The Leftist hatred of Israel IS antisemitism (Jew-hatred)

And Jews who hate their Jewish identity are all too common. They don't like being in a hated group so they join the haters in an effort to cast off that identity

Antisemitism (AS), like any other prejudice, is the unfair treatment of individuals based on group characteristics. In academia, antisemitic prejudice operated in various vicious forms before the defeat of Hitler, the most notable example being the prejudicial treatment of German Jewish academics. In the years after the war, and until recently, this sort of prejudice was essentially eliminated at least at an organizational or institutional level not only in European and Australian universities, but also in North American universities..... During the last decade, however, some subtle forms of AS have arisen in the democracies of the free world. I regard the move by various academic organizations and institutions to boycott all Israeli academics in such matters as academic contacts, appointments to editorial boards, and collaboration in internationally funded research, as underpinned by antisemitism, even though some Jews have supported the boycott.

Let me give you the background, which you might like to supplement with the list of boycott highlights I have provided at the end of your handout. The academic anti-Israeli boycott began in April, 2002 on British soil, when The Guardian published an open letter from Professors Steven and Hilary Rose (both are Jews). The letter, signed by over 120 people, advocated a moratorium on all cultural and research links with Israel until Israel changed its internal policies which were labeled an apartheid regime, and its external policies such as the way it dealt with the problem of the so-called militant Palestinian freedom fighters. A few weeks later, a similar initiative was begun in Australia, headed by a Jewish and a Christian Lebanese academic, and this letter initially secured some 90 signatures. The proposers set up a petition online, which is still registering signatures (about 3000 so far).

The first thing that struck me about this proposed boycott is that this action against individuals because of the policies of their government is not proposed for academics living under governments whose policies are far more objectionable than Israel's. It is this feature that makes me suspect that this boycott is antisemitic rather than merely anti-Israel or anti-Zionist. For example, no boycotts have been proposed of Chinese academics on account of the Chinese government's policies toward Tibetans and the Falun Gong. This boycott applies a double standard, in a prejudicial way, and singles out members of the Jewish state for special treatment.

We are all familiar with double standards when it comes to judgments of Israel. A particularly notable application of the double standard occurred when Louise Arbour the U. N. High Commissioner for Human Rights and former Canadian member of the Supreme Court argued that if Israeli (but no other soldiers) accidentally killed civilians, they should, in her expert opinion, be charged with war crimes. The 2nd and 3rd web references under the first claim analyse Arbour's opinion in some detail, and I think this is justified, given the status and supposed legal expertise of this former supreme court judge.

But rather than cite other examples of the double standard that is applied to Israel, let me just refer to a recent statement by Nobel prize winning physicist Steven Weinberg, who declined an invitation from the Imperial College London because of its support for the boycott. This Nobel laureate wrote: "I know that some will say that these boycotts are directed only against Israel, rather than generally against Jews," he wrote. "But given the history of the attacks on Israel and the oppressiveness and aggressiveness of other countries in the Middle East and elsewhere, boycotting Israel indicated a moral blindness for which it is hard to find any explanation other than anti-Semitism."

Much more here

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ELSEWHERE

Big rise in serious British crime: "Deployments of armed police have increased by 53 per cent in a decade, according to the Home Office. The number of incidents rose from 12,379 in 1996-97 to 18,891 in 2005-06. In London, the number rose from 2,439 to 4,711 while in the West Midlands it went from 270 to 1,044."

Oh to be a Muslim in Britain, and to enjoy the fruits of being a protected class: "Politically correct MoD officials are to issue free hijabs to female Muslim troops - while front line soldiers are having to buy their own kit. Under new service dress regulations, six of the Islamic hijabs will be given to each Muslim servicewoman wanting them. But it has sparked fury amid an MoD cash crisis. Squaddies also claim the hand-out is unfair as they pay out of their own pockets to observe strict military dress rules. The Sun can also reveal that so far, NONE of the ten serving female Muslims even wants to wear hijabs at work. But MoD officials have ordered a batch of 95 - costing hundreds to the taxpayer - just in case new recruits do. One serving NCO told The Sun last night: "It's stupid officials being too PC again, spending money on pointless things rather than on the front line."... Earlier this year squaddies in Iraq were forced to buy their own kit. One dog handler forked out 85 pounds for new boots after his feet were left in agony by ill-fitting kit."

Israeli medics treat Iraqi Arabs: "Israeli doctors screened 40 Iraqi children suffering from heart disease Tuesday - a rare case of direct cooperation between the Jewish state and the Arab country. The doctors said they hoped their work would help improve relations between the two Mideast nations and ease tensions between Israel and the rest of the Arab world.... The Iraqi children and their parents gathered at an outpatient clinic in the Red Crescent Hospital in the Jordanian capital, Amman. Most of the families were Sunni Muslims of Kurdish origin who live in northern Iraq. Also among them were three Sunni families who live in Baghdad. One child screened Tuesday was 4-year-old Mustafa, who Houri said was diagnosed with crossed arteries and would need two surgeries in Israel soon to unfold them before they harden. Mustafa's mother, a Kurdish woman who identified herself only as Suzanne because she feared reprisals from militants in Iraq, said traveling to Israel made her "anxious. Not because I'm going to a country considered an enemy of Iraq, but because I'm afraid of retribution by Iraqi militants, by the terrorists back home." "Israel is a good country. It's a country that has mercy on other people," she added. Abu Ahmed, 36, a taxi driver from the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk, said his 12-year-old daughter, Basita, underwent a successful surgery in Israel last year. "The Israeli doctors, bless their hearts, stitched a notch in her heart," he said. "They told me today that she recovered completely, and I'm grateful to them and their country for helping us out."

Why the Left hates America: "America has been enormously beneficial to the World. Technological and scientific contributions aside, she saved the World in WWI, WWII, and the Cold War with her own blood, stamina, resolve, convictions and material resources. One of the results was the effective democratization of Germany, Italy and Japan, the three bestial aggressors of WWII. Another result was the effective containing worldwide of Soviet Expansionism and the collapse of the Soviet Empire, along with the democratization of Eastern Europe. In a period of about ten years, America had liberated diminutive Grenada and little Panama, stopped pro-Soviet-communist expansionism in Central America, expelled Saddam Hussein’s hordes out of Kuwait, and defused the conflict in the Balkans. In less than a two-year span, America had freed 30 million Afghanis from the Taliban and Al-Qaeda, and 27 millions of Iraqis, from Saddam Hussein. In the process, America had given Afghanis and Iraqis the opportunity to, for the first time in their more than 5,000 years of history, breathe the fresh breeze of effective democracy".

For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, IMMIGRATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL and EYE ON BRITAIN.

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"Why should the German be interested in the liberation of the Jew, if the Jew is not interested in the liberation of the German?... We recognize in Judaism, therefore, a general anti-social element of the present time... In the final analysis, the emancipation of the Jews is the emancipation of mankind from Judaism.... Indeed, in North America, the practical domination of Judaism over the Christian world has achieved as its unambiguous and normal expression that the preaching of the Gospel itself and the Christian ministry have become articles of trade... Money is the jealous god of Israel, in face of which no other god may exist". Who said that? Hitler? No. It was Karl Marx. See also here and here and here.

The Big Lie of the late 20th century was that Nazism was Rightist. It was in fact typical of the Leftism of its day. It was only to the Right of Stalin's Communism. The very word "Nazi" is a German abbreviation for "National Socialist" (Nationalsozialistisch) and the full name of Hitler's political party (translated) was "The National Socialist German Workers' Party".

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