| Canary in Europe's Mine, Alternative Arab Voices-UJ course, etc. | |
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1. THE CANARY IN EUROPE'S MINE - Sad, Important piece by Jeff Jacoby,
Boston Globe 1. THE CANARY IN EUROPE'S MINE - By Jeff Jacoby April 28, 2002 The rocks have been lifted all over Europe, and the snakes of Jew-hatred are slithering free. In Belgium, thugs beat up the chief rabbi, kicking him in the face and calling him "a dirty Jew." Two synagogues in Brussels were firebombed; a third, in Charleroi, was sprayed with automatic weapons fire. In Britain, the cover of the New Statesman, a left-wing magazine, depicted
a large Star of David stabbing the Union Jack. Oxford professor Tom Paulin,
a noted poet, told an Egyptian interviewer that American Jews In Italy, the daily paper La Stampa published a Page 1 cartoon: A tank emblazoned with a Jewish star points its gun at the baby Jesus, who pleads, "Surely they don't want to kill me again?" In Corriere Della Sera, another cartoon showed Jesus trapped in his tomb, unable to rise, because Ariel Sharon, with rifle in hand, is sitting on the sepulchre. The caption: "Non resurrexit." In Germany, a rabbinical student was beaten up in downtown Berlin and
a grenade was thrown into a Jewish cemetery. Thousands of neo-Nazis held
a rally, marching near a synagogue on the Jewish sabbath. Graffiti In Ukraine, skinheads attacked Jewish worshippers and smashed the windows of Kiev's main synagogue. Ukrainian police denied that the attack was anti-Jewish. In Greece, Jewish graves were desecrated in Ioannina and vandals hurled paint at the Holocaust memorial in Salonica. In Holland, an anti-Israel demonstration featured swastikas, photos of Hitler, and chants of "Sieg Heil" and "Jews into the sea." In Slovakia, the Jewish cemetery of Kosice was invaded and 135 tombstones destroyed. But nowhere have the flames of antisemitism burned more furiously than in France. In Lyon, a car was rammed into a synagogue and set on fire. In Montpellier,
the Jewish religious center was firebombed; so were synagogues in Strasbourg
and Marseille; so was a Jewish school in Creteil. A Jewish sports club
in Toulouse was attacked with Molotov cocktails, and on the statue of
Alfred Dreyfus in Paris, the words "Dirty Jew" were painted.
In Bondy, 15 men beat up members of a Jewish football team with sticks
and metal bars. The bus that takes Jewish children to school in Aubervilliers
has been attacked three times in the last 14 months. According to the
police, metropolitan Paris has seen 10 to 12 anti-Jewish Walls in Jewish neighborhoods have been defaced with slogans proclaiming
"Jews to the gas chambers" and "Death to the Jews."
The weekly journal Le Nouvel Observateur published an appalling libel:
It said Israeli soldiers rape Palestinian women, so that their relatives
will kill them to preserve "family honor." The French ambassador
to Great Britain was not sacked -- and did not apologize -- when it was
learned that he had "At the start of the 21st century," writes Pierre-Andre Taguieff, a well-known social scientist, in a new book, "we are discovering that Jews are once again select targets of violence. . . . Hatred of the Jews has returned to France." But of course, it never left. Not France; not Europe. Antisemitism,
the oldest bigotry known to man, has been a part of European society since
time immemorial. In the aftermath of the Holocaust, open Jew-hatred To be sure, some Europeans are shocked by the re-emergence of Jew-hatred all over their continent. But the more common reaction has been complacency. "Stop saying that there is antisemitism in France," President Jacques Chirac scolded a Jewish editor in January. "There is no antisemitism in France." The European media have been vicious in condemning Israel's self-defense against Palestinian terrorism in the West Bank; they have been far less agitated about anti-Jewish terror in their own backyard. They are making a grievous mistake. For if today the violence and vitriol are aimed at the Jews, tomorrow they will be aimed at the Christians. A timeless lesson of history is that it rarely ends with the Jews. Militant
Islamist extremists were attacking and killing Jews long before they attacked
and killed Americans on Sept. 11. The Nazis first set out Jews, it is often said, are the canary in the coal mine of civilization.
When they become the objects of savagery and hate, it means the air has
been poisoned and an explosion is soon to come. If Europeans
2. University of Judaism Program: Alternative Voices From the Arab World The Muslim speakers he has gathered are all pro-Israel and will address problems in the Muslim world that present obstacles to peace. It is always sobering to hear an inside critical view of Islam and the Arab world, but the moderation of the speakers also offers some hope for the future and so it is very worthwhile hearing what they have to say. Tickets and parking information can be obtained by calling the University of Judaism at (310) 476 9777. 3. Palestinian Media Watch- great site. 4. Reminder: please fill out that LA Times survey at the top of the page 5. Your Support of StandWithUs Efforts: Members and friends: Thank you for your dedication. You Can Help StandWithUs Now, in one (or both) of the following ways: A. BE A FRONT LINE ACTIVIST: B. OFFER FINANCIAL SUPPORT OF STANDWITHUS EFFORTS StandWithUs |
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