Israelis are repeatedly being told that their policies of self-defense against Palestinian terrorists and West Bank settlements have soured the world on them. According to this train of thought, Israel is unpopular because of what it does, not because of its existence. But the hatred for the Jewish state, particularly in what many of still think of as the enlightened continent of Europe, has gotten to the point where even the U.S. State Department has pronounced it as part of the engine of a “rising tide of anti-Semitism.” A prime example of how this works comes from the Paris suburb of Bezons where the ability of Palestinian propaganda to demonize Israel has sunk to new depths.
Bezons, which is not far from the city of light, is not exactly a tourist attraction. But it has now garnered some international attention due to an event held at the municipality last month that honored and granted honorary citizenship to Majdi Rimawi, a Palestinian who is currently imprisoned in Israel. According to Bezons Mayor Dominique Lesparre, a member of the French Communist Party, Rimawi’s only crime is to resist Israeli oppression. However, the ceremony omitted the salient fact that Rimawi was jailed for his role in planning the assassination of Rehavam Ze’evi, Israel’s Minister of Tourism in 2001. Ze’evi was just one of more than 1,000 Israeli Jews who were murdered by Palestinian terrorists during the second intifada but the praise showered on his killers by even an insignificant French town speaks volumes about the way Europeans have embraced the false Palestinian narrative about the Middle East conflict.
That many people around the world sympathize with the plight of Palestinian Arabs who have suffered during the decades of conflict in the Middle East is understandable. But the kind of thinking that leads people to honor a terrorist murderer or to support economic warfare against Israel is rooted in something very different. In order to think that Rimawi, a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, is a victim, you have to believe that his group’s efforts to bring about Israel’s destruction via the slaughter of its people is justified. Doing so is not a function of legitimate criticism of Israel’s policies or a critique of specific measures but in a conviction that the Jewish state ought to be eradicated and that those who seek that end are in the right.
The honoring of Rimawi stems from the fact that his wife is a former mayor of the West Bank village of Qarawat Bani Zeid that has a sister city agreement with Bezons. It may be that many in France believe the story about the terrorist told in a pamphlet published by the municipality:
Majdi Rimawi has been imprisoned for over a decade by his Israeli jailers. His only crime is defending his city and homeland, and demanding adherence to international law and recognition of Palestine within the 1967 borders. For this he was sentenced to more than 80 years!
One could easily dismiss this as merely another big lie that no serious person could take at face value. But the problem with big lies is that they are, as history instructs us, often more easily believed than the truth. Like other Palestinian terror groups, the PFLP isn’t interested in the 1967 borders, let alone international law. But somehow the intifada, which followed Israeli offers of peace and statehood that were rejected by the Palestinians, has been transfigured into a struggle against Zionist tyranny.
People believe these lies because they have allowed themselves to be persuaded that Israel’s existence is itself an act of oppression though ought to be reversed. The notion that Israel is a product of European imperialism rather than the work of the national liberation movement of the Jews is risible, but in a Europe where colonialism is still thought of as a form of original sin, it is saleable.
But the bottom line here is that the information war being waged against Israel is one based on lies. As is the case with the actions of the Palestinian Authority and its media, honoring killers of Jews as heroes of the Palestinian people is inextricably linked to a belief that the Jews have no right to live. Anyone with even a minimal knowledge of European history knows that there is a long, dishonorable tradition of scapegoating Jews and marking them for death. Once it was justified in the name of religion or race. Now it is justified in the name of anti-imperialism or whatever ideological cover the left is now giving to the Palestinians.
The honoring of Rimawi is not just an isolated publicity stunt. It’s part of an effort to convince the world Israel’s efforts to defend its citizens, whether by active counter-terrorism activities, strikes on missile launches or even passive measures like building a security fence, are unjustified. Those who take such positions and support boycotts of Israel because of them need to understand that there is no difference between what they are doing and pinning a medal on a killer. Delegitimizing Zionism inevitably leads to legitimizing murder.
Ze'evi, known as Gandhi by those who loved and admired him, because he once dressed as Gandhi to go to a party in pre-state Palestine, was both a founder of modern-day Israel and a military hero, having fought for Israel's survival from the pre-state days to the Yom Kippur War when he came out of retirement to fight again. He also founded the elite anti-terrorist brigade Sayeret Kharuv. Most importantly for today, it should be remembered that he was just one of thousands of victims of Rabin's catastrophic Oslo Accords, which he valiantly opposed, killed by terrorists whom Rabin not only permitted to return to Israel but armed as well. Let his memory be a blessing and also a warning to those on the Commentary staff who continue to call for a two-state final solution.
"That many people around the world sympathize with the plight of Palestinian Arabs who have suffered during the decades of conflict in the Middle East is understandable. " n nRESPONSIBLITY FOR THE "SUFFERING" OF THE PALESTINIAN PEOPLE MUST BE LAID EXCLUSIVELY AT THE DOORSTEP OF PALESTINIAN LEADERSHIP. The statement above makes it sound like the Israelis actually have a hand in the "suffering" n nFor the true history of the region and the conflict read the short (100 page) "History Upside Down, the Roots of Palestinian Fascism and the Myth of Israeli Aggression". There is an extensive bibliography for all who want more. Make sure your children do not go off to university WITHOUT having read it. It is THE must receive high school grad gift.
Well said.
" The notion that Israel is a product of European imperialism rather than the work of the national liberation movement of the Jews is risible, but in a Europe where colonialism is still thought of as a form of original sin, it is saleable." nBut it is saleable precisely because it is aimed at Jews. As many have pointed out, including R. Jonathan Sacks and Dennis Prager, Jew hatred survives and thrives by mutating. In each era, the Jew hater's accusations must be framed as whatever crime that era views as the most heinous. The accusation of murdering children has been a constant through the ages, but the accusations of causing bubonic plague gave way to accusations of international monetary domination and war mongering, which now have given way to accusations of colonialism and apartheidt. Three decades from now, when the world has decided that some other crime is even worse, you can bet that Jews as a collective (whether in the form of Israel or some other form) will be constantly accused of whatever is then seen as the most awful crime that people can commit.
We need to hold a party celebrating the death of Yassin. Everyone can dress up like that paraplegic in a wheelchair and attach construction paper flames to them. A truly blessed day.
A truly sick empress.
It is a mark of honor to be called sick by a jew-hating nut case who maintains a blog full of conspiracy theories.
Europe has been and still is a waste of time and money. We should have fed them piece meal to the Soviets so that our so-called European allies might have had the opportunity to sit with boot of the Russians on their neck for 50 years. Maybe that experience would have been instructive when dealing with Palestinian hypocrisy and Iranian bullying.
I just read an article in a publication put out by my own employer–a top-10 university–that talks about the "Judaization of Jerusalem." that idiotic phrase, parroted enough by the Jew haters, will also become part of the Big Lie, this one even more pernicious than the "Jews got Israel because of the Holocaust." n nthese people actually think they can pretend there is no historical Jewish presence in the Holy Land. I don't know how they explain the overwhelming archaeological evidence–maybe we planted all those potsherds. and despite the fact that Muslims are supposedly "people of the Book," they seem to ignore the Torah, which clearly states that J'lem was the Jewish capital thousands of years before Mohamed ever lived. n nIsrael has been so demonized that nothing it can do will be acceptable. Israel needs to do what it has to do and the nations be damned. n nbtw, I know Jonathan will ban people for wishing violence on others, even on jihadis…but is it really so wrong to want a little ol' tsunami to wash Gaza out to sea?
Not wrong at all. If I could blow hard enough, I would do it all by myself. Not a 'little ol'", but the bigest ever.
France is more interested in defending her economic interests than democracy. In addition antisemitism is latent & chronic. Mutation is the only solution and very rare and unlikely. Muslim invasion is only an added excuses. This goes for most EU countries 2. nJews & IL must connect with other countries and migrate. Migration across the Chanel is plain stupid since there are more Muslims in Londonistan than Paris, Rome or Berlin and the English are moving out of Londonistan.
The world needs to face the TRUE LIE: the False definition of the so called Palestinian refugee. The permanent blitzkrieg Arab & Western propaganda claiming that Palestinian refugees are refugees till ETERNITY is the biggest hoax of the IL-Pal conflict. It is time to destroy this Loch Ness monster. Once this is legally demonstrated the number of real refugees will fall dramatically. Then the Palestinian problem will easily be resolved. This is the LIE created and supported financially and politically by the West with the unconditional support from the Muslim world who does not contribute a penny.
Europe has always held the same opinion about die endlosung fur das judische frage: evacuate Europe, then evacuate Arabia, then evacuate the planet. What's new? The big irony is that Europe expelled its Jews and now welcomes Islamic Jihadis, who really do want to destroy European civilization. Hey Germany, getting many Muslim donations for die Oper?
http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/342686/un-concludes-hamas-not-israel-likely-killed-bbc-editors-son-eliana-johnson
"…omitted the salient fact that Rimawi was jailed for his role in planning the assassination of Rehavam Ze’evi, Israel’s Minister of Tourism in 2001." n nAlso omitted by Jonathan is the salient fact that Ze'evi was much more than just a Minister of Tourism; he was an ultra-right wing Zionist general who planned many attacks against Palestinian fighters during the time when he was running the Sayeret Kharuv, an Israeli so called 'anti-terrorist' unit within the IDF and was, therefore, a legitimate target for assassination by Israel's own standards. n nIf the IDF are able to assassinate Palestinians who the IDF believe are planning, or have planned, acts of violence against Israelis, then why should neocons have a problem with Palestinians assassinating Israelis who have planned acts of violence against Palestinians?
Does Alan Acker Jones know how you are dragging his name thru the mud by displaying it on your conspiracy mongering web site?
that's simple: Ze'evi planned the attacks against terrorists as a military *legal* combatant commanding not a so-called but a self-evident anti-terrorist army unit operating under the norms of the Geneva Convention–the PFLP, Black Halloween, Al Asqa Boogers Brigade, Marytrs-on-a-Stick, and on and on ad infinitum start out and die as terrorists–live as terrorists, assassinated as terrorists. And murder as terrorists. That's the difference. n nHyenas and jackals also occassionally take down the lions who defend their cubs against their depredations. MS-13 hitmen sometimes eliminate FBI personnel planning acts of violence against Marasucha cribs. So?
Ignorance is willed. No point in holding our breath for Israel to retract it's November 15, 2012 above the fold bathos of a BBC correspondent in anguish holding a tiny shrouded corpse with the caption, to paraphrase "The Jews killed this baby too." n nExcept a Hmas rocket fell short and killed the infant. n nDown the memory hole.