The Return of Antisemitism and the False Inevitability of Middle East Moderation
By Barry Rubin
The awarding of the Legion d'honneur to Charles Enderlin, the journalist who perpetrated the Muhammad al-Dura fraud, is only the latest example of the fact that promoting hatred of Israel or antisemitism pays very well nowadays. Enderlin, who wasn't present at the time, was the French television journalist who claimed Israeli forces deliberately killed a boy named Muhammad al-Dura in the Gaza Strip. This tale has since been discredited, in fact Enderlin admitted to Professor Richard Landes that he himself thought the story wasn't true.
Eventually, a French court determined that the story was probably false and that Enderlin had acted recklessly. This has not prevented much of the French intelligentsia and most of the journalistic community from rallying to his side. His being honored by the French government despite the fact that he demonstrably propagated a false story--which led to rioting, deaths, and acts of terrorism against Israel--is truly shocking.
But it is hardly an isolated incident.
Fresh off receiving Britain’s appeasing release of a terrorist who helped bomb a civilian airliner and killed 270 people at his personal order, Libyan dictator Muammar Qadhafi told a meeting of 30 African leaders that Israel is responsible for all that continent’s problems.
Every day, of course, people in the Arabic-speaking world are told that the Jews are responsible for all their problems. And increasingly people in Europe--albeit more subtly and quietly--are being told the same thing. If they face terrorism, they are informed, it is not due to the ambitions of radical Islamism but to Israel's actions making people angry who would otherwise presumably be quiet and happy. Or as one enraged Pole told me, "Why should Poles die because of Israel's policies?"
In Iran, the parliament just unanimously endorsed as defense minister (which means that one day he will control Iran's nuclear weapons) a man who is wanted by Interpol for bombing the Jewish community center in Buenos Aires, Argentina, with many people there being killed. There has been no call by Western governments or media to boycott dealings with Iran's regime or even him personally.
Imagine that! A man directly involved in the murder of Jews--not even Israelis!--in a bomb attack and nobody proposes that he should be shunned. No articles in Western newspapers speaking about how the Iranian regime is associating itself with crimes against humanity. No protests in the streets of Western capitals in front of Iranian embassies. Even after all we've been through, seen and heard in recent years, this is truly shocking.
Being an open antisemite or even preaching genocide is no longer a barrier—as Ahmadinejad, Qadhafi, and others can attest—to being received in polite society. There are many articles and claims--for example by the Obama administration's own counterterrorism advisor--that Hizballah is now a moderate group despite its shocking promotion of antisemitic hatred.
For the British and French governments, Hizballah and possibly Hamas--whose rhetoric resembles what used to come out of Berlin in the 1930s and 1940s--are moving toward moderation and are worth engaging.
Indeed, as many mainstream newspapers are also showing, it isn’t a barrier to being considered a proper journalist either.
The awarding of the Legion d'honneur to Charles Enderlin, the journalist who perpetrated the Muhammad al-Dura fraud, is only the latest example of the fact that promoting hatred of Israel or antisemitism pays very well nowadays. Enderlin, who wasn't present at the time, was the French television journalist who claimed Israeli forces deliberately killed a boy named Muhammad al-Dura in the Gaza Strip. This tale has since been discredited, in fact Enderlin admitted to Professor Richard Landes that he himself thought the story wasn't true.
Eventually, a French court determined that the story was probably false and that Enderlin had acted recklessly. This has not prevented much of the French intelligentsia and most of the journalistic community from rallying to his side. His being honored by the French government despite the fact that he demonstrably propagated a false story--which led to rioting, deaths, and acts of terrorism against Israel--is truly shocking.
But it is hardly an isolated incident.
Fresh off receiving Britain’s appeasing release of a terrorist who helped bomb a civilian airliner and killed 270 people at his personal order, Libyan dictator Muammar Qadhafi told a meeting of 30 African leaders that Israel is responsible for all that continent’s problems.
Every day, of course, people in the Arabic-speaking world are told that the Jews are responsible for all their problems. And increasingly people in Europe--albeit more subtly and quietly--are being told the same thing. If they face terrorism, they are informed, it is not due to the ambitions of radical Islamism but to Israel's actions making people angry who would otherwise presumably be quiet and happy. Or as one enraged Pole told me, "Why should Poles die because of Israel's policies?"
In Iran, the parliament just unanimously endorsed as defense minister (which means that one day he will control Iran's nuclear weapons) a man who is wanted by Interpol for bombing the Jewish community center in Buenos Aires, Argentina, with many people there being killed. There has been no call by Western governments or media to boycott dealings with Iran's regime or even him personally.
Imagine that! A man directly involved in the murder of Jews--not even Israelis!--in a bomb attack and nobody proposes that he should be shunned. No articles in Western newspapers speaking about how the Iranian regime is associating itself with crimes against humanity. No protests in the streets of Western capitals in front of Iranian embassies. Even after all we've been through, seen and heard in recent years, this is truly shocking.
Being an open antisemite or even preaching genocide is no longer a barrier—as Ahmadinejad, Qadhafi, and others can attest—to being received in polite society. There are many articles and claims--for example by the Obama administration's own counterterrorism advisor--that Hizballah is now a moderate group despite its shocking promotion of antisemitic hatred.
For the British and French governments, Hizballah and possibly Hamas--whose rhetoric resembles what used to come out of Berlin in the 1930s and 1940s--are moving toward moderation and are worth engaging.
Indeed, as many mainstream newspapers are also showing, it isn’t a barrier to being considered a proper journalist either.
Read All at :
RubinReports: The Return of Antisemitism and the False Inevitability of Middle East Moderation
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment