I haven’t been to Germany for some time, so I can only rely on what is going on their by reading the news and by talking to friends, but in recent years international football tournaments have revitalized a public form of German nationalism which you would not have see some years ago by ordinary people.

In the German team there a quite a few Germans with a migration background. This feds up far right nationalists (Nazis) who thing that this is a bad development and which makes them turn away from the national football team. On the other hand also immigrants cheer the team and express nationalism, waving flags etc. This (nationalism) however feds up leftists and causes tensions.

Apparently these left wing hooligans can’t cope with the fact, that some Arabs behave just like many of the other average German Biedermann, that they just want to be some average German Biedermann. If “the Arab” is not Hezbollah or Hamas and hitchhikes some planes they dislike him.

The Little General for sure is a supporter of Germany. Yesterday she sent me updates about the goals while I was sitting in the Yeshiva. And lately the Little General reasoned which of the teams are worth of sympathy. Brazil was out fast, since Brazil built up friendship with Iran lately. Argentina is not popular in her ranking, don’t know why. England, well, England. The English killed an uncle of her when he was a baby, in the 40s, a British soldier took him threw him on the ground; so, no, England is out. Spain, no no, “they are all anti-Semites”, till today. But what about Germany, wasn’t there anything? Sometimes I get the impression, that Israelis feel sorry for Germans; sometimes I have the impression that Israelis feel sorry for the Germans, because the Germans have this terrible past.

Back home after a long day in university (4 hours) I saw the footage of the Israeli forces, showing a mob that tried to lynch Israeli soldiers (or how should I call it when 5 to 10 people beat a person lying on the ground with iron rods?). By the way: what where these rods doing there in the first place? On the ship of “peace/humanitarian/human rights activists”?

The little general did not stop to see the news report. On 4 of 5 Israeli public channels, non-stop. I had enough. I was rebuked, that this is important and that the world needs to know, that this was not Israel’s fault. I insisted that this is what people want to hear and that the truth will not convince them.

Eventually I watched “The Fugitive”. 1993′s blockbuster. And Dr. Kimble still made it. Everybody thought he was guilty and he was sentenced to death. But there were some that did care about the truth and in the end the truth came out of the darkness in which it hides and the one everybody blamed for murder was proven innocent, chaf mipesha.

Lewis, Bernard. “Semites and anti-Semites,” in Bernard Lewis,”Islam in History.”

Sivan, Emmanuel. “Islamic Fundamentalism and Antisemitism.”

A symposium on antisemitism and Anti-Zionism: held at the van leer Institute, Jerusalem, November 1st, 1982 / chairman: Yehuda Bauer ; lecturers: Shlomo Avineri, Robert Wistrich.

One of the challenging phenomena of Antisemitism is Antisemitism without Jews. Apparently Antisemitism can emerge, exist without Jews. This is not a new phenomenon. Even Herzl wrote about that in Der Judenstaat. Arguing for the need of a Jewish State, stating that emigration to other countries is no solution. Since – even if there are no Jews living yet – the Antisemites are already living there.

Today large areas of the world are judenrein. And in the most other areas Jews are a very very small minority. That applies at least for most countries in the Middle East. The Arabian Peninsula is basically judenrein. With the exception of less than 200 Jews still living in Yemen where they are persecuted by the majority society and have to live isolated and with protection of the government that is also not well-disposed to them. Iraq, Jordan are judenrein. In Syria and Egypt there are still around 100 Jews living which means less than 0.05% of the population are Jews. Most of the Arabs that live today and do not live in Israel have never met and will probably never in their life meet a Jew. But Antisemitism is alive and kicking there. One can even get the impression that Antisemitism is the more present the less the Jews are.

Antisemitism is a vital part of the Arab societies throughout the Middle East. Every day the people there are being fed with Antisemitic ressentiments of all kinds by the media, the government, the cleric. Traditional Islamic Antisemitism gets “enriched” with Antisemitic topoi that usually are found in Europe. But the people here usually do not know Jews.

Israel the Judenstaat is here, that is true. But that does not explain Antisemitism. Because Antisemitism was here before Israel. And if Israel would be the cause, why would anybody besides the Palestinians be Antisemitic.

But even if you look at Europe. Take Germany. Most Germans do not know any Jew. Yet Antisemitic resentments are widely spread. Often you can find people who would tell you, that they are open minded, liberal and so on that would reject having any Antisemitic tendency. They remember the murdered Jews of the Shoa, attend demonstrations against Racism and Antisemitism. Yet the murdered Jews of the Shoa seem to be the only Jews they know and care about. If it comes to living Jews, if it comes to Israel they will show some other opinions. Suddenly there are the Jews who kill women and children. There are the Jews who steal the land of others. There are the Jews who think they are something special. There are the Jews who are now doing to others what was done to them. And if you would tell them, that they do not reflect the realty but rather transpire Antisemitism you get the allegation that it is apparently not allowed to criticize Israel. And that is just another Antisemitic topos.

If Anis Hamadeh would be right, all this would be happening in Jerusalem, today. According to him, there is an ethnic cleansing going on today. The victims: the Palestinians. Such and other stupidity he is publishing in a text from early April.

The text includes so much evident falsehood, that calling it biased would be euphemistic. 700 000 Palestinians should have been systematically displaced in 1948.
There is no doubt that Palestinians have been displaced, but that this very action happened planed is a lie. Palestinians – in a situation of chaos, of war – fled. And some were expeled.

But many stayed. Anis does not tell his readers, that there is a big minority of 20% in the Jewish state. He also does not tell his readers, that Jews used to live in the West Bank until 1948. Then – between 1948 and 1967 while under Jordanian control – this area was all of a sudden judenrein. The same about the Old City of Jerusalem. Jews always lived there. But were expelled by the Arabs in 1948 (the Israeli Army only freed Jerusalem in 1967).

So, where an ethnic cleansing was commited?

But what makes Anis’ text disgusting are how he choses his words. For him the Jews are people that kill women and children. He draws a line from the War of Independence to the recent war in Gaze. Always there: The Jew that kills women and children.

Then he starts talking about the future. He predicts, that the Jewish state will collapse like “the aryan state” collapsed. Anis sees “amazing similarities in these two states”. And he goes on with his halluzinations in whiche the Israelis are not far from engaging in the Endlösung (final solution).