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In the aftermath of the
Holocaust, successive German governments have meticulously upheld their
obligations to the Jewish people. Study of the Holocaust is a mandatory
component of the German state education curriculum, Holocaust denial is
classified as a crime and restitution commitments were honored and even
exceeded.
Chancellor Angela Merkel is a
genuine friend of the Jews and despite intense political pressures and
occasional minor vacillations, has consistently supported Israel,
describing its security as “part of my country’s raison d’etre”. However
in recent years, as in other European countries, German public opinion
has turned against Israel, perceiving it as the principal threat to
global stability and peace. This hostility has increasingly assumed
overt anti-Semitic tones.
There is growing resentment
against Jews, who are blamed for imposing excessive emphasis on
collective German national guilt for the Holocaust.
Anti-Jewish hostility is often
expressed in the more ‘politically respectable’ demonization of the
Jewish nation state, allegedly not related to anti-Semitism although the
“Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe” (OSCE) explicitly
defines such behavior as anti-Semitic.
The German left has accused
Israel of war crimes, occupation and racism and also engages in inverse
Holocaust imagery, enthusiastically condemning Israel for allegedly
behaving towards the Palestinians as its Nazi forebears did to the Jews.
When reproached for engaging in
anti-Semitism, the left condemns the ‘global Zionist propaganda machine’
for seeking to deny Germans the right to criticize Israeli government
policies.
These trends are fortified by
the sizable Islamic migrant community – now numbering over four million -
which aggressively agitates against Israel, utilizing obscene placards
at demonstrations chanting “gas the Jews” or “death to the Jews”.
Moslems are at the forefront of violence directed at identifiable Jews
in urban areas, especially in Berlin, where some Jewish communal leaders
are now recommending to avoid wearing kipot in public.
Yet, the government has welcomed
the immigration of almost 200,000 former Soviet Jews and invested major
funds to resurrect a vigorous Jewish communal life and foster Jewish
education.
Despite receiving state
subsidies, the Jewish leadership displays its independence and
frequently speaks out if it considers the government is not fulfilling
its obligations to the Jewish community or fails to act evenhandedly
towards Israel.
However the intensification of
extreme anti-Israeli hostility combined with a recent spate of
disconcerting incidents has created angst within the Jewish community.
Last year, there was a traumatic
national debate which assumed ugly anti-Semitic overtones after a
judgment in Cologne ruled that male circumcision causes “bodily harm”
and declared the practice illegal. The matter was only resolved
following the direct intervention of Chancellor Merkel who initiated the
passage of legislation legalizing circumcision.
In April 2012, in a provocative
outburst, 84 year old Nobel Prize laureate Gunter Grass bitterly accused
the Israeli government of seeking to obliterate the Iranian population.
He warned that the Jewish state, which he considers ‘insane and
unscrupulous’, represents the principal obstacle to peace in the region
and called on his government to cancel delivery to Israel of the last
Dolphin submarine.
Despite being discredited for
having initially concealed that he had served as a member of the Nazi
Waffen SS, Grass’s vicious attack on Israel, whilst condemned by
numerous politicians and journalists, was enthusiastically endorsed by
many Germans.
Shortly after that incident, the
state-sponsored Berlin Jewish Museum invited Judith Butler, a notorious
Jewish promoter of BDS against Israel, as a guest lecturer. Butler
received enthusiastic applause from the 700-strong audience when,
purporting to act in accordance with the highest Jewish moral values,
she renewed calls to boycott Israel and ‘abolish political Zionism’ in
order to create a bi-national Palestinian state.
To provide a platform for such
an outspoken anti-Israeli activist at a state-sponsored Jewish Museum in
Berlin is surely obscene but not unprecedented. Former Israeli
communist Felicia Langer, lives in Germany where she condemns the German
government for supporting Israel, constantly equates Israelis with
Nazis, calls for Israeli leaders to be tried as war criminals, describes
Israel as an apartheid regime and even praises Iranian President
Ahmadinejad. In August 2009, German President Horst Kohler, who four
years earlier had addressed the Knesset, shocked the Jewish community by
honoring Langer with the Federal Cross of Merit, Germany’s most
prestigious award.
In 2010, despite protests from
the Israeli Embassy, Frankfurt’s Mayor Petra Roth invited Alfred
Grosser, a German-born Jew known to be frenziedly hostile to Israel, to
give the annual Kristallnacht oration in the Paul’s Church. He used the
occasion to draw parallels between the behavior of Israelis and Nazis
and was lauded by the media.
Another ongoing scandal prevails
at the German Center on anti-Semitism in Berlin, considered the most
important German institute engaged with the subject. Until last year it
was headed by Professor Wolfgang Benz, who received his PhD from
Professor Karl Bosl, a former Nazi storm trooper who maintains an
ongoing association with right wing extremist groups. To this day, Benz
continues defending his mentor.
Benz equates Islamophobia with
anti-Semitism, alleging that critics of Islamic practice are reminiscent
of Nazi anti-Semites attacking the Talmud. He recently challenged the
fact that the Muslim terrorist murders in Toulouse had an “anti-Semitic
dimension”. He dismisses concerns about the Moslem Brotherhood as being
reminiscent of anti-Semitic phobias like the Protocols of the Elders of
Zion and bizarrely complains that drawing attention to the fact that
Moslems comprise 70% of Berlin prison inmates is comparable to Hitler’s
ravings over “the fact that 89% of Berlin pediatricians in the 1930s
were Jews”.
The Center focuses on right-wing
extremism and largely ignores or understates left-wing and Islamic
anti-Semitism. Yet, despite protests, no effort has been made to
redirect the activities of this government funded institute.
The most recent upheaval erupted
in response to a list compiled by the US-based Simon Wiesenthal Center,
purporting to identify the ten worst anti-Semitic statements of 2012.
It included President Ahmadinejad, the Moslem Brotherhood, Nation of
Islam founder, Louis Farrakhan and European anti-Semites. Ninth on the
list was Jakob Augstein, publisher of the magazine Der Freitag, who also
provides columns to Der Spiegel, Germany’s leading weekly, founded by
his father.
I have an aversion to simplistic
lists prioritizing bigots and having reviewed some of Augstein’s
outbursts, I consider that bracketing him with Ahmadinejad or Farrakhan
absurdly magnifies his standing and impact. But nevertheless, his
outbursts, by any benchmark, warrant describing him as an anti-Semite.
Augstein alleges that when
“Jerusalem calls, Berlin bows its will”; that US presidents were obliged
to “secure the support of Jewish lobby groups”; that American
Republicans and the Israeli government profit from violence in Libya,
Sudan and Yemen; that “the Netanyahu government keeps the world on a
leash with an ever swelling war chant”; that “Israel incubates its
opponents in Gaza”; that the recent Prophet Mohammed video provoking
riots was initiated by Israel; that ultra-Orthodox Jews are like Islamic
fundamentalist terrorists and “follow the law of revenge”.
Even the broadest interpretation
of the OSCE definition would qualify such demonization of Israel and
allusions to Jewish global power as anti-Semitic.
In response, Augstein
shamelessly claimed that being opposed to Jew hatred and “deeply
respecting” the Simon Wiesenthal Center, he was distressed to be defamed
as an anti-Semite.
Prominent German Jewish writer
and commentator, Henryk Broder, was sufficiently outraged to describe
Augstein as “a pure anti-Semite… who only missed the opportunity to make
his career with the Gestapo because he was born after the war”.
The president of the Jewish
Central Council of Jews, Dieter Graumann, whilst condemning his
“horrible, hideous” articles on Israel, criticized his placement on such
a list. His vice president, Salomon Korn, went further and foolishly
defended Augstein against charges of anti-Semitism.
Juliane Wetzel from the German
Center on anti-Semitism was amongst those who rejected suggestions that
Augstein was disseminating hatred of Jews. Overall, the bulk of the
German media, as well as both leftist and CDU politicians defended him,
insisting that he was merely expressing legitimate criticism of Israel.
It was significant that in 2010,
two Bundestag leftist representatives were aboard the Turkish Marvi
Marmara and that for the first time, the left and the right united in
parliament to carry a unanimous resolution censuring Israel for the Gaza
flotilla episode. This in itself may not represent anti-Semitism, but
reflects the atmosphere of increasing hostility against Israel which
would have been inconceivable in Germany only a few years ago.
For Jews, the positive side of
Germany is the evident abundance of pro-Israeli and even philo-Semitic
rank and file Germans in all walks of life. Yet, simultaneously the
intensifying efforts by left wing activists uniting with Moslem
extremists and occasionally even Nazis, to demonize Israel and promote
anti-Semitism, provide valid grounds for concern about a future for Jews
in Germany.
The situation is likely to further deteriorate drastically after the culmination of Angela Merkel’s term as Chancellor.
The writer’s website can be viewed at www.wordfromjerusalem.com.He may be contacted at ileibler@leibler.com
This column was originally published in the Jerusalem Post and Israel Hayom
Some of my recent articles:
Israeli Politics: On the Edge of the Precipice (February 27, 2013)
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