Unmasked yet again

Purim is hardly over, and the true faces of the haters and loathers have already been revealed.

Michael Kuttner

Not so long ago, it was considered best to hide behind a mask and express slanderous incitement against Jews anonymously. Those days are now well and truly gone. Instead, we face openly expressed verbal and physical violence of the most pernicious kind.

The responses to this tsunami vary from genuine shock to bored indifference. The setting up of more commissions and committees is an exercise in futility. The perpetrators know this and that is why they are not deterred. Increases in punitive penalties sound great, but unless they are actually enforced by the police and judiciary, they also are mere window dressing.

As has been mentioned on more than one occasion, the introduction of the compulsory teaching of Holocaust studies in high schools would be a critical first step. Today, a generation of teenagers graduate from high schools without the faintest idea or knowledge about what Jew hate is all about and without the ability to counter this scourge.

Proof that ignorance about the Shoah years is rampant was provided in a news report that surfaced this week. A 16-year-old student in the USA who is a bright individual, a great sportsman and level-headed was caught drawing a swastika. It transpired after close grilling that this guy had no idea what the swastika represented, its sinister meaning and how it factored into the story of the Nazi period. In fact, on further probing, he admitted that he knew nothing about those years, had never met a Jewish person and even had no idea who Hitler was.

When faced with the actual facts, he was aghast. Instead of punishing him, the enlightened authorities decided that a far better course of action would be to have him mentored by a Rabbi. This proved to be an astounding success, and this young man not only now realizes how fatal his previous ignorance had been but now feels he is much better equipped to counter hate and incitement against Jews.

It is obvious that the sooner youngsters are exposed to the truth and learn about historical events the better. Prattling politicians who peddle useless panaceas should be told that the first step must be an inoculation of knowledge, especially during formative teenage years.

The continued refusal to implement this is a scandalous situation. A demand for immediate action should be at the top of the agenda. Now is the time to act with Yom Hashoah fast approaching and the usual annual and banal political rhetoric about to be unleashed.

This year, the knee-jerk Israel haters at the UN did not wait for Purim to end before firing off the latest volley of anti Israel resolutions and accusations. In fact the festivities had not even commenced as the misnamed UN Human Rights Council trundled out its knee-jerk condemnations.

Once again, Israel is accused of further “war crimes” in Gaza. This time around, according to the fetid minds of delegates on the Council, the heinous Israelis are “destroying the reproductive capacity of the Palestinians in Gaza.”  Once upon a time,e Jews were accused of poisoning wells and killing Christian babies in order to make unleavened bread for Passover. This updated version has Jews deliberately destroying IVF clinics in an alleged devilish plot to prevent Palestinian babies from being born.

Nobody, of course, questioned why Hamas terrorists hide in hospitals and clinics and embed themselves among civilians. It’s much easier and more convenient to target Jews with outlandish libels. The brain-addled masses and the media can always be relied upon to spread these mistruths, knowing full well that once unleashed, they will take off.

Meanwhile, real and horrific war crimes are being committed in Syria, Iran, Sudan and parts of Africa without attracting any resolutions of censure from the UN and its associated corrupt institutions. The old adage that if it doesn’t involve Jews, it’s not news holds true.

In actual fact, the persecution of Christians in parts of Africa by jihadist fanatics has reached epidemic proportions. The silence of Church leaders in the face of this Islamic onslaught has been highlighted by the Chief Rabbi of South Africa. In a hard-hitting video, he denounced the hypocrisy of the South African Government and the resounding silence of Churches. This mass refusal to confront the rising tide of jihadist violence and murder against Africa’s Christians is scandalous.

The contrast between the selective outrage at each and every Israeli act of self-defence and the cowardly silence in the face of real jihadist genocidal actions exposes the realities behind the masks.

Recently, apologists for Palestinian Arab President Abbas lauded his supposed decision to stop “pay for slay” stipends to murderers of Israelis. Those not mesmerized by appeasement mirages knew that his declaration was merely designed to avert pressure from the US Administration. Lo and behold, it has just been revealed by Palestine Media Watch (PMW) that the Ramallah-based kleptocracy has paid out February’s instalment. In other words, as predicted, nothing has changed.

Needless to say this ongoing charade has attracted no attention from the world’s media or the UN Human Rights Council.

In what could qualify for the top prize in any Purim “shpiel”, the Russian Foreign Minister has demanded that the US cease its military action against the Houthis and instead engage in “dialogue.” Coming from the representative of a country that invaded Ukraine and continues to attack its territory, this piece of chutzpadik advice is hypocrisy in full bloom.

Time and again, those who suffer from the genetic defect of self-loathing manage to unmask themselves and reveal their true agendas.

They masquerade as anti-Zionists and protest that the return to Zion has nothing to do with Judaism. Whether adherents of Haredi sects awaiting the messianic age or disaffected individuals with an extreme secular left axe to grind, they are all united in hating the resurrected Jewish nation.

Just when one thinks that these groups and individuals can’t sink any lower, they manage to demonstrate that, indeed, it is possible to plumb new depths.

Four incidents this past week illustrate how easy it is for real intentions to be unmasked.

Popping out of the woodwork just in time for Purim were the opinions of several loathers, primarily in the USA, who condemned the celebration of this Jewish anniversary. Their general theme was to denigrate the Purim episode because “it celebrated retribution by Jews against Persians.” Stripped down to its bare meaning, their message of how Jews fought back and defended themselves against genocidal designs is intrinsically evil.

The corollary of these confused and ashamed Jews is, therefore, easily transferred onto today’s Jews/Israelis who are fighting back against terror schemes. It takes sick minds to twist the Purim story this way, but that is what passes for blind anti-Zionist/Israel paranoia. How else does one explain the establishment in the US of “anti Zionist” places of worship where so-called spiritual leaders propagate the belief that Israel has no connection to Judaism?

The second incident was the antics of those such as the misnamed “Jewish Voice for Peace” who invaded the lobby of a Trump hotel and who demonstrated against deporting foreign agitators who lead anti Israel/Jewish riots at universities. It never ceases to amaze when one sees rioting Jews defending the rights of Hamas and terror supporters while they remain mute when Israelis/Jews are massacred by these same groups. The media love the sight of these loathers with their masks and keffiyehs. They make great visual headlines, especially when they are besmirching Zionists.

The third “shande” (Yiddish for disgrace) was a viral video of Haredi youth at a wedding in Israel of a fellow Yeshiva student, singing and dancing against the IDF and defending the country. Urged on by the Yeshiva head and father of the Chatan (groom), this mass display of self-loathing for the very country that pays their stipends and supports their institutions caused a massive reaction of revulsion by all who viewed the video.

The fourth example of unhinged loathing was revealed in a report from the New York Post.

A Hollywood actress, Debra Winger, declared to Al Jazeera during an anti-Trump protest in New York that she has “a debt to pay” for having been born Jewish. “I was brought up Jewish with a lot of things that were untrue. I had to unlearn them and it’s taken a lot of years. I have a debt for what I grew up with and believed on what the State of Israel has done and what they haven’t done and how they are conflating Judaism with Zionism.”

In case her convoluted message was not clear enough, she rejected the idea of Israel as a Jewish homeland and added that she considered the US Administration as a fascist regime.

This is not the first time that so-called Jewish Hollywood elites have been unmasked as ignoramuses about Israel and Judaism.

We have been inflicted with these types throughout our long history.

The best response is to expose them and make sure that their warped narratives are countered.