While we’ve been fighting Hamas border attacks in the south, terrorist attacks in Judea and Samaria and uncovering Hezbollah tunnels in the north, good old-fashioned Jew-hatred is alive and kicking around the world.
Here are a few of the more outstanding (in the bad sense) examples of the past couple of weeks.
The famous author Alice Walker endorsed a book by antisemite David Icke in the New York Times – and the NYT didn’t bat an eyelid.
What is worse – her endorsement, or the fact that that the NYT printed it without caveat and without commentary?
In response to Walker’s interview, the ADL tweeted that it was “deeply disappointed that @nytimes would print Alice Walker’s unqualified endorsement of a book by notorious anti-Semitic conspiracy theorist David Icke. We have asked editors to update the review w/ information about this author’s #antiSemitism.”
In response to the controversy, the Times issued a statement that the recurring feature in which Walker was cited was “an interview and portrait of a public person through the lens of books; it is not a list of recommendations from our editors. The subject’s answers are a reflection on that person’s personal tastes, opinions and judgments. As with any interview, the subject’s answers do not imply an endorsement by Times editors. Moreover, our editors do not offer background or weigh in on the books named in the By the Book column, whether the subject issues a positive or negative judgment on those books. Many people recommend books Times editors dislike, disdain or even abhor in the column.”
Yair Rosenberg at Tablet Magazine wrote about the NYT’s effective endorsement of an insanely antisemitic book:
Over the weekend, the New York Times Book Review published a full-length interview with Alice Walker, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Color Purple. The very first question: “What books are on your nightstand?” Walker replied with four, the second of which was:
“And the Truth Shall Set You Free,” by David Icke. In Icke’s books there is the whole of existence, on this planet and several others, to think about. A curious person’s dream come true.
This passed without comment from the New York Times interviewer, and the publication passed it on to readers without qualification. This is rather remarkable because the book is an unhinged anti-Semitic conspiracy tract written by one of Britain’s most notorious anti-Semites.
Rosenberg lists in great detail the antisemitic history and lunatic ravings of David Icke, and then provides us with a very long and detailed list of the antisemitic sayings and opinions of Alice Walker herself. He then asks the very pertinent and necessary questions:
Normally, this is where I’d say that it was good that the Times published Walker’s Icke recommendation because it lets us know who she is. But we have known who she is for many years. It is rather the Times and other cultural elites who have opted to ignore this inconvenient fact. Thus, the only thing that is accomplished by uncritically disseminating Walker’s bigoted book bon mots is ensuring that the racism is disseminated to more people.
Why has Walker escaped accountability for so long? Perhaps it is due to her Israel politics, which have been used to confuse the issue. Walker is a prominent supporter of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel, famously forbidding The Color Purple from being translated into the language of Hebrew. Because Walker—like Icke—is a strident critic of Israel, her defenders—like Icke’s—have dismissed allegations of anti-Semitism by claiming they are merely an attempt to quash her criticism of the Jewish state.
But it should not surprise anyone that the world’s only Jewish state, home to half its Jews, would attract the attention of anti-Semites, who would use the legitimate debate over its conduct to smuggle in their anti-Jewish bile. Anti-Zionism may not be anti-Semitism, but plenty of self-described anti-Zionists are anti-Semites. A progressive left that is serious about anti-Semitism will call it out not only when it comes from a white supremacist and is presented as “race realism,” but when it comes from their own camp and is presented in the righteous guise of “anti-Zionism.”
Israellycool reminds us that Walker has endorsed Icke and his book before, so this is not a one-time slip-up (as Rosenberg also details in his article). Walker is an unreconstructed antisemite who is given a pass because she herself is the author of an excellent book.
She also took part in one of the publicity-stunt flotillas which were fronting for Hamas.
And just to prove that she is no “mere” anti-Zionist – i..e she opposes Jews living in their homeland – but she is an outright antisemite (though in my opinion the two are identical), she refused to allow her book The Colour Purple to be translated into Hebrew.
So to summarize: David Icke who believes in a worldwide Jewish conspiracy to dominate the world and that Jews are in fact alien lizards (seriously!!) is wonderful in her opinion. But allowing Jews to read her book in their national language is verboten.
Gotcha.
Meanwhile across the pond in England, the Labour Party not only has not shaken off its image as an “antisemite-friendly” party, but it has doubled down on its habit of accusing anyone complaining of antisemitism as “smearing” the party or the leader, and of dishonestly using these smears to bring the party down. Often the complainants are told they are imagining or exaggerating the antisemitism – an act that is known as “gaslighting” (after the famous Hitchcock thriller Gaslight).
The latest incident involved Shadow Chancellor John McDonnel calling allegations of antisemitism “propaganda”:
A Labour campaign group of which shadow chancellor John McDonnell is president has suggested allegations of Jew-hate are “propaganda” from the “ruling class” designed to stop Jeremy Corbyn becoming Prime Minister.
Shadow Chanceller John McDonnel
A 39-point statement, published by the Labour Representation Committee (LRC) ahead of its 2019 Conference, also says “anti-Zionists” are being expelled from Labour while “more and more councils are adopting the International Holocaust Remembrance Association (IHRA) definition and examples of antisemitism and using it to discipline workers”.
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The publication of the LRC conference manifesto, titled ‘Preparing our Movement for the Struggles Ahead’, leaves Mr McDonnell facing charges of hypocrisy after he pledged to “call-out” websites stoking the flames of Labour’s antisemitism row.
In the past, the LRC has defended Ken Livingstone against allegations of antisemitism over his comments on Hitler and Zionism – but the new manifesto shows the group have lost none of their passion for attacking mainstream Jewish opinion.
It says: “Clearly, the preferred option of the ruling class is to prevent Corbyn ever becoming Prime Minister.
“At root their concern is his stand against austerity and imperialist war. They are prepared to throw anything at him, firstly to prevent him retaining the Labour leadership, if that fails to prevent him winning a general election, and as a last resort to tame him into watering down his policies so he offers no threat to their interests.
“Hence the onslaught of propaganda from their mouthpieces and supporters, whether Tories, business, the media or the right of the PLP.
“While some of this is laughingly trivial (the wrong sort of coat at the Cenotaph), and easily brushed off (Czech spy), they have found mileage with the accusation that the party harbours large numbers of antisemites, and even that Corbyn himself is antisemitic.”
Accepting that “antisemitism exists in the party, though much more marginally than suggested”, the LRC manifesto then backs “criticism of Israel, up to and including the argument by many that, as a colonial settler state, it is an intrinsically racist endeavour.”
…
Claiming it is possible to separate “anti-Zionism from actual antisemitism” the LRC call for “an understanding of the nature of Israel, its laws, practices and its treatment of the Palestinians.”
Here is the key phrase which perfectly demonstrates the Livingstone Formulation:
It then states: “Moreover, these false allegations are intended to weaponise the accusations of antisemitism against Labour. Such allegations must be challenged politically, and it is why the passing of the resolution by 2018 Labour Conference and the accompanying waving of Palestinian flags was so important.”
To remind you, here is the sea of Palestinian flags that was more important to the Labour Party than Brexit or any other domestic policy:
Palestinian flags at the Labour Party Conference, October 2018
The Labour Against Antisemitism group published a Twitter thread. Here is one of the most important tweets:
This issue is not going to go away as long as Jeremy Corbyn and his cohort are in control of the Labour Party. Stay tuned for more updates.
Back to America, the Women’s March has earned itself a reputation for antisemitism due to its leaders’ unsavoury relationship with Jew-hating Louis Farrakhan.
Women’s March leaders with antisemitic Minister Louis Farrakhan
Matters escalated to such a level that the Washington State branch disbanded itself due to these accusations of antisemitism. Israellycool brings us the story:
Angie Beem, board president of Women’s March Washington, announced the group’s dissolution in a Facebook post last week, citing anti-Semitism allegations against the organization’s national co-chairs — Bob Bland, Tamika Mallory, Carmen Perez and Linda Sarsour.
“Continuing to be a part of the Women’s March with the blatant bigotry they display would be breaking a promise,” Ms. Beem wrote. “We can’t betray our Jewish community by remaining a part of this organization.”
In the Facebook post, Angie Beem cites this Tablet Magazine expose that had some very damaging revelations about the antisemitism within the Women’s March movement, specifically the co-founders.
I suddenly realized that Tamika and Carmen were facing Vanessa, who was sitting on a couch, and berating her—but it wasn’t about her being white. It was about her being Jewish. ‘Your people this, your people that.’ I was raised in the South and the language that was used is language that I’m very used to hearing in rural South Carolina. Just instead of against black people, against Jewish people. They even said to her ‘your people hold all the wealth.’ You could hear a pin drop. It was awful.”
There is much more at the Israellycool article. It is indeed awful, but kol hakavod to Angie Beem of the Washington chapter for having the guts to not only disband itself but to declare the reasons why. This could not have been an easy decision, and I just hope she does not suffer for her decision.
Let us not forget the deadly antisemitism emanating from our “peace partners” the Palestinians.
A Palestinian man was murdered for selling land to Jews
A Palestinian man killed in an Arab Israeli town over the weekend was involved in the sale of West Bank land to Jews, Palestinian media reported Saturday.
Ahmed Salama, a resident of Jaljulia in central Israel, was shot Friday near his home and later pronounced dead at Meir Hospital in nearby Kfar Saba. Police have opened an investigation into the shooting.
In the same article we read of another Palestinian who has been arrested for the same “crime”:
Attention was recently drawn to the Palestinian Authority’s outlawing of selling land to Israeli Jews over Israel’s arrest last month of its Jerusalem governor. Adnan Ghaith is reportedly suspected of abducting a Palestinian-American resident of East Jerusalem who was accused of selling property to Jews.
Ghaith, who was among 32 East Jerusalem residents arrested on suspicions of supporting and serving in the PA security forces, was ordered released by the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court on Sunday.
Israeli law bars East Jerusalem Palestinians from working with the PA security forces, Ghaith’s lawyer said.
The arrests appear to have been prompted by the PA’s detention of Isaam Akel, a Palestinian resident of East Jerusalem.
Last Wednesday, US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman called on Ramallah to release Akel.
“The Pal Authority has been holding US citizen Isaam Akel in prison for ~2 months,” Friedman tweeted. “His suspected ‘crime’? Selling land to a Jew. Akel’s incarceration is antithetical to the values of the US & to all who advocate the cause of peaceful coexistence. We demand his immediate release.”
Akel’s father, Jalal, has denied that his son sold land to Israeli Jews.
Earlier this year, Israeli prosecutors filed an indictment against a left-wing activist on charges of passing information to the Palestinian Authority security service about Palestinians who planned to sell West Bank land to Israeli Jews, thereby endangering the sellers’ lives. [I blogged about that here – Ed.]
In addition to the outrageous cases above, the PA sentenced two men to hard labour for selling land to Jews, and refused to bury another man who was killed in an accident because he too had sold land to Jews:
A Palestinian Authority court in Qalqilya on Wednesday sentenced two Palestinians convicted of selling land to Israeli Jews to 15 years of hard labor.
“The court sentenced F.A.E. and A. Kh. M. from Kafr Thulth in the Qalqilya Governorate for the crime of leaking land to the enemy,” a memo on the PA High Judicial Council’s website said, referring to the two convicts by their initials and using the Arabic term to allude to selling land to Israeli Jews. “The court…sentenced the convicts to 15 years of hard labor.”
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Separately, in early November, the body of Ala’a Qirsh, one of six Palestinians who died in a major road accident in the Jordan Valley, was barred from being buried in a Muslim cemetery in Jerusalem over allegations that he had sold property to Israeli Jews, an official in the Jerusalem Waqf told The Times of Israel.
“He was not permitted to be buried in Jerusalem’s cemeteries,” the official, who asked to remain unnamed, said on Wednesday. “A number of young men in Jerusalem prevented his body from being buried in the cemeteries because they suspected him of selling land to Jews.”
This is the reason there will never be peace between the two sides as long as the Palestinians hold on to such racist and antisemitic mindsets.
In order that we not sink into a deep depression over the depth of antisemitism in the world the Elder of Ziyon discovered a wonderful rebuttal to the concept of Jew-hatred – and it comes from a non-Jew:
David Lloyd George was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1916-1922.
This quote from his book “Is It Peace?” written in 1923 is remarkable for how accurate it is today – except that Jews managed to turn Canaan into a land of milk and honey far quicker than he anticipated.
David Lloyd-George on antisemitism
Of all the bigotries that savage the human temper there is none so stupid as the anti-Semitic.
In the sight of these fanatics, Jews of today can do nothing right. If they are rich they are birds of prey. If they are poor they are vermin. If they are in favour of war, that is because they want to exploit the bloody feuds of Gentiles to their own profit. If they are anxious for peace they are either instinctive cowards or traitors. If they give generously-and there are no more liberal givers than the Jews-they are doing it for some selfish purpose of their own. If they don’t give – then what would one expect of a Jew! If labour is oppressed by great capital, the greed of the Jew is held responsible. If labour revolts against capital-as it did in Russia-the Jew is blamed for that also. If he lives in a strange land he must be persecuted and pogrommed out of it. If he wants to go back to his own (land) he must be prevented…
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They belong to a race which for at least 1,900 years has been subjected to persecution, pillage, massacre and the torments of endless derision; a race that has endured persecution which for variety of torture – physical, material and mental – inflicted on its victims, for the virulence and malignity with which it has been sustained, for the length of time it has lasted, and, more than all, for the fortitude and patience with which it has been suffered, is without parallel in the history of any other people.
Is it too much to ask that those among them whose sufferings are the worst shall be able to find refuge in the land their fathers made holy by the splendour of their genius, by the loftiness of their thoughts, by the consecration of their lives and by the inspiration of their message to mankind!
Where are our leaders of today compared to the giants of yesteryear like David Lloyd George?!
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Where indeed are leaders like Lloyd George?
This is all so depressing.Where are the Pro Palestinian “human rights”,BDS’ ers when it comes to Palestinians being murdered for selling land to Jews?That too will come to “enlightened” Europe one day if an Arab sells his house to a Jew.I wonder what will happen then?
I am forever relieved that I live in Israel.