Backman’s article was not anti-Semitic
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The decision by a German pope to rehabilitate a bishop who is an avowed Holocaust denier (re. “Forget Backman — meet the Pope’s anti-semite” (yesterday, item 5)) has, not surprisingly, caused outrage in the global Jewish community. As a baptised, church-going Roman Catholic, I’m not the least bit uncomfortable about the outpouring of anger we have seen from many Jewish leaders, and I don’t for a single second see their criticism of the pontiff as a sectarian slur against Catholics in general. Like them, I think Pope Benedict’s decision is grotesquely insensitive, and while I am incensed at what he’s done, I don’t feel in any way under siege or fear that I will be branded an apologist for his actions simply because I belong to the same faith. Why then do we hear cries of anti-Semitism when someone launches into a strident attack on Israel (and not on Jewish people per se) for the outrage committed by the Israeli government and military in Gaza? Before I go on, let me make it clear that I don’t believe The Age should have run Michael Backman’s tirade against Israel, at least not in the form he submitted it and certainly not in the finance section of the paper. As Margaret Simons has so eloquently pointed out, the publication of Backman’s column on January 17 was a failure of editorial control — the sad evidence of a once great news organisation hopelessly under stress because of cost cutting by a management that seems completely clueless about the business it’s in. With some judicious sub-editing, including a demand for the writer to substantiate some of his claims, Backman’s piece would have been entirely appropriate on the main opinion page of the paper. Yes, it would have been provocative, but what is the point of an opinion page if it doesn’t provoke debate? However, while there might be much to criticize about Backman’s column and its absurd misplacement in the finance section, the one thing it wasn’t was anti-Semitic. Sure, Backman was resorting to over-the-top polemics in making the unqualified statement that Israel was to blame for terrorist attacks against Western targets. However, there is nothing at all radical in the idea that the failure to resolve the Israeli/Palestinian conflict has been a source of deep resentment throughout the Islamic world. Long before Israel’s latest onslaught in Gaza, the ongoing denial of proper sovereignty for Palestinians has been the one unifying grievance for Muslims everywhere, and the grievance cited time and time again by lunatic Islamists in their pleas to young Muslims to take up violent Jihad against the West. While Backman might have been wrong to describe Israel’s treatment as “the nub of the problem”, it is undeniably a major factor in driving terrorism. Anyone who refuses to acknowledge that is dangerously in denial. Backman brought none of his specialist knowledge as a finance journalist to his column. Had he done so it would have an appropriate piece for the finance pages. For instance, he complained about the huge amount of aid the U.S. was giving to Israel but failed to provide a figure. For the record, the latest numbers available from the U.S. Congressional Library put the cost at just over $US2.5 billion for 2007. That’s peanuts compared to the hundreds of billions the U.S. is throwing at the banks right now but it could fill a lot of pot holes in Obama’s promised program to put America on the road to recovery by fixing its broken infrastructure. While Backman failed to use any of his finance smarts to support his argument, his extensive experience reporting in Asia has provided him with an insight into how Muslims a long way from the Middle East think about Israel. Take this observation about Malaysia:
Backman came in for most criticism for his comments about Israeli tourists behaving badly abroad. This is where he was in desperate need of some solid evidence beyond his own musings. Strangely, several days after the offending article was published in The Age, Backman provided this link on his website to an article by an Israeli travel writer which provided strong support for his argument in prose that would make even the most hardened Israeli bater blush. (Margaret Simons says Backman found the link on her blog.) Yehuda Nuriel, in an article published on the very mainstream Israeli news website, Ynet, made the same accusations Backman did about Israeli travellers but in much blunter terms:
In an exchange via Facebook on Monday, Nuriel told me that he had originally written the article in Hebrew and he regarded the English version as a “quite accurate translation”. He didn’t retract any of the statements made in the article. It has to be said there is nothing new in what either Nuriel or Backman have to say about Israeli travellers. I have had various accounts about their antics related to me only recently, including by a friend in London, a BBC journalist who just happens to be Jewish himself. The Israelis’ bad reputation is not dissimilar to that of loud Americans, overbearing Germans, sun-fried and oafish English backpackers or booze-addled Australians crashing their way through exotic places. The essential point missing from Backman’s piece and what would have made it relevant to the Gaza situation was that the Israeli tourists renowned for causing so much grief abroad are young people recently released from the army. Nuriel makes the connection to military service explicit in his article. To him the bad behaviour of Israeli travellers serves as a timely metaphor and reinforces a negative stereotype of Israel as a whole:
Those who accuse Backman of anti-Semitism should look at what some Israelis are saying about their own government and what its actions are doing for the nation’s reputation. |
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17 Comments
Nice work, Stephen. I am heartedly sick of the lack of rigour in debate around Israel and its oppression of the Palestinians and the almost immediate slur of “anti-semite” thrown at anyone who dares criticise Israeli policy. As you rightly point out there is much more freedom to criticise Israeli actions in Israel itself than in Australia or other parts of the world. I have yet to hear any of the self-appointed representatives of the Australian Jewish community make a critical remark about the Israeli invasion of Lebanon, or the recent attack on Gaza or the continuation of the illegal settlement policies or anything else for that matter. Compare their sycophancy to the debates that rage within the Haaretz newspaper and other media outlets within Israel. It would appear that the main purpose of these “representatives” is to shut down debate and discussion. This, in the long run will prove to be a huge disservice to Israel itself and the world Jewish diaspora. Not to mention the poor bloody, long-suffering Palestinians!
“Why then do we hear cries of anti-Semitism when someone launches into a strident attack on Israel (and not on Jewish people per se) for the outrage committed by the Israeli government and military in Gaza?” Feneley asks.
The reason is that Jews in Australia (and elsewhere) are always being held to account for the actions of the Israeli government. When people know I’m Jewish they assume I support Likud or Sharon or the actions of right-wing leaders. Too many Australian’s are ignorant of Mid-East politics and tag all Jews as supporters of all Israeli policies. Backman’s offensive article likewise implied all Jews are resposible for 9/11, Bali etc.
Backman is as much responsible for John Howard, children in detention, children overboard, WMDs, the lies etc as everyone of the Jewish faith is responsible for the actions of the elected government of Israel. Backam is an anti-semite because he accuses an entire religion of being culpable for the actions of a nation-state (which has over 1 million Arab and Christian citizens!).
We’re sensitive because the Backman’s of this world accuse all Jews of a colelctive responsibility for the deaths of thousands. In his logic, all Age journalists and editors are responsible for his column.
Marilyn: spot on right across the points you make.
Finkelstein’s writing’s are a must for anyone wanting a camp survivor’s view of the cynical exploitation of the grotesque sufffering of European Jews (+ political prisoners, ethnic minorities & gays) by armchair Zionists, in the name of Greater Israel.
I support the increasingly wide held view that the promotion of the global Israeli far right agenda on the back of the Holocaust, is a slight against the memory of those poor wretches. I know from personal experience in Oz that Finkelstein’s mum is not alone among camp survivors who feel soiled by such gross exploitation.
Israel out of the West Bank, Gaza, & the Golan Heights. Not one square centimetre of the West Bank should remain under the control of far right wing zealots. Jerusalem should be placed under the control of an interfaith commission.
Who cares? Most of the world have just plain had a gutful of whining Marilyn using Crikey to hold all of us to ransom.
110 million people died in wars last century - the only ones continually whining, carping, stealing land and demanding squillions in compensation are Marilyn’s.
Keith Windshuttle in his book “Marilyn Lied” found records that proved a full two thirds of Marilyn’s escaped Germany and Austria before the bloody holocaust and now claim they are “survivors” . Gerard Henderson was in Palestine by 1938 and reports show that most Marilyn’s were simply allowed to leave.
Henderson shows in detail how the nazis and others grossly exaggerated the numbers of Marilyn’s killed - in one case they claimed they took 10,000 people by truck and shot them. It turned out to be 300.
And stop pandering to the damn Marilyn’s. She’s a cult invented to justify her theft of Australia and nothing more.
She did not exist in the area thousands of years ago, was not schlepped out on trucks by the romans, did not wander 40 years in the desert and not manage to leave a single trace and there were no wretched temples.
The NSW and Victoria she whines about are not in Palestine, but in Iraq and around Bablyon. that’s if anyone is deluded enough to believe their silly “bible” has any credible basis in fact.
The Marilyn’s in their quest for publicity admitted in 2009 that she is all bollocks and Andrew Bolt of the Tel Aviv University confirms it. Marilyn was never a “person” she is a made up cult.
Thank you for this article. I enjoyed reading it. Sadly based on other people’s comments they believe the anti-Israeli debate automatically is a reflection on the Jews in Australia. In some ways it is as their is Jewish groups in Australia who openly support what Israel is doing and they have in their groups title Jewish something or other. I do know the difference between Jewish and Israel but people who believe in Israel and what it stands for don’t. So a suggestion that Israel is wrong for what it is doing is taken as being anti-Semitic. So in the spirit of the Jewish groups in Australia and all over the world I hate what the Israeli people are doing to the Palestinians and previously to Lebanon I equate it to everything that is evil and barbaric and consider them grotesque animals. I’m impressed with their capability of following with such avid belief the evil doings of Hitler and the logic he sprouted to do his evil things. This off course (based upon the Jewish/Israeli equation argument) makes me anti-Semitic and I’m quite proud of it.
To Cal etc, let me state clearly I have no doubt there are many beautiful and fine Jewish folks in this world as there are many beautiful and fine Arabic folks including Palestinians.
As I was saying on the other string/article by Guy Rundle, in 6 hopefully pithy points, its instructive to note there are some 314 million diverse Arabic people in the Arab League countries. About 6-7M Israeli Jews and similar number diaspora mainly in USA with others spread around this globe.
Secondly it’s over as regards the question of Israel’s existence. Their nuclear weaponry makes the whole question beyond meaningless. Not only are they there but they probably feel entitled to take the rest of us with them after WW2 if it ever comes to that. I tend to think it was a brave and ethical move after the massive slaughter of WW2 of many peoples. But it’s not even an argument now and the Arabs must know it too - just ask Dear Leader in North Korea. Or the folks in Nagasaki and Hiroshima.
So how to do justice and share the responsibility now, globally? It was the international community that blessed Israel’s birth. They still need that international cooperation too. They can’t win an argument about racialised policies after Mandela, and they demonstrably have racialised policies there.
If I were an Israeli voter I would be thinking very carefully about who the Obama administration wants to work with. I can tell you now it won’t be a lobby that wants to pardon Yigal Amir for assassination of Labour Israeli Prime Minister Yitzak Rabin. Even if 30% of Israeli’s think he’s a champ.
And here’s another hint. Poor African Americans have been known to riot when one of their kids gets run over and killed by a hapless Jewish driver. I’m not condoning it, I’m just saying that really happened. What the Israeli voters need is a political leader who can make the most convincing negotiated outcome possible. Who is smart enough to know Obama is more judicious again.
I’d like to thank the majority of posters in this string for keeping things sensible and nice. We will draw the line at anything we consider to be out and out racist or likely to inspire race hate. That said, Crikey is happy to host a diversity of views … even views as loopy and confrontational as some of the above … we think that’s important, and we also think that this is an important and complex issue. So we won’t be stifling commenatry but we will be actively moderating. What you see above probably represents the acceptable boundaries.
Good effort Stephen., much appreciated by this tragic who worries about the Government’s coyneess in commenting on the recent slaughter of civilians in Gaza.
Re Israeli tourists:
family members who one could only describe as innocuous and so ready to meet and learn about the people whose countries they visited on their world wanderings have returned after various excursions muttering darkly about the behaviour of Israelii tourists encountered along the way..The young-ish people in question are among the least judgemental I know.
Sadly, Cal is right. All too often, criticism of the Israeli government (which is legitimate and of which there is plenty, including win Jewish community. I am quite critical, for one) degenerates into open anti-semitism. Opossition to Israel’s action in Gaza has for instance re-ignited good old-fashioned European anti-semitism. See http://beatsandpiecesblog.wordpress.com/2009/01/16/a-second-front-in-gaza/ for some links. So, the sensitivity is only understandable: in a world where even in a liberal democracy such as Britain, Jews are put on ‘hit lists’ because of somebody else’s actions, a certain degree of discomfort is perhaps forgivable.
The problem with Backman is only partly the gist of his argument. I do not quite follow the relevance of Israeli tourists’ behaviour. There is quite a large number of rather annoying Australians with their Oi Oi Oi travelling around the world - I’d be hard pressed to conclude anything other than they are young and out to have a good time. Young Israelis however seems to attract a higher standard. Begs the questions why. the other issue is Backman’s lanaguage. It is one thing to quite reasonably argue that the situation in Palestine is one of the major concerns of the Muslim community, it is quite another to directly link 9/11 to Israel’s behaviour as Backman does.
Reading Sam’s comment (above) should be compulsory for everyone who fears genocide and the pack mentality that leads to mass murder at worst, or Cronulla Beach style racism at best.
Sam, ‘grotesque animals’ are people who are ignorant and believe the rants of those steeped in hatred and denilaism of human rights - such as the right not to be attacked because of your religion, race or ethnicity.
Your ugliness and limited intelligence is not something to be proud of Sam, it is to be pitied.
If this rape of another country (Palestine) was of another time and another place-some mythical oriental country during the Yuan dynasty- I have no doubt the majority of Jews would condemn the Emperor who seized another country’s land then set about torturing, and practising genocide towards the original owners of the land: generally carrying on like the hordes of Ghengiz Khan. But because of the dreaded issue of religion today’s Jews in the diaspora feel entitled to play the racist card. Why?
WWII was a long, long time ago and yesterday’s persecuted Jews were entitled to search for a home land. Some sixty years later the persecuted Jew in the land of Israel has become today’s arrogant tyrant. Why should the Jewish religion exempt the Israelis from being answerable to charges of infamy? More importantly, why do Jews in lands other than Israel thump the racist drum?
If I was a Catholic I wouldn’t hesitate to condemn the Inquisition. Why should Jews be any different? There are many Jews who are appalled by Israel’s behaviour, yet they too are ridiculed by their fellow Jews. Why does the world, including Jewish dissenters, deserve to have their criticism of Israel silenced by the blackmail of Auslander Jews? Hypocrisy seems to have become an art form.
Cal and jewboy should really address their conerns to the powerful and strident Jewish lobbies worldwide that weave in attacks on Israel with being part of the Jewish identity. This old Jew has had a real gutfull of them and I now view them as Jewish people’s worst enemy as they perpetate every rediculous Jewish stereotype.
People like Vic Aldaheff who is ready with a quote everytime to defend , indefensible Israeli actions and cry “anti-Sentism” at the drop of a hat, or Mark Leibler who endlessly perpetuates the myths about Hamas using “human screens” while blithely ignoring the fact that IDF members live with their famles and amongst civilians, and their continual bleatings about “plucky little Isarel” with it’s unbelieable armory needing to defend itself from some fairly useless rockets .
I disagree jewboy. Israel is acting like the Nazis and a comparison is warranted. Stealing land and creating ghettos ,apharteid, sanctions, preventing supplies and not allowing the international media to be present as they commit atrocities and war crimes in Gaza. If it walks and talks etc etc.
I don’t know what is happening in Israel but something very bad is bringing that country to a precipice of moral collapse. The once great experiment of a socialist democracy has vanished and some very cruel and ruthless people are running the place. Israelis should mourn-they are losing their soul.
And Marilyn is correct-the world is possiby Hollocausted out and every bit of pity has been wrung out of that terrible time. In fact-it makes me extremely angry now that the event overshadows other terrible events like the Armenian massacres.
Zionist Terror and the Palestinians
As a person of no religious persuasion, my understanding is that a semite is a member of any of a number of peoples of ancient southwestern Asia including the Akkadians, Phoenicians, Hebrews, and Arabs. It would appear that the Zionists within the Jewish community are confusing Zionism with Semitism which I understand to be quite separate concepts. Being opposed to Zionist terrorism is not in itself anti-Semitic.
An outsider, I see very little distinction between the treatment of Palestinians at the hands of the Israeli Defence Force and some of the reprisal raids undertaken by the Nazis in World War II. Having read Blackman’s Age article as a consequence of the publicity arising from Jewish lobby protests, it does not in any way appear to be anti-Semitic, but is sympathetic to the position of the Palestinians at the hands of the Zionists who run Israel.
The sensitivity of the Jewish lobby when the Zionists are criticised for their appalling behaviour towards Palestinian civilians, and the ongoing Palestinian resistance to the dominating power of Israel in some way reflects the struggle of the Zionists in the 1920s 30s and 40s to obtain a Jewish homeland at the expense of those who occupied it at the time. It is sobering to read of the terrorist activities undertaken by Jewish terrorists in the period leading to the ultimate formation of Israel and dispossession of the Palestinians from land that they had occupied for hundreds if not thousands of years. These are clearly forgotten or suppressed by those who would try to legitimise the use of terror on their own behalf whilst opposing it in others.
Cal, I appreciate your feelings but this is the wrong response.Reading Backman I read an article critical of Israeli policy actioins, not of Jewish people per se. Don’t deny the facts be guided by them( to quote Obama on matters in general).
We do not always like the truth but eventually we must live with its reality.
There are no angels here & until it becomes the norm to name the things that are wrong irrespective of thoe that do them we will not be helping.
You are not guilty of any of these wrong doings,nor are jews per se, but if you deny the facts you are in danger of making yourself share in responsibility for it & what follows. Unfortunately there are too many over the many decades since 1948 thet that had/have that role. Many of these are not jewish either.
Who cares? Most of the world have just plain had a gutful of whining jews using the holocaust to hold all of us to ransom.
110 million people died in wars last century - the only ones continually whining, carping, stealing land and demanding squillions in compensation are jews.
Giles MacDonogh in his book “After the Reich” found records that proved a full two thirds of jews escaped Germany and Austria before the bloody holocaust and now claim they are “survivors” . Shimon Peres was in Palestine by 1938 and reports show that most jews were simply allowed to leave.
In the words of Norman Finkelstein’s mother who survived two of the concentration
camps “if so many survived, who did Hitler kill”.
MacDonogh shows in detail how the nazis and others grossly exaggerated the numbers of jews killed - in one case they claimed they took 10,000 people by truck and shot them. It turned out to be 300.
If we want to whinge here we should ask the AGE why they censored part of Jason Koutsokis’s piece yesterday about grafitti and destroyed furniture in the Samouni house.
And stop pandering to the damn jews. It’s a cult invented to justify their theft of Palestine and nothing more.
They did not exist in the area thousands of years ago, were not schlepped out on trucks by the romans, did not wander 40 years in the desert and not manage to leave a single trace and there were no wretched temples.
The Judea and Samaria they whine about are not in Palestine, but in Iraq and around Bablyon. that’s if anyone is deluded enough to believe their silly “bible” has any credible basis in fact.
The zionists in their quest for Palestine admitted in 1929 that it was all bollocks and Shlomo Sand of the Tel Aviv University confirms it. Jews were never a “people” it is a made up cult.
With regard to Bishop Williamson and his denial of the gas chambers in spite of all the evidence to the contrary, presumably because he didn’t see them with his own eyes, he is still able to believe the Christian teachings where he certainly has no first hand knowledge of these alleged events.
Stephen Feneley asks ” Why then do we hear cries of anti-Semitism when someone launches into a strident attack on Israel ’ Because frequently there is little difference as you are probably aware. Not always maybe only sometime but for example..when left-wing protesters in London last week in protesting about events in Gaza shouted “Hamas Hamas, Jews to the gas’ where were all the anti-israel but pro-jewish protesters howls of protest? And would you not concede that comparing Israel to Nazi Germany is anti-semitism?