Today the old certainties have gone because there are two far-right movements: the white neo-Nazi parties that the Left still opposes; and the clerical fascists of radical Islam which, extraordinarily, the modern Left succours and indulges. I am not only talking about Ken Livingstone, George Galloway and their gruesome accomplices in the intelligentsia. Wider liberal society is almost as complicit. It does not applaud the Islamist far Right, but it will not condemn it either. From the broadcasters, through the liberal press, the Civil Service, the Metropolitan Police, the bench of bishops and the judiciary, antisemitism is no longer an unthinkable mental deformation. As long as the conspiracy theories of the counter-enlightenment come from ideologues with dark rather than white skins, nominally liberal men and women will not speak out.I recommend reading the whole thing. Unless you're having a great day and don't want to be depressed, that is. In that case don't read it.
Fight back and you become a Jew, whether you are or not. [...]
I would no longer protest that I wasn’t Jewish, and I don’t think Lawson should either. It is cowardly to stammer that you are not a Jew because you concede the racist’s main point — that there is something suspect about being Jewish — as you do it.
In any case, my experience of left-wing antisemitism has changed the way I think and made me, if you like, more Jewish.
If British Jewry interests you, on the other hand, the JCPA has a new survey about them. Not surprisingly, the only large group among them which is really thriving are the Haredi. Or actually, until recently this would have been very surprising, but these days observers of Jews have got to admit that the Haredi are on a roll, wherever they are.
5 comments:
Wider liberal society is almost as complicit.
Including not a few Jews (that is, the Jewish kind of Jews).
But then, Jews have always(?) been pretty good at irony---a diaspora defense mechanism?...(Of course, somewhat ironically(?), so have the English....)
To be fair, one really oughtn't discriminate against the British "intelligentsia"...
http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/anti-semitism-and-israel-bashing-must-be-a-european-parliament-paper/
Barry
alas he isn't a Brit
http://www.stefan-frank-texte.de/
and I keep my fingers crossed that this poll gets it right (I don't believe any polls unless they tell me something I like)
http://israel-infos.net/Les-allemands-conscients-de-la-menace-iranienne-sur-Israel-6153.html
Les allemands conscients de la menace iranienne sur Israël
par Gerard Fredj
Un sondage national en Allemagne, réalisé entre le 17 et le 19 janvier dernier, montre que les allemands sont attachés à un règlement négocié du conflit entre Israël et les Palestiniens; 57 % des sondés n'approuvent pas l'idée d'une déclaration unilatérale de l'État palestinien (contre 36%).
Concernant l'Iran, ils sont 76% a approuver des sanctions contre les entreprises allemandes qui violeraient les sanctions adoptées par les Nations unies.
Ils sont 69 % (contre seulement 29%) à considérer que le nucléaire iranien "est une sérieuse menace" qui pèse sur l'Allemagne, et 88% a affirmer qu'il s'agit d'une menace pour Israël (contre 8% qui affirment le contraire"
En juillet dernier, ils n'étaient que 16% à penser que les missiles nucléaires iraniens pourraient menacer l'Europe et les USA, six mois plus tard, ils sont 23% à faire la même affirmation.
L'étude a été conduite par l'Institut "Greenberg Quinlan Rosner" qui a interrogé par téléphone un échantillon de 800 adultes.
Dear Yaakov, here is a link to some pictures of Nick Cohen: for a non-Jew he is amazingly Jewish looking!!
http://www.google.co.uk/images?hl=en&rlz=&q=nick+cohen&um=1&ie=UTF-8&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&biw=1280&bih=709
I read Nick Cohen's "what's left?"
as best I remember it goes back to some grandfather or great-grandfather who migrated from Poland and who was the first to lose "it".
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