Pariahs

When the morally degenerate international community brands the world’s only Jewish nation as a pariah you can guarantee that it won’t stop there.

The next step is to label the Jewish People as pariahs.

This word is commonly defined as “someone who is avoided or not accepted by a social group, especially because he or she is not liked, respected or trusted. Basically, they are an outcast.”

Looking back over the last two thousand years or so does this not perfectly fit the attitudes and actions of the rest of the world towards their local Jewish inhabitants? I did not use the word “citizens” because, for much of that period, Jews were denied full civil rights. Even when full citizenship was grudgingly given, it did not, in the long run, guarantee any equal opportunity for a safe and tranquil future.

The oppressed masses that fled from the pogroms of Russia, Poland and other hate-soaked European countries to the seemingly welcome shores of the Golden Medina (America) quickly discovered that university quotas existed to keep them out of the Ivy League universities and medical schools. Eventually, after much hardship and effort, these new immigrants clawed their way up the economic ladder, with some of them acquiring an acceptable status in society.

This acceptability was always going to be transient. With Jewish refugees from Nazism shut out and large vocal support for fascism and isolationism those who thought that pariah status was a thing of the past started to worry. The horrors of the Holocaust and post-war euphoria for re-establishing Jewish sovereignty seemed to herald a new golden era for American Jewry.

Recent realities should have shattered these myopic mirages not only in the USA but also on every continent where the ancient virus has reawakened with renewed deadly effects.

Pariah status has once again become the designated label by which the Jewish State and Jews worldwide are becoming known.

For those in the Diaspora who had been seduced by a few years of tolerance and tranquillity, this restored reality has come as a shattering shock. Once released from the bottle the genies of hate cannot be put back. No amount of wishful thinking and sweeping under the carpet will banish the brutal truth that dangerous times are here again.

Who could have imagined that universities would once again morph into bastions of Jew hate with mobs demanding that the likes of Hillel and Chabad be banned because they “support” Israel? Slogans daubed on Jewish school walls and gunfire directed at such places has become a daily feature. In some countries, the police stand helplessly by as demonstrators hurl vile invective and shout the most deranged chants against Jews.

One of the most bizarre phenomena is those purporting to be Jews who have joined these groups mouthing slanderous lies against Israel.

This shameful spectacle is only surpassed by the sight of self loathers participating in mass orgies of organized hate festivities. One can understand the actions of Jewish communities who are virtual hostages in their respective countries. The Jews of Iran have no alternative but to show solidarity with their Government. We could question why they are still residing there. However, the sight of Neturei Karta leaders from overseas marching in solidarity with mobs shouting death to Israel and mourning the demise of Iran’s President highlights an incurable malady.

Some worry that being labelled a pariah is akin to a death sentence.

That is exactly what our accusers want us to be afraid of because by succumbing to this bogey, we help the haters achieve their aims. If only Jews would surrender en masse, lie down and disappear the rest of the world could do what it does best. Eulogizing us and perhaps standing for a minute’s silence will follow, although given today’s reality, that is not guaranteed.

The fact that Israelis fight back is something the rest of the world finds intolerable, especially as the age-old Jewish default position was one of defenceless submission.

When the real pariah nations are themselves getting away with murder and escaping any sort of retribution you know that there is something seriously wrong.

When UN members stand in silent tribute to the deceased “butcher of Tehran” and democratic leaders issue nauseating obituaries, you should be able to detect more than a whiff of craven appeasement.

When reports suggest that the Biden Administration is urging allies not to rebuke and censure Iran over its nuclear duplicity, it is obvious that nothing serious will be done to thwart their genocidal ambitions.

When the head of the IAEA plaintively reveals that Iran is not cooperating and has almost reached nuclear breakout capability and the rest of the world reacts by yawning, it is time to prepare for action.

When the failed Government of South Africa hauls Israel in front of the ICJ and all the other real pariah nations line up to the lynching, you can surmise that the lunatics have already taken over the asylum.

When Israel’s Ministers are threatened with arrest warrants while countless leaders of countries engaging in real genocidal acts against their own citizens and others get away with murder, it is patently obvious that something rotten is festering.

The German Chancellor was asked to respond to the threat of international arrest warrants against Israel’s officials. He responded that Germany would, if such warrants were issued, comply with its demands. This response shocked some naïve people but in reality they should not have been surprised. Germans have a proven track record when it comes to following orders against Jews, no matter how illegal and outrageous they may be.

Take the recent decision of Norway, Ireland and Spain to recognize a fake Palestine based on equally fake 1967 “borders” with Jerusalem as its Capital.

The name Quisling will always be associated with Norway because he and the Norwegian Nazis made every effort to persecute and deport Norwegian Jews to concentration camps. Jews were made pariahs and ended up paying the ultimate sacrifice. The name Oslo will forever be associated with one of the greatest acts of folly to be perpetrated against Israel.

Ireland’s refusal to join the war against Germany and remain neutral was a symptom of the deep hate that the Irish nationalists had against the British. Irish hypocrisy reached a peak when following Hitler’s death, the Irish Government issued official condolences to the Nazi administration, which only had a short while to exist. Today, Irish support for the terror aspirations of the PLO/Hamas and their associated willing partners is expressed in joining every anti-Israel condemnation.

Spain has a long and sordid history of turning Jews into pariahs with its inquisitions, forced conversions and mass expulsion. For a very short while it seemed that a golden age for Jews had returned but current policies threaten to return the situation back to the bad old days.

Proof that recognizing “Palestine” plays into the hands of those whose agenda is the eradication of Jews “from the river to the sea” can be seen in the map published by the PA’s Fatah movement. In thanking countries for recognition the map shows the whole of Israel “from the river to the sea” as Palestine. This is the reality which Norway, Spain and Ireland and no doubt the rest of the UN have signed up to.

Those who lemming-like to yearn to reward terrorists with yet another terror State should take note of what Ernest Bevin stated in 1947. The British Foreign Secretary at the time and certainly no friend of Jews and their desire to regain sovereignty made this statement as the UK prepared to give up the mandate.

“HM Government has been faced with an irreconcilable conflict of principles. For the Jews the essential point of principle is the creation of a sovereign Jewish State. For the Arabs the essential point of principle is to resist to the last the establishment of Jewish sovereignty in ANY part of mandated Palestine.”

 Take note that this statement was made after the Arabs rejected the very notion of an Arab State living in democratic peace and tranquility with a Jewish State.

If Ernest Bevin could understand the fundamental agenda of the rejectionist Arabs, what is it that today’s sponsors of a terror State do not want to internalize?

The simple answer is that they prefer to trip down the well-worn path of tarring Israel, the historic State of the Jewish People, with the age-old badge of being a pariah.

We have suffered and survived this appellation many times during our long historical journey.

I have no doubts that we will do so again well after our adversaries have been trashed and vanished.

Michael Kuttner is a Jewish New Zealander who for many years was actively involved with various communal organisations connected to Judaism and Israel. He now lives in Israel and is J-Wire’s correspondent in the region.