Mick Hartley

An interesting article by Jost Kaiser, on the German obsession with Israel:

The German satirist Wiglaf Droste once rightly said that by “freedom of speech” many Germans understand finally being allowed to say something negative about Jews and Israel again. And thus in the German context the real subject of many stories relating to Israel is just how one can go about doing this.  […]

A German neurosis. A neurosis that consists, for instance, in the fact that in Germany no country is criticized so harshly as Israel — and then at the same time Germans complain that “one is not allowed to say anything negative about Israel.”

A neurosis that consists in the fact that Heribert Prantl of Süddeutsche Zeitung can set off some of the classic pyrotechnics from the anti-Semitic arsenal — so long as they are just slightly repackaged as anti-Israeli rather than anti-Semitic. For example, the standard charge that Jews are responsible for creating their own enemies. One does not need to draw on any negative anti-Semitic “associations,” Prantl claims, “in order to criticize Israel’s aggression against Lebanon, which will prove to be a help to Hezbollah’s recruitment efforts. One may, indeed one must deplore the fact that Israel is rearing its own enemies and helping to make a murderous conflict eternal.”

Israel’s aggression? In fact it was the other way around: Israel was attacked. But no: Israel has, of course, to be held responsible.

Prantl continues: “In combating Islamist fanaticism, Israel’s self-fanaticization is no help. The right to self-defense cannot lead to international norms, like that of the protection of the civilian population, being suspended.”

“Israel’s self-fanaticization”? One needs to savor this defamatory coinage by the Süddeutsche Zeitung’s amateur psychologist.

Needless to say, Prantl’s remarks were met with applause at the time. In fact, not just applause — rapturous applause.

In Germany no country is criticized so harshly as Israel — and then at the same time Germans complain that “one is not allowed to say anything negative about Israel". It's not just Germany.