Incitement To Murder?

(The New Republic)  Yossi Klein Halevi is a contributing editor of The New Republic and a senior fellow at the Adelson Institute for Strategic Studies of the Shalem Center in Jerusalem.

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Israelis are furious about an article printed in the Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet last week accusing the Israeli army of killing Palestinians in order to harvest their organs. The article linked accusations supposedly made by several Palestinians in the early 1990s with the arrest of a Brooklyn Jew several weeks ago on charges of illegal trafficking in organs.

Never mind that the author of the Aftonbladet article readily admits that he has no proof connecting the Brooklyn arrest with his charges--or that the Palestinians he quoted in his article have since denied making those accusations in the first place. In the current discourse in Europe on the Middle East conflict, the most outrageous lies about Israel become credible. No real proof is required to accuse the Jewish state of crimes that seem to be dredged from Europe's oldest and darkest fantasies about the Jews. It is Israel's responsibility to prove it is innocent.

The scandal would not have been possible without decades of one-sided reporting about the Middle East conflict, along with increasing demonization in recent years. When Israel is repeatedly cited in the Swedish media as the main obstacle to peace, when Swedish churches single out Israel as a target for boycott, the inevitable result is a resurrection of anti-Semitic motifs. In critiquing Israel, there are no longer standards or shame.

Aftonbladet's editor, Jan Helin, wrote that he was not a Nazi or an anti-Semite. The first claim is no doubt true, the second debatable. Contrary to widespread assumptions among Europeans, one does not need to be a Nazi to be an anti-Semite. Contemporary European anti-Semitism has two spiritual roots: Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. The big lie of Zionism as Nazism and of the Jewish state as successor to Nazi Germany originated in Moscow, and became an essential part of Soviet ideology following the 1967 Six-Day War. Of the two versions of modern European anti-Semitism as they exist today, the far more pervasive--and dangerous--is the Soviet version. The rise of Western European anti-Zionism, then, is a posthumous victory for the Soviet Union.

Aftonbladet's blood libel has offered Israel an opportunity to place the wider problem of anti-Zionism on the European agenda. And so the Israeli government was right in responding with outrage. Israeli foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman compared the Swedish government's refusal to condemn the article to its "position during World War II, when it also did not become involved," while finance minister Yuval Steinitz declared relations between the two countries to be in "a crisis until the government of Sweden understands otherwise." Previous opportunities to confront the thin line between European anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism--for example, cartoons in European newspapers equating the Palestinian situation with Jesus on the cross--were squandered. This time, the Israeli government seems genuinely determined to take the offensive.

The question, though, is how. So far, the government's response has been diffuse and at times counter-productive. Pressure on the Swedish government to condemn the article has not only failed but allowed the Swedes to turn the issue into a spurious dispute over freedom of the press. Prime Minister Netanyahu did note that, when Christians were offended by an Israeli television satire on Jesus, then-Prime Minister Olmert condemned the program without compromising freedom of the press. But Israel needs to more aggressively expose the Swedish argument as a sham--particularly in light of the country's far-reaching "hate speech" regulations, which have been used repeatedly in recent years to prosecute critics of Islam.

At the same time, the Aftonbladet needs to be challenged, in court if possible. Delaying issuing credentials to Aftonbladet reporters--as the Israeli government press office has done--is an emotionally satisfying but hardly adequate response.

Most of all, Israel needs to use this affair to challenge the general climate of Israeli demonization in Sweden and elsewhere in Europe, and expose the conceptual links between classical anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism.

As much as possible, this should be done in coordination with local Jewish communities. When Lena Posner, president of the Official council of Jewish Communities in Sweden, described Israel's response to the Aftonbladet affair as disproportionate, and even appeared to defend the Swedish government's silence, the Israeli effort was substantially undermined. Consulting with Diaspora leaders will not necessarily produce agreement, and there are times when Israeli and Diaspora interests will diverge. But at the very least, Diaspora leaders need to be consulted on Israeli decisions that directly affect their communities' well-being, especially when those communities are small and vulnerable, like Swedish Jewry.

Accusations like the Swedish blood libel aren't just a threat to Israel's good name, but could become a physical threat to Jews everywhere. The Israeli "crimes" raised by Aftonbladet are precisely the kind of rationale used by terrorists to incite violence against Jews. In the current atmosphere, where the most inconceivable conspiracy theories involving Jews are readily believed by millions in the Muslim world, Aftonbladet's recklessness is, potentially, an incitement to murder. The Israeli government should treat it as such.

By Yossi Klein Halevi:
Reprinted with permission from The New Republic.

[fuzzywzhe]

I find it interesting for all the ranting of "blood libel", nobody in the US "media" (you know, the same "media" that lied us into a war, that pretended that anybody that thought maybe we were in a housing bubble was NUTS up until 2005, and was talking about DOW 30,000 in 1999 - that "media") hasn't seen fit to actually show us the actual article or even name the author - Donald Boström

Well here it is, you can translate it yourself: http://www.aftonbladet.se/kultur/article5652583.ab

Read it, for once.

Because it's not anywhere near as inflammatory as it's being made out to be and it's also filled with facts and data, unlike American "news".

The journalist in question, again Donald Boström, pointed out that bodies of Palestinians were being returned after being surgically opened up with incisions. This is curious because why would an autopsy be performed when the cause of death is obvious? The young man Boström had witnessed being killed (Bilal Achmed Ghanan as his name) by the IDF was shot in the chest then shot in the legs to entirely disable him in case he wasn't dead. The IDF later returned the dead body and insisted on the body being buried immediately, and the bodies are returned at night in darkness. There isn't much electricity any more in the Palestinian areas. He witnessed this himself, and he reported on it, and reported on the suspicions made.

Why was Bilal killed by the IDF? Well, the 19 year old kid was known to throw stones at IDF soldiers, but there is no accusation he's ever killed anybody, he was just a troublemaker. But why mention his name so you can look him up? It's OK when the IDF throws bullets though.

I can't help but notice the Palestinians in this article are never named. It's now claimed they denied statements previously attributed to them, what precisely did they say to refute these statements? Is there not enough room on the Internet to tell us what their names are and what they said? I mean, there's only a few Billion Trillion bytes that can be fit on here, I guess cutbacks have to be made.

I am telling you, anybody that is reading this, we have no functioning news in the United States. It's pure propaganda at this point. You are being told what to think, and being given none of the tools to do the research yourself.

Yossi Klein Halevi, you should be ashamed of yourself. I'm ashamed of you, and when the US media conglomerates collapse I am going to celebrate.

[kurtlane1]

Yossi, this is Jew-hatred plain and simple. And all but one comments below are Jew-hatred plain and simple.

Don't be surprised it's so obscene and ridiculous. It's deliberately designed to be that way. When there were riots in Germany in early 19th century, they went under the slogan "Hep hep death to the Jews!" Try to find any logic here. A Jew-hater delights in trampling all reason and sense and getting away with it.

You dont' argue with Jew-haters.

From "How to Fight Jew-Hatred at Columbia University" by Ze'ev Maghen:

"YOU DON'T PROTEST JEW-HATRED.
How incredible that it still needs to be said!
A man calls you a pig. Do you walk around with a sign explaining that, in fact, you are not a pig? Do you hand out leaflets expostulating in detail upon the manifold differences between you and a pig ("A pig has a snout, I have a nose; a pig wallows in mud, I only occasionally step in a puddle, and then, of course, inadvertently...)? Do you stand on a soap box and discourse eloquently and eruditely on why, in general, it is extremely not nice to call people pigs, and appeal to the populace to please have no truck with an individual rude and nasty enough to say things about an upstanding citizen like yourself?
Fellow Jews, where in the hell is your dignity?"

You dont' argue with Jew-haters. You don't protest Jew-haters. You don't confront them verbally. You confront them in the only way such scum understands: with a gun in your hand.

[israelisarefilth]

yes he DOES have proof....just not ironclad proof.

Everyone knows the Israelis are pathological liars and of course, deny everything and immediately start threatening people and shouting "blood lible!" like the crazed Nazi zombies they are.

There have been numerous Palestinian reports and the Swedish journalist was informed of these ongoing horrors by the UN.

The Israelis are lying.

Again.

[AJbeck]

Right.. I mean, WHO would dare make up such horrid tales in order to get the world on their side?
I remember who would do that: THAT would be israeli Zionists...
---i.e., soap from Jewish fat; lampshades from Jewish skin; decorative items from Jewish bones??? sound familiar?

Still, I would not put past some Zionists what has been discussed and printed here!

[Al-Mawri]

How those who never been to my beautiful country can sit and talk worse of it. I am Israeli Muslim my family and i came from palestine to live outside Jerusalem. I will never go back to that place again, to much hate of people who do not go with there hateful leaders.

[uristra]

Come off it, Klein. Israel is not being sabotaged by speculative journalism. It is sabotaging itself by committing atrocities that make the alleged organ theft seem benign by comparison, then preaching to the world its own virtues. It's a more strident and unprincipled version of America, if less deadly.

[rhs648]

correction

noloyalisti - Many of us in America are proud to be American and wouldn't want to live anywhere else. And yes, America has a wonderful name to us. How many Americans choose to live in Palestine or Saudi Arabia or Syria? Those who do are few and far between. I know of no country with a better name than America. Many of us would choose to live in Israel before we chose Palestine, Saudi Arabia, or Syria.

[rhs648]

noloyalisti - Many of us in America are proud to be America and wouldn't want to live anywhere else. And yes, America has a wonderful name to us. How many Americans choose to live in Palestine or Saudi Arabia or Syria? Those who do are few and far between. I know of no country with a better name than America. Many of us would choose to live in Israel before we chose Palestine, Saudi Arabia, or Syria.

[fuzzywzhe]

Rachel Corrie did, and was murdered for it.

[noloyalisti]

"Accusations like the Swedish blood libel aren't just a threat to Israel's good name"

That is where the author lost ALL credibility. Saying Israel's good name is like saying America's good name, it is a non-starter, ridiculous pronouncement.

[belladonna70]

First, I agree that is is terrible journalistic practice to make such statements with zero proof. And it is irresponsible. Shame on the author and the publisher.

But I have a few problems with much of the rest of this commentary. No one plays the race card better than Israel. Anyone who criticizes Israel's policies is an anti-Semite. That's race-baiting. And Zionism IS racist--it gives preference to a particular group of people based on their religion--at the detriment of people who have inhabited a land since the time of Jesus Christ (many Palestinians).

And here's a REAL tragedy as a result of Zionist policies--Palesitinians thrown out of their own houses in East Jerusalem and those properties given to Jewish settlers. Where is the outrage? This could only occur in Israel without the rest of the world standing up and crying foul. Jimmy Carter was absolutely right: Israel has imposed apartheid on the Palestinian people.

"...the evicted Palestinian al-Ghawi family spent another night camped outside their former home. Their stone house in Arab east Jerusalem, in a district of consulates and trendy restaurants, is now home to Jewish settlers, who moved in as they were being kicked out on Aug 2. The furniture and belongings of the seven-member family were tossed on the street.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, asserting a biblical claim to Jerusalem, has said Jews have a right to live anywhere in the city. Palestinians want East Jerusalem to be the capital of a state they hope to create in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Israeli police who turned the family out of their home said they were acting on eviction orders issued by an Israeli court, which had upheld a settler organization's land ownership claim based on 19th-century documents."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/25/AR2009082500548.html

Yossi Klein Halevi, care to explain how evicting a family based on their religion is not a racist policy? We have civil rights laws in the United States that prevents this sort of thing.

[AJbeck]

Absolutely! "Never Again" did not and does NOT apply to Jews, ONLY.., (and Zionist Jews, at that, according to Israel).