to be fooled. There was no internet. There was no information. Just the other side’s well-packaged, lies,, backed up by academics, leftist theorists like Noam Chomsky, whose importance at that time can’t be understated, and kapos, including Israeli kapos who came and lied about IDF atrocities. It is no longer understandable.
I am a 2nd Gen Shoah survivor and there was never a time when I would not have wanted such an open Holocaust Denier and antisemite to be cancelled.
@Edgar I gather you are referring to me. I was brought up as secular Zionist, got won over by Socialism when I was in high school then Anarchism and then Marxism in the early 80s, and then at some point when Palestinianism became one of the main issues of the far left , mostly thanks to Noam Chomsky, who became the Marx/Lenin of the American left and whose books filled the front counters of every college bookstore, I just read those books and bought into the lies not knowing any better. But there never was a time when Holocaust Denial and antisemitism didn’t make me angry. Not since my father told me of his narrow escape and his entire family’s demise when I was nine or 10 years old. The fakestinian solidarity movement was dominated by leftists and Islamists were marginialized at that time. Many Jews were prominent in it and open antisemitism other than anti-Zionism was not tolerated. We were fooled. There was no Palestinian Media Watch to reveal what they were really saying and doing. It was my accidental discovery of that site only months before the Oslo terror War/Al Aqsa Intifada in 2000, and right after Arafat had been offered 98 percent of everything he had claimed to want, that totally changed my mind and realize that I had been tricked, though I had been having doubts for years and had already taken a Two State position, for real and not just as a transition to a “Secular Democratic State” which I had never dreamed meant a Judenrein land.
Incidentally, I had always noticed that about converts, myself. Didn’t find a reference to it by Mark Twain though it sounds like something he would say. Pew disagrees though it doesn’t mention Jews, Muslims or political converts.
@SEBASTIEN-
I have been watching this topic, and a couple of others, in which you are prominent, with a great deal of amusement, to the degree that I HAVE to say “something”..
Have you ever noticed that recent converts or intending converts to a specific thought, belief, or action, are nearly always far more suddenly fervent than those to whom it’s a normal occurrence.
As an example……… there’s nobody so denunciatory about the evils of alcohol, than a recently reformed drunkard. Not that this is what I really mean, but just as a “pointer”….
Apropos of nothing– I have a very small booklet of one page yarns by my old friend Mark Twain, and it contains one that in ALL of his works-which I have thoroughly searched- I even read his “Innocents Abroad” twice,- in which he visits the Sandwich Islands- and it wasn’t there at all.
Mark Twain, on his visit to the Sandwich Islands….”I was telling a group of few newly converted native chiefs, about the story of Cain and Abel. They abused Cain mightily for about 20 minutes, …until I casually mentioned that Cain was from the Sandwich Islands….There was a long awkward pause…
Then one of the chiefs blurted out..”well what did Abel want to come foolin’ ’round here for..”…
@Sebastien Zorn
Yes, I do, except I don’t like the word “believe”, I think that it is.
In all the “free, democratic” countries.
History is repeating itself and, unfortunately and amazingly, Jews haven’t learned from the previous 1933-1945 disaster.
@Bear Excuse me, pets?
@ted
This contradiction is a fallacy.
Of course Israel should be both:
A state of Israelites (the so called “Jews”)
And at the same time only Jews should be citizens.
Just like France should be for French people and only French people should be citizens. Otherwise there will be second class citizenship.
So if someone does not qualify to be French, or German, or Danish, they should not be citizens of the respective countries.
‘Left-wing govt’s fear behind British org’s tweet against Smotrich’ Religious Zionism MK accuses Bennett-Lapid govt. of writing tweet by Board of Deputies of British Jews calling on Smotrich to go back.
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/322077
“Smotrich in France: I’m your emissary in Israel
MK Bezalel Smotrich meets representatives of French Jewish organizations in Paris”.
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/322096
“World Mizrachi: Attack on MK Smotrich ‘fundamentally wrong’
“Disagreements within the Jewish world, as sharp as they are, do not have to deteriorate into boycotts and denigrating language.”
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/322124
@Reader Do you believe another Holocaust is imminent, this time in the UK ?
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/322077
“Smotrich in France: I’m your emissary in Israel
MK Bezalel Smotrich meets representatives of French Jewish organizations in Paris”.
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/322096
“World Mizrachi: Attack on MK Smotrich ‘fundamentally wrong’
“Disagreements within the Jewish world, as sharp as they are, do not have to deteriorate into boycotts and denigrating language.”
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/322124
@Sebastien Zorn
I don’t know.
But the Mandate Palestine (where the living conditions and safety were a lot worse than in modern Israel) was definitely safer for the Jews who managed to get there before the Holocaust.
The ones who were calling Jabotinsky a Nazi and an extremist (Smotrich cannot be considered to be anywhere close to who Jabotinsky was, I am talking only about the reaction of the local Jews to them) when he came to Poland to try and get them out, all perished in their “safe” Europe which they considered their home.
@Reader
Why, is it any safer? Can the government be any more relied upon to protect Jews from antisemites in their midst?
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/322130
Delicious irony.
Why don’t the British Jews start thinking about “going home”?
The same place where they are telling Smotrich to go back to.
The Great Britain is not their true home.
I think they should welcome him because he is a Knesset member. That said he is very divisive as he attacks everyone and their pets too!!
I personally always would welcome him in my house and love to hear what he says even if would not agree with it all. That is what the British Jews should have done in my view.