Seven Jewish Children: An Anti-Semitic Play Debuts in London
During the recent Gaza conflict and in its aftermath, it has been open season on Israel across the globe. From a synagogue in Caracas to a Jewish member of my local community in London being set upon by anti-Semitic thugs, there has been a wave of anti-Jewish sentiment that goes beyond criticism of Israel’s military incursions. From the journalist Richard “I don’t read letters from people with Jewish-sounding names” Ingrams to Robert “Israel’s fifty years of shame” Fisk to Bruce “Israel, the serpent in the garden of Eden” Anderson, the Zionist enterprise has been the focus of considerable venom of late. In recent days Ingrams has predicted the demise of the Jewish state and Anderson has prognosticated in similar vein with the obligatory “ethnic cleansing” accusation against those pesky Jews occupying Arab lands.
Caryl Churchill’s Seven Jewish Children is described by the Royal Court Theatre as a “play for Gaza” and a “history of Israel.” The playwright herself, a patron of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, has told the world, “Israel has done lots of terrible things in the past, but what happened in Gaza seemed particularly extreme.”
My esteemed colleague John Nathan in the Jewish Chronicle says this: “For the first time in my career as a critic, I am moved to say about a work at a major production house that this is an anti-Semitic play.” He is right, and here is my analysis:
This ten-minute piece features a dining room set inhabited by a nine-member Jewish family agonizing over the pros and cons of Zionism. Churchill uses “tell her” as the mechanism by which the evil of the Israeli experiment is revealed to the audience. Never once, of course, do we meet the family of an Arab sniper, suicide bomber, Hezbollah Katyusha rocket-launcher, Hamas missile-maker, or car-bomber whose mother, wives, sisters, and daughters might also have some thoughts about the deeds of their menfolk.
Donald Rumsfeld once referred to Israel as “trying to survive in a dangerous neighborhood — a tiny country you can see in its entirety from the top floor of your hotel in Tel Aviv.” What I found unnerving about this very short polemic was Churchill’s use of the accusations hurled most frequently at Jews around the world as Israel becomes an increasingly militaristic power in the region:
1. The land of Israel was stolen from under the feet of the Arabs and “she [the girl in Churchill's play] doesn’t belong here” because “everyone was driven out.”
Sure, the War of Independence caused upheaval in the region, but one may refer to the narratives of Benny Morris to appreciate that Arab leaders were frightening the local population to take flight because they were told the rapacious Jews would murder them and violate their women. In reality the concept of a Jewish homeland had been simmering for over a century and came to a head with the Dreyfus trial and Emile Zola’s J’Accuse screed.
2. Every Israeli is living in a house that is actually the rightful property of a Palestinian.
This may be true in some neighborhoods but would anyone like to give me back the homes of the long list of relatives whose homes were taken away from them in centuries of Jewish history?
3. Israelis routinely kill babies and children but feel nothing, only “I’m glad it isn’t my child!”
Caryl Churchill obviously does not engage with the Jewish narrative. Anyone born after 1948 knows that Golda Meir said, “Peace will come when the Arabs start to love their children more than they hate us.”
4. Israelis regard Bedouin and other local residents as second-class citizens.
Every nation has racists in its borders, but if the Jews of Israel had been as ruthless and hateful as anti-Zionists like to portray them, would the one million-plus Muslims, Druse, and Beduin not have been driven out or massacred, Rwanda-style, long, long ago?
5. If the average Israeli knew how many Arabs had been killed in the nation’s history they would leave or not have emigrated there in the first place.
This ignores the fact that thousands of Israeli Jews, known as Sabras, have been there for centuries, for example in Piki’in, where the synagogue dates to the time of Jesus.
6. Jews in Israel expropriate Arab water to use for swimming pools.
Again, this is an accusation hurled at Israel by those who wish to demonize every permutation of its social fiber. Palestinians have their own swimming pools. It is not Israel’s practice to help itself to “Palestinian water.”
Dr. Alex Safian, an authority on this topic, says, “Israel obtains roughly 50 percent of its water from the Sea of Galilee and the Coastal Aquifer, both of which are entirely within Israel’s pre-1967 borders. Another 30 percent comes from the Western and Northeastern Aquifers of the Mountain Aquifer system.”
I read another interesting article about this subject (anti-Semitism) here:
http://opinion.independentminds.livejournal.com/335566.html?thread=2105550#t2105550
Good article. I haven’t seen Caryl Churchill’s play, but it sounds disgusting and full of lies that people unfortunately swallow all too easily. If anyone is being “told” simplistic narratives it is Muslim children.
Howard Jacobson tears into the play here. See also Melanie Phillips here for a new angle on anti-Semitism, an evil that never goes away but always mutates.
I would expect to see alot more of this stuff in the coming months and years. As the west pushes toward socialism and sees that it is impossible to maintain, the leaders of the west will look back in history to the two most successful socialist countries ever to grace our planet… the greatest heroes of the left wing. Hitler’s germany and stalins USSR. They will learn from both that the only way for socialism to work is by massive influxes of blood money. No one really cares about the jews and they have a large pool of money… they are the prefect wood to be burned in a socialist furnace. In the US their is no doubt in that the new administration transcends “racial and ethnic” prejudices and will simply throw anyone that doesn’t dance to the leftist tone quickly into the fire.
This should come as no surprise to anyone. Britain is no longer the same country as it was in the era after World War II. The government and much of the media kowtow to the Muslim mentality, taking great care not to offend at the expense of the rest of the citizens.
Anti-semitism, world-wide, is becoming more evident now that it is almost “socially acceptable”, for lack of a better way to express it. After all, you see anti-semitism sometimes being expressed now as sympathy for what has been done to the “poor Palestinians, Gazans,” take your pick. The fact that Israelis have suffered at the hands of these same people is totally ignored. Or maybe the world just figures that the Israelis have gone through so much that they ought to be used to it??
Its a brave new world. Brace yourself.
Brace yourself, indeed!
The Left has always idolized Communism (Gulags? What gulags?), made excuses for it and supported it. Now it looks like they’re doing the same thing with Nazi Germany, what with the rise in Jew-hate, and movies like “Valkyrie” coming out.
We live in all too interesting times.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7AjIAFqG6o
I am a Christian Zionist. A world without the Jewish people would not be one to my liking. In fact, a world without Jewish people would have been a world in which I would not have lived long after being born.
Christians owe everything to the Jewish people without whom we wouldn’t even HAVE a belief system. Christians MUST stand up for the Jewish people!!!!
Regarding our rather swift recent slide into socialism… the O admin is deftly setting the stage for the complete, and likely irreversible move of this country to the left. They are manipulating us, the economic system, everything into a repeat of the conditions which allowed FDR to move this country so far to the left. We must stop it or America as we know it will cease to exist.
#5 TalkinCamel – you are correct, indeed.
FDRs advisors were communists with a communist agenda that was there for all to see in the 1920s. they even made a trip to meet with stalin in 1927 writing glowing articles and books upon their return about the promise of communism. O knows his history well and replicating what has already worked.
Let’s not assume that’s all he knows of history. He’ll replicate more worse things than what he is currently doing with the economy.
I don’t think the following belief could be any clearer.
“Muhammad said in his Hadith: “The Hour [Day of Resurrection] will not arrive until you fight the Jews, [until a Jew will hide behind a rock or tree] and the rock and the tree will say: ‘Oh Muslim, servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him!’”
The servants of Allah have a duty to fulfill and others may have a duty to show why it must be fulfilled.
And I Said Nothing [revised]
In America
They first came for the Republicans
and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Republican.
Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew.
Then they came for the gun owners,
and I didn’t speak up because I didn’t own a gun.
Then they came for the Christians,
and I didn’t speak up because I didn’t believe in God.
Then they came for me––
and by that time
no one was left to speak up.
Every time someone says that the world would be better off without Jews, I recall that popular Christmas-time movie, “It’s a Wonderful Life” – perhaps if for one day, God would remove from the earth all the good that Jews have done for the world over the thousands of years since Moses brought the Torah down from Sinai, those anti-Jews would change their tunes… though I doubt it.
Every time someone says that the world would be better off without Jews, I recall that popular Christmas-time movie, “It’s a Wonderful Life” – perhaps if for one day, God would remove from the earth all the good that Jews have done for the world over the thousands of years since Moses brought the Torah down from Sinai, those Jew-haters would change their tunes… though I doubt it.
One thing that is overlooked all too often is the role of the Arab petrodollar lobby (never saw Walt and Mearsheimer write about this)in the spread of anti-Israel and antisemitic propaganda.
We are getting to the point where this play is starting to become good news. There is no question in my mind that it is time for the Jews to leave Europe and make Aliyah. If I lived anywhere in Europe, I would have been trying to get to Israel months ago. The antipathy towards the Jews is not going to reverse–the question now is what will be the tipping point to convince everyone to leave.
Europe is once again completely oblivious to the world that they create. Israel came into existence because they no longer wanted Jews on the continent, and this play is one more reason why the State of Israel is necessary for Jews the world over.
Naziberalism, Naziberlas and Muslimists
As I look at the sway of the liberal left into the hands of fascism and Nazism, and it’s endorsement of the Islamic extremist, I find that traditional terminologies fail to pin point the moving shift of politics. I call to update terminologies to ease the description of the current political shifts. I suggest the following new terminologies:
1. Naziberalism to describe the liberal left who in fact are the heir of the Nazi spirit- combination of Nazism and Liberalism.
2. Naziberal, combination of Nazi and Liberal. Best examples of Naziberals are George Galloway, Ken Livingston, Caryl Churchill, etc.
3. Muslimist to describe the missing link between the Islamist and the law obeying Muslim. This term describes the silent Muslim who do not participate in violent acts but give tacit support for extremists by donations to terror organisation, support of non violent Jihad, support establishment of Sharia law in the West, etc. I am afraid that the large minority (a majority?) of Muslims could be the reclassified as actual Muslimists.
Why hasn’t anybody ever brought up the most obvious reason the Left has ditched Israel over the past ten years–and particularly since 9-11?: Stockholm Syndrome.
Somebody should do a study of those who–when under threat of personal violence–sided with those who threatened them. Ask them this:
Are you:
A. Liberal
B. Conservative?
(I can’t conduct the survey myself, because I carry too many preset opinions.)
@ 9.Delia
How quaint, you are quoting that rabid Bolshevik Niemöller who was a Stalinist scum who received the Lenin Prize in the 60-ties. Before that he was a supporter of the Nazis and was awarded with the Iron Cross during WWI.
He had no problem with the Gulag, the Show trials, the Stalinist genocide so consequently he became the Saint Patron of the left and found his way to the Pajama People.
@ 15. Keith
That subject is taboo to be discussed: you will be censored.
16. Thomas,
Quaint? Naw. Ironic? Maybe. Hence the message’s ‘revision’.
The UK deserves to reap what it has sown. Jews out now. Let the British fight their own civil war against their Muslim overlords.
Europe has always been anti-Semitic and England has always been among the worst.
In fact for hundreds of years until the last 100 years or so Jews weren’t even allowed in England.
The British killed hundreds if not thousands of Jews in what is now Israel during Israel’s formative years in the 1940s.
This play in London England does not surprise me. What surprises me is that a play like this didn’t appear during the Arafat era.
Little children in Gaza watch shows in which animals tell them to beware of the Jews. You all should google Gert Wilder’s film documenary Fitna (it is only 16 minutes) to see an adorable little 2 year old being brain washed for hate. Wilders’s film is made up entirely of news clips of the demonstrations in NY, London and Maidrid plus actions against women and gays. The rest of it includes headlines from newspapers. He never makes a comment. He doesn’t have to. The facts speak for themselves.
Linda Mae,
That is not hate. Try posting a Bible verse.
Sarc/off
The more anti-Semitic England becomes the more Jews will leave there for America. They’ll bring their talent, brains, abilities and money here.
What a great shot in the arm for the USA>
Europe has always been anti-Semitic and England has always been among the worst.
Tell that to the thousands of Kindertransport people who have grown up here to live happy and prosperous lives. This in a country that stood alone against the Nazis for two years while America was still dithering.
Mary Jackson:
Tell that to the thousands of Kindertransport people who have grown up here to live happy and prosperous lives.
Why doesn’t he tell it also to the hundreds of thousands that Britain denied entry to Palestine/Israel prior to and during WW2?
Oh, that’s right Mary, I forgot. Those people were rounded up, suffocated in cattle cars, starved, stripped, gassed to death and their remains burned to ashes in ovens.
And then those who survived were denied entry to Israel.
The UK, like the rest of Europe is simply evil, beyond any hope of redemption.
Why doesn’t he tell it also to the hundreds of thousands that Britain denied entry to Palestine/Israel prior to and during WW2?
Didn’t they go to the US then? Or were ships of them turned back and sent to certain death.
The US is evil, bla bla bla….
Okay Mary,
No one is trying to diminish England’s role in defeating the Nazis. However, there are questions which part of Hitler’s idea they were truly fighting against. And yes, the same could be said for America. The history is there for everyone to read. Surely, though, you cannot deny England’s long history of institutionalized Antisemitism beginning with the Magna Carta. Your response could and should be to ask about America’s history of slavery. Fine.
But the point is, where do you stand today? There are no British Colonies that Hitler is trying to steal. All that remains of the Reich is the hatred. Can you stand up against it? Do you want to stand up against it? And if you do, will you be safe? If the answer to any of those questions is ‘no’, then your idea of England is gone.
Mary Jackson,
England is the country that sank two ships of Holocast victims trying to escape the Nazis. They did it to prove to the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem that they would honor his request to limit Jewish immigration to Palestine.
They also refuse Churchill’s order to bomb the train lines leading to the concentration and death camps. There has always been lots of anti-Semitism in England.
England is the country that sank two ships of Holocast victims trying to escape the Nazis.
And America is the country that turned away ships full of Jews trying to immigrate, sending them to certain death. It is also the country that was very late coming into the war.
They also refuse Churchill’s order to bomb the train lines leading to the concentration and death camps.
Much has been written, with 20-20 hindsight about whether this would have been a good idea. Americans didn’t bomb them either, remember – and that’s when America finally, eventually went to war (in response to Pearl Harbour, not out of any divine mission to “save” Europe).
Bombing was not as precisely targetted then as it is now, plus, arguably, the main objective was to win the war, which was better achieved by bombing Dresden, thus demoralising the enemy and hastening a surrender.
Mary,
I think you’re really missing the point, although in your defense, the point hasn’t been sharply made–because your response of ‘but look at America’ is enough to avoid the issue.
Please respond to this–it is increasingly difficult for Jews to live in England because of the prevailing atmosphere of virulent Antisemitism. Most of the Third Reich is gone, except for the hatred. That hatred is up and running all throughout England. Who is standing up to it? How strongly is the movement fighting it? Is there even any kind of movement fighting it? And if not, why not? And lastly, where are you in this present conflict?
Those are the questions that folks are raising with you. And it seems as though you are avoiding them.
Sorry to gang up on you Mary, but while its true that the US went to war only after Pearl Harbor and Germany declared war on the US only days afterward, why did Germany do so?
The answer that tends to be overlooked is that America was buttressing its democratic ally with massive supplies–including war goods. And, by the way, were loosing thousands of merchant sailors in so doing.
Why? Was it to make a buck? That would be quite an act of brinksmanship considering the risk of instigating war.
Maybe the US didn’t want to see that which the country represented get swallowed by its antithesis. While the devine is rarely seen–when it is–it rises from the muck.
Reading some of the posts I cannot help but assume that there is a tendency to over complicate this issue and make it larger than it is in the real life.
The modern Arab world is the exclusive creation of the British Empire – the French colonialism concentrated on N. Africa mainly.
Nothing shows more the British devotion to the Arab world than Lawrence of Arabia; the entire Arabian ruling class of today were tent living nomads and the Brits nominated their Kings and noblemen as reward to their loyalty to the crown.
All that had happened well before the oil played its ubiquitous role.
It’s safe to infer that there is an emotional and historical bond between the Brits and the Arabs akin to the French-Maghreb alliance or the relation of Latin America and Spain.
On the other side, Jews were a small, voiceless ethnic minority which never truly integrated into the British aristocracy and the Brits kept their distances too.
The first time when Jews made their collective voices heard happened when they revolted against the British rule in Palestine followed by a bloody armed confrontation. See the movie Exodus.
There are bad memories lingering on both side and the traditional Marxist Antisemitism* coupled with Arab sympathies of the Brits need no excessive analysis; – it’s much older than the WWII era.
It goes back to the last Ottoman ruler, Abdul Hamid II’s court.
************************
*Marx lived in London and wrote what is the foundation of today’s Leftist Antisemitism: “A World without Jews” and an essay “On the Jewish Question”. (Google)
That hatred is up and running all throughout England.
Is it? And you know this how? By reading The Guardian? So if I read Michael Moore or Noam Chomsky, that represents hatred/idiocy etc “throughout America”?
Why? Was it to make a buck?
Paid back with interest, and how. Boosted the American economy in the depression. America acted in its own interests and for no other reason. Fair enough. That’s what countries do. But less of the holier than thou. If Britain was reluctant to go to war, America was even more so.
Okay Mary,
I read your links on comment 2. So if hatred isn’t up and running throughout England, why did you link to articles saying that it is? Dear, we’re just following up on the thread that you started. The play is Antisemitic, you agreed and provided two links that we should read, that basically say England is overrun with Antisemitism. At least that’s how I read Melanie Phillips.
So, if we are all wrong, and you misled us in comment 2, then just clarify the situation. We’re not out to bash England, but we see England collapsing, its values collapsing, and we see it descending into fascism. We hope that isn’t the case, but no one is saying otherwise.
So how’s England? What’s it feel like to be Jewish there? Safe? Dangerous? If I were living there, and I am Jewish, would I be making plans to leave? If you were Jewish, and you might be, would you be making plans to leave? And how’s the weather?
34 – there is a difference between saying that “the play” is anti-Semitic, or that there is a problem with anti-Semitism and saying, as ignorant Americans do, that the country is “overrun” with anti-Semitism.
Is America “overrun” with Leftism because of Michael Moore and Noam Chomsky? No, silly. No it isn’t.
@Mary Jackson
You wrote:
‘Is America “overrun” with Leftism because of Michael Moore and Noam Chomsky? No, silly. No it isn’t.
Have you heard the news on the recent US election? The Leftism won and it’s in large extent due to the relentless campaign, propaganda and indoctrination of the Chomsky-Moore type Bolsheviks that infest the public sphere and the academia.
You should recognize and accept the fact that contemporary England is scrutinized from the outside, peoples know about the al-Guardian, al-Reuters, the BBC anti-Israel hate fest, the ranting of R.Fisk of the Independent, Photoshopping the news, the “Bycott Israel” movements, Orla Guerin’s (BBC)crying game at the AIDS ridden corpse of Arafat. The death of the self-loathing H. Pinter didn’t help much.
Your lame attempt to deny the corrosive effect of the aforementioned ruling elite’s political leaning on the population at large makes you an apologist but an unsophisticated one and that invalidates all your narrative.
Wake up from your EU slumber: not everybody is ignorant and dumb as you assume.
Mary Jackson
Life isn’t fun when you’re getting from people like this. Its sort of like being Jewish. How does it feel?
peoples know about the al-Guardian, al-Reuters, the BBC anti-Israel hate fest, the ranting of R.Fisk of the Independent, Photoshopping the news, the “Bycott Israel” movements, Orla Guerin’s (BBC)crying game at the AIDS ridden corpse of Arafat.
Yes, and people here know about it too, and despise it. But we are not so stupid and ignorant as to extrapolate from The Guardian (tiny circulation) to 60 million people. We leave that to Americans.
Mary Jackson,
Yes the United States turned away the one ship carrying refugees. The USA had a law on the books the 1924 immigration act which barred them from legal entry. There was no law barring the Britts from coming here.
Yes England did sink two ships in the Mediteranian. Its not the same the US didn’t pull the trigger. England did. Antisemetism was alive and well in England. A Jewish soldier described to me how he was wounded in North Africa. When two British medics found him, one said, “He’s a Jew! Leave him.” They did. The man refused to die and made it back to an aid station by himself.
I don’t think that much has changed. England is still England. Antisemetism is still antisemetism.
Oscar
I’ll handle my own fight.
The USA had a law on the books …
Oh well, that’s all right then.
Jeez Mary,
You’re all over the place. On the one hand, a play is antisemitic, and you agree with that. You link to two articles saying that antisemitism is all over England, then you deny any veracity to the two articles you provided. Not only that, but if we believe your two articles, then we are stupid and ignorant. Then you say that nothing is wrong in England that isn’t just as wrong in America, and you want, what, love and understanding?
And through this all, you don’t address the issue–if you are Jewish and live in England, do you feel safe? Or do you feel a palpable hatred everywhere you go, from everything you read, from everything that comes across the BBC? If you are Jewish and have to plan your future, is leaving England a rational option? If this is what is happening, the England that stood up to Hitler is gone.
And you could avoid all of this by simply giving your perceptions of what is happening over there. Instead you attack anyone who would dare criticize England, choosing instead to criticize Americans.
Was your original purpose just to insult Americans, was it to warn people of the dangers of antisemitism? What is your point? And if your point is to warn folks about antisemitism, why, if it’s not in England? Do you think it is more virulent over here?
On the one hand, a play is antisemitic, and you agree with that. You link to two articles saying that antisemitism is all over England, then you deny any veracity to the two articles you provided.
Yes the play is antisemitic. That doesn’t mean the whole of England is antisemitic..
Yes, there is a problem with antisemitism in England, as highlighted in the two articles I linked. That doesn’t mean the whole of England is antisemitic.
Some posters here say the whole of Engliand is antisemitic. They are stupid and ignorant.
I am not Jewish, but my boyfriend is. He feels safe and has absolutely no plans to leave. However, he gets pisssed off about antisemitic plays, The Guardian etc. He does not think that the whole of England is antisemitic, because that would be really stupid.
Mary Jackson
“I am not Jewish, but my boyfriend is.”
Why does every goyish woman want a Jewish husband? Give him a break and introduce him to a nice Jewish girl. It will be much better for him.
Jewish by injection?
parsing words….
@ Mary Jackson: whole or partially, not wholly, in part etc….
Everybody with a modicum of common sense knows that not Everybody was a Nazi in Germany nor was a Communist KGB member in the USSR; – quite the opposite, there were those who resisted and went to the gulag or Dachau.
The largest block however was then and is today
the “swimmers”, those who swim with the political current, who applaud the official policy of their leaders and willingly execute the ruling elite’s policies.”
I have already tackled the insidious corrosive propaganda effect of the entire British upper echelon – something you desperately try to obfuscate – on the public sentiment.
Posting inane, dolt statement according which dummy Americans deducing false conclusions from the incessant Antisemitic protests (youtube), the media’s war on Israel, the activist Cherie Booth…for you these facts mean nothing at all because there is no concentration camp on British soil.
You know what, get this:
“On the specific question of anti-Semitism, Griffin said this:
The idea that ‘the Jew is the enemy’ is simply over for us now, and not a moment too soon, because now we can get on with the real struggles.
One sign of this reformed attitude towards Jews is that the BNP not only has Jewish members, but even has a Jewish officeholder: Councilor Pat Richardson, elected last year by residents of the borough of Epping Forest, just north of London.”*
Disclaimer:
This quote is not an endorsement by this poster: it’s only a slice of reality of Britain which is little known in the US.
=======================================================================
*BNP is the extreme nationalist, right wing party of Britain, led by Nick Griffin. Strongly anti-Islamist, and anti-Socialist.
dummy Americans deducing false conclusions
You said it, mate. By the way, Nick Griffin is a holocaust-denier – that’s how much you know about the UK.
44 – Get stuffed.
@Mary Jackson
Times have changed Mary:
Once upon a time Britain was an American ally.
Today it’s an America bashing, Socialist, Islamist, Antisemitic cesspool where Christians enticed to pray to Allah and submit to Sharia: Rowan Williams, A.B of Canterbury – and kill the Jews!- by using
“newspeak”, PC language. PC is the Soul of the EU!
And the “holocaust denier” N. Griffin have become the supporter of Israel: he stated it publicly so try not to digress and switch to spin mood, that is, to hijack the thread into what is not intended to be.
(FYI) This poster is a dummy European, so you are off.
Interesting times.
Nick Griffin is a holocaust denier, and he has not renounced his position.
Today it’s an America bashing, Socialist, Islamist, Antisemitic cesspool where Christians enticed to pray to Allah and submit to Sharia: Rowan Williams, A.B of Canterbury – and kill the Jews!- by using
“newspeak”, PC language. PC is the Soul of the EU!
Yeah, right. Just like America (if you selectively pick Michael Moore, New York Times etc, which I don’t).
@Mary Jackson
So far you just brushed aside with an aristocratic elegance of a teflon wall all the Antisemitic propaganda of the BBC, the printed media, the public speeches of your elite, the street protests, the boycott drives of Universities, the gov. supported of radical mosques, the threat against Wilders by L-o-r-d (!) Ahmed (former Paki grocer), the show of (Pancake) Rachel Corrie bashing Israel…
Oh la, la, c’est rien du tout. Oh, that is nothing to do with Antisemitism because everybody else is supportive of the Jews.
I have submitted to you an avalanche of proof, a veritable cross section of the contemporary Antisemitism in convoluted England.
Instead of throwing around your disparaging epithets on dummy, ignorant Americans – (FYI: I am European Oh!, had learned about Cromwell, Magna Carta, Sir Walter Scott, Marlowe, I can write and read, add and subtract etc.)- so please provide a link to any prestigious public forum, media, whatever, which openly stood up and defended the Jews, openly rejects Arab terrorism and the prevailing Antisemitic hysteria that engulfed Britain and have a sway over the public perception.
Instead of criticizing Americans – which is not germane to this thread – provide tangible proof of the validity of your line of argument.
Calling me a dolt will not prove your lucidity at all.
I have submitted to you an avalanche of proof, a veritable cross section of the contemporary Antisemitism in convoluted England.
No you haven’t – you’ve simply cherry-picked certain events/aspects of the UK.
Read instead The Spectator, Melanie Phillips, the two articles linked above, The Sunday Times, the Barnabas Fund, the Anglo-American New English Review, Harry’s Place – the list is endless. But they don’t count.
The idea that all – all – of England is overrun with antisemitism is absurd, profoundly stupid and pig ignorant. It is also smug and complacent coming from a country with a very Muslim-friendly president.
By the way, what the hell is “European”? Europe isn’t a country. I’m certainly not European, I’m English and utterly despise the EU and all its diabolical works.
Correct me if I’m wrong. England is part of the EU. Its one of the three big dogs that leads the pups around. The EU has a president who speaks for all the nations within it. They try to pass laws which apply to all participating nations. I would say that makes you European.
By the way, does your boyfriend’s parents know that he is dating a shicksa?
Why is it that every comment thread here repeats the same mistakes but in reverse? The reason why the play is abhorrent is because of the mindset that all zionists are evil without any qualification or realization that its a hugely complex subject that can’t be boiled down to absolutes?
Yet we see everyone here do exactly the same thing when talking about how evil and antisemitic britain is in responding to Mary Jackson. It’s the same thing, trying to reduce a complex situation into absolutes, just on the other side of the political equation.
52 Get stuffed.
Dear Grump 52
I am the father of Mary Jackson’s boyfriend. She is a very nice shicksa and I am happy for my devoted and promising son.
@Oscar the Grump:
We’d better give up on this dimwit:
any individual holding a passport on which there is the imprinted text “EUROPEAN UNION” and still dares to say with straight face that he/she is not European yet not member of any anti-EU organization – is not worthy of discussion.
Thomas, are you French?
Donbury
Your grandchildren won’t be Jewish. That means that everything your ancestors lived for will be flushed down the toilet. They lived and died so that you can be here as a Jew and your son. It stops right here!
You’re helping do what the Nazis couldn’t do, you’re just not using bullets. Who will say Kadish for your son when his time comes? Hilter said it himself,” If you want to wipe out the Jews just accept them.” We will breed ourselves into oblivion and be a curious footnote in history books.
I read that sad excuse for a “play.” More to the point:
The Quandary of Anti-Semitism
There’s been a notable and noticeable spike in anti-Semitism worldwide but when that spike actually began spiking seems in dispute. What’s also disputable is its significance and its value as news.
During and following Israel’s invasion of Gaza late last year, which happened to coincide with revelations of the Bernie Madoff multi-billion dollar scam and the worldwide economic turmoil, anti-Semitic activity seemed to peak and hasn’t dissipated since. It was attributed to Israel’s disproportionate killing of thousands of Gazans and the fact that Madoff was Jewish and had defrauded thousands, with few references to the fiscal upheavals.
What wasn’t emphasized in much of the media was that Israel had been provoked beyond measure before retaliating and conceded the disproportionate killing and casualties and that a similar disproportionate number of Madoff’s victims were Jews and Jewish institutions. Israel’s actions were brutal but defensible in light of ceaseless Hamas’ missile attacks on Israel. And when someone who is Jewish rips off his own people, can that reasonably be described as anti-Semitic?
Also, those events may have caused an irrational increase in anti-Semitic sentiment but were they the cause of that sentiment’s existence in such disparate locales as Venezuela and in much of Europe? Did they reflect an overall increase in such venom?
I think not, mainly because that venom never really went away in many areas of the globe and in other areas it has always been relatively inconsequential.
In Hugo Chavez’ Venezuela, for example, the irrepressible president for life–at least that was his aim before the collapse of oil prices–condemned a January 30th attack on a Caracas synagogue which was followed by “a small grenade” hurled at a Jewish center a month later: http://au.news.yahoo.com/a/-/world/5356087/small-grenade-lobbed-at-jewish-centre-in-venezuela/.
Those attacks, rather than igniting a general Venezuelan version of kristalnacht, . . .
(Read the rest of this article at http://genelalor.com/.)
@Mary Jackson
No.
From the barbarian Eastern Eu. where there is no PC in existence and we grow horns.
But my passport is from the city where Andrew Jackson defeated Sir Alexander Cochran in 1814.
58 Really and truly get stuffed. Get so stuffed.
From the barbarian Eastern Eu..
Recipient, then, of my hard-earned taxes. Get double stuffed.
Well it’s been exciting here since the snow took out our power.
I think I can resolve all of the issues here. And as I like to say, aim for the stars, pick up the pine cones that fell on the front yard.
The argument is happening because we are moving back and forth between the notion of individual psychology, one person’s beliefs, and an idea of social psychology, the ‘collective beliefs’ of a large group of people.
Now, I might not be up on the current science, but I don’t believe anyone has yet reconciled these two models of psychology.
So Mary might talk individual, someone will respond talking collective, then Mary will go collective, and someone will respond individual.
I think we all agree that there is a critical mass, when the collective turns sour or horribly evil–such as in Nazi Germany. The problem, no one knows exactly when that point of critical mass occurs, nor do we know how to reverse it if it is moving in a dangerous direction.
These are the questions that he been truly troubling everyone on this thread, and those are the most difficult questions for which there is no answer–yet.
So, bottom line, we all agree that the play probably sucks. And those who have seen the play know for certain that the play sucks. The question is, does this sucky play have any greater significance? Will folks who see it become antisemitic, or will they become revolted by antisemitism?
All friends now?
Mary Jackson
That was a “private” blog from me to your intended’s father. What was stated is true. If you take this man away from his people, from his heritage, you will ultimately turn his children against their father and his ancestors. Find yourself a nice Goyish boyfriend. Ultimately it will be better for both of you.
Are you Anglican? Think of your devotion to your church, would you force that on your spouse and his children? Oil and water do not mix, they always separate and leave a gooey mess.
@ 61.Mary Jackson
“Recipient, then, of my hard-earned taxes. Get double stuffed.”
I repeat:my passport is from the city where Andrew Jackson defeated Sir Alexander Cochran in 1814.
Your knowledge and education of British-American history is zero.
I am American by free choice, unlike you who is European by decree of Mr.Solana, Sarko, and….Mr. Gordon The Leper (spectator.co.uk)
Well, the goats will be separated from the lambs on that Day.
64 So you’re American now, having argued that you are “European” (whatever that means)? Make your mind up.
63 My “intended’s” father is dead. 55 was (obviously) joking. You are thick as well as disgustingly racist. Now get stuffed.
Poor Europe. Trying to absolve itself of its past crimes by making its victims into victimizers. This is nothing but Psychology 101, folks. Europeans are masters at projecting their sins onto others, in most cases the United States and Israel. Even after Obama’s election, the British and European press is loaded with “proof” that Americans are still the world’s most racist people: America unmasked: The images that reveal the Ku Klux Klan is alive and kicking in 2009
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/america-unmasked-the-images-the-reveal-the-ku-klux-klan-is-alive-and-kicking-in-2009-1625732.html
Europe is one sick puppy….
Mary Jackson
You see the pain of seeing your relationship with his son killed him. Poor guy, I bet it was a heart attack.
You’re right, I’m a racist. I don’t like green people or blue people. Striped ones are Ok occasionaly. But what matters is the direction of the stripes. Horizontal OK, vertical No.
I think I’ve had enough fun with you.
I clicked on your hyperlink and was looking at your blog site, interesting. Do you ever write any of your own articles? Exactly what is the purpose of the site? What is your criteria?
It was fun ruffling your feathers. Bye!
Oscar,
Seriously? Instead of talking about the play and its implications you’re talking about who Mary is dating? Not just conversing about it, but you are actually telling her who she can and can’t go out with?
Dude, you need a computer keyboard that closes like a piano’s. Close it, lock it, and don’t open it until one week passes or until you consume several liters of liquor, your choice.
I mean, that’s just wrong.
Has anybody actually seen this crappy ten minute play except media critics, palestinians and representatives of jewish groups?
I don’t think it’s gonna knock Mamma Mia or Billy Elliot – The Musical off the top of the popularity charts any time soon.
Let’s take a look at how anti-semitic the British public is compared to the American public according to the Anti-defamation League surveys, hardly an organisation to play down the extent of anti-semitism (the UK survey was conducted at the height of the Gaza operations by the IDF, the US survey in 2007):
http://www.adl.org/Anti_semitism/poll_2007/Anti-Semitism%20Poll%202007.pdf
http://www.adl.org/Public%20ADL%20Anti-Semitism%20Presentation%20February%202009%20_3_.pdf
% agreeing with the statement:
Jews are more loyal to Israel than to the US/UK.
UK – 37%
US – 31%
Jews have too much power in the business world
UK – 15%
US – 20%
Jews have too much power in International finance/Wall St
UK – 15%
US – 18%
Jews still talk about the holocaust too much.
UK – 20%
US – 25%
Jews are responsible for the death of Christ
UK – 19%
US – 27%
The survey goes on to note that:
“The United Kingdom was the only country in which there was a marked decline in the percentage of respondents who believe that at least three of the four anti-Semitic stereotypes are “probably true.”
It also notes that anti-semitic attitudes were more common in the over 65 age group (as is the case in the US) which bodes well for future trends.
So lets not get carried away with labelling the UK as a cesspool of rabid anti-semitism (unless you are also willing to use that label for the USA).
“Europe has always been anti-Semitic and England has always been among the worst.
In fact for hundreds of years until the last 100 years or so Jews weren’t even allowed in England.”
Unfortunately at one time jews were barred from England, but that ban was rescinded not 100 years ago but 350.
Back in the 1650s there weren’t many jews in North America either and the American puritans were mostly none too keen to change that at the time
Jonsey, thanks for the above statistics, which, I fear will not penetrate the skulls of those determined to cling to their long-standing fallacies.
do you ever write any of your own articles?
For the benefit not of “Oscar” but of others intellingent enough to appreciate them, I have written about forty artices Jackson”>here at New English Review and twelve here at Pajamas Media. Enjoy!
Mary Jackson
I stand here totally humbled by your great light of literature. My gloves are off.
Mary Jane
Why is it you only seem to come to life when there is a Carol Gould article. Is there some professional jealousy because she is better than you?
Why is it you only seem to come to life when there is a Carol Gould article.
Hardly – I’ve got twelve articles of my own published here at PJM. You should read them. In any case, I am not disagreeing with Carol Gould on this occasion.
This is an interesting response to the Caryl Churchill play – from H’aretz:
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1068347.html
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The overwhelming majority of Britons were supportive of Hitler and his plans, like most Europeans. Churchill rallied against him when the bombs started hitting London, but he was still alone in his convictions. This is a stastical historical truth. Not revisionism in the same vein as when Europeans blame the United States for the Holocaust and Kosovo…and the Irish famine, and diarreah in Africa, and the Spanish Inquistion, and the Big Bang…. Further proof is when Churchill was up for reelection and he lost in a landslide to Atlee, who ushered in the new socialist Britain, nationalizing 90% of private industry including health care, which is currently the worst in Europe, including eastern europe. Britain did not “stand alone” against the Nazis, it was Churchill who stood alone until the U.S. came on board. There is a reason why Churchill is more revered in the United States (high schools, libraries, etc. are named after him) than in the UK where he’s been placed on the trash heap of british history as a silly old fool with a “white trash” mother from Brooklyn, as one british historian phrased it. One can expect more respect for being a Muslim radical in the UK than being a supporter of Churchill and the United States. Sad!
the UK where he’s been placed on the trash heap of british history
So how come he was voted the greatest Briton of all time in a nationwide poll?
Anyway, it’s good to know that Americans eventually, in the fullness of time, when it suited them and not a moment before, came to realise that he was right.
I hate to admit it Mary you write a decent article.
“The overwhelming majority of Britons were supportive of Hitler and his plans, like most Europeans. Churchill rallied against him when the bombs started hitting London, but he was still alone in his convictions. This is a stastical historical truth.”
Interesting, so presumably you have something to back that up? What % of the popular vote did fascist parties in Britain receive during the 1930s? Most support for Hitler and his policies was limited to some members of the aristocracy, newspapers like the Daily Mail and a tiny band of blackshirts. They were never a major force.
“Not revisionism in the same vein as when Europeans blame the United States for the Holocaust and Kosovo…and the Irish famine, and diarreah in Africa, and the Spanish Inquistion, and the Big Bang….”
I’ve never heard any European blame the US for these things, grow up and stop feeling sorry for yourself.
“Further proof is when Churchill was up for reelection and he lost in a landslide to Atlee, who ushered in the new socialist Britain, nationalizing 90% of private industry including health care, which is currently the worst in Europe, including eastern europe.”
90%? Don’t think so. Again it would be nice to have some evidence for your wild assertion that British healthcare is worse than Moldovan or Albanian healthcare but I doubt you have any. It could just be that you are making it up.
“Britain did not “stand alone” against the Nazis, it was Churchill who stood alone until the U.S. came on board. There is a reason why Churchill is more revered in the United States (high schools, libraries, etc. are named after him) than in the UK where he’s been placed on the trash heap of british history as a silly old fool with a “white trash” mother from Brooklyn, as one british historian phrased it.”
Yeah, nothing at all is named after Churchill in the UK, what planet are you on??
“One can expect more respect for being a Muslim radical in the UK than being a supporter of Churchill and the United States. Sad!”
Don’t be so stupid, how many muslim radicals do you see in that poll of the Greatest Britons ever in Mary’s link?
79 Thank you.
Are British people the most anti-American boneheads on earth. I hear the most radical nonsense spewing from between their thin lips. What’s up with that? It’s not even that bad in the Middle East where I’ve visited for work. British anti-Americanism is truly turning that country into a looney bin.