Discordant Voices
The cacophony of harsh and disagreeable rhetoric about Israel and Jews has increased to an alarming crescendo.
The media waits expectantly for each and every vile pronouncement. Within several seconds it has circled the globe and has been embellished by social media. Any denials fall on barren ground if, as is usually the case, the subject garnering headlines is inaccurate, tendentious and malicious. Rebuttals of falsehoods are lost in the frenetic frenzy whipped up by the original demonization.
Making this toxic mix even more lethal are the pontifications of self-loathing groups and individuals who, in many cases, cloak themselves in self-righteousness and fake Jewish/Zionist identities. These voices are promoted as authentic representatives of Jewish communities. In actual fact they are a miniscule minority on the far fringes of mainstream communities. This is seemingly irrelevant as far as the media is concerned.
The battle for the hearts and minds of a public bombarded with daily negative news and opinions is an almost losing proposition. Unless one actually visits Israel and experiences reality here it is impossible to adequately convey the truths needed to demolish media myths.
Genuine friends and allies such as indigenous groups and faith-based communities are striving valiantly to counter the fog of lies, but they face serious obstacles. Indigenous groups in many countries have been seduced by jihadist extremists. An increasing secular generation has no idea about the Biblical historical connection of Jews to Israel. Many Christian denominations are reverting to the age old dogma of disconnecting Jews and Judaism from their promised homeland.
Add in political parties and politicians who eagerly jump on the wagon of appeasement of terror and blind bias against the Jewish State and you have a lethal concoction brewing.
This past week provides a sampling of the latest offerings.
The nascent pretender to the Ottoman Sultan’s throne loses no opportunity to advertise his animosity and real agenda as far as Israel is concerned. In one of his latest outbursts he proclaimed that “we will stand by the Palestinians until Palestine is liberated.” In plain English this means the ethnic cleansing of Jews from the river to the sea. Ordinarily, the gobbling of this Turkish President could be conveniently ignored. However, as his nation is a member of NATO one should imagine that some consequences might follow. Symbolic of today’s shambolic situation means there is no chance that his rhetoric will attract any sort of censure.
Amsterdam’s mayor was back in the news.
She cancelled permission for a protest against Jew hate in the centre of the city which forced the organizers to relocate it somewhere more isolated. Her excuse was that police resources were tied up elsewhere dealing with “black Friday specials.” It certainly is a black day in Holland when supporters of Israel and Jews are deemed expendable because commercial bargains have taken priority.
The ICC scandal rumbles on from one insanity to another.
Anyone who dares to challenge the court’s arrest warrants of Israel’s Prime Minister and former Defence Minister is deemed guilty of undermining its legitimacy. According to the best legal opinions,
the fact that Israel has an independent judiciary and is not a signatory to the ICC should have been taken into account. Instead, the prosecutor with obvious ill intent issued patently biased political rulings.
An ICC spokesperson stated that the accused should promptly turn themselves in to the authorities at The Hague where no doubt the lynching mob are waiting to hold a show trial worthy of the best days of Stalinist Russia.
Leaders of democratic nations supinely endorse the ICC farce joining the runaway train crash of hypocritical opportunists and morally defective politicians. The latest groupie to piously declare his total blind allegiance to the perversion of the ICC’s warped targeting of Israel is New Zealand’s Prime Minister. He added his discordant voice to the chorus of hate by affirming that should Netanyahu dare to step onto the soil of Aotearoa/NZ he would be arrested. Welcome to Chelm where common sense and actual facts are thrown out the window.
The UN special Rapporteur, Francesca Albanese, is well known for her obsessive hatred of Israel. It seems to be a requirement for UN employment and one which she seems perfectly qualified for if her pontifications are taken into account. Her latest diatribe, one in a long series of such venomous vitriol, should be grounds for dismissal. Unfortunately, given the irredeemable corrupt state of the UN she is more likely to be promoted than demoted.
She declared that “Israel did NOT have the right to wage a war after 7 October.” This exemplifies why the UN and all its associated groups feel emboldened to pillory and condemn Israel on an almost daily basis.
Did you manage to watch the Oxford Union “debate” where Israel was put in the dock and accused of genocide, ethnic cleansing and every other sin known to humanity?
It was always going to be a gang ambush and the result was always going to be a forgone conclusion. The four speakers defending the Jewish State must have known in advance that their advocacy of the truth and facts would be a forlorn exercise in futility. If you get a chance watch the debate on YouTube because it will show you exactly how toxic universities have become for Jewish students and faculty.
The event resembled a night at the Roman Coliseum where participants were thrown to the mobs. Braying hordes of students demonstrated their hatred of Zionists, Jews and Israel and any notion of a fair debate was thrown out the window. The chairperson instead of being a neutral referee sided with the deniers and denunciators. You can get a sense of the poisonous atmosphere when you hear the son of Hamas’s founder being howled down for daring to expose the murderous agenda of the terrorist group. One of Israel’s staunchest Arab advocates was ejected from the debate and had to be protected by security because he had the audacity to expose the lies and slanders being screamed by the terror-supporting students.
The end result was a lopsided vote which found Israel guilty. It more than adequately demonstrated that gross prejudice, ignorance and hate is alive and flourishing in British academia. The Oxford Union is treading the same blind end path that it did in the 1930’s when it voted overwhelmingly not to fight for King and country against the Nazi terror against Jews and democracy.
Of course Oxford is not an isolated case. The same malaise and endemic maladies have already spread and infected universities throughout the world.
Proving that idiocy is not confined to universities, the British Government has decided to throw millions more of taxpayers’ money at UNRWA. Given the parlous state of the UK economy and the new taxes being imposed on its long-suffering citizens, one has to wonder what sort of make-believe world Downing Street inhabits.
In yet another successful ploy to fool the international community, President for life, 89-year-old Abbas, was named “an interim” successor in case a vacancy occurs. His designated nominee, Rouhi Fattouh, is aged 75 and has a well-worn track record as far as Israel is concerned. Last year he announced that “Jerusalem belongs exclusively to the Palestinians, Arabs and Muslims.” This certainly qualifies him as a possible successor to the current terror-facilitating incumbent.
Everyone knows that when Abbas eventually permanently departs, there will be a no-holds-barred battle among those who want to succeed him. Various terror factions will strive for supremacy, and therefore, this currently nominated successor will vanish.
The US State Department, however, demonstrated its continuing hallucinatory fantasies. Its spokesperson issued a starry-eyed statement that “this step provides valuable clarity and strengthens governance.” This further example of the Biden Administration’s total detachment from reality explains why Iran and the evil axis can threaten peace and stability in so many parts of the world.
Hamas and Hezbollah have as their core aims the destruction and elimination of Israel. Any ceasefire will be merely a pause in their current campaign and an opportunity to rearm and reorganize for the next round. Iran as their patron will provide the necessary backup.
Israel is determined to prevent this. The response from Biden, Harris and Blinken is “de-escalate.” This one word is applied equally to terrorists and victims. It has become the mantra of an Administration bereft of the will to face up to terror patrons.
How refreshing, therefore, to hear the words of incoming President Trump.
He has declared that unless Hamas releases the hostages by 20 January “there will be all hell to pay.”
Finally, a clear voice of determined action is heard as opposed to the current discordant voices of appeasing surrender and moral equivalency.
Michael Kuttner is a Jewish New Zealander who for many years was actively involved with various communal organisations connected to Judaism and Israel. He now lives in Israel and is J-Wire’s correspondent in the region.