July 30, 2011
The
New Anti-Semitism
By Uri Avnery
The
Nazi Propaganda Minister, Dr. Joseph Goebbels, calls his boss,
Adolf Hitler, by hell-phone.
"Mein Führer,"
he exclaims excitedly. "News from the world. It seems we
were on the right track, after all. Anti-Semitism is conquering
Europe!"
"Good!"
the Führer says, "That will be the end of the Jews!"
"Hmmm…well…not
exactly, mein Führer. It looks as though we chose the wrong
Semites. Our heirs, the new Nazis, are going to annihilate the
Arabs and all the other Muslims in Europe." Then, with a
chuckle, "After all, there are many more Muslims than Jews
to exterminate."
"But what
about the Jews?" Hitler insists.
"You won't
believe this: the new Nazis love Israel, the Jewish State - and
Israel loves them!"
THE atrocity
committed this week by the Norwegian neo-Nazi - is it an isolated
incident? Right-wing extremists all over Europe and the US are
already declaiming in unison: "He does not belong to us!
He is just a lone individual with a deranged mind! There are crazy
people everywhere! You cannot condemn a whole political camp for
the deeds of one single person!"
Sounds familiar.
Where did we hear this before?
Of course, after
the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin.
There is no
connection between the Oslo mass-murder and the assassination
in Tel Aviv. Or is there?
During the months
leading up to Rabin's murder, a growing hate campaign was orchestrated
against him. Almost all the Israeli right-wing groups were competing
among themselves to see who could demonize him most effectively.
In one demonstration,
a photo-montage of Rabin in the uniform of an [] SS officer was
paraded around. On the balcony overlooking this demonstration,
Binyamin Netanyahu could be seen applauding wildly, while a coffin
marked "Rabin" was paraded below. Religious groups staged
a medieval, kabbalistic ceremony, in which Rabin was condemned
to death. Senior rabbis took part in the campaign. No right-wing
or religious voices were raised in warning.
The actual murder
was indeed carried out by a single individual, Yigal Amir, a former
settler, the student of a religious university. It is generally
assumed that before the deed he consulted with at least one senior
rabbi. Like Anders Behring Breivik, the Oslo murderer, he planned
his deed carefully, over a long time, and executed it cold-bloodedly.
He had no accomplices.
OR HAD he? Were
not all the inciters his accomplices? Does not the responsibility
rest with all the shameless demagogues, like Netanyahu, who hoped
to ride to power on the wave of hatred, fears and prejudice?
As it turned
out, their calculations were confirmed. Less than a year after
the assassination, Netanyahu indeed came to power. Now the right-wing
is ruling Israel, becoming more radical from year to year, and,
lately, it seems, from week to week. Outright Fascists now play
leading roles in the Knesset.
All this - the
result of three shots by a single fanatic, for whom the words
of the cynical demagogues were deadly serious.
The latest proposal
of our fascists, straight from the mouth of Avigdor Lieberman,
is to abrogate Rabin's crowning achievement: the Oslo agreements.
So we come back to Oslo.
WHEN I first
heard the news about the Oslo outrage, I was afraid that the perpetrators
might be some crazy Muslims. The repercussions would have been
terrible. Indeed, within minutes, one stupid Muslim group already
boasted that they had carried out this glorious feat. Fortunately,
the actual mass-murderer surrendered at the scene of the crime.
He is the prototype
of a Nazi anti-Semite of the new wave. His creed consists of white
supremacy, Christian fundamentalism, hatred of democracy and European
chauvinism, mixed with a virulent hatred of Muslims.
This creed is
now sprouting offshoots all over Europe. Small radical groups
of the ultra-Right are turning into dynamic political parties,
take their seats in Parliaments and even become kingmakers here
and there. Countries which always seemed to be models of political
sanity suddenly produce fascist rabble-rousers of the most disgusting
kind, even worse than the US Tea Party, another offspring of this
new Zeitgeist. Avigdor Lieberman is our contribution to this illustrious
world-wide league.
One thing almost
all these European and American ultra-Rightist groups have in
common is their admiration for Israel. In his 1500 page political
manifesto, on which he had been working for a long time, the Oslo
murderer devoted an entire section to this. He proposed an alliance
of the European extreme Right and Israel. For him, Israel is an
outpost of Western Civilization in the mortal struggle with barbaric
Islam. (Somewhat reminiscent of Theodor Herzl's promise that the
future Jewish State would be an "outpost of Western culture
against Asiatic barbarism"?)
Part of the
professed philo-Zionism of these Islamophobic groups is, of course,
pure make-believe, designed to disguise their neo-Nazi character.
If you love Jews, or the Jewish State, you can't be a Fascist,
right? You bet you can! However, I believe that the major part
of this adoration of Israel is entirely sincere.
Right-wing Israelis,
who are courted by these groups, argue that it is not their fault
that all these hate-mongers are attracted to them. On the face
of it, that is of course true. Yet one cannot but ask oneself:
why are they so attracted? Wherein lies this attraction? Does
this not warrant some serious soul-searching?
I FIRST BECAME
aware of the gravity of the situation when a friend drew my attention
to some German anti-Islamic blogs.
I was shocked
to the core. These outpourings are almost verbatim copies of the
diatribes of Joseph Goebbels. The same rabble-rousing slogans.
The same base allegations. The same demonization. With one little
difference: instead of Jews, this time it is Arabs who are undermining
Western Civilization, seducing Christian maids, plotting to dominate
the world. The Protocols of the Elders of Mecca.
A day after
the Oslo events I happened to be watching Aljazeera's English
TV network, one of the best in the world, and saw an interesting
program. For a whole hour, the reporter interviewed Italian people
in the street about Muslims. The answers were shocking.
Mosques should
be forbidden. They are places where Muslims plot to commit crimes.
Actually, they don't need mosques at all - they need only a rug
to pray. Muslims come to Italy to destroy Italian culture. They
are parasites, spreading drugs, crime and disease. They must be
kicked out, to the last man, woman and child.
I always considered
Italians easygoing, loveable people. Even during the Holocaust,
they behaved better than most other European peoples. Benito Mussolini
became a rabid anti-Semite only during the last stages, when he
had become totally dependent on Hitler.
Yet here we
are, barely 66 years after Italian partisans hanged Mussolini's
body by his feet in a public place in Milan - and a much worse
form of anti-Semitism is rampant in the streets of Italy, as in
most [or "many"?] other European countries.
OF COURSE, there
is a real problem. Muslims are not free of blame for the situation.
Their own behavior makes them easy targets. Like the Jews in their
time.
Europe is in a quandary. They need the "foreigners"
- Muslims and all - to work for them, keep their economy going,
pay for the pensions of the old people. If all Muslims were to
leave Europe tomorrow morning, the fabric of society in Germany,
France, Italy and many other countries would break down.
Yet many Europeans
are dismayed when they see these "foreigners", with
their strange languages, mannerisms and clothes crowding their
streets, changing the character of many neighborhoods, opening
shops, marrying their daughters, competing with them in many ways.
It hurts. As a German minister once said: "We brought here
workers, and found out that we had brought human beings!"
One can understand
these Europeans, up to a point. Immigration causes real problems.
The migration from the poor South to the rich North is a phenomenon
of the 21st century, a result of the crying inequality among nations.
It needs an all-European immigration policy, a dialogue with the
minorities about integration or multiculturalism. It won't be
easy.
But this tidal
wave of Islamophobia goes far beyond that. Like a Tsunami, it
can result in devastation.
MANY OF the
Islamophobic parties and groups remind one of the atmosphere of
Germany in the early 1920s, when "völkisch" groups
and militias were spreading their hateful poison, and an army
spy called Adolf Hitler was earning his first laurels as an anti-Semitic
orator. They looked unimportant, marginal, even crazy. Many laughed
at this man Hitler, the Chaplinesque mustachioed clown.
But the abortive
Nazi putsch of 1923 was followed by 1933, when the Nazis took
power, and 1939, when Hitler started World War II, and 1942, when
the gas chambers were brought into operation.
It is the beginnings
which are critical, when political opportunists realize that arousing
fear and hatred is the easiest way to fortune and power, when
social misfits become nationalist and religious fanatics, when
attacking helpless minorities becomes acceptable as legitimate
politics, when funny little men turn into monsters.
Is that Dr.
Goebbels I hear laughing in hell?
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