When the Israeli tennis team visited Sweden for a Davis Cup match last weekend, anti-Zionist and pro-Hamas demonstrations took place in several cities, with the most important ones being held in Malmö, where the match was played. As could be expected, the Hasbara troupe came out full swing denouncing the demostrators, the Muslim community of Sweden and, while at it, Swedes at large as rabid antisemites. Fortunately for the umpires, Israel won the match, or they would have faced charges of Judeophobia as well.
In all fairness, it must be acknowledged that the demonstrators were not as polite as they could have been:
While these images are distressing, I can see the half-full glass: they prove beyond reasonable doubt that uniformed personel in an armored minibus can survive stone-throwing without placing human shields in front of the vehicle to deter the attack. You wouldn't have known that watching the behavior of the most moral army in the world (1:22):
This is not to minimize the Swedish demonstrators' violence, which was appalling. But was it antisemitic?
As an avid tennis fan, I follow all Argentinian players on the circuit, and I clearly recall Sergio Roitman and Gastón Etlis, who are both Jewish, playing in Sweden as recently as 2008, unmolested by any demonstrator.
The Swedish Hamasniks, if Judeophobic at all, seem thus to practice a very selective form of antisemitism; an antisemitism that does not target all Jews, but only those people, Jewish or not, who can be thought to represent or defend the State of Israel — i.e., what outside the Hasbara circuit is known as anti-Zionism. There's a difference, and while the Hasbara pundits seem not to notice it, I'm sure Roitman and Etlis do.
Israel will be facing Spain in the next round. My wife being Spanish, I'll of course be rooting for Israel, so as to avenge her making fun of me when Spain beat Argentina in last year's Davis Cup finals. I don't join the boycott, mind you; I only reject the ludicrous notion that it's antisemitic rather than anti-Zionist.
Now if Israel does get to play against Argentina, then I'll root for Argentina. It may take longer or shorter, but an antisemite's Judeophobia eventually shows.
El País (Der Stürmer)
15 years ago
5 comments:
There were about 100 violent persons in a distinct group (dressed in black with covered faces), often refered to as autonomous anti-fascists, who came solely to fight with the police. This is what they do, for example at G8 meetings. When the police parked their busses near to the autonomous anti-fascists, they effectively (and most likely knowingly) created the opportunity for the autonomous anti-fascist group to do what they came for - hurl stones, paintballs, and firecrackers at the police. After allowing the attackers to demolish the busses and generate the images media sought for (media were hyping the possibility of these attacks in their reports before the demonstration), then police rounded up the suspects.
What has this got to do with the 7000 peaceful people who demonstrated against the ethnic cleansning and occupation of Palestine? Nothing, except that it stole media attention and thus partly sabotaged the demonstration. The demonstration leaders repeatedly urged the autonomous anti-fascists to leave the demonstration area.
The writer of this piece is not really an antisemite. Just really really consumed with envy of the Jews. He obviously converted to Islam in search of a new identity. Unfortunately for him, converting to Judaism would have been too difficult and take too long. Besides it's questionable if the Jews would have even accepted him.
Yeah good point above. Where were all those wonderful Swedes demonstrating against Omar Al-Bashir's genocide in Sudan?
andrew r
I said that they were fascists for three combined reasons: (1) they believe in getting their way through violence, (2) they are against dialogue and hence anti-democratic, (3) they hate Jews. The American patriots who kicked out the British were nothing similar.
They themselves know it of course and are proud of it, which is why they dress in black with jackboots -- the traditional fascist uniform.
There's a difference, and while the Hasbara pundits seem not to notice it, I'm sure Roitman and Etlis do.
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