The anti-Semitism slander
Global warming is a myth, obviously. As Andrew Bolt has informed us time and time again, “alarmists” (also known as climate scientists) are rigging experiments, fabricating evidence, and generally pursuing what Bolt calls a “warmist conspiracy”.
But while the punters are distracted by fantasies of “climate change”, only Andrew and a plucky band of right wing allies have perceived the rise of a real threat to civilisation: the global conspiracy of communists and Muslims hell bent on exterminating Jews in a second Holocaust.
“The Left and mass immigration make Jews here unsafe”, warned Bolt in a recent blog piece. Bolt sees evidence of “the ancient Jew-hatred” because thousands have rallied in opposition to Israel’s massacre of Palestinians in Gaza: “the anti-Semitism behind the rallies against Israel is unmistakeable”.
In the name of protecting freedom and democracy, then – and to prevent the rise of a new form of fascism – we should presumably clamp down on “the Left and mass immigration”.
And so Bolt calls for an immigration policy that will “judge between the civilised and the primitive”; he complains that our “cheapest form of democracy” is a virus that is “weakening our defence of Western culture”; and he attacks “Muslim apologists” for opposing draconian new anti-terror laws.
Far right demagogues have always attacked immigrants, leftists and anti-imperialists. And they’ve always said liberal democracy is too weak to deal with these internal subversives and alien cultures. But they haven’t always done it while invoking the memory of the Holocaust. My people have a word for this: chutzpah.
Anti-Semitism is a repulsive tradition that must be fought wherever it appears. But there’s no rising tide of anti-Semitism in Australia. Instead, there’s a rising tide of slander against the supporters of Palestine: any criticism of Israel is labelled anti-Semitic.
The website of the prominent Zionist lobby group, the Australia/Israel and Jewish Affairs Council (AIJAC), is currently covered with articles justifying Israel’s shelling of hospitals and schools in Gaza. But it also has a series of articles about rising anti-Semitism in Australia and Europe.
The evidence for this new wave of Jew-hatred falls into two categories: on the one hand, egregious but apparently random assaults and hecklings; on the other, rallies against Israeli war crimes. A protester who recently held a sign reading “Gaza = Warsaw Ghetto” is labelled “highly offensive” and yet more evidence of Jew-hatred and embryonic fascism.
Perhaps it will reassure Andrew Bolt and his fellow travellers to know that I’ve been to every recent rally in support of Palestine. At every one of them, I’ve publicly identified as a Jew – sometimes from the stage while giving a speech. The crowds of thousands of people, mostly Muslims, have never uttered a word of anti-Semitic abuse.
Instead they have welcomed and applauded anyone, Jew or Gentile, who stands in solidarity with the oppressed people of Palestine. At every rally, speaker after speaker has taken pains to distinguish Jewishness and Zionism, between Jews and Israel. The rising tide of leftist-Muslim Jew-hatred is an absolute myth.
The comparison between Gaza and the Warsaw Ghetto is not offensive and insulting, but accurate and important. Anyone who knows the history of European anti-Semitism, and who has an honest commitment to helping prevent the repeat of such crimes against humanity, must be struck by the similarities: the dispossession and imprisonment of an entire people, and the heroism and self-sacrifice of the resistance.
Who are the modern equivalents of the classical European anti-Semites? Is it those Muslim migrants who brave racism, Islamophobia, police intimidation and media slander to go out into the streets and raise their voices against global imperialism? Hardly.
Rather, it’s those well-paid journalists, politicians and business leaders who froth and fulminate against alien cultures, subversives and an excess of democracy. It’s the people who call for the imprisonment and deportation of the oppressed and exploited. It’s those pillars of society who make a comfortable living from justifying mass murder. In short, it’s people like Bolt.
And if you want to see the equivalent of modern-day fascism, look no further than the Israeli cabinet ministers Avigdor Lieberman and Naftali Bennett, who call for the total physical expulsion of Palestinians from Palestine, or the recent editorial in the respectable Jerusalem Post calling for the “humanitarian relocation” of “non-belligerent Arabs” – also known as full-scale ethnic cleansing.
The legacy of anti-Semitism is a chilling one. A nationalist conspiracy theory, backed up by the armed might of a totalitarian state, was used to justify some of the greatest crimes of modern capitalism: the Nazi invasions, and the Holocaust.
The lessons of this trauma must be remembered, and used as a guide for action. But not, as some would have it, by demonising Muslims, ignoring the plight of the Palestinians and casting a blind eye on the crimes of the powerful.
Instead we need to wake up to the real threat: mass murderers and their allies in the parliament, the press and the corridors of power.
