The obscene spectacle of “Israel Apartheid Week” which seems to be an  annual occurrence, would be funny (in an Orwellian way) if it were not such a filthy, hateful, concept. Efraim Karsh points out – not that it would really matter to the brain dead bozo’s which infest our campuses – that if you want to see real apartheid in action, check out the Arab world.

by Efraim Karsh

In light of Israel Apartheid Week, which hit cities and campuses throughout the world recently, supporters of the Jewish state find it difficult to agree on the best response to this hate fest. Some suggest emphasizing Israel’s peacemaking efforts, others propose rebranding the country by highlighting its numerous achievements and success stories. Still others advocate reminding the world of “what Zionism is – a movement of Jewish national liberation – and what it isn’t – racist.” Each of these approaches has its merits yet none will do the trick.

Peace seeking and/or prosperity are no proof of domestic benevolence and equality. The most brutal regimes have peacefully coexisted with their neighbors while repressing their own populations; the most prosperous societies have discriminated against vulnerable minorities. South Africa was hardly impoverished and technologically backward; the United States, probably the most successful and affluent nation in recent times was largely segregated not that long ago.

Nor for that matter is the apartheid libel driven by forgetfulness of Zionism’s true nature. It is driven by rejection of Israel’s very existence. No sooner had the dust settled on the Nazi extermination camps than the Arabs and their western champions equated the Jewish victims with their tormentors.

[…]

Indeed, it was the Palestinian terror organization that invented the apartheid canard in the mid-1960s, years before Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and Gaza.

This charge, of course, is not only completely false but the inverse of the truth. If apartheid is indeed a crime against humanity, Israel actually is the only apartheid-free state in the Middle East – a state whose Arab population enjoys full equality before the law and more prerogatives than most ethnic minorities in the free world, from the designation of Arabic as an official language to the recognition of non-Jewish religious holidays as legal days of rest.

[…]

Why then should an innocent party be under constant pressure to “come clean” while the real culprits are not only left unscathed but also given a worldwide platform to blame others for their own crimes? Rather than engage in incessant apologetics and protestations of innocence, something Jews have been doing for far too long, Israel should adopt a proactive strategy, call a spade a spade and target the real perpetrators of Middle East apartheid: the region’s Arab and Muslim nations.

Arab/Muslim apartheid comes in many forms, and some victims have been subjected to more than one.

• Religious intolerance:

Muslims historically viewed themselves as distinct from, and superior to, all others living under Muslim rule, known as “dhimmis.” They have been loath to give up this privileged status in modern times. Christians, Jews and Baha’is remain second-class citizens throughout the Arab/Muslim world, and even non-ruling Muslim factions have been oppressed by their dominant co-religionists (e.g. Shi’ites in Saudi Arabia, Sunnis in Syria).

• Ethnic inequality:

This historic legacy of intolerance extends well beyond the religious sphere. As longtime imperial masters, Arabs, Turks and Iranians continue to treat long-converted populations, notably Kurds and Berbers, that retained their language, culture and social customs, as inferior.

• Racism:

The Middle East has become the foremost purveyor of anti-Semitic incitement in the world with the medieval blood libel widely circulated alongside a string of modern canards (notably The Protocols of the Elders of Zion) depicting Jews as the source of all evil.

Likewise, Africans of sub-Saharan descent are held in deep contempt, a vestige of the region’s historic role as epicenter of the international slave trade.

• Gender discrimination:

Legal and social discrimination against women is pervasive throughout the Arab-Islamic world, accounting for rampant violence (for example domestic violence or spousal rape are not criminalized) and scores of executions every year, both legal and extra-judicial (i.e. honor killings). Discrimination against homosexuals is even worse.

• Denial of citizenship:

The withholding of citizenship and attendant rights from a large segment of the native-born population is common. Palestinian communities in the Arab states offer the starkest example of this discrimination (in Lebanon, for example, they cannot own property, be employed in many professions, move freely, etc.). The Bidun (stateless peoples) in the Gulf states, and hundreds of thousands of Kurds in Syria have been subjected to similar discrimination.

• Labor inequality:

Mistreatment of foreign workers (especially household servants), ranging from sexual abuse to virtual imprisonment and outright murder, is widely tolerated throughout the Middle East, especially in oil-exporting countries that host large expatriate labor forces.

• Slavery:

The Arabic-speaking countries remain the world’s foremost refuge of slavery, from child and sex trafficking in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states to actual chattel slavery in Sudan and Mauritania. Indeed, Islamists throughout the Middle East have had no qualms advocating the legalization of slavery.

• Political Oppression:

Many Middle Eastern regimes are little more than elaborate repressive systems aimed at perpetuating apartheid-style domination by a small minority: Alawites in Syria; Tikritis in Saddam’s Iraq; the Saudi royal family; the Hashemite dynasty in Jordan.

Possibly the world’s most arresting anachronism, these endemic abuses have until now escaped scrutiny and condemnation. Western governments have been loath to antagonize their local authoritarian allies, while the educated classes have absolved Middle Easterners of responsibility for their actions in the patronizing tradition of the “white man’s burden,” dismissing regional players as half-witted creatures, too dim to be accountable for their own fate.

It is time to denounce these discriminatory practices and force Arab/Muslim regimes to abide by universally accepted principles of decency and accountability. This will not only expose the hollowness of the Israel delegitimization campaign but will also help promote regional peace and stability.

History has shown that gross and systemic discrimination is a threat not just to the oppressed minorities, but also to the political health of the societies that oppress them. Only when Arab and Muslim societies treat the “other” as equal will the Middle East, and the rest of the Islamic world, be able to transcend its malaise and look forward to a real political and social spring.

Read the rest: The Middle East’s real apartheid

The writer and  humorist Israel Zangwill used to refer to the Jewish leadership in Britain during the 19th century as “the tremblng Israelites'” because of their fears and reluctance to confront anti-Semitism in Britain.  The author gives us the low down of the “trembling Israelites” of Britain as well as some good news – British Jews are starting (albeit slowly) to reassert themselves in the face of a withering barrage of anti-Israeli rhetoric and actions throughout Britain.

by Isi Leibler

The simmering tensions associated with the “restrained” Anglo Jewish leadership approach to Israel advocacy, exploded at the last plenum meeting of the Board of Deputies of British Jews. Senior vice-president Jonathan Arkush launched a bitter attack on the Jewish Leadership Council (JLC) a group primarily comprised of wealthy British Jews and their acolytes who, although unaccountable, are allegedly determining communal policy.

To widespread applause from the plenum, Arkush accused the JLC of being “unelected, unaccountable and therefore unacceptable” as spokesmen for Anglo Jewry.

However he was immediately castigated by the president and members of the executive for “an intemperate outburst” and making “unhelpful and incorrect” comments. There were also calls for his resignation.

The JLC head, Mick Davis, blatantly threatened to terminate ongoing financial support to the Board if it could make such “unwarranted and egregious attacks”.

Davis, who also heads the United Jewish Israel Appeal, had previously created a storm by urging British Jews to criticize the Jewish State’s handling of the peace process. Employing the terminology of our enemies, he warned that Israel was in danger of becoming an “apartheid” State. In remarks unprecedented for any diaspora Jewish leader, Davis stated “I think the government of Israel has to recognize that their actions directly impact on me as a Jew living in London, UK. When they do good things, it is good for me when they do bad things, it’s bad for me. And the impact on me is as significant as it is on Jews living in Israel. I want them to recognize that”.

[…]

Current president Vivian Wineman is an urbane, committed and cultured Jew and unquestionably well intentioned. But some critics feel his behavior is rather befitting an academic than a street smart communal leader.

In a recent interview with the Jerusalem Post, he adamantly denied that he and his colleagues were “trembling Israelites”. He previously conceded that the Board has “good access” but “no influence” over government and mentioned that he had recently met Prime Minister Cameron (as part of a JLC delegation) and found him receptive. However in the same breath he observed that “the important people are the civil servants who brief ministers”. He failed to note that UK Foreign Ministry officials are inclined to be even more hostile to Israel than elected ministers.

But the unaccountable JLC clearly remains in the driver seat.

[…]

These leadership struggles are taking place at a time of great turmoil for the declining Anglo Jewish community. Whereas there are signs of cultural revival and increased ethnic solidarity, the overall situation of British Jewry is profoundly depressing.

Robert Wistrich, the expert on global anti-Semitism, refers to the “evil wind blowing through England’s green and pleasant land” in which anti-Israeli rhetoric has infiltrated all levels of the British intelligentsia to the extent that “it may be time to leave”.

Yet in this context, Anglo Jewish leadership remains in denial. In his Jerusalem Post interview, Wineman conceded that “there is an awful lot of anti-Israeli feeling which sometimes morphs into anti-Semitism”. Yet, when Robin Shepherd, a leading non Jewish academic and friend of Israel, remarked that the dramatic upsurge of anti-Israeli feeling and boycotts suggested “that the darkness is closing in… for the Jews of Britain”, Wineman castigated him for being “misguided and alarmist”.

The truth is that the current Conservative government is at the forefront of the European anti-Israel pack. In classical “Perfidious Albion” style, Prime Minister David Cameron describes himself as a Zionist but then refers to Gaza as “an open air prison camp” and condemns Israel for its “attack” on the Mavi Marmara flotilla. Last year, in order to appease anti-Israeli and Arab groups, he even terminated a century-long tradition of British PMs acting as patrons to the Jewish National Fund – an act which the editor of the Jewish Chronicle described as “equivalent to sticking two fingers up to the Jewish community in Britain”.

Campaigns to promote BDS and calls from unions to boycott Israel have reached feverish heights. The vicious anti-Israel Ken Livingstone is again campaigning for election as Lord Mayor of London which has emerged as the European hub of Israeli delegitimization. There are constant demonstrations by the far-left supporting Hamas and Hezbollah. The Anglican Church and other Protestant denominations are fiercely anti-Israel. Jewish academics and activists who loathe Israel spearhead efforts to demonize and delegitimize the Jewish state and frequently receive more favorable media coverage than official Jewish spokesmen.

The visceral anti-Israel hostility radiating from the media, especially the BBC, has intensified hatred of Jews and Israel to the extent that many perceive the Jewish community as a pariah group.

[…]

The situation at the universities is absolutely horrendous and increasingly more violent. Every day preachers of hate assail Israel and the Jewish people.

Some Jewish students, seeking to avoid social isolation, have distanced themselves from Israel and joined the anti-Israeli chic. A number of Union of Jewish Students leaders, funded and encouraged by the Jewish establishment, sought unsuccessfully to appease Muslim and anti-Israeli activists by condemning students who mounted counter protests. They also sought to persuade Jewish Societies to cancel public addresses by Kasim Hafeez, a brilliant former Muslim extremist turned pro Israel advocate, on the spurious grounds that his presence would make things worse for Jews during Israel Apartheid Week. To placate Moslems, they distributed Palestinian as well as Israeli flags at universities which merely intensified contempt against them.

Last year, a Stand With Us activist demonstrating for Israel was bitten in the face. In response, the CEO of the JLC remarked that “if they go out looking for trouble, they should not really be surprised if this sort of thing happens”. The perpetrator was charged but acquitted whilst his supporters in the gallery chanted “Zionists always lose”.

But despite this depressing state of affairs, dramatic positive changes are also underway.

Chief amongst these is the British Israel Coalition (BIC), a relatively new body headed by Sam Westrop, a talented and dynamic young man. It now has in excess of 5000 members and is growing rapidly, despite the fact that it is denied funding from most of the established Jewish leadership. It holds regular demonstrations, monitors and acts against anti-Israel agitators at all UK universities and aggressively combats Israel boycott movements. It allies itself with other organizations and even introduced pro-Israeli Moslem activists like Hafeez to the forefront of its campaigns.

[…]

BIC recently coordinated a campaign to neutralize the appearance at a major Manchester secondary school of local Islamic extremists raising funds for Hamas who were on record for hailing suicide bombers as freedom fighters, referring to Jews as the descendants of apes and pigs and promoting the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. BIC was castigated by Jewish establishment leaders for indiscreetly exposing the event in the media but the headmaster was forced to cancel the event.

The fledgling body deserves much of the credit for last week’s enforced resignation of the xenophobic anti-Israel Baroness Tonge from the Liberal Party following a toxic speech at Middlesex University. It spent months preparing for Israel Apartheid Week and Richard Millett, one of its key activists, filmed the incriminating speeches at the Tonge event and published it on his blog. BIC subsequently coordinated the complaints, presented them to the University and police and on the morning prior to Tonge’s resignation, BIC leader Westrop lobbied the Liberal Democrat Party to take disciplinary action against the incitement by Tonge. The Board of Deputies and JLC sought to take credit for the outcome but it was clearly a product of the determined activists rather than back door whispering.

There is also the Academic Friends of Israel which has been confronting the academic boycott for over ten years. Currently its head Ronny Fraser has a pending legal action of institutional anti-Semitism against the Lecturers Union.

Another recently created body is Lawyers for Israel headed by Jonathan Turner. It actively employs the law to neutralize those seeking to delegitimize Israel and expose Muslim organizations acting as fronts for raising funds for terrorists. It recently intervened, successfully, obliging the Lord Chancellor to formally rebuke a British judge who had exonerated vandals after destroying $300,000 worth of military equipment destined for Israel because of its alleged “immoral” behavior towards Gaza.

None of these independent organizations are funded or supported by the Board or the JLC.

There are also prominent individuals like the indefatigable Daily Mail columnist Melanie Phillips, who is reviled by much of the Jewish establishment for courageously promoting Israel advocacy. She also contributes to the Jewish Chronicle as does urbane historian Geoffrey Alderman who continuously excoriates the Jewish establishment for its cowardice and silence in the face of concerted anti-Israel and anti-Semitic attacks.

Despite the tortuous capitulation under pressure by Board of Deputies vice president Arkush, more and more representatives are beginning to express disapproval of the weak approach to Israel adopted by their leaders and increasingly objecting to the dominant communal role of the unaccountable arrogant leaders of the JLC.

That groups like the British Coalition for Israel are enjoying increasing grass roots support is a healthy sign. They represent the only hope that Anglo Jewry will find the courage to speak up on behalf of Israel and ensure that future generations of young Jews will not follow the example of their elders running for cover and overwhelmed by the torrents of hatred and lies emanating from the current hostile British social climate. They deserve greater support from the community.

Read the rest: Anglo Jewish Leaders and “trembling Israelites”