Deconstructing Q&A's 'Anti-Semitism' Segment 2

Tony Jones: Josh Frydenberg.

Josh Frydenberg: I'm worried about attacks on Muslims...

Oh really?

... just as I'm worried about attacks on Jews, but I don't think that the rise of anti-Semitism is about Israel, as Miriam puts it.

Well he would say that, wouldn't he?

I mean, the Jews were expelled from England in the 13th century, expelled from Spain in the 14th century, have had pogroms in the 17th, 18th and 19th century through the Ukraine and Russia, and, of course, we had the holocaust, which was the biggest extermination of a people. So this issue has been around long before the state of Israel. Now people do conflate Israeli policies [with Jews generally]...

Oh, you mean people like Netanyahu: "I feel that I am the emissary of all Israelis, even those who disagree with me, (and) of the entire Jewish people." (Brass warn Bibi of US speech 'dangers', George Carlstrom, The Times/The Australian, 3/3/15)

 ... and I don't agree with everything that Israel does...

Please cite just one (1) action of Israel's you've disagreed with in your 43 years on this planet.

... but I also will defend its ability to secure itself against some very hostile neighbours...

Hostile because they're naturally anti-Semitic or because European Jews took their land?

... and so I think there is a real dark cloud of anti-Semitism.

I see, nothing to do with any colonial takeover.

I don't see it in Australia as bad as it is in Europe, and we have seen it with attacks and killings at schools, at synagogues, from Copenhagen to Paris and elsewhere, and it is of great concern, and I'm pleased, I must say, Tony, that European leaders... are speaking out against anti-Semitism, and, recently, at the Auschwitz memorial service for the 70th anniversary of its liberation there was an unprecedented number of European leaders from Francois Hollande to the German president to the Polish president who all turned up to send a message not just about the atrocities of the Second World War but to say 'Never again', and they were saying 'Never again' against a backdrop of rising anti-Semitism in Europe.

Tony Jones: OK, so what do you say to the suggestion from our questioner that the hashtag #Hitlerwasright trended worldwide last year, and what do you see as being behind that?

Josh Frydenberg: Well, in Europe there were lots of demonstrations where it said 'Gas the Jews', whether it was in France, in Holland, and even, dare I say it, some of the messages on the placards that were held up in Australia during really anti-Israel, very violent anti-Israel protests, had to be seen to be believed...

Violent protests? Rubbish! Anti-Semitic placards? Rubbish! See my posts Slaughtering Them in Gaza, Smearing Them in Sydney (16/7/14) and Junk Journalism at the Herald (1/2/15) where I debunk these slanders.

So what is driving it? I think there is a lot of hate media that's coming out of the Middle East. People are being taught very young that Israel is always the source of all that is bad in that part of the world.

So despite Israel routinely invading, occupying, colonising, evicting, and murdering the natives, the latter think nothing of it until they're formally taught to hate it. Hm...

When we're seeing now [that] the greatest victims of ISIL being Muslims themselves, when we're seeing Syria burn, when we're seeing Egypt under military rule. When we're seeing Libya disintegrate as a state, who are the biggest victims of all this? They are Muslims, and it's got nothing to do with Israel.

I see. Leaving aside Israel's material contribution to the burning of Syria (See my 12/12/14 post A Side of Israel the World Too Rarely Acknowledges), and the fact that Libya simply disintegrated without any help whatsoever from NATO warplanes, maybe this Zionist apologist needs reminding of a time in postwar British history when Jewish terrorists, then waging a terror war against British civilian and military personnel in Palestine, provoked misguided Brits into targeting innocent English Jews:

"Since the anti-Jewish riots on 1-4 August [1947, sparked by the Irgun's hanging of two kidnapped British sergeants and the booby-trapping of their bodies in Palestine on August 1, 1947], Liverpool had seethed with hostility towards the Jews. The disturbances there had been more serious and prolonged than anywhere else. On the night of Saturday 2 August a Jewish-owned furniture-making factory was set alight by arsonists and extremely damaged. On the Sunday a clothing store in Myrtle Street belonging to a Jewish family was smashed up by a mob 'several hundred strong'. Other shops were damaged too. Twenty arrests were made over the weekend. Crowds gathered in the streets again on bank holiday Monday. They threw bricks through shop windows and looted the already battered clothing store. The damaged cabinet works was set on fire again. Police were forced to disperse mobs throughout the day and made two arrests for suspected arson. In an effort to calm the atmosphere the lord mayor made a statement to the local press condemning the riots as 'unfair' and 'unEnglish' because they hit at innocent Jews who had nothing to do with the events in Palestine. Whereas in other cities the ill-feeling over the murder of the two sergeants subsided, Liverpool continued to simmer. For weeks afterwards workers in the local abattoir refused to co-operate with Jewish butchers in the slaughter of animals according to the Jewish dietary regulations, forcing Jews to import kosher meat from Manchester. Jews were verbally abused in the streets and stones were thrown at their cars." (Major Farran's Hat: Murder, Scandal & Britain's War Against Jewish Terrorism 1945-1948, p 179-80)

Of course, had Frydenberg been around in Britain at the time, he woul've put it all down to anti-Semitism.

[See also my 6/7/12 post Anyone Remember the Stern Gang's London Offensive?]

To be continued...