Heretics' almanac

Who does Michael Lerner fear most?

It may just be that there's a polarizing debate within the global Jewish community over Israel. It may be that Jimmy Carter started a meme with his book. Michael Lerner wrote a largely self-congratulatory piece titled "There is no new anti-Semitism," Alvin Rosenfeld makes rather the opposite point, and then there is the group of British Jews who launched Independent Jewish Voices in opposition to the "official" Jewish spokesorganizations in the UK.

There's a complaint and an issue at work here.

Carter, Foxman, and the rhetoric

Over what's turning into a massive article in Wikipedia about Carter's trashy book, there's a raging debate over what precisely Abe Foxman thinks of Carter's bigotry and/or contribution to antisemitism. This is tied in with a lengthy NYT article on Foxman himself, titled "Does Abe Foxman have an Anti-Anti-Semite Problem?" All this then gets tied in with an even more annoying debate about the existence, pervasiveness, and effectiveness of an Israel/Jewish lobby.

So here goes:

Unholy alliances to destroy history

Say what you will, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is no fool. His Holocaust Denial Festival in Iran may not impress the mainstream political establishment or any serious historian, but it demonstrates an understanding of the anti-Israeli and frankly antisemitic political culture that the rest of us are missing. By assembling a bunch of hacks - who nevertheless have populist appeal - and giving them the venue to speak without being discredited, Ahmadinejad is giving them credibility and standing.

This is because he knows that hating opposing Israel is the purest of virtues in certain circles, something that outweighs much else. The Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten, for example, devotes narry an editorial inch to this travesty but has written countless op-eds of mostly shoddy quality to condemning Israel. The news reporting concedes that the "conference" is "controversial," while reporting that  "Iran's president" thinks Israel will go the way of the Soviet Union. And of course, the news that "several rabbis" are also attending the "conference," leaving readers with the idea that Holocaust revisionism is widespread also among Jews.   

The naive cynicism in the Norwegian political elite

Hilde Henriksen Waage has been anointed as Norway's most prominent expert on the "Middle East conflict," and so Norwegian media accept her views as something close to gospel. For her own part, she has been complaining about the murderous tendencies of the pro-Israeli groups in Norway, encouraging Jostein Gaarder to go undercover after his op-ed this summer.

It isn't clear to me why anybody would believe Waage is the least bit objective, except of course for her own assertions that she is. Her most important "contribution" to the body of knowledge around the issue is that she believes that Norwegian diplomats were manipulated into promoting Israel's interests at the expense of the Palestinians during the Oslo process. You know, the one that led to Barak making several offers to Arafat that would have established a Palestinian state, Jerusalem as the Palestinian capital, and so on.

Aftenposten's right to speak yet never be offended

The Norwegian press is commemorating the anniversary of the Mohammad cartoon debacle, with a lot of self-righteous pontificating about freedom of speech, etc. I write self-righteous because it would appear that most newspaper editors feel that "freedom of speech" means that they have the right to print whatever they want without being criticized or condemned. To criticize speech in Norway is - absurdly - an assault on the speech.

For most Norwegians, I suspect freedom of speech means "anything that I don't find annoying, offensive, or disagreeable."

You'd be hard pressed to find a more principled proponent of free speech than me. I think Nazis, racists, homophobes, antisemites, Holocaust deniers, and other despicable characters have every right to air their contemptuous convictions. I don't think it's an absolute right - it shouldn't be derived from people being hurt, and it shouldn't incite crime, for example. But if people want to let everyone know how just vile they are, I don't think a law should stop them, though hopefully decency might, in some cases.

Aftenposten unmasked

Miryam Shomrat, the ambassador to Norway, was upset about the shooting at the synagogue in Oslo and recently violated diplomatic protocol by wondering out loud why the Norwegian royal family didn't do more to visibly support its Jewish subjects. After all, she pointed out, the congregation in Oslo makes a point of every week offering its prayers on behalf of the King, Queen and their household during Shabbat services.

Oh boy. Not wasting any time, the president of the Oslo synagogue got on the phone with the newspapers, characterizing Shomrat's points as "very, very unwise," pointing out that she is "not our ambassador." The Norwegian foreign minister Jonas Gahr Støre gave strong voice to his view that Shomrat was "inappropriate."

Shomrat herself expressed her regrets over the whole thing, making it clear she never meant to criticize the royal family.

More on the shootings in Oslo

Norwegian authorities, the politicians, and the press are not yet sure how to interpret the shooting at the synagogue in Oslo. There is of course outrage and concern. The police are investigating, the minister of justice is discussing better security with the synagogue, officials from the Church of Norway are showing solidarity, SOS Rasisme has expressed its disgust.

You don't see any op-eds raising the issue whether this is indicative of an undercurrent of antisemitism in Norway.

To some extent, this is reasonable. We don't know who did the shooting or why. It could have been a bunch of hoodlums who had nothing better to do; or it could be an attempt at scaring the Jewish community into submission. Or something and someone else.

Jews in Norway face an uncertain future

Last night, a few hours after S'lichot services presumably ended, someone shot 4-5 bullets at the synagogue in Oslo. The police are investigating. The shul is right next to the community house and a senior citizen home also owned by the Jewish community, but the bullets were aimed at the presumably empty synagogue building.

This was a warning. And after politicians, academics, and others put in the appropriate show of shock and outrage, they'll go right back to fueling the flames of antisemitism in Norway by condemning and demonizing Israel. Norway, with all of about 1400 Jews, is about to become the poster boy example of New Antisemitism.

With only 1400 Jews, it won't take long before most of them are gone. Without much (though I do have some) data to support this sad hypothesis, I'm going to guess that within 10 years, there will be less than 1000; within 20 it will be negligible. The Norwegian Center for Studies of Holocaust and Religious Minorities recently opened in Oslo and will probably become a memorial by then - if it is allowed to exist. My guess is that it'll be co-opted into a center for demonizing Israel by characterizing Israel's existence as an exercise in ethnic cleansing.

More about antisemitism in Norway

The Norwegian media landscape does not do justice to the physical geography it's supposed to serve, and I've often reflected that the marxist-leninist Klassekampen is the only newspaper that takes journalism seriously. Well, this illusion was blown to smithereens this weekend when this rag made a headline out of a supposed "closed company" inviting to a forum "against Islam."

This was in reference to a conference arranged by Hans Rustad, Nina Witoszek and Shabana Rehman to discuss "antisemitism in Norwegian," a topic that should interest everyone in light of the Gaarder spectacle.

The arrangers have received death threats, which (sadly) may not be news for them. Bjørgulv Braanen, the editor, kind of sort of sticks to his guns in saying that "against Islam" is the most apt description he can think of, and that it's closed because participation is by invitation only.

The sad death of Angelo Frammartino, by a coward

Angelo Frammartino was an Italian volunteer in Israel, helping to take care of kids in the Old City of Jerusalem. He and a few tourists were approaching Herod's Gate when he was mortally stabbed from behind by a murderer who immediately ran away.

The "occupying power" of Jerusalem, the Shin Bet and municipal police, apprehended the assailant, who, it turns out, is affiliated with Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Palestinian "NGOs" are staging a vigil in outrage over this death. Because, I'm guessing, the victim wasn't Jewish after all. The perp will be jailed and tried in Israel and will undoubtedly show up on some list of people that these same NGOs claim are "political prisoners."

I'm waiting for Kåre Willoch to explain to Angelo's friends and family that this was an act of understandable desperation and frustration, that while it was deplorable, it is indeed Israel's responsibility. But that, of course, would take moral courage.

It takes a unique kind of cowardice to run up to a tourist from behind, stab him, and then run off. Sort of like hiding among civilians and lobbing poorly aimed rockets and missiles at towns and villages.

Israel's enemies? Yes, they're cowards, all of them.