Full Frontal: Sacrilegious Jew-Hatred of the Medieval Sort

The 15th century case of Simon of Trent was one of those periodical ritual murder accusations that wrought terror on Jewish communities and stain the history of the Catholic Church. Supposedly kidnapped and ritually sacrificed by Jews (confessions were obtained under torture), the alleged child martyr became the focus of a cult, and was eventually beatified, but never canonised.

In 1965 Pope Paul VI removed Simon of Trent from the roll of the Roman church's martyrology.

But how persistent is the discredited cult of "St Simon of Trent", with all the abtisemirism that cult historically entailed, can be seen in the painting by Giovanni Gasparro and the reaction of its admirers in social media.

A skim of the artist's Facebook page testifies to the antisemitic scum who have gathered to praise the painting and attack, often in the most virulent terms, mock and bait anyobe, especially anyone perceived to be Jewish, who expresses dismay at the painting.

Since Simon of Trent was never canonised, and since he was removed ftom their church's martyrology on papal authority, the adulation got Simon, and the artist's depiction of him, from the keyboards of the apparent Catholics among the commenters is surely sacrilegious.

Below are sample comments screenshot by me as I trawled the artist's Facebook page last night.  They are a mere fraction of the thousands upon thousands  of comments made, but they give an idea of the vile  attitudes that exist in some quarters towards Jews, and which, 75 years after the liberation of Auschwitz, are not ashamed to be expressed in public.

Note, although not prevalent in my sample, that haters of Israel who want to see that little country wiped off the map are also represented, and there is the inevitable sprinkling of Muslims and of "Christians" who for some unfathomable reason prefer the presence in Europe of Islam to that of the Jews. Ignorance, both of Judaism and Jewish history, is a widespread characteristic: I even noticed some apparent Teutonic types taunting a Jew with a Germanic surname for appropriating such a name from their culture: the dolts are apparently unaware of how surnames came to be imposed upon Jews!

 

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The Christchurch Atrocity: APAN Supporters Accuse Da Joos

APAN is the Australian Palestine Advocacy Network.

Its president, as regular readers of this blog may recall, is George Browning, former Anglican Bishop of Canberra and Goulburn.

Presumably Browning will take steps to clear the Augean Stable that APAN appears to have become by casting out from the organisation the APAN supportes who have written and supported the antisemitic nonsense that has been spewed out on the APAN Facebook page, as follows:

Blaming da Joos for the crazy, evil actions of the Christchurch gunman has also been expressed elsewhere.  See, for instance (hat tip: Australian Jewish Association), the blood libels here and here

Meanwhile, beneath one of the many posts relating to the atrocity posted by Stephen Sizer, a dodgy looking comment from one of his followers.  (Please explain.)

"Photo speaks a thousand words, doesn't it?": Selected Yuletide views

First, a filthy (aren't they all, though?) blood libel – (yes, it's attracting "Likes"!):

Second, this old chestnut, offered by Israel-bashing NGO War on Want in, and perhaps ever since, 2009.  ("No explanation required,"vicar? Ah, but there is, you know. Why's that SS insignia in the picture, for starters?):

Third, the sign on a front lawn in America (well done, that householder, and a very Merry Christmas to you!):

Barrett's Blood Libel: How Low A Churchman?

As is well known, between 1348 and 1350, perhaps half of Europe's population perished in the terrible pandemic known as the Black Death, which entered Britain through the Dorsetshire port of Weymouth in 1349, proceeding to spread through the country with all the deadly and demographic effects that it wrought on the Continent.

It's also well-known that, searching for an explanation for the then inexplicable Black Death, fourteenth-century minds selected scapegoats, and that the group primarily blamed for the Black Death were the Jews, who were assumed to have poisoned the wells.

In the insanity that ensued, innumerable Jewish communities were destroyed, and tens of thousands of Jews suffered horrible deaths.  (There is a good summary of events here)

Skip to our own supposedly enlightened time, many centuries and several other devastating scapegoatings of Jews later, including the worst tragedy in Jewish history, and we find this loathsome article appearing on the website of Iran's Press TV.

Reminiscent of a Jew-baiter through the ages, including those benighted  medieval folk who blamed the Jews of Europe for the Black Death, its author blames the Jews of Israel for the recent chemical attack on Syrians:

".... The chemical weapons attack in Damascus was obviously a Zionist ploy to drag the US deeper into the Syrian conflict. The Israelis, the world's grand masters at the game of false-flag terrorism, had the means, motive, and opportunity....

But now, a growing number of people around the world are rejecting the official story of 9/11. The inevitable exposure of the truth about 9/11 is a slow-motion earthquake that will bring down the US and Zionist empires.

So the Zionists are taking another massive gamble. They are hoping that leading the world to the brink of World War III - and possibly over the brink - will save their doomed “Greater Israel” project. A huge war would give the Zionists an excuse to expel non-Jews from historic Palestine, complete the ethnic cleansing that has been ongoing since 1948, and defuse the “demographic bomb.” And since the Zionists and their American stooges are losing relative strength each year, the hard-liners want to fight the big war now, while they think they still have an advantage.

The Syrian chemical false-flag appears to be Israel's biggest escalation of the “clash of civilizations” since 9/11. This time, the world must expose the truth rapidly, or risk the destruction of not just millions, but even tens or hundreds of millions of lives."

The author of the above blood libel in modern dress is an American "Arabist-Islamologist" called Dr Kevin Barrett, author of Truth Jihad: My Epic Struggle Against the 9/11 Big Lie (2007) and Questioning the War on Terror: A Primer for Obama Voters (2009) who (hat tip: reader Ian) received a derisory share of the vote when he ran for Congress in 2008 and  has claimed  that the Boston Bombing was an Israeli plot.

What is surely very shocking is that (hat tip: Jonathan Hoffman: "Linked to by Stephen Sizer on FB. Of course.") the (avowedly non-antisemitic) Rev Dr Stephen Sizer was apparently low enough to link, on Facebook, to Barrett's disgustingly antisemitic article.

It would be pleasing to think that the Israel-obsessed Rev Sizer has realised that in promoting the ramblings of a man like Barrett he has truly scraped the bottom of the barrel and will remove/has removed the link.
[Update: Rev Sizer has now withdrawn the link h/t Anon; see Comments below]

As for all Christian clerical foes of Israel, they should take a look at this video, and reflect.

"Every Time You Think He Cannot Sink Lower ...": Syria, Israel, & British Brothers in Arms

From Uganda (he certainly gets around) crusading anti-Israel Anglican vicar Stephen Sizer, a fond fan of Kairos Britain (see my previous post for its iniquities), a ferocious foe of the Balfour Declaration (he and chums are fighting a curious, furious rearguard action against it via the "Balfour Project"), and a not infrequent voice on the Iranian regime's notorious propaganda satellite channel Press TV, has told his Facebook faithful (hat tip: reader P):

"George" is the vehemently anti-Israel politician George Galloway, who represents the heavily Muslim constituency Bradford West for the so-called Respect Party in the "Mother of Parliaments," and has suggested on Press TV that Israel provided the chemical weapons that killed so many innocents in Syria a few days ago:

"If there has been a use of chemical weapons it was al-Qaeda who used chemical weapons.

Who gave al-Qaeda chemical weapons?

 Here’s my theory: Israel gave them the chemical weapons so that they would use them so that they would bring the international community into the final destruction of Syria..."

Writes Alex Massie in The Spectator:

"Say this for George Galloway: every time you think he cannot sink any lower he finds new ways to surprise you. His latest contribution to Press TV, Iran’s propaganda station, speaks for itself. Parody is pointless.Given his history and his paymasters, we would expect him to defend the Assad regime in Syria. Even so, under-estimating his ability to sniff out the true villains is never sensible...."

 See also, incidentally, this pro-Israel Christian blog

By the way, what might George and Stephen have been saying to each other in this photo from earlier this year?  Click here for suggestions!

Egyptian Politician Makes Blood Libel (video)

Here's a Memri.org video showing truly appalling remarks made last month by Khaled Zaafrani, founder of Egypt's Justice and Progress Party:

 (Hat tip: reader Rita)

The Left's Hypocrisy Over the Term "Blood Libel"

Sarah Palin's use of the term "blood libel" to describe the slanderous accusations of her enemies following the tragic shootings in Arizona didn't offend me.  Not one iota.  Not for one split second. I notice that in common with other enemies of what’s Right and right such as the Guardian and the Independent, Al Beeb has been milking the Sarah Palin-uses-the term-blood-libel story to undermine an attractive and engaging politician who also happens to be a friend of Israel. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-12176503

How characteristically and predictably cynical and partisan of Al Beeb and those newspapers – anything to score points for their nakedly leftist, anti-Western agenda. On its website Al Beeb has cited the (equally predictable and partisan) indignation at Ms Palin’s comments of the press secretary and president of what they call “the progressive pro-Israel [sic] group J Street”.  That prince of pro-Israel bloggers, the esteemed Elder of Ziyon, made this excellent pictorial comment on J-Street's president, Jeremy Ben-Ami, a few days ago.

Wouldst that Al Beeb and the other anti-Palin stooges proved as enthusiastic in revealing Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords’s favourable perception of Israel, but that’s undoubtedly too much to ask, because it sits uncomfortably with their own monstrous anti-Israel bias:

“My grandfather, Akiba Hornstein, was the son of a Lithuanian rabbi. My grandfather changed his name to Giff Giffords for reasons of anti-Semitism and moved to Southern Arizona from New York more than a half century ago. In the 1940s, he founded my family’s tire and automotive business, El Campo Tire, which grew into a successful and thriving business for 50 years, which I ran for several years before serving in the Arizona Legislature.

Growing up, my family’s Jewish roots and tradition played an important role in shaping my values. The women in my family served as strong role models for me as a girl. In my family, if you want to get something done, you take it to the women relatives! Like my grandmother, I am a lifetime member of Hadassah and now a member of Congregation Chaverim.

When I served in the State Senate in Arizona, I had the opportunity to visit Jerusalem . It was one of the most memorable experiences of my life. I had the opportunity to meet with the then-mayor of Jerusalem, Ehud Olmert, and I got to see firsthand the sacrifices that Israelis make in the name of security because of the dangerous state of affairs there.

I will always be a strong supporter of Israel . As the only functioning democracy in the Middle East, Israel is a vital strategic ally of the United States . I believe the United States must do everything possible to secure Israel ’s long-term security and achieve a lasting peace in the region....

Until the Palestinian leadership and other hostile regimes are willing to accept Israel ’s right to exist, it will be impossible to achieve peace....

As a woman and as a Jew, I will always work to insure that the United States stands with Israel to jointly ensure our mutual safety, security, and prosperity.' (Hat tip: Professor Barry Rubin)

Professor Barry Rubin refers in passing to the absurd furore over Ms Palin’s use of the term “blood libel”, in his new post, “Anti-Jewish Insanity in the Middle East Transcends All Previous Limits” (http://rubinreports.blogspot.com/2011/01/anti-jewish-insanity-in-middle-east.html):

'After more than 30 years working professionally on Middle East history and politics, I can still be astonished by things that happen in the region. Yet, precisely as William Shakespeare wrote in his play about Cleopatra:

"Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale/Her infinite variety:"

Well, not exactly "infinite variety." It's just more of the same, to an infinite extreme. Who would have thought, say 20 year ago, that the Arabic-speaking world's obsession with demonizing Jews might go even further than where it was at that time?

For one thing, in the 1990s, history seemed to be moving toward moderation; for another thing, who could believe it could become even more intense.

But just at the moment when for the first time in all of history Americans are told that (some) Jews object to the use of the term "blood libel" by someone falsely accused of murder, the same people are ignoring thousands of blood libels generated daily in the Middle East, many with fatal consequences.

And now this, as reported by MEMRI (http://www.memritv.org/clip/en/0/0/0/0/0/0/2740.htm.):

Wael Ramadhan: "The [Roman] war against Cleopatra was Jewish in essence, and history repeats itself. The Romans had no territorial aspirations in Egypt in those days, and this is ignored by history and by many historians. The Romans were at war with the Parthians and the remnants of the Persian Empire, but they had no intention of waging war against Egypt."

Ramadhan has just made a television series on the Romans and Cleopatra.

There is a humorous side to all of this, but hatred and demonization of Jews is also a mania poisoning the Arab world (not to mention Iran and some other Muslim-majority) and blocking progress in dealing with all of its problems.

This plague has reached epidemic proportions, it shapes policy, prevents peace, paralyzes research and education, and unhinges religion. While an absurd debate rages in America about whether a non-Jew is allowed to use the phrase "blood libel" (something that no Jew has ever hitherto objected to in world history), they are ignoring huge numbers of actual, serious, deadly blood libels.

A sea of blood libels.... And they will produce a sea of blood.”