Opinion: The clock is ticking.
This article has, in part, been updated from a previous version.
J.J. Rousseau, the 18th century French philosopher said, “The Jews in Dispersion have not the possibility of proclaiming their own truth to humankind; but I believe that when they once have a free Commonwealth, with schools and universities of their own where they can speak out safely, we shall be able to learn what it is that the Jewish people have to say to us.” What would Rousseau have said if he was alive today?
by Alan Simons
For goodness sake, let’s stop pussyfooting and call a spade a spade. The vile photo above published by CRIF (Conseil Représentatif des Institutions Juives de France), typically shows a hatred of all Jews and everything that is decent. In the USA, according to the Anti-Defamation League, “the amount of white supremacist propaganda disseminated through college campuses rose seven per cent this academic year.
“A report released Thursday found 313 cases of white supremacist fliers, stickers and posters on campuses in the 2018-2019 year, an increase from 292 during the previous year. The greatest number of incidents this year took place in California, followed by Kentucky and Oklahoma. Some materials targeted minority groups, including Jews, African Americans, Muslims, immigrants and the LGBTQ community. Others included white supremacist language or referred to websites with such content.”
Is it not time for ordinary Jews everywhere to be at the forefront in raising their voices and cease being on the sidelines expecting other religious groups to do most of the work for them? 14 million Jews can and must make a difference. We must work diligently with other religions, especially those of the Muslim and Christian faith, to combat the hate and intolerance of all sectors of society, young and old, rich and poor alike. The clock is ticking, I make no bones about it, the clock is really ticking and not in our favour!
For the past fourteen years, I have done my fair share to live up to jewishinfoNews’ mission statement which consists simply of two sentences. “To foster democratic participation for the achievement of peace and security between Jews and non-Jews by the free flow of information and knowledge, and to advance understanding, acceptance and solidarity between all people.” And secondly, “To reject intolerance, antisemitism/virulent Judeophobia, hate, Islamophobia, ethnocentric violence and conflict through dialogue and negotiation among individuals.”
Nelson Mandela in his book Long Walk to Freedom, said: “No one is born hating another person because of the colour of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.”
Unfortunately, over the past fourteen years of publishing jewishinfoNews, and especially over the past three years, I have seen a diminishing amount of love and in its place more diatribe than I ever imagined possible. For we no longer live in Nelson Mandela’s world, a world where hate and love can be used with such simplicity in the same sentence.
Over the years I have seen groups of splenetic small-minded antisemite bigots of this world become more adventurous in their misguided fantasy that we Jews are weak, pathetic individuals, without any backbone. Oh, are they wrong!
Over the years I have seen once respected newspapers, such as Britain’s The Guardian, turn its back on striving to present a balanced view of Middle East issues, to be now in the forefront of stoking the fires of antisemitism and hate. So it is of no surprise, to find that one of their former senior journalists, a rabid Israel hater, is currently the British Labour Party’s Chief Strategist under Jeremy Corbyn, the Leader of the Labour Party and Leader of the Opposition.
Over the years I have seen NGOs and international rights groups fervently compete for funding by branding themselves as leading authorities on Middle East issues – translate this as anti-Zionist, pro-Israel apartheid and pro-Hamas- yet they refuse to focus their resources on victims of democide in the region.
“Antisemitism in its violent form continues in France. Recently 80 graves in a Jewish cemetery in eastern France were vandalised.”
In France, Le Figaro reported regarding the adoption of IHRA’s definition of antisemitism, that “The National Assembly’s consideration of a cross-party draft resolution for a better definition and recognition of antisemitism, initially scheduled for May 29, has been postponed to September,” said the leader of LREM deputies Gilles Le Gendre. Why? Well, it seems the length of the debate has been longer than expected. Blah, blah blah!
Le Figaro added: “The motion for a resolution was initially to be considered at the end of May. But the length of the debate, took longer than expected, on the reform of the Assembly’s Rules of Procedure had put aside its examination.”
I’ll be writing more about the state of France’s Jewish community in an upcoming issue.
Some years ago Stephen Harper the former Prime Minister of Canada and Nobel Laureate Lord Trimble jointly published in Britain’s The Telegraph a blistering attack on the rise of antisemitism across Europe and with particular reference to Jeremy Corbyn. At the time I said we must not only listen but act. Slowly this is happening and it’s happening in Canada.
This week as reported by Global News, “The government has, for the first time, placed right-wing extremist groups on its list of outlawed terrorist organizations, adding the names of Blood & Honour and Combat 18. Announced in the government’s Canada Gazette, the action came after the Canadian Security Intelligence Service said in a report on Friday it had increased its “posture” on the far right. Blood & Honour was described by the government as “an international neo-Nazi network whose ideology is derived from the National Socialist doctrine of Nazi Germany.” Combat 18 is the armed branch of Blood & Honour and has conducted murders and bombings, the government said in the description of the group on the Public Safety Canada website.
“Canadian Anti-Hate Network chair Bernie Farber called the groups extremely violent neo-Nazi organizations and said he hoped other far-right groups would be criminalized as well. “
“I’m hoping this is just the beginning and that there will be more, but this is a really good first start for Canada,” he said. “Listing terrorist groups make it easier to prosecute supporters and help counter-terrorism financing, according to the government.”
“Non-Jews do not want to hear our complaints. They want to know about our solutions.”
Years ago, Frank Luntz, the US-based political and business pollster explained to us the hard facts of life. He said, “the Jewish community is often torn between those urging private pressure and those preferring to express public outrage. Matters are complicated by traditional territoriality among Jewish community groups and occasional splits between the local Jewish community and Israel.” He added, “It does not matter what you say. What matters is what people hear.” Non-Jews do not want to hear our complaints. They want to know our solutions,” he remarked.
Yet for the vast majority of Jews, we must understand right now that we need to urgently invest in leaders who are young enough to lead the next generation into battle and to give them the tools to fight predominately the right-wing extremist groups who speak, not the language of Mandela, not my language, and not yours, but the language of today, which for us includes the need to have partnerships, especially with moderate leaning Muslim groups. And in this respect, I believe there are far too few young Jewish leaders able to rise up to the challenge.
“Never again!” for many Jews today seems to be just a dream fading into obscurity. And even as we speak antisemite groups have realised they can use this aphorism against us.
As Luntz has said, “Greenpeace does not wait for the next oil spill or seal hunt. The Jewish community should not and cannot wait for the next bombing or boycott.” The time to organise is now! The clock is ticking.
Photo credits: RFI and CRIF
Alan Simons can be contacted at jewishinfonews@gmail.com
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