Eretz Israel is our unforgettable historic homeland...The Jews who will it shall achieve their State...And whatever we attempt there for our own benefit will redound mightily and beneficially to the good of all mankind. (Theodor Herzl, DerJudenstaat, 1896)

We offer peace and amity to all the neighbouring states and their peoples, and invite them to cooperate with the independent Jewish nation for the common good of all. The State of Israel is ready to contribute its full share to the peaceful progress and development of the Middle East.
(From Proclamation of the State of Israel, 5 Iyar 5708; 14 May 1948)

With a liberal democratic political system operating under the rule of law, a flourishing market economy producing technological innovation to the benefit of the wider world, and a population as educated and cultured as anywhere in Europe or North America, Israel is a normal Western country with a right to be treated as such in the community of nations.... For the global jihad, Israel may be the first objective. But it will not be the last. (Friends of Israel Initiative)

Sunday 19 October 2014

'The "Don't Give Any Oxygen" Tactic That Many Jewish Communal Leaders Use Is A Failed Tool In Combating The Delegitimisation Campaign Against Israel'

"Recent developments signal that the prospect of Europe sliding into a new Dark Age is now a horrifying reality. It is as though all the elements negating the open society have been blended into a witches’ brew to undermine Europe’s liberal cultural ethos." 

So, inter alia, observed  Isi Leibler some months ago.

"First in line to suffer are the Jews, attacked from all sides, isolated, friendless and unable to adequately defend themselves. Their greatest threat is the rabidly anti-Semitic Muslims supported by anti-Semites from the far Left. This unholy alliance of religious and secular extremists employs radical anti-Israelism as a surrogate for traditional anti-Semitism and is now a fixture at Hezbollah and anti-Israeli demonstrations, where they wave placards and shamelessly accuse Israelis of emulating Nazis....
.... In a sense, it is even worse for Jews today than during the 1930s when at least the liberals and the Left combated anti-Semitism. What is more depressing is that, as a rule, the public is even more anti-Semitic than the government and perceives Israel as the principal source of global evil – no different to the Middle Ages when the Jews were regarded as the source of all natural disasters such as plagues and famine.
Despite the hullabaloo surrounding Islamophobia, it is Jews and not Muslims who require armed guards at their schools and houses of worship. And the hate crimes, now including murder, perpetrated against Jews are infinitely more acute than those suffered by Muslim minorities. Indeed it is preponderantly Muslims who are engaged in violence against Jews.'
Jewish communal leaders of the "trembling Israelite" type are a pathetic sight, wherever they are located.  When they prefer to bury their heads in the sand and ignore the realities described above, they are a menace to the interests of those they are meant to represent.
 '....  Islamophobia is a catch-all phrase used to demonize anyone who makes a legitimate criticism of Islam or Muslims. It is not irrational to fear the murder and terrorism perpetrated in the name of Islam; it is not bigoted to warn against the steady encroachment of Shari’a law or the connections between Islamic charities and terrorist money-laundering in London; it is not demonization to condemn Muslim attacks on women and girls or on freedom of speech. Yet all such opinions are damned as “Islamophobic” in order to silence them....
Anti-Semitism is the principal driver of murderous Islamic rage, not just against Jews themselves but against the Western world which Muslims believe the Jews control. It is the core not just of the war against Israel but the jihadi holy war against the West....
Surely, the religious and moral imperative for Jews is to fight the Islamic jihad against life, equality and freedom. Yet amazingly, the community leadership has made it instead a religious and moral imperative to attack those who are fighting Islamofascism....'

That is the commonsensical view of Marvellous Melanie writing here a few days ago with regard to .the Anglo-Jewish "leadership".

Unfortunately, there are Australian Jewish communal leaders of similar ilk, and compounding the felony has been the recent (22 September) much-derided failure of a Jewish federal Labor  (ALP) politician,no less a personage than former Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus, on the ABC's Q&A program to counter the gratuitous anti-Israel rant by a Muslim fellow-panellist in what was supposed to be a segment about ISIS.  Mr Dreyfus has defended his silence on the grounds that he did not want to give Randa Abdel-Fattah's remarks oxygen, but as one of his critics, the stalwart Michael Burd,  remarks in the correspondence columns of the current Australian Jewish News:
'.... While Israel is facing an unrelenting demonisation campaign, and while so many Greens and Labor, are not shy to publicly support the Palestinians and vilify Israel, you had the opportunity to respond to Palestinian and Muslim activists on the panel but instead remained shtum.
The "don't give any oxygen" tactic that many Jewish communal leaders use is a failed tool  In combating the delegtimisation campaign against Israel and that is one of the reasons why we are losing the battle ....'
Michael Burd concludes:
'Perhaps I am cynical but I am sure Mr Dreyfus's large Muslim constituency ... had an influence on his relectance to stand up for Israel.'
 In her above-mentioned article Melanie Phillips concedes:
"Of course it is hard for Britain’s 280,000-strong Jewish community to have confidence in the face of (at a conservative estimate) three million British Muslims."
The same, can, I suppose, be said of Australia's 120,000 Jews, outnumbered in a small amount of time by a Muslim community that hardly existed 35  years ago yet now numbers 400,000  (600,000, according to some estimates).

Indeed (hat tip: reader Ian; see the full report regarding the  Aussie ex-prime minister's remarks here):
' .... Julia Gillard has taken a swipe at Labor colleagues who place their ties to voters in some Sydney electorates above their support for Israel.
 .... Certain ALP MPs in Sydney’s western suburbs have in the past been accused of pandering to their Muslim constituents on foreign policy matters relating to Israel.
 Gillard added, “I just think for some others there’s not the strength of connection that there should be and that we would hope that there would be in the future,” she said. Gillard said visiting Israel some years ago had given her “a sense of the complexity” of tensions with its neighbours. She critiqued the failed latest round of US-brokered talks between Israel and the Palestinians, saying negotiations had advanced to new stages, while previous stages had not been firmly settled.
Gillard: ‘Sydney votes trump support for Israel’ ....'
In any event, as Isi Leibler has warned:
Leftist anti-Israel types rally in Perth, WA ...
'It is surely high time for Diaspora leaders to stop living in denial and get their act together. Instead of competing with each other in oozing political correctness, they should display some backbone and call a spade a spade.
We are currently witnessing the greatest revival of global anti-Semitism since the Middle Ages. This permeates all classes of society, and, ranging from academics to illiterates and European leaders who retain office despite making unabashed neo-Nazi remarks about Jews to mobs at anti-Israeli demonstrations carrying placards “gas the Jews.”
It encompasses the entire political spectrum, but is spearheaded by liberals and Muslims. Muslim radicals relate to Israel in a manner reminiscent of the Church’s medieval attitude toward the Jews. They promote popular TV programs depicting the blood of Muslim children being used for baking matzot, and have revived The Protocols of the Elders of Zion as a best-seller. They certainly compare favorably with the worst Nazi Jew baiting, with imams quoting genocidal religious texts to the faithful, inciting them to murder Jews, “the descendants of apes and pigs.”
... versus "Islamophobia" and for the misogynistic burka ...
It is macabre to observe the alliance between liberals and jihadists who represent the antithesis of everything the Left purports to represent. The extremist Islamists are the most reactionary elements in the world. They reject fundamental human rights, proscribe freedom of expression and religion, promote the degradation of women and, to this day, implement barbaric laws including stoning of adulterers and homosexuals and the amputation of limbs for petty crimes. More than 50 Muslim countries deny Judaism or Christianity equal standing with Islam....
Alas, Jews who exaggerate the presence of Islamophobia become leading proponents of the campaign to sanitize and understate Islamic extremism. This is especially bizarre, given that Jews, especially in Europe, but also increasingly in the US, are facing far greater threats of violence than Muslims. It is also synagogues, rather than mosques, which are continuously being desecrated and vandalized, in many cases by Islamists....
... yesterday(Saturday) ...
There is indeed a desperate need to encourage moderate Muslims. But appeasing the extremists and groveling to Muslim bullies merely emboldens them. There is not a single instance in history in which appeasing religious fanatics of any faith has brought about progress. If we allow ourselves to be intimidated or fail to confront Islamist jihadists, they will succeed in destroying the very tenets of our civilization.
This is an area in which Jews, who have the most to lose, must surely stand up and be counted.'

3 comments:

  1. Perhaps the Muslim's greatest ideological victory is persuading some feminists, often very intelligent and educated women that wearing the burka is a freedom of speech issue for which they should campaign.

    For millions of women throughout the Muslim world, and not restricted to Muslims but also minorities with no burka tradition, not wearing this garment is punishable by law; physical attacks and open harassment by Muslim men. It is not a free choice.

    Even in Australia, the thirteen year old burka wearer in the classroom may wish to take it off but is deterred by the beating she would receive (or worse) for defiling the family's honour.

    The irony is that feminism traditionally was associated with opposition to physically and socially restrictive clothing for women. Amelia Bloomer, 19th century American women's rights and temperance advocate gave her name to the trousers which became the physical and metaphorical symbol of women's rights in the 1850s.

    ReplyDelete
  2. sometimes, when u lack the courage and moral clarity to call a spade a spade
    an appeasement seems as logical choice. in any case, they know the truth.

    ReplyDelete

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