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The following article written by Bernie Farber Hateful words can hurt is a misguilded attempt to defend the terrible law known as Section 13. The article placates the false left and the author lacks a clear understanding of the new anti Semitism as explained in Pipeline of Hatred. Section 13 is not an effective measure to use against the new anti Semitism but has been used to silence many pro Israel supporters.
The Stephen Roth Institute for the Study of Contemporary Anti-Semitism and Racism at Tel Aviv University, in a new report released in cooperation with the European Jewish Congress, establishes that 2009 was a record year for anti-Semitism. “The year in the wake of Operation Cast Lead was the worst since monitoring of anti-Semitic manifestations began two decades ago in terms of both major anti-Semitic violence and the hostile atmosphere generated worldwide by the mass demonstrations and verbal and visual expressions against Israel and the Jews,” note the institute’s scholars. The anti Jewish campaign was lead by so called ‘progressive’ left wing and radical Islamic groups.
The total number of “violent anti-Semitic incidents” was 1,129, compared to 559 in 2008. That does not include threats, insults, graffiti signs, slogans, “and demonstrations featuring virulently anti-Semitic content.”
What’s more, the institute documents only cases that show “clear anti-Semitic content and intention.” Also, many Jews, fearful of reprisal or skeptical about the outcome, prefer not to file complaints.
“Thus, the number of incidents, both violent and verbal, might actually be far higher than the figures presented here,” write the researchers.
The Roth Institute report is one more worrying reminder that anti-Semitism, the congenital disease afflicting the Jewish people, has metastasized. This new strain is particularly conducive to the currently dominant multicultural environment, especially in western Europe.
As Melanie Phillips reported in The Spectator of London, the key motif in the “new antisemitism” is “Holocaust inversion,” with the Israelis being demonized as Nazis and the Palestinians regarded as the new Jews. Israel and the Jews are being systematically delegitimised and dehumanized a necessary prelude to their destruction with both Islamists and Western media using anti-Zionism as a fig leaf for prejudices rooted in both medieval Christian and Nazi demonology. This has produced an Orwellian situation in which hatred for the Jews now marches behind the Left’s banner of anti-racism and human rights, giving rise not merely to distortions, fabrications and slander about Israel in the media but also to mainstream articles discussing the malign power of the Jews over American and world policy. The Portuguese Nobel prize-winning author Jose Saramago’s suggestion that Israel was guilty of recreating Auschwitz in Ramallah is symptomatic of the current mood. Indeed, comparing the actions of Israel to those of Nazi Germany has become almost de rigueur in Europe. Demonstrators marching through the streets of European capitals and North America today routinely carry placards that label Israeli Leaders as “the new Hitler”, and call the Israeli response to the terror inflicted on its citizens “genocide”.
It is no coincidence that the present spate of anti-Semitism was triggered by Operation Cast Lead. Nor is it a surprise that the most violent incidents – where identification was possible – were perpetrated by Arabs or by Muslims and that these attacks took place in western Europe, the bastion of multiculturalism.
It is the position of the Jewish Defence League that Section 13 has become an aggressive tool for radical Islam which follows the dictates of the OIC (Organization of Islamic States). In effect, the article written by Bernie Farber does not help the Jewish community defend against the new anti Semitism but rather offers a tool to the OIC in its goal to rid the world of Israel.
The Jewish community needs strong leadership prepared to fight back with new tools against the new form of anti Semitism. This leadership must never placate those very groups that seek to promote the agenda of radical Islam.
With love of Israel,
Meir Weinstein
National Director Jewish Defence League of Canada
www.jdl-canada.com
