By Michael Kuttner...
Discordant and cacophonous choruses of hate are emanating once again from around the globe.
Fueled by a tsunami of disinformation and boosted by political opportunism we face a swelling volume of anti Israel incitement. In addition a lurking antipathy towards Jews in general, is casting its poisonous web of lies over an ever increasing swathe of humanity.
Its negative and destructive effects pose challenges for communal leaderships and raise the age old dilemma of how to respond.
In every country except Israel, Jews are in a minority. As demographic and electoral realities become more evident the Sisyphean struggle to safeguard Jewish life grows increasingly harder.
This past week highlights the challenges now emerging and the perilous political roadblocks being erected.
The verbal warfare and diplomatic disconnect between Australia and Israel has been the star attraction and media focus.
Australia’s intention of recognizing a Palestinian fantasy state regardless of any conditional requirements while Hamas still holds sway is at the core of the drama. Albanese and Wong, driven by an extreme left wing ideological agenda, are rushing headlong into appeasing terror.
Their constant drip feed of negative and condemnatory rhetoric has unleashed unprecedented vitriol with mass marches and demonstrations across the continent. Every biased media and UN report and statement has been elevated to holy writ which in turn is morphing into unsubstantiated slanders.
No self respecting Israeli leader should be expected to remain mute in the face of this avalanche of mistruths and outright lies.
When it is accompanied by craven appeasement to jihadist terror the response must be firm, loud and couched in a way that leaves no room for misinterpretation.
Wimpy responses disguised as diplomatic double speak will achieve very little.
The reaction of political and communal leaders was a sight to behold when Netanyahu’s verbal bombardment was revealed. Politicians recoiled in righteous wrath aided and abetted by a mainstream media waiting for such an event to occur. SKY Australia’s commentators to their credit tore shreds from the hypocritical pontifications of the ABC among others.
The responses of communal groups and their assorted spokespersons were astounding.
A collective communal meltdown ensued.
How dare the Prime Minister of a democratic country fighting against jihadist terror actually accuse other political leaders of weakness and appeasement? A frenzied attempt to distance the Jewish community from such plain speaking was demanded. How could Israel stoop to such undiplomatic language? One spokesperson even went so far as to describe Albanese as a “statesman.”
A letter of reprimand was quickly composed urging both Netanyahu and Albanese to cease “insulting each other” and instead engage in civilized discourse. No doubt those demonizing Israel and Zionists could hardly believe their good fortune. The spectacle of Jewish/Zionist groups “running for cover” must be too good to be true.
It exposes an old galut disease known as “trembling knees syndrome.”
It was first identified in 1982 by Israeli Prime Minister, Menachem Begin. In June of that year, Joe Biden was a senator from Delaware and he confronted Begin during a Senate Foreign Relations committee testimony, threatening to cut off aid to Israel. Begin forcefully responded:
“Don’t threaten us with cutting off your aid. It will not work. I am not a Jew with trembling knees. I am a proud Jew with 3,700 years of civilized history. Nobody came to our aid when we dying in the gas chambers and ovens. Nobody came to our aid when we were striving to create our country. We paid for it. We fought for it. We died for it. We will stand by our principles. We will defend them. When necessary we will die for them again, with or without your aid.”
Senator Biden banged on the table with his fist and Begin continued:
“This desk is designed for writing not for fists. Don’t threaten us with slashing aid. Do you think that because the US lends us money it is entitled to impose on us what we must do? We are grateful for the assistance we have received but we are not to be threatened. I am a proud Jew. Three thousand years of culture are behind me and you will not frighten me with threats.”
Can you imagine what Begin would have done with any letter he may have received from Diaspora communal leaders asking him to tone down his language and be more diplomatic?
Ze’ev Jabotinsky, the leader of the Revisionist Movement, which both Begin and Netanyahu emanate from, noted in 1940:
“We hold that Zionism is moral and just. Since it is moral and just, justice must be done, no matter whether Joseph or Simon or Ivan or Achmed agree with it or not.”
In today’s context we can add “no matter whether Albanese, Wong, Luxon, Starmer, Macron, Carey and the UN Secretary General agree with it or not.”
Israel is about to become the first country in the world to pioneer spinal surgery enabling patients to walk again.
Perhaps this revolutionary medical advance could be extended to enable politicians who have already surrendered to jihadist threats to grow a spine and finally confront this growing menace.
Meanwhile, New Zealand’s Prime Minister, Chris Luxon, loses no opportunity to demonstrate his total lack of knowledge, both historically and currently.
Condemning the building of homes for Jews in Judea and Samaria, as well as Jerusalem, he warbles the same old discredited themes of “illegality under international law” and “two state solutions.” According to Luxon, New Zealand and all countries signed up for a Palestine state in 1947.
This claim is total fiction. The UN voted for a Jewish and Arab country. The fictitious “indigenous” Palestinians had not been invented. All Moslem and Arab countries voted against this partition resolution and declared their intention to erase the Jewish State of Israel from the map.
From 1948 until 1967 The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan illegally occupied Judea and Samaria and renamed it the “West Bank.” They also occupied the Old City of Jerusalem, ethnically expelled all Jewish inhabitants and destroyed Synagogues and the Mount of Olives Cemetery. Jews were forbidden to visit and pray at the Kotel.
Not one country currently spouting nonsense about illegal Israel occupation voiced any such condemnation during the years 1948 to 1967. Can Luxon, Albanese and the rest of the UN explain why? Could it by some coincidence have something to do with the fact that Jews have returned to the territories legally part of the Jewish homeland and guaranteed for settlement from the river to the sea?
Perhaps all those intending to recognize a fictional Palestine could explain why when Jordan controlled the territory no effort was made to create such a country. Of course they will never provide a logical answer because the plain facts are that having failed to destroy Israel by military means and terror the jihadists have now found a far better alternative.
Creating a fictional history and revisionist fables are the perfect ways to seduce spineless democracies. Spreading age old lies and libels are far more lethal. Utilizing the ancient virus of Jew hate is much easier than mounting military campaigns.
The success of this strategy can be seen in how political leaders and the media have been successfully subverted.
Those who still believe that peace and tolerance will magically break out once the fake Palestinians have been granted their State in the heartland of Israel are so out of touch with reality that it is painful to behold.
Proof that recognition of Palestine will bring in its wake more terror, incitement and intolerance has been provided by yet another outburst from those touted as harbingers of the messianic age.
During the month of Elul which precedes Rosh Hashanah the shofar is sounded during morning prayers. In an official statement the PA claimed that “shofar blowing is not merely a religious ritual. It is rather a dangerous tool through which Israel seeks to impose its sovereignty and alter the historical and legal status of the Al Aqsa Mosque. It is a blatant violation of international law.”
This is a perfect example of what can be expected after Palestinian recognition is approved at the UN.
All those still advocating such a course of action, need to wake up from their self induced stupidity.
The vast majority of Israelis have no intention of committing national suicide in order to please a gutless and clueless international community.
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.
[This article was originally published on J-Wire and is reproduced here with permission from Michael Kuttner.]
