I have just finished reviewing the comments from the David Cesarani thread dealing with the vile accusation by Oliver Miles questioning the impartiality of two Jewish members of the Chilcot Inquiry.
If there was any thread that revealed the raw nature of anti-Jewish bigotry that inhabits the “Comment is Free” threads it was this. The number of comments that accused Jews of being more loyal to Israel than their host nation was simply astounding.
In the recently released JCPA report on antisemitism in US blogs, Adam Levick wrote:
One of the oldest anti-Semitic staples is that Jews are not sufficiently loyal to the countries where they reside and instead are more loyal to Israel. Indeed, this notion underlay the failure of European emancipation. From the Dreyfus Affair in France through the Nazis’ rise to power, Jews – no matter how devoted they actually were to their host countries -were viewed as outsiders lacking in national loyalty.
Such ad hominem attacks against American Jews who support Israel are common within the blogs in question. The “Working Definition of Anti-Semitism” of the European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia defines as anti-Semitic: “accusing Jewish citizens of being more loyal to Israel, or to the alleged priorities of Jews worldwide, than to the interests of their own nations.”
We will publish a more extensive post with a collection of the worst comments from the Cesarani thread in the course of the next week. In the meantime, I wanted to highlight this particular comment by petrifiedprozac below not because it was the worst of the worst – it wasn’t – but because of the casualness in which it has become conventional wisdom that Jews who support Israel have crossed some rubicon of acceptability in British society.
Through the drip drip demonization and delegitimization of Israel in the Britism media, Zionism, which in essence is a movement for the self-determination of the Jewish people, has become synonymous with the worst excesses of evil. What is becoming more and more clear is that in 21st Century multicultural Britain, to be a Jew that believes in Zionism, regardless of where one stands on the Israeli political spectrum, is an indelible stain on one’s character. The fact that Zionist Jews (who make up the overwhelming majority of British Jewry) are regarded with such disdain does not bode well for the future of British Jewry. And therein lies the problem.
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February 5, 2010 at 12:29 am
TomWonacott
Thanks Hawkeye
Petrified is a classic anti western, anti American, anti Israel leftist that is so common on CIF. Its interesting how he passes his own bigotry off on how Muslims might feel about two Jews on the Chilcot panel (especially because Gilbert is openly a proud Zionist) . One thing the Chilcot panel can do is require Gilbert to renounce his prideful support of Jewish nationalism. This might be a good compromise for the Muslim community, and possibly, make a few Guardian leftist happy as well.
Dual loyalty is just one of several classic antisemitic tropes that enjoy a wide amount of support in Europe and to a lesser extent in the US – like Jewish control of the financial markets and the business world.
February 5, 2010 at 6:23 am
Mitnaged
Hawkeye
“.. I wanted to highlight this particular comment by petrifiedprozac below not because it was the worst of the worst – it wasn’t – but because of the casualness in which it has become conventional wisdom that Jews who support Israel have crossed some rubicon of acceptability in British society.”
Excellent, Hawkeye, and an excellent illustration of how CiF and the Guardian drip-feed such egregious nonsense into social discourse here in the UK and, because the blogosphere is so far-ranging, around the world, and it eventually becomes “natural” to believe it.
This really is the CiF version of Goebbels’ Big Lie in operation isn’t it?
February 5, 2010 at 6:24 am
AKUS
Martin Gilbert is well-known as Winston Churchill’s most authoritative biographer. In his book, “Churchill and the Jews”, Gilbert points out how much support the idea of a Jewish national Home, aka the Balfour Declaration, received from Churchill, who was proud to say: “I am a Zionist”.
No one accused Churchill of having dual loyalty – something that must strike Martin Gilbert as particularly ironical.
By the way – the paper that most supported the one-time candidate for Manchester and the Balfour Declaration , was, of course, one called “The Manchester Guardian”.
February 5, 2010 at 7:37 am
David
“The fact that Zionist Jews (who make up the overwhelming majority of British Jewry) are regarded with such disdain does not bode well for the future of British Jewry. And therein lies the problem.”
As Ben-Gurion used to say: “A Zionist is a Jew who pays another Jew to immigrate to Israel.”
What certainly doesn’t bode well for *Israeli* Jews is their being sacrificed, generation on generation, to the salve the troubled conscience of the baleful chicken-Zionist diaspora which this site represents so perfectly, inveighing them towards settlement, towards the hills, towards eternal war with their neighbours – from thousands of miles away.
The Hebrew nation has to free itself from this yoke. There is no barrier to peace when this is done.
February 5, 2010 at 10:53 am
RedSeaPedestrian
David,
Is this not analagous to the Palestinians and their “friends” in the West who urge them on to endless “resistance” and unlimited right of return?
February 5, 2010 at 11:48 am
Abandon hope
.
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Zionism, which in essence is a movement for the self-determination of the Jewish people, has become synonymous with the worst excesses of evil. ”
I am sorry but this is a desperate and far fetched interpretation of prozacs comment. A friend of mine fought in the 67 war..it is never mentioned now but ..he is a Glaswegian…WTF was he doing thousands of miles away fighting for foreigners?
There is a dual loyalty and trying to deny it is crass.
February 5, 2010 at 12:27 pm
Gerald Kreeve
As Ben-Gurion used to say: “A Zionist is a Jew who pays another Jew to immigrate to Israel.”
Another bullshit non-quotation. If you put all of the quotations that are attributed to BG end to end then you can carpet the Negev and you will realise that he did nothing else but say outrageous things for anti-semites to quote. You will realise too what a genius this man must have been foreseeing the internet hate sites so far in advance and generously supplying mucky material for them.
February 5, 2010 at 12:28 pm
peter1
The dual loyalty is in the eye of the particular anti-semite in question.
We have the silly monkeys, we have the knuckle-dragging neanderthals, we have the nod nod wink wink etc etc….
Most of all we have these anti-semites up in arms about having two Jews present because OMG they are Zionists and the Iraq war is all the fault of Israel and The Jews.
Then there is this small problem of Israel being opposed to the Iraq war, Sharon himself and all levels of government as well as other institutions expressed clearly and intently that it is a mistake to invade Iraq.
Israeli military doctrine has always held that Iraq was needed as a buffer to Iran as it was all that stood between it and a regime that was in fact the real danger to the Middle East.
You see it is precisely this type of distortion and refusal to accept reality, the blinkers and blinders well in place, that points to the anti-semites that are just so indoctrinated that there is no point in explaining or pointing it out to him.
This is whom the guardian plays to, while comment is free, they prepare for and engage in promoting outright lies and distortions daily.
February 5, 2010 at 3:57 pm
HairShirt
Dopey, I note firstly that you actually have A FRIEND!
Secondly, I also note that you don’t mention the British Muslim dual loyalty, probably more widespread than Jewish, because of which Muslims go to Pakistan and other Islamist countries to train to be mujahideen.
Did you know that this happens?