Jews can be very dangerous to other Jews.
In Medieval times, apostates turned on their former co-religionists. Nicholas Donin brought charges against the Talmud before Pope Gregory IX, which resulted in the burning of twenty-four cartloads of tomes in 1442. Another, Pablo Christiani, lost a public dispute with Nahmanides in Barcelona before James I of Aragon in 1263, and then denounced the Talmud before Pope Clement IV the following year.
A more modern example was the meeting that bi-nationalist promoter Judah L. Magnes had on May 4, 1948, with US secretary of state George Marshall. Magnes insisted “the Jewish community in Palestine is an artificial development” and “the money now contributed to the Jewish community was being used solely for war which eats up everything.”
Furthermore, he was “certain that, if contributions from the United States were cut off, the Jewish war machine in Palestine would come to a halt for lack of financial fuel.” The next morning he repeated his thoughts to president Harry S. Truman.
Israelis making anti-Israel accusations against the Jewish state
Subsequent to the charge that Israel’s government is engaging in a “hobby” of killing Gaza babies, former prime minister Ehud Olmert joined the fray and told the BBC that Israel’s actions in Gaza are “close to a war crime.” In a May 27 column in Haaretz, he referred to the current government as a “criminal gang” led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
That, seemingly, wasn’t sufficient enough media exposure, so the former prime minister talked with the New Yorker magazine. That publication’s June 6 headline read, “Why Ehud Olmert Thinks His Country Is Committing War Crimes.”
Olmert’s opinion is that there is “no purpose that can justify the expansion of these military activities.” He told his interviewer, Isaac Chotiner, that “The perception in Israel is that this is a personal war or illegitimate war that is being conducted exclusively because of the political interests of the prime minister. This is a crime.”
For good measure, he added that there is an “understanding that Netanyahu doesn’t want to reach an agreement with Hamas for the release of the hostages.” Not only are Netanyahu and the IDF indiscriminately killing Gaza civilians but, it would appear, Israel’s hostages as well, as Olmert spins it.
Chotiner does inform the reader that “allegations of corruption cut short his political career” and that. Olmert “did serve more than a year in prison.” Odd, though, that simple “allegations” managed to imprison him.
THE PERCEPTIVE reader will notice that Olmert employed the tactic of shifting his evidence by reshuffling the deck. In what “Israel” has that “perception” of his occurred? How many people are involved? Of what ideological stripe are they? Do they possess personal interests? Such a portrayal of the current situation is tantamount to a treacherous Lord Haw-Haw performance.
Perhaps Olmert himself was seeking to resurrect his own public memory, like others. For example, in an interview with Israeli outlet Ynet on May 9, Moshe Ya’alon, a former defense minister, joined in the discordant chorus and said Israel was carrying out a campaign of “ethnic cleansing” in Gaza.
He attacked the current military chief of staff, Eyal Zamir, saying he was not stopping “clearly illegal orders” and was ordering “his soldiers to be war criminals.” Adamantly, he said, “Call it ethnic cleansing, call it transfer, call it deportation – it’s a war crime.” To Channel 12 news, Ya’alon said: “I don’t say anymore [that the IDF is] the most moral army in the world.”
These types of charges are not new. Those with long memories can recall the late Meretz MKs Shulamit Aloni and Yossi Sarid outside then prime minister Menachem Begin’s residence in Jerusalem. They were at a late September 1982 demonstration protesting the conduct of the First Lebanon War.
From those gathered, cries of “Begin is a murderer” could be clearly heard. Right-of-center politicians in Israel rarely merit anything less than vicious besmirching from their political rivals, especially when the latter are in the opposition.
Jewish in-fighting rarely remains inside, however. It quite often grants outsiders the ammunition to justify their hate and biases.
IT IS in this divisive internal atmosphere that we could read on June 10 that UN experts issued a report that Israel is committing an “extermination” in Gaza by killing in schools. Those “experts,” of course, were members of the infamous Independent International Commission of Inquiry of Palestinian Territory. Their next report (there have been at least seven) is already out and is to be presented at the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council’s 59th session this or next month.
Already back on May 21, we were informed that UN experts were calling on the Security Council to protect women and girls in Gaza as Israel’s “attacks [possess]… distinctly gendered consequences.” They added that “The devastation experienced by women, girls, and entire communities is not incidental – it is the consequence of intentional policies and actions by Israel.”
That new report added that “Israeli authorities have particularly targeted female educators and students, intending to deter women and girls from activism in public places.” How could Israel particularly single out females? What new technological advances exist for this new blood libel to emerge?
Previously, we were fed fantasies of dogs who could sniff out Arabs from Jews as well as other animal conspiracies from sharks to wild boars to dolphins doing our bidding. In July 2009, Hamas charged Israeli intelligence services with supplying chewing gum to Gaza that “boosts the sex drive in order to corrupt the young,” a regurgitation of the 1997 tale spread by the Palestinian Authority of strawberry-flavored chewing gum laced with progesterone.
These Israeli voices are influencing Jews abroad. Rick Jacobs, president of America’s Union for Reform Judaism, wrote an op-ed for The Washington Post on May 12 urging Israel to abandon a policy of “starving Gazan civilians,” calling it “immoral.” Needless to say, Israel is not engaged in such a policy.
The current self-inflicted crucifixion of the Jewish state may not have started with Jews, but by assisting the libelous pro-jihadi gospels of a “genocide” and such, they lend a hand to nailing us all to a new cross of antisemitism.
The writer is a researcher, analyst, and commentator on political, cultural, and media issues.
Jesus Christ is King
