Feeding the Flames of Antisemitism

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“Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.”
― John Adams

Manipulation Tactics

Manipulation almost always involves deception and manipulators are among the most clever, accomplished liars to control their desired narrative.  Manipulators use the perversion of facts with the aim to falsely vilify a group of people to garner hatred against that group.

Deception and spreading lies was an effective manipulation tactic used by Hitler and the Nazis to depict the Jews as “subhuman” and therefore deserving extermination from the human race!  With these lies, the Nazis were able to manipulate and brainwash the masses.  Normal citizens became hateful killers with no pity nor feeling for their previous neighbors – just because they were Jewish.

This same tactic has been repeatedly used by the new Democratic members of Congress; Rep. Rashida Tlaib and Rep. Ilhan Omar.  They have used lies and distortions about Jews and/or Israel to inflame people’s perception of Jews and Israel.  They have found a safe place in the democratic party to spew their hateful lies.

They know they can rely on their friends’ Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Linda Sarsour to repeatedly jump to rescue and double down on the lies.  Additionally, the official nods from the Democratic leadership enable them to continue with this antisemitic perversion unabated.

The Statement

A Twitter war broke out this week after Rep. Rashida Tlaib told the hosts of the Yahoo News podcast Skullduggery that the Holocaust gives her a “calming feeling” because Palestinians provided a “safe haven” for Jews.

“There’s always kind of a calming feeling, I tell folks, when I think of the Holocaust, and the tragedy of the Holocaust, and the fact that it was my ancestors — Palestinians — who lost their land and some lost their lives, their livelihood, their human dignity, their existence in many ways, have been wiped out, and some people’s passports. And just all of it was in the name of trying to create a safe haven for Jews, post-the Holocaust, post-the tragedy and the horrific persecution of Jews across the world at that time. And I love the fact that it was my ancestors that provided that, right, in many ways. But they did it in a way that took their human dignity away, and it was forced on them.”

– Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib of Michigan

Many criticized her choice of words – using “calming feeling” when thinking of the “Holocaust” – which although inappropriate, can be excused as just a bad choice of words.  It is her blatant lies and perversion of irrefutable historical facts which is most disturbing, as it serves to falsely depict the “Arab Palestinians” as heroes and as willing to sacrifice for the Jewish people.

The “Safe Haven” Lie

This is a popular deception in Arab, Muslim and BDS circles and is being shared widely on social media in an attempt to manipulate and control the false narrative – that the Jews forcefully invaded and “occupied” Arab Palestinian land.

The duplicity that the Jews were invading “Arab Palestinian” land

  • Before 1918, the land was part of the Turkish Ottoman empire. Jews and Arabs lived there. Arabs were not sovereign.
  • Palestine wasn’t a sovereign country. It was a British Mandate set up by the League of Nations for the purpose of constituting a Jewish National Home.
  • The legally-binding Mandate of Palestine (Article 6) required the British Administration to facilitate Jewish immigration. Jews had (and still have) a legal right to immigrate to Palestine (Israel), no-one was doing them a favor.
  • On Nov. 29, 1947, the United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution calling for Palestine to be partitioned between Arabs and Jews, allowing for the formation of the Jewish state of Israel.
  • Six months later, on May 14, 1948, Jewish leaders in the region formed the state of Israel. British troops left, thousands of Palestinian Arabs fled and Arab armies invaded Israel. In the Arab-Israeli War, Israel defeated its enemies. It was the first of several wars fought between Israel and its neighbors.

The Duplicity that Arabs Welcomed the Jewish Refugees

  • During the 1936–1939 Arab revolt, Palestinian Arabs in Mandatory Palestine rebelled against the British administration of the Palestine Mandate, demanding the end of Jewish immigration. The revolt included a wave of terrorism in which 300 Jews were murdered as well as 260 members of the British Security Forces.
  • As a result of Arab violence, the British government published the White Paper of 1939, a policy which severely restricted Jewish immigration to 75,000 for 5 years, compared to 164,000 Jewish immigrants who arrived in Palestine in the 4 years between 1933 and 1936.  Because of this, only a small fraction of the Jews trying to escape from Europe was able to legally immigrate to Palestine. Millions were forced to remain in Europe where they were murdered by the Nazis.
  • The main Palestinian Arab leader of the period, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem – Haj Amin al-Husseini, who was a close ally of Hitler, opposed all immigration of Jews into Palestine.  During WWII he campaigned against the transfer of Jewish refugees to Palestine. The Mufti’s numerous letters appealing to various governmental authorities to prevent Jewish refugees from emigrating to Palestine have been republished and widely cited as documentary evidence of his participative support for the Nazi genocide.
  • In June 1943 the Mufti recommended to the Hungarian minister that it would be better to send Jews in Hungary to concentration camps in Poland rather than let them find asylum in Palestine.

The Duplicity that the Holocaust was the reason for the establishment of the State of Israel

  • The Jewish people have had an ancient and ceaseless connection to Israel, as outlined in the Bible and historical records.
  • There existed a vibrant centuries old pre-World War II Jewish community in Mandatory Palestine, whose population was virulently opposed by local Arabs.
  • The British government proposed a prewar partition of Brittish Mandatory Palestine, which was designed to reconcile the competing desires of Jews for a Jewish state in their historic homeland and the desire of Arabs for Palestine to be completely Arab.
  • The Partition plan was accepted by the Jews but, categorically refused by the Arab Palestinians

These antisemitic lies are a dangerous precedent.  The false vilification of Jews and Israel will cause the alarming escalation of antisemitic acts nationwide to continue.  When these antisemitic statements are promoted by government leadership – such as Democratic congressional leaders, Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Steny Hoyer (D-MD) who have rushed to defend Rep. Rashida Tlaib for inventing a bigoted, alternative, antisemitic history, it is time for those who care about bias, persecution, and antisemitism to rise up and speak out.

 

 

 

 

 

Biased Free Speech Applications

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Hate speech and freedom of speech are two different things. – Leslie Jones

There is a double standard in this country when it comes to free speech.  The right to free speech applies if it’s coming from one’s own political views. Speech that comes as a challenge to one’s own views is rejected and labeled as dangerous and harmful.

Specifically, the Jewish voice which stands up for Israel’s right to exist as a sovereign nation for the Jews is being silenced and the voice of the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement and anti-Israel/antisemitic voices are applauded.   This is especially disturbing when the pro-Israel voice is stating facts and the antisemitic side is spewing hateful and untrue opinions.

Pro-Israel Free Speech?

On March 27,  N.Y. District 44 Councilman Kalman Yeger set off a social media storm when he tweeted the following in a back and forth about congresswoman Ilhan Omar:

“Palestine does not exist…congresswoman Omar is an antisemite”

This statement caused an uproar with accusations that Mr. Yeger was a liar and an Islamophobe. A few days later, the City Council’s leadership team met for more than an hour and decided to remove Mr. Yeger from the immigration committee. There was “broad consensus” that Mr. Yeger’s views were inconsistent with the committee’s mission, participants said.

In reality, Mr. Yeger is correct.  As the video below shows, since 1937, the Palestinian leadership refused five times the offer of a state of their own as part of a peace process.

Hence the clarification from Mr. Yeger on Twitter.  Stating the fact that currently there is no Palestinian state is the truth – not Islamophobia! (In fact, the Palestinians are perpetually protesting the lack of statehood)

Anti-Israel/Anti-Jewish Free Speech

Contrast the attack on Mr. Yeger and his swift removal from a special committee, to freshman congresswoman Ilan Omar from Minnesota who repeatedly denigrated Israel and American Jews using known antisemitic tropes.

In 2012, Omar tweeted “Israel has hypnotized the world”. Last month, she wrote that U.S. support for Israel was “all about the Benjamins baby.” A few weeks after that, she told an audience in D.C. that “I want to talk about the political influence in this country that says it is O.K. to push for allegiance to a foreign country.”

Linda Sarsour, a co-chair of the Women’s March and herself a repeated offender of antisemitic slurs, tweeted her respect of Omar for her antisemitic stand.

Ilan Omar was chastised for her antisemitic remarks but, Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi refused to remove her from the Foreign Affairs Committee and could not even pass a resolution calling out antisemitism – only delivering a watered down anti all hate resolution.

The double standard of how these two incidents were handled is clear.  The fact that Congress was not able to pass a resolution condemning antisemitism is alarming to American Jews and sends a message to the country and the world that antisemitic lies are acceptable.

Hateful speech leads to hateful acts. Antisemitic acts are rising in the United States at an alarming rate.  History has shown what happens when hateful and biased speech goes unchallenged.  I have personally lost close family members in the Holocaust and will not stand by silently in the wake of such openly brazen anti-Jewish tropes.

 

When Silence is Toxic

We must take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim.  Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. — Elie Wiesel

Anti-Israel and anti-semitic rhetoric, whether on social media or through MSM is increasing at an alarming rate.  Propaganda, based on falsehoods, is regarded as fact with the devious hope that if mainstreamed and repeated enough times, the masses will believe it.

As a child of Holocaust survivors, I cannot remain silent in the face of unabated false and hypocritical criticism.  Israel and Jews worldwide are held to a different standard than any other country or people.  It is this type of indoctrination of baseless hatred towards a specific group which has led to one of the most atrocious historical events – the genocide of six million Jews in Europe.

Israel has been held to a different standard than any other country.  The United Nations’ constant devilish obsession with Israel, has resulted in continuous discriminatory resolutions against the one democracy in the middle east – Israel.

Watch UK Col. Richard Kemp Accuses UN Gaza Inquiry of Aiding Hamas (last week)

The dishonest condemnation that Israel is an apartheid country has been falsely repeated in the media to the point where it is believed as a truism.

When if fact:

  • Israel’s Arab citizens (20% of Israel’s population) are full citizens.
  • They attend all of Israel’s major universities.
  • They are treated in all of Israel’s hospitals.
  • They serve in government and the judiciary.
  • They are welcome in all of Israel’s establishments, including restaurants and cafés.

The twisting of hard facts and the proliferation of the “apartheid” propaganda has given birth to the movement to “boycott, divest from and sanction Israel” (BDS).  BDS leaders try to portray themselves as peace activists who are using non-violent means to force Israel to withdraw from the “West Bank” and make way for a Palestinian State. But, in actuality,  the leaders of the BDS movement admit that BDS has far a more radical goal: eliminating Israel as a Jewish state (see an interview with Omar Barghouti here).

Video by Alan Dershowitz on BDS

The BDS movement criticizes Israel, claiming that its ongoing military presence in the “West Bank” is blocking the creation of a Palestinian state.

BDS ignores the following key facts:

  • Israel has repeatedly offered to withdraw from almost all of the West Bank to create a Palestinian state – most recently in 2000, 2001 and 2008 – in exchange for peace.
  • The Palestinians have rejected each of these offers.
  • When Israel began a phased withdrawal from the West Bank in the mid-1990s, Palestinian terrorists, backed by the Palestinian Authority, responded with a wave of violent suicide bombings that killed over 1,000 Israeli civilians.
  • When Israel withdrew all of its soldiers and civilians from Gaza in 2005, rocket fire from Gaza into Israel dramatically increased, to the point where a rocket from Gaza aimed at the heart of the country – Tel-Aviv – destroyed a civilian home and injured seven people, including children.
  • The Palestinian Authority incites, encourages and rewards Palestinians to commit acts of terrorism and murder as many civilian Israelis (including men, women, and children) as possible.

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We have a responsibility to speak out against the spreading of lies, the targeting of a group/nation and the promotion of terrorist acts in an attempt to eliminate an entire nation/religion.  If the Palestinian Authority, Hamas, and BDS proponents have their way,  their slogan of a Palestinian state “from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea” (meaning the elimination of Israel) will prevail.

We need to #SpeakOutNow!