2895 days ago
No! We are attacking a company whose CEO Amit Ben Haim happens to be Jewish because that company has committed securities fraud and lied to its investors. This is a pathetic play the men - because apparently we are all anti-semites here even our writers who happen to be Jewish themselves - not the ball technique. My own writings on matters relating to both anti semitism and the state of Israel should leave you in no doubt where I stand. One of my favourite videos of recent years was recorded in Berlin and is HERE. Another article which moved me greatly was when I visited the synagogue in Corfu. This has a personal link for me.
3830 days ago
On Saturday a gunman shot four people dead at the Jewish Museum in Brussels. This was an overtly anti-Semitic attack. A couple of hours later, two Jewish men were savagely beaten as they left the synagogue in Paris. Again they were targeted as Jews. Throughout Europe violent attacks on Jews and the desecration of Jewish sites, notably cemeteries, have been rising sharply for years. But few seem to care.
For this is the racism that seems almost acceptable in some quarters. How often have you seen the Star of David burned in street protests across Europe? Is anything done? Of course not. A recent survey showed that 35% of those in France held anti-Semitic views, in Greece the number was 67%. In Latvia where last month a school proudly hung the word “JudenFrei” – the term used by the Nazis for an area that had been “cleansed” above its doors - the figure was 28%. Against such a backdrop is it any wonder that physical attacks on Jews as well as less overt discrimination is on the increase.
In part this must be down to feelings in some quarters that Israel has over-stepped the mark. I do not hold that view but I am fully aware that others do and their views on the Jewish State may fuel their views on Jews in general. But in the end even if one abhors Israel that can be no excuse for discriminating or persecuting an entire community who share a faith with most Israelis but are not part of that State.
The increase in anti- Semitism in recent years in part comes from our own silence. Amazingly
4195 days ago
I have visited Yad Vashem and other Jewish museums in various places. But Berlin clearly has some special significance as it was at the heart of the Nazi Empire and the machinery of the holocaust. I guess that now the next step is to pluck up courage to go to Auschwitz.
Not to trivialise Evil Empire's I bring you below a cartoon by a Jewish artist who produced some amazing work before his death in 1944.
I found the Museum very moving and thought provoking. If I wrote up my thoughts the article would be very long and so instead I produce a stream of consciousness video.
4196 days ago
I am sitting in a café in Berlin killing a couple of hours while my partner heads off to meet a friend who is such a screaming deluded lefty that it was felt that I would not be able to contain myself. Happily preparing to pen a quick piece on Norseman Gold a bunch of Krauts walk in and bark away in German. I mutter something about being English.
Can you move to smaller table so that we can occupy yours? Hmmm. I guess that the need for Lebensraum did not end in 1945.
Sure. Whatever. I am now sitting in a dark corner taking grim satisfaction from being able to make cheap jokes at their expense as they sprawl all over the benches by the window.
4197 days ago
This week’s video postcard comes from Berlin. I was staying an hour outside the City for a wedding and today came into town. I spent a good couple of hours at the City’s Jewish Museum, more on that later. But the first point of call was Checkpoint Charlie.
The picture of what remains of Charlie is below. As you can see it is now a tourist mecca surrounded by all the symbols of Western capitalism at its trashiest.
4198 days ago
I write this from on-board an Easyjet flight to Berlin where I am going to the wedding of a friend of my partner. He is marrying a Kraut and I have been given a stern lesson about words and phrases I am not allowed to use. Kraut is one of them.
I have however packed my “It’s Time to Leave T-shirt” although my “I stand with Israel T-shirt” was left behind. Perhaps I should have knocked up a quick “I stand with Greece” number just for this trip. I have no football shirts. I do not plan to discuss our national sport with the Hun and I am banned from discussing theirs.
It seems as if most of my fellow passengers are on one of two stag parties and one hen party- all from Wales. I guess this is what Easyjet was created for. I am not sure that those on this trip will be taking in many of the sights of Berlin and it would have been far cheaper for 1 stag party and the hen party just to stay at Bristol airport, get blind drunk and shag each other. But they are all underway now, happily ordering a stream of expensive drinks from the staff.
The two grooms to be are both dressed up. One very large and gormless looking fellow is dressed as a fairy. The other smaller, but equally gormless, fellow is wearing a little gold number. Whatever floats their boat. I am sure they will have a great time. I just rather hope that they do so a very good distance from where we are staying.
