Sanitisation
The only way to eliminate lethal pathogens is to thoroughly sanitize the infected areas.
Michael Kuttner
Currently, we are witnessing another sort of sanitization.
It is the frenetic attempts to absolve and exonerate the pathogenic politicians, political parties and terror-supporting regimes threatening to cause mass chaos and violence worldwide.
Failure to deal with this rising scourge is the reason this pandemic will soon be untreatable and immune to any sort of countermeasure.
Whitewashing the likes of Mahmud Abbas has become the default position of most Western democratic leaders. If there was a UN category for sainthood, the PA President for Life would have already been elevated alongside his Nobel Prize-winning predecessor, the late unlamented Yasser Arafat.
Another example of what Israelis and Jews could expect from Palestinian Arab control of Jerusalem is this blatant piece of incitement issued last week:
“Jewish visits to the Haram al-Sharif (Temple Mount) are attacks on the Mosques. Israel is also trying to take control of the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron.”
These are not new assertions. In the absence of any sort of outrage by the international community it is no wonder that the lies gain momentum. Nobody expects Albanese, Wong, Luxon, Peters, Biden, Macron and Starmer to rap Abbas over the knuckles and demand a retraction because they are all too busy propping up a corrupt kleptocracy. They are instead busy sanitizing an entity and its supporting terror groups, all irredeemably infected with the virulent virus of Jew hate and peddling blatantly false historical revisionist fables.
Australia reportedly warned the Israeli Ambassador that should Israel have the temerity to respond in any meaningful way to the barrage of rockets and drones fired at its civilians by Hezbollah, Australia would condemn the Jewish State. This shameful piece of craven cowardice and moral bankruptcy is a hallmark of current international duplicity. What other democracy would be expected to passively allow its citizens to be subjected on a daily basis to hundreds of rockets without any sort of retaliation?
Terror groups and regimes are impervious to any sort of weak-kneed diplomacy, yet Israel is expected to meekly trust worthless UN resolutions and duplicitous declarations.
At the moment there are major campaigns of sanitization underway. They have the real potential to have major negative impacts on Israel and Jewish communities in the Diaspora.
The United Kingdom and France are perfect examples of how deranged Jew hate is slowly but surely becoming embedded in the political fabric of each country. It also highlights the increasing dilemma faced by Jews as they confront rising racist rhetoric and delegitimizing actions.
It should be noted that this gathering storm is also brewing in other countries. What actually eventuates in the UK and France will determine the fate of Jews in other places as well.
In the United Kingdom the victory of the Labour Party should have provided some serious sobering lessons. The Corbyn years were an unpalatable foretaste of things to come with Jew and Israel haters popping out of the socialist woodwork. The nastiness and unbridled animosity by the leader of the party towards the Jewish State was a direct throwback to the days of Ernest Bevin, the Foreign Minister in the post-war Atlee Government.
With Keir Starmer’s advent a genuine effort has been made to rid the Labour Party of the infection it incubated. The question, however, that needs to be asked is whether this sanitization has actually been successful or whether, in fact, the haters have merely been driven underground, waiting for an ideal opportunity to re-emerge.
Worrying indications have already surfaced since the election to suggest that like all endemic infestations, the scourge of Israel phobia and frantic political correctness is festering and rising to the surface.
Thanks to the unfair UK first-past-the-post electoral system, the Labour Party scooped up 412 electorate seats, although they only garnered about 34% of the popular vote. Notably, a large number of independents won, and herein lies an emerging trend that does not bode well for Israel supporters or the Jewish community.
The majority of these independents are either rejects from existing parties, expelled because of their anti-Israel declarations or avowed supporters of radical Islamic groups. They have ousted existing MPs in electorates that have a substantial minority of Muslim voters. Corbyn has hailed them as fellow colleagues in the battle against the evil Zionists.
The new UK Government is only a week in power and already its agenda concerning Israel is clear. If you disregard the obligatory mouthing of platitudes by the PM and take a closer look you will discern a disturbing but not unsurprising trend. The new Lord Chancellor has a dubious past concerning her attendance at BDS marches. The new Foreign Minister stated that “the UK needs to get back to a more balanced position” which is diplomatic speak for a pivot to moral equivalency between Israel and terrorists. It is already reported that the UK has dropped the previous Government’s objection to the ICC targeting Israel. The new (Jewish) Attorney General is on record as having opposed anti-BDS legislation and questioning whether Israel was breaking international law in its Gaza campaign.
It will be interesting to see how long it takes for the covert Corbyn groupies to assert their anti-Israel views and how strenuously they are combated. Meanwhile, the torrent of abuse against Jews increases with no likelihood of it being successfully eliminated.
French Jews are now facing a dilemma of their own. The outlook is increasingly bleak following the victory of the extreme left led by a Corbynite clone. An Israel and Zionist-hating left and a centre party unwilling to confront a rising tide of jihadist terror against Jews spells a doomed future for French Jewish communities.
The recent Iranian Presidential election is another farce exemplifying how to successfully sanitize and disinfect pathogenic regimes. Touting the so-called reformist character of the new President, the media and foreign Governments have waxed enthusiastically over this supposed harbinger of peace and tolerance. Ignored, of course, is the stark reality that he is subordinate to the authority of the “Supreme Leader” and will faithfully carry out his desires. This was made clear when he declared his country’s enduring hostility towards Israel, nuclear capability, his support of terror and his country’s objective of wiping the Jewish State off the map.
None of these inconvenient aims make any impression as the democracies line up to embrace this latter day “reform” saint. If anything, it makes any meaningful action against Iranian malign and malignant intentions more remote than ever.
One of the ways to assuage Jewish panic about rising hate and terror is for democratic leaders to announce the appointment of an antisemitism “czar” or “envoy.” These worthy individuals, usually Jewish, are tasked to combat and eradicate the tsunami against Jews now raging in their respective countries.
The USA has had such a person for many years and the latest incumbent, Deborah Lipstadt, took office in May 2022. Despite her undoubted qualifications neither she nor any of her predecessors have managed to stem the tide. In fact, if anything, the situation has snowballed out of control.
The Canadian Government has now appointed a Jewish MP to report on Jew hate and the Australian Government has also followed suit. Unfortunately, this is just another piece of window dressing designed to lull Jews into believing that something is being done. In actual fact, now that the genie is well and truly out of the bottle, there is no way that it can be put back. Making a mockery of the whole situation is the fact that false moral equivalence is created when Governments announce the appointment of Islamophobia envoys.
One has to ask where are the Jewish mobs shouting threats against Muslims, defacing Mosques and Islamic Centers and threatening schools? How many Mosques have to be defended by armed guards and how many Muslim pupils of Islamic schools are too scared to wear their school uniform?
The threats against Jews will get worse and no amount of cosmetic sanitizing can stem the tide.
A Hungarian child holocaust survivor who today is a successful psychologist made the following very pertinent observation:
“We use denial as protection. If we don’t pay attention then we can continue our lives unnoticed. We can make the world safe in our minds. We can make ourselves invisible to harm.”
I cannot think of a more relevant lesson as evil intentions stalk the world.
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.
