How The War Against Israel Is Being Fought Alex Grobman, PhD

Posted By on May 16th, 2017

The State of Israel,” declared David Ben-Gurion, Israel’s first prime minister, “will be judged not by its riches or military power, nor by its technical skills, but by its moral worth and human values.”1 Israel is engaged in a world-wide political war against a vast array of organizations seeking her demise. Attempts to dehumanize her through delegitimization continues unabated.

From debates in universities, among left-wing European movements, academics, church associations, unions, segments of the Western media, human rights groups, entertainers, a number of liberals and some Arab and Third World countries, Israel’s right to exist remains in dispute.2 British journalist Melanie Philips observed: “Israel inspires an obsessional hatred of a type and scale that is directed at no other country.”3

War of Analogy

The goal is to isolate Israel, criminalize her actions and expose her as an international war criminal, an occupier of Arab lands and a rightwing religious theocracy. They want to deny her the fundamental rights of self- defense and security in an asymmetric war, erode her stature, and turn her into a pariah state through lies, disinformation and double standards. To undermine the legal, political and moral justification for the Jewish state, Israel must be seen as the impediment to peace, and an oppressive government with no historic or legal claim to the land of Israel or to Jerusalem her capital. 4

This “War of Analogy,” a term coined by former Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon, describes the spurious analogies comparing Israel to the crusaders, colonialists and the former apartheid regime of South Africa. 5 The war is waged in the media and in cyberspace, with its websites, blogs, social networks and forums.6 The profusion of this technology allows hate speech, in the form of racist and vile comments by readers, to remain for days on respectable mainstream media websites. Access to hate literature and propaganda such as The Protocols of the Elders of Zion and Hitler’s Mein Kampf can easily be purchased at Amazon or read on the Internet.

In response to cyber-attacks, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu established the National Cyber Directorate to create a “digital Iron Dome” to protect the country, and the formation of a national program to train young people for cyber warfare.7

Nathan Sharansky, an Israeli politician, human rights activist and once a refusenik in the former Soviet Union, sees these new attacks as presenting a unique challenge. Traditional antisemitism threatened the Jewish people or the Jewish religion.8 Individual Jews were denied the right “to live as equal members in a society. The new anti-Jewishness denies the right of Jewish people to live as equal members in the family of nations…. All that has happened is that we’ve moved from discrimination against the Jews as individuals to the discrimination against the Jews as a people.9

Leading Global Centers

The danger these “systematic and systemic” assaults pose under the guise of promoting peace, human rights, justice, international law and other “progressive values,” makes this an urgent national security issue. The leading global center for delegitimization is London. Geography and English language make this the “hub of hubs.”10

Additional factors are the concentration of the BBC, Financial Times, The Times of London, Economist and The Guardian, and the presence of several major Arab language newspapers including al-Sharq al-Awsat, al Hayat and Al-Quds al-Arabi. The presence of Cambridge and Oxford universities and the London School of Economics further increases London’s prominence. Many of the thousands of foreign students attending these and other institutions will become important future leaders in their native countries.11

England’s close diplomatic relations with the Commonwealth nations and the European Union, a special relationship with the U.S. and a permanent seat on the U.N. Security Council is another consideration. London is a central location of NGOs (non-governmental organizations) such as Amnesty International, Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Oxfam (humanitarian) and Oxford Research Group (peace and security).12

A stimulus for this campaign is the emergence of the Red-Green Alliance, which is sympathetic to Hamas. The Islamic and Arab Resistance Network and the European Delegitimization Network functioned separately for quite some time. For a number of years now, the British based Islamists and elements of the radical left, who share the same beliefs and objectives, have been actively cooperating. Although they are marginal politically, they have substantially increased their world-wide influence by enlisting European and North American liberal progressive elites to their cause.13

San Francisco Bay Area, Madrid, Paris, Toronto, Brussels, and Johannesburg, South Africa serve as additional hubs that function without a hierarchy and a command center. Each hub, which is crucial to the “networks character, viability and resilience,” acts independently. They have exceptional influence on the whole network as a result of their connection to each other, to the world at large and their intellectual and cultural presence. 14

Strategy

By posing as human rights activists, they vigorously condemn Israeli policies to justify their repudiation of Israel and Zionism.15 Anti-Israel campaigns have already accomplished one major strategic objective; no one is embarrassed in calling for her destruction. The perception that Israel is or might be an illegitimate state creates the sense that her demise is possible and maybe even desirable. The absence of any or even a minimal response to this idea in elite circles means that one can express such views openly and unabashedly in civilized society.16

Articles in the media and discussions in polite society do not advocate the physical annihilation of Israel, only that the Jewish and Zionist character be rescinded. In other words, Jews have no right to self-determination.17

The notion that Israel can be a civil, democratic and a pluralistic society is totally rejected. This despite the fact that Arabic is an official state language, non-Jewish religious holidays are recognized as legal days off for their respective communities, and minorities are granted cultural, religious, educational and judicial autonomy. These basic civic and religious rights have been maintained notwithstanding the continuous conflicts in which Israel is engaged. Historian Efraim Karsh notes that Israeli Arabs have more rights than any ethnic minorities have anywhere else in the democratic world. In contradistinction, in areas under control of the Palestinian Authority, selling land to Jews is a capital offense.18

When one of America’s most liberal Supreme Court Justice William Brennan visited Israel in 1988, law professor Alan Dershowitz recalls how the justice found an enviable legal system with a Supreme Court that is open to everyone, with minimal, if any, limitations on its jurisdiction:

“It may well be Israel, not the United States that provides the best hope for building a jurisprudence that can protect civil liberties against the demands of national security. For it is Israel that has been facing real and serious threats to its security for the last 40 years and seems destined to continue facing such threats in the foreseeable future. The struggle to establish civil liberties against the backdrop of these security threats, while difficult, promises to build bulwarks of liberty that can endure the fears and frenzy of sudden danger – bulwarks to help guarantee that a nation fighting for its survival does not sacrifice those national values that make the fight worthwhile.”19

By contrast, throughout the Middle East, Islam is the state religion which denies civil rights to non-Muslim minorities, who are relegated to the status of dhimmi. This allows them to have a degree of religious freedom, in return for a clearly subservient existence, and at worst from being systematically tormented, oppressed and “being driven away not only by Islamic State, but by governments the U.S. counts as allies in the fight against extremism.” And this is the one state solution being offered as a resolution to conflict.20

Another potential consequence of these anti-Israel campaigns is that the danger of antisemitism, which has long been seen by Jews as a harbinger of profound problems and a clear indication of fissures within society, is marginalized and relegated to the sidelines. The loathing that originates with the Jews does not cease with them. By failing to acknowledge that anti-Zionism is antisemitism, it becomes virtually irrelevant to the larger culture, and is reduced to an “esoteric study of Zionist paranoia.”21

Attacks against the “collective Jew,” have resulted in assaults against individual Jews and institutions throughout Europe and Latin America. 22 This should not be surprising when Jews are portrayed as subhuman. Jewish jurist Andre Gantman reported that when he spoke at the University of Antwerp, a young Muslim dressed in white asked him, “Does human blood flow through your veins?” The classic antisemitic blood libel is also used as a political tool to demonize Jews, Zionism and Israel as an apathetic or complicit world looks on.23

The blood libel is associated with the Jewish holiday of Passover, when Jews allegedly use human blood in matzot (unleavened bread). The blood libel in Arab countries accuses Jews on Purim of using blood in the traditional Hamantaschen, a poppy or prune-filled pastry. The blood libel was linked to the Christian notion of transubstantiation—the matzoh of the last supper as the flesh of Jesus and the wine as his blood.24

For many Muslims, Jews are “the descendants of apes and pigs” and other animals, and “the scum of the human race, the rats of the world, the violators of pacts and agreements, [and] the murderers of the prophets.” When dehumanized in such a visceral manner, and accused of such vile acts, it becomes prudent and obligatory to eliminate Jews, with whatever means available.25

Significantly no such questions are raised about the legitimacy of the U.S., Britain, France, Italy or the numerous nation-states in Africa and Asia whose arbitrary boundaries were created by colonial nations a century ago. No one doubts the legality of these artificial countries whose borders traverse tribal and ethnic areas, even though they often hinder national unity and cohesiveness.26

Only the state of Israel, with a history of Jewish presence in the land for more than 2,000 years, has been singled out. Rarely mentioned, if ever, is that Israel is the sole member state of the U.N whose right to exist was recognized by the League of Nations and the U.N. From May 11, 1949 when Israel was formally admitted as the 59th U.N. Member State, the question of whether Israel is a state became legally irrelevant.

It is remarkable Israel’s legal status is still questioned and continually rejected observed Alan Dershowitz. “No other nation with such high standards of morality has ever been regarded as so immoral by so many members of the media, academia, and the intellectual elite. No other United Nations member state is so is overtly threatened with destruction without reproach from the U.N. General Assembly or Security Counsel.”27

The concept of legitimacy developed around the 17th century to understand the foundation for which a state could justify moral duty of its citizens to obey government. In this context, and this alone, the term legitimacy is appropriate according to philosophy professor Elhanan Yakira. “Legitimacy is a matter between the state and people; it is not possible for the state itself to be “’illegitimate.’”28 Moreover, despite the obvious, current failed state nature of countries such as Syria, Libya and Iraq, for example, there no are international calls for their delegitimization.

Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS)

Equally incredible is that Israel is the only state whose citizens are viewed as the legitimate successors to Nazi ideology; whose economy is repeatedly threatened with calls for boycotts, divestment and sanctions (BDS); and whose actions and policies are continually denounced by the international community.29 No question is raised as to how the dissolution of Israel might affect the Jews inside and outside of the Jewish state.30

By design it would seem that the term delegitimization does not appear in the title of the boycott movement. Instead, the words Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) define the movement’s objectives. Yet delegitimizing Israel is the ultimate goal of the BDS movement. 31 Supporters of the global BDS campaign claim to have exposed the “essential nature” of Israel’s relationship with the Palestinian Arabs as a combination of “military occupation, colonization, ethnic cleansing, and apartheid.”32

This means that “Justice and freedom for the Palestinians are incompatible with the existence of the state of Israel,” according to As’ad AbuKhalil, a Lebanese-American professor of political science at California State University, Stanislaus.33 And Palestinian Arabs affirm “their right to set the parameters and overall strategy of the BDS movement and to remain at the forefront of the movement as its legitimate frame of reference and its anchor.” 34

The foundation of the BDS movement began in the 1960s as historian Joel Fishman has shown, under the aegis of the U.N., where the initial conversations were held that branded apartheid a form of racism. On November 10, 1975, the 37th anniversary of the Kristallnacht (Night of the Broken Glass), these discussions culminated in a very real threat to Israel’s legitimacy. On that day, the U.N. General Assembly declared that Zionism is Racism (Z=R) by passing Resolution 3379. When the U.N. General Assembly passed the December 14, 1973 resolution condemning the “unholy alliance between South African racism and Zionism,” it was the first time Zionism was associated with racism in a U.N. General Assembly resolution. 35

The avowed purpose of the U.N. Durban Conference (August 31 to September 7, 2001) and the BDS movement is to ensure that Zionism is equated with apartheid and racism.36. Hundreds of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) at the conference agreed to use boycotts and other means of political warfare to achieve this objective. NGO Monitor, which analyzes the programs of NGOs professing to further human rights and humanitarian causes, described how “the boycott campaign involves dozens of NGOs and is funded through tens of millions of dollars, euros, krona, and pounds, provided primarily by European governments, including indirectly via highly biased aid frameworks. Since much of this European funding is secret, in violation of democratic norms, not all the details are known.” 37

BDS is the third attempt by the Arabs to destroy Israel asserts Moshe Arens, who served three times as Israeli Defense Minister and once as Foreign Minister. The first wave began on May 14-15, 1948, when David Ben-Gurion declared Israel an independent state and the armies of Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Transjordan, Iraq and a Saudi Arabian contingent attacked the nascent Jewish state. The second attempt began with the Palestinian Arab terror campaign, intended to divide Israeli society after the Yom Kippur War, when they were assisted by international terrorist gangs such as Baader-Meinhof and the Japanese Red Army. 38

These toxic invectives must be taken seriously warns Arens. Throughout Jewish history, delegitimization has been used to “lethal effect.” The twisted road to Auschwitz began when Adolph Hitler succeeded in delegitimizing, marginalizing and dehumanizing the Jews. The process started 39 when Hitler launched a nation-wide boycott on April 1, 1933 aimed at Jewish businesses and professionals. 40

Ruth Gavison, professor of Human Rights at the Hebrew University, agrees that this very real threat should not be underestimated, dismissed or ignored. “Only a state whose existence is justified by its citizens can hope to endure,” she observed. “The existence of such a state is an important condition for the security of its Jewish citizens and the continuation of Jewish civilization. The establishment of Israel as a Jewish state was justified at the time of independence half a century ago, and its preservation continues to be justified today.”41

Israel’s response has to be that the West is being duped by her enemies about the nature of her society and people. Israel is the real victim and the one being defamed. 42

As Kasim Hafeez, a British Muslim raised to hate Israel until a visit to the country transformed his views pointed out, the issue “is not about religion and politics; it is about truth. When it comes to Israel, the truth is not being heard, the ranks of those filled with blind hatred continue to swell, yet many have not been exposed to the reality, away from the empty rhetoric and politically charged slogans they are so fond of.”

Israel is not only a Jewish issue it is about “freedom, human rights and democracy, all the values that Western nations cherish. It’s also about Israel’s humanitarian aid work speaks for itself, but if we don’t get the message out, no one will.” 43

 

 Footnotes

  1. David Ben-Gurion, Rebirth and Destiny of Israel (New York: Philosophical Library, 1954), 399.
  2. “Basic De-Legitimization of Israel,” The Reut Institute (May 12, 2004); “Anti-Semitism, anti-Zionism, anti-Israel incitement becoming increasingly interrelated,’” Israel Hayom (April 18, 2012). Edward Said, The Question of Palestine (New York: Vintage Books, 1979) , 7-8, 10, 69, 71.; Hassan Nafaa, “Manifest Colonial Domination,” Al-Ahram (August 9-15, 2007) Issue Number 857; Baptist Missionary Society UK   http://www.bmsworldmission.org/engagecatalyst/mission%20catalyst/israel%20/%20palestine; Richard P. Stevens, “Zionism as a Phase of Western Imperialism,” in Transformation of Palestine, Ibrahim Abu-Lughod, Ed. (Evanston, Illinois: Northwestern University Press, 1987), 27-59; Sami Hadawi, Bitter Harvest: Palestine Between 1914-1967 (New York: The New World Press, 1967), 3-8; Sami Hadawi, Palestinian Rights And Losses In 1948: A Comprehensive Study (London: Saqi Books, 1988); Mohamed Sid-Ahmed, op.cit. 110-11, 115. 125; William A. Quandt, “Ideology and Objectives,” in The Politics of Palestinian Nationalism William B. Quandt, Fuad Jabber and Ann Mosely Lesch, Eds. (Berkeley, California: University of California Press, 1973), 100-107; Yehoshafat Harkabi, Arab Strategies and Israel’s Response (New York: The Free Press, 1977); Kathleen Christianson, Perceptions of Palestine: Their Influence on U.S. Middle East Policy (Berkeley, California: University of California Press, 2000), 1-4; Robert Kagan, “America’s Crisis of Legitimacy,” The New York Times (March 31, 2004).
  3. Melanie Phillips, The World Turned Upside Down: The Global Battle Over Go, Truth, and Power (New York: Encounter Books, 2010), 53.

4.“Basic De-Legitimization of Israel,” op.cit.); Noam Chomsky, “In Israel, a Tsunami Warning,” In Those Times (July 7, 2011); Manfred Gerstenfeld, “The de-legitimization war,” Ynet (July 11, 2012); Dore Gold, “The Levy Report and the ‘occupation’ narrative,’” Israel Hayom (July 20, 2012); Richard Baehr, “Why Does the Left Hate Israel,” American Thinker (December 27, 2005); Moshe Yaalon, “The Assault on Israel’s Roots, Engines and Tools,” in Parliamentary Role In Addressing The Assault Against Israel and The Jewish People: Repairing The Jewish Condition Jerusalem: The Knesset, The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (June 27-29, 2011): 17-18; Gil Troy, “No, Israel isn’t Turning into an Iran-Style Theocracy,” The New Republic (February 2, 2012); Jimmy Carter, Peace Not Apartheid (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2006); Ben White, Israeli Apartheid: A Beginner’s Guide (New York: Pluto Books, 2009); Kenneth W. Stein, “My Problem with Jimmy Carter’s Book,” Middle East Quarterly (Spring 2007): 3-15; Mitchell Bard, The Arab Lobby: The Invisible Alliance That Undermines America’s Interests in the Middle East (New York: HarperCollins, 2010); Marwan Bishara, Palestine/Israel: Peace or Apartheid: Occupation, Terrorism and the Future (New York: Zed Books, Ltd. 2002); Ehud Sprinzak, “Anti-Zionism: From Delegitimation to Dehumanization,” Forum-53 (Fall1984):3-5; Ambassador Dore Gold, “The Challenge of Israel’s Legitimacy: Trends and Implication,” Global Law Forum: Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs (2010); Yehouda Shenhav, Beyond the Two-State Solution: A Jewish Political Essay (Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, 2012).

  1. Moshe Yaalon, op.cit; Fayez A. Sayegh, Ph.D. Zionist Colonialism in Palestine (Beirut: Research Center, Palestine Liberation Organization, 1965): 16-17-20-25; Efraim Karsh, “The war against the Jews,” op.cit. 329; Manfred Gerstenfeld, “The de-legitimization war: Israel should designate de-legitimization as war, launch orderly effort to fight it,” Ynet (July 11, 2012); Stephen H. Norwood, Antisemitism and the American Far Left (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2013), 217-222; Alan Johnson “The Left and the Jews: Time for a Rethink,” Fathom (Autumn 2015).
  2. Gardner, op.cit; “Anti-Semitism, anti-Zionism, anti-Israel incitement becoming increasingly interrelated,” Israel Hayom (April 18, 2012). Rabbi Abraham Cooper, “Threats of Anti-Semitism and Terrorism on the Internet,” in Manfred Gerstenfeld, Demonizing Israel and the Jews (New York: RVP Press 2013), 97-99; Ronald Eissens, “Fighting Discrimination and Anti-Semitism on the Internet,” in Manfred Gerstenfeld, Demonizing Israel and the Jews op.cit. 100-102.
  3. Yoni Hirsch and Ilan Gattegno, “Netanyahu announces ‘digital Iron Dome’ to battle cyberattacks,” Israel Hayom (October 14, 2012); “Netanyahu: We’re building a digital Iron Dome,” The Jerusalem Post (January 1, 2013).
  4. Nathan Sharansky, “3D Test of Anti-Semitism: Demonization, Double Standards. Delegitimization,” Jewish Political Studies Review Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs 16:3-4 (Fall 2004).
  5. Irwin Cotler, “Why Is Israel Singled Out?” The Jerusalem Post (January 16, 2002); Richard Baehr, “Is There a New Antisemitism?” American Thinker (April 3, 2011); Elliott A. Green, “How today’s anti-Zionism continues the old antisemitism,” The Coordination Forum For Countering Antisemitism (January 1, 2013).
  6. “Building a Political Firewall against the Assault on Israel’s Legitimacy: London as a Case Study. “The Reut Institute (November 2010):1, 14-16, 24-25; “2011: The Year We Punched Back on the Assault of Israel’s legitimacy,” The Reut Institute (November 25, 2011): 3.
  7. Ibid.
  8. “Building a Political Firewall against the Assault on Israel’s Legitimacy: London as a Case Study.”op.cit.24.
  9. Ibid. 24-25; “Something is Rotten in the State of Europe”: Anti-Semitism as a Civilizational Pathology,” An Interview with Robert Wistrich, Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs No. 25 (October 1, 2004).
  10. “2011: The Year We Punched Back on the Assault of Israel’s legitimacy,” The Reut Institute (November 25, 2011): 3; 23, 42.
  11. Ibid.
  12. Elhanan Yakira, “On Anti-Zionism and Anti-Israelism,” in The Changing Forms of Incitement to Terror and Violence: The Need for a New International Response, Alan Baker, Ed. (Jerusalem: Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, 2012), 45-46.
  13. Elhanan Yakira, Post-Zionism, Post-Holocaust (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2010), ix, xi, 305,307; Alan Dershowitz, The Case For Israel (Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, 2003), 198.
  14. Efraim Karsh, “The war against the Jews,” Israel Affairs Middle East Forum (July 2012); Khaled Abu Toameh, “Selling a House to a Jew is a Betrayal of Allah,” Gatestone Institute (June 20, 2016); The Tower organization staff, “Watchdog Group B’Tselem Rattled by Accusations of Endangering Palestinian Land Dealers,” The Tower (January 1, 2016); Elhanan Miller, “Abbas toughens law against Palestinians selling land to Jews,” The Times of Israel (October 21, 2014); Daniel Halper, “Palestinian Sentenced to Death for Selling a Home to Jews,” The Weekly Standard (April 23, 2012); Efraim Karsh, “The revisionist history of Sari Nusseibeh,” The Jerusalem Post (October 10, 2011); Shlomo Avineri, “We are a people, a response to Sari Nusseibeh,” Haaretz (October 12, 2011). Yet, for many Western intellectuals, anti-Zionism does not have to be justified or even explained. Sari Nusseibeh, “Why Israel can’t be a ‘Jewish State,” Aljazeera (September 30, 2011); Victor David Hansen, “The Western Disease,” National Review (December 30, 2003). Those rejecting the right of self-determination for the Jewish people are furthering the cause of those seeking her demise .Joseph Levine, “On Questioning the Jewish State,” The New York Times (March 9, 2013); Jonathan S. Tobin “Why Debate the Jewish State? Prejudice,” Commentary (March 13, 2013).
  15. Alan M. Dershowitz, “Israel’s Gift to the World,” New York Post (May 5, 2008); Aviad Bakshi, “Basic Law proposal: Israel as the Nation State of the Jewish People the liberal justification,” The Institute for Zionist Strategies (October, 2013); 1-52. Hebrew.
  16. Maria Abi-Habib, “Christians, in an Epochal Shift, Are Leaving the Middle East,” The Wall Street Journal (May 12, 2017); Karsh, op.cit; Daniel Pipes, “Why politicians pretend Islam has no role in violence, ”The Washington Times (March 9, 2015); Raphael Israeli, “The New Muslim Anti-Semitism: Exploring Novel Avenues of Hatred,” Jewish Political Studies Review Volume 17:3-4 Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs (Fall 2005); Daniel Pipes, “The Politics of Muslim Anti-Semitism,” Commentary (August 1981): 39-45; Daniel Pipes, “Distinguishing between Islam and Islamism,” Center for Strategic and International Studies (June 30, 1998); Brian Whitaker, “The ongoing battle for gay rights in the Arab world,” Foreign Policy (March 12, 2012); Bernard Lewis, The Crisis of Islam: Holy War and Unholy Terror (New York: Modern library, 2003), 5-28;Bernard Lewis, “On The Jewish Question,” The Wall Street Journal (November 26, 2007): A21; Bernard Lewis, “Freedom and Justice in the Modern Middle East,” Foreign Affairs (May/June 2005).
  17. Mark Gardner, “Old” and “New”: Contemporary British Antisemitism,” Engage Issue 5 (September 2007).
  18. “In France, anti-Semitic incidents more than doubled between 2014 and 2015, from 423 reported incidents to 851. From January to July, anti-Semitic incidents in the UK increased by 11% according to the UK’s Common Security Trust. And this prejudice is increasing.” Robbie Travers, “Jews Under Assault in Europe,” Gatestone Institute (February 22, 2017); According to Michael Whine, Government and International Affairs Director of the Community Security Trust, the charity which advises the British Jewish community on security, “terrorist Incidents against Jewish Communities and Israeli Citizens Abroad 1968-2010 lists attacks and foiled plots in 57 countries over this period, with the largest number occurring in France (51 attacks), the USA (34 attacks) and Italy (33 attacks). Jewish communities were the targets in 250 attacks or foiled attacks, whereas Israel-linked institutions and individuals were the target in 189 cases. Of the former, synagogues were the targets of 88 actual and attempted terror attacks, while Jewish schools were targets on 16 occasions.” Michael Whine: The abiding threat to Jews worldwide,” Conservativehome (August 4, 2011); András Kovács, Ed. Eastern European Antisemitism “Antisemitic Incidents from Around the World, July–December 2012 A Selected List,” in Journal for the Study of Antisemitism Volume 4 Issue #2 (2012):367-385; Manfred Gerstenfeld, “All eyes on Toulouse.” Ynet (March 22.2012); Manfred Gerstenfeld, “Killer becomes a ‘victim,’” Ynet (March 29, 2012); “The Old in the New Anti-Semitism,” Per Ahlmark http://www.projecsyndicate.org/commentary/ahlmark3/English); Joshua Davidovich, “Study shows growth in European anti-Semitism: Minister Yuli Edelstein, pointing to lack of significant uptick during Pillar of Defense, says incidents unrelated to Israeli policies,” The Times of Israel (January 27, 2013); Andrew Higgins,“3 Shot Dead at Brussels Jewish Museum,” The New York Times (may 24, 2014)
  19. Manfred Gerstenfeld, “Auschwitz Forgotten: Anti-Semitism in Belgium,” Israel National News (April 18, 2012).
  20. Raphael Israeli, Blood Libel and Its Derivatives: The Scourge of Anti-Semitism (New Brunswick, New Jersey: Transaction Publishers, 2012), 167.
  21. “The blood in the matza [sic] myth has a long history. In its original form Jews were accused of killing a Christian, preferably a child, on Easter to mock Christ on the day commemorating his crucifixion. Since Easter and the Jewish Pesach, or Passover, fall at the same time in the year, the tale evolved to include the claim that the Jews used the blood of their victims in religious rituals… It was also said that Jews used blood in the manufacture of medicines.” Arieh Stav, Peace: The Arabian Caricature of Anti-Semitic Imagery (New York: Gefen Books, 1999), 232; “The Damascus Blood Libel (1840) as told by Syria’s Minister of Defense, Mustafa Tlass,” MEMRI Inquiry and Analysis Series – Number 99 (July 27, 2002); “The Jews Used To “Hunt Down A Pure And Innocent Christian Child, And Use His Blood To Make Matzas,” MEMRI Special Dispatch Number 5294 (May 5, 2013.)
  22. Aluma Solnick, “Based on Koranic Verses, Interpretations, and Traditions, Muslim Clerics State: The Jews Are Descendants of Apes, Pigs, And Other Animals,” MEMRI Special Report Number 11 (November 1, 2002); “Speaker of Palestinian Legislative Council Ahmad Bahr Refers to Jews as “Brothers of Pigs and Apes,” MEMRI Number1553 (August 21, 2007), For other examples of the virulent statements against the Jews see Raphael Israeli, Peace In The Eye of the Beholder (Berlin, Germany: Walter de Gruyter, 1985), and Raphael Israeli, Palestinians Between Nationalism and Islam (Portland, Oregon: Vallentine Mitchell, 2008), 106-108; Raphael Israeli, “The New Muslim Anti-Semitism: Exploring Novel Avenues of Hatred,” Jewish Political Studies Review Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs 17:3-4 (fall 2005); Rivka Yadlin, “Anti-Jewish Imagery   in the Contemporary Arab Muslim World,” in Demonizing the Other: Antisemitism, Racism and Xenophobia Robert S. Wistrich, Ed. (London, England: Routledge, 2003), 310-321; Neil J. Kressel, “The Sons of Pigs and Apes”: Muslim Antisemitism and the Conspiracy of Silence (Washington, D.C.: Potomac Books), 2012.)
  23. Gold, “The Challenge of Israel’s Legitimacy,” op.cit.
  24. Alan M. Dershowitz, “Israel’s Gift to the World,” New York Post (May 5, 2008).
  25. Elhanan Yakira, “On Anti-Zionism and Anti-Israelism,” in The Changing Forms of Incitement to Terror and Violence: The Need for a New International Response, Alan Baker, Ed. (Jerusalem: Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, 2012), 45.
  26. Efraim Karsh, “The war against the Jews,” Israel Affairs Middle East Forum (July 2012):336).
  27. Ben Cohen, “The Ideological Foundations of the Boycott Campaign Against Israel,” (New York: American Jewish Committee (September 2007):3.
  28. Moshe Arens, “The real goal of BDS: Delegitimizing Israel,” Haaretz (February 10, 2014).
  29. Omar Barghouti, BDS: Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions: The Global Struggle For Palestinian Rights (Chicago, Illinois: Haymarket Books, 2011), 11; Adam Horowitz and Philip Weiss, “The Boycott Divestment Sanctions Movement: BDS has become a key battleground in the struggle over the future of Israel/Palestine,” The Nation (June 9, 2010); Ben White, “Boycotts that aid the Palestinians,” Al Jazeera (August 16, 2013); Alex Grobman, BDS: The Movement to Destroy Israel (Englewood Cliffs: New Jersey: San Remo Press, 2015); Jed Babbin, Herbert London, The BDS War Against Israel: The Orwellian Campaign to Destroy Israel Through the Boycott, Divestment (CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2014); Eugene Kontorovich, “Can States Fund BDS? Is banning the use of public money to support companies that boycott Israel unconstitutional and illegal? Tablet (July 13, 2015); Benjamin Weinthal and Asaf Romirowsky, “How New York can help stop Europe’s rampaging Israel boycotters,” The New York Post (May 10, 2016).
  30. As’ad AbuKhalil, “A Critique of Norman Finkelstein on BDS,” Al-Akhbar (February 17, 2012).
  31. “BDS and the Israeli Left,” BRICUP Newsletter #20 (September 16, 2009); Mustafa Barghouthi, “Freedom in Our Lifetime,” Audrea Lim, Ed. The Case for Sanctions Against Israel (Brooklyn, New York: Verso, 2012), 3-11.
  32. Joel Fishman, ““A Disaster of Another Kind”: Zionism= Racism, Its Beginning, and the War of Delegitimization against Israel,” Israel Journal of Foreign Affairs Volume 3 (2011):75;
  33. Thomas Mayer, “The UN Resolution Equating Zionism with Racism: Genesis and Repercussions,” London: Institute of Jewish Affairs (April 1985), 1; Yohanan Manor, To Right A Wrong, The Revocation of the UN General Assembly Resolution 3379 Defaming Zionism (New York: Shengold Publishers, Inc., 1996), 4, 8-9; Alex Grobman, Nations United: How The United Nations Undermines Israel and the West (Green Forest, Arkansas: Balfour Books, 2006); Gil Troy, Moynihan’s Moment: America’s Fight Against Zionism as Racism (New York: Oxford University Press, 2012).
  34. “The Boycott Industry: Background Information and Analysis on BDS Campaigns,” NGO Monitor (February 3, 2014).
  35. Arens, op.cit.
  36. Ibid.
  37. Thousands of “defensive guards” appointed by the brown-shirted Nazi Sturmabteilung (SA) and black uniformed SS were sent to “inform” the public that a particular owner of an establishment was Jewish. At meeting in Munich on April 1st, Julius Streicher, chairman of the boycott steering committee, and founder and publisher of Der Stürmer, the fanatically antisemitic weekly Nazi newspaper, received a tumultuous ovation when he declared, “The Jews who crucified Christ are now themselves on the way to Golgotha,” where Jesus was crucified. Raul Hilberg, The Destruction of the European Jews Third Edition Volume I (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2003), 95-96.

The Jewish Telegraphic Agency Daily News Bulletin reported signs in English and German declaring “Germans, Defend Yourself Against Jewish Propaganda of Atrocities by Not Buying from Jews.” Cameras were positioned outside large Jewish stores to photograph anyone defying the boycott. Large posters warned that the photographs of those who dared to enter a shop, would be shown in the local cinemas that evening.

German Physicians’ and Dentists’ Societies and Bar Associations issued proclamations and appeals to the public to avoid Jewish doctors, dentists and lawyers. The Nazis picketed the offices of Jewish professionals and intimidated patients and clients. The Nazis even stationed their thugs at Jewish hospitals, which were renowned for their medical treatment and admitting patients regardless of creed. “Anti-Jewish Boycott Opens Throughout Germany; Armed Nazis Picket Jewish Stores and Offices of Jewish,” Jewish Telegraphic News Bulletin (April 3, 1933).

  1. Ruth Gavison, “The Jews’ Right To Statehood: A Defense, A new look at Zionism from the perspective of universal rights,” Azure number 15 (Summer 2003).
  2. Charles Jacobs, “Israel Apartheid Week – Campus Blood Libel,” Frontpagemag (March 15, 2013); Ruth R. Wisse, If I Am Not For Myself: The Liberal Betrayal of The Jews (New York: The Free Press, 1992), 13-14; “Israel Apartheid Week,” The Reut Institute (July 17, 2009); Michael Oren, “What Happened to Israel’s Reputation,” The Wall Street Journal (May 15, 2012).
  3. Kasim Hafeez, “Muslim, Zionist and proud,” Ynet (April 25, 2012); for examples of this work, see Marcella Rosen, Tiny Dynamo: How one of the World’s Smallest Countries is Producing Some of our Most Important Inventions (New York: Untold News 2013); Dan Senor and Saul Singer, Start-up Nation: The Story of Israel’s Economic Miracle (New York: Twelve, 2009; George Gilder, The Israel Test (Minneapolis, Minnesota: Richard Vigilante Books, 2009).

In January 2010, Brigadier General Itzik Kreiss led the IDF delegation that joined the global effort in assisting Haiti’s earthquake victims. Almost five years later, in September 2014, he spoke of his experiences at the TedMedLive conference in Jerusalem. Watch him share stories of hope, dedication, leadership and medicine. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6m1xszNBPg.  Professor Kreiss is now the director of Sheba Medical Center at Tel-Hashomer.

Alex Grobman is a Hebrew University-trained historian, is a consultant to the America-Israel Friendship League and a member of the Council of Scholars for Scholars for Peace in the Middle East (SPME).

Copyright © 2017 Alex Grobman All Rights Reserved.

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