Barry Rubin’s blog is here: http://pajamasmedia.com/barryrubin/
This article didn’t fit, so I’m honored to make it available here. What he writes is quite upsetting — here in the US it hasn’t gotten to this point yet.
Some European Intellectuals Go Insane With Hatred
By Barry Rubin
People in English-speaking countries are often horrified and outraged by what’s published in their language’s mass media. They have no idea what’s being published in other European languages!
This article isn’t typical but it shows the kind of lynch-mob insanity seizing much of Western Europe’s intellectual and cultural elites. I’ve written about a similar example here and let’s not forget the top-circulation Swedish newspaper that prominently published an article saying that Israel murdered Palestinians to steal their body parts.
De Volkskrant is one of the largest Dutch mainstream newspapers. It’s leftist but regularly publishes columns from people with an opposite view point.
Thomas von der Dunk, a historian and Labour party member as well as an influential intellectual (he’s weirdly eccentric but that isn’t so unusual in such circles), made the following points in an op-ed piece:
— What Libyan dictator Muammar Qadhafi has done in his country is less bad than Israel’s operation in the Gaza Strip in 2009.
— Nobody should be outraged of the murder of the Fogel family, the parents and three of their little children, because they were living in a West Bank settlement on land stolen by an illegitimate government.
— Israelis living in land from which Palestinians have been driven out are like a Dutchman who in 1944 lived in the home of Jews deported to concentration camps. (There are probably far more Muslims living in Arabic-speaking states living in homes from which Jews were driven out–BR).
— Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman are criminals as bad as Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Qadhafi.
— Israel is an apartheid state and not a democracy or a state where law prevails.
— Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad could learn from Israel how to organize phony, pro-regime demonstrations.
In short, what we have now is not criticism of Israel or of its policies but a demonization of Israel by much of the European left that is starting to approach the hatred daily projected in Muslim-majority dictatorships.
Obviously, there are other voices heard, too, but in large sectors of the opinion-making elites—and every country is different of course—the level of irrational hatred is growing frightening. And for local Jews, the choice is to join the chorus, remain silent, leave, or face intimidation.
Technorati Tags: Barry Rubin, Europe, Israel, Thomas von der Dunk
Fortunately, the Europeans don’t have the guts to take on Israel militarily, and that is as much for their own good as it is Israel’s.
There is no question but that the left in Europe is working hand-in-hand with the Islamists, partly out of fear, partly out of convenience as a fellow “anti-establishment” force.
Appeasement is the name of the game here, though. We’ll see how far that gets them.
European Jews should make aliyah. No doubt about that.
If Ron Paul gets the Republican nomination here, I’ll consider making aliyah myself.
At any rate, when the shooting starts sometime this year, Israel needs to hit as hard and as fast as they can. The world will hate Israel no matter what she does, so she might as well get in as good a punch as possible.
The Arabs/Moslems have got to be taught a lesson, that this game of theirs will leave them worse off…a LOT worse off.
Europe isn’t able to competently fight a war in Libya. The notion they can take on Israel is laughable when you consider how far Europe is from the Middle East.
Europeans may hate the Jews and Israel but they are too obsessed with their comfortable lives to give practical expression to it.