Latest Guardian screed inverts Nazi era Jewish refugee tragedy against Israel
Does the Guardian ever relent? Yesterday’s offering from its Comment is Free website (see below) featured a grossly ambiguous headline accusing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of using Nazi terminology to defend West Bank settlements. Today we have a piece ripping into a draft Israeli law on illegal asylum seekers with the tragic history of Jewish refugees trying to escape the Nazis thrown back at Israel for good measure.
The author, Dimi Reider, outlines what he sees as a catalogue of injustices associated with the mooted new law. It is a reasonable topic for discussion and the complex issue of immigration and asylum is debated widely in Europe and America too. But as his piece winds its way to its conclusion the mask suddenly slips and the underlying purpose is revealed. He says:
“The latest legislative feat of Israel, which never misses an opportunity to remind western countries of how they failed to take in Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany, is repugnant. But this bill is only one of a series of measures Israel is taking against its non-Jewish residents.”
So there we have it. The subtext is clear. We’re back to “racist” Israel again.
In concluding his piece, he says:
“Foreigners are allowed to work at the lowest end of the market, but not to strike roots, raise families and integrate; the Jewish refugees of 70 years ago are a great stick to beat the west with, but heaven forbid we show compassion to present-day, non-Jewish refugees, lest our precious demographic balance is disrupted.”
This is really unpleasant stuff. In fact, Israel has a fantastic record on asylum seekers reflecting its status as the only country in the Middle East to which such refugees can travel in the knowledge that they are entering a free society governed by the rule of law.
I do not know whether the current draft law is good or bad. I do not know whether it is worse or better than the legal framework governing illegal asylum seekers in Europe or America. I repeat, it is a reasonable subject for debate. But it is still difficult to understand why another country’s immigration and asylum policies should be given such an airing in a British newspaper especially since this is a draft law and not an actual law.
Except, that is, with the following explanation in mind: It is a gratuitous piece of anti-Israeli opportunism providing the Guardian with yet another occasion to slam the Jewish state as racist and to throw back at it the memory of events associated with Nazism whose lessons Israel is alleged not to have learned.
For the full article, click here:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/jul/12/israel-refugees-asylum-seekers
July 12th, 2009 at 4:39 pm
“Does the Guardian ever relent?”
No. It has a Israel-bashing agenda (i) in the articles it publishes (ii) in the comments below the articles (iii) in the operation of its moderation: comments pointing out antisemitism are often deleted whereas the offending comments are often not deleted.
I wrote about this a year ago:
http://www.zionismontheweb.org/CommentIsFree_ParliamentASCttee_July08.pdf
July 12th, 2009 at 5:21 pm
Indeed.
The Guardian management are completely obsessive about Israel and Zionism. Somehow they find Jews who are willing to participate in the constant attempt to drag Israel’s good name through the mud. They will publish any article written by a Jew which can shine the light on some percieved offense against their narrow and failed vision of the world.
Things will not change until most of that disgusting management is removed and put out to find fodder.