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March 31, 2008
Why Is Britain the "Center Point" of Anti-Semitism?
"Britain has become the center point for the meeting of anti-Semitic trends in Europe," says Hebrew University historian Prof. Robert S. Wistrich.
Why? Wistrich cites a number of reasons, which are discussed in a recent Jerusalem Post article. Not surprisingly, one of the causes mentioned is the British media's notorious hostility toward Israel:
British media had taken an almost universally anti-Israel bias, especially but not exclusively on the BBC, with context removed from description of Israeli military actions, and Islamic jihadist activity such as suicide bombing never connected to ideology.
"Under no circumstance will a Palestinian act of terrorism be referred to as terrorist, They are militants similar to the floor-shop dispute in Liverpool whose workers have decided to go on strike," he said.
"Palestinian terrorism is portrayed as a minor pin-prick compared to 'massive' retaliation of this 'rogue' state [Israel]," he said.
"You cannot read a British newspaper without encountering a variant of the libel that Zionism is racism or Zionism is Nazism," he said, describing a culture of "barely disguised hatred" when the subject of Zionism of British Jewry or Anglo-Israel relations is broached, unless they are "the good anti-Zionists."
With the media and the elites skewed against Israel - aided by former Israeli academics who routinely condemn the Jewish state and who have attained "historic dissident status and are listened to as the authentic voice of Israel" - the whole discussion of anti-Semitism had become distorted in Britain, with the accuser becoming the accused, he said.
Posted by at March 31, 2008 08:58 PM
Comments
Perhap, this bias, and activity, is based in part, upon on the "Lost Tribes" ideaology, of British Israelism , which still has active adherants. I was recently present,where those who spoke this belief purported that "the Jews" aren't really jewish,but those of Northern Europe descent are in fact the valid inheritors of Biblical covenant,etc.
Posted by: ajhELIYAHU at April 6, 2008 11:49 AM
The British have historically been anti-Semitic, as evidenced by their preferential treatment of and constant deference to Arabs.
When the Arabs said, "Jump," the British High Command said, "How high?"
For starters, carving 80% out of the land mandated to be the Jewish National Homeland by both their own government, the US, and the League of Nations, and giving it to the Emir Abdullah as a "door prize" for not getting Iraq, speaks volumes about British intransigence towards Jews.
With their left hand, they opened the flood gates to any and all Arab immigration into Mandated Palestine while, with their right hand, shut the gates to Jewish immigration.
Basically, if you wish to point a finger at the one nation most responsible for all the current turmoil in the Middle East, none is more deserving than Britain who sliced and diced the former Ottoman Empire without regard for ethnic divisions.
Posted by: DrRJP at April 12, 2008 01:38 PM
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