[Text. The Iraqi Holocaust. A new on-going exhibition.
The Sun. 16th January 1991. Yes! It's Bangdad! Our boys begin blitzing towel heads' city.
P.12 Yanks, Frogs, Dagos and Krauts join our side.
The Truth. 16th January 1991.
USA and England Begin Anti-Semitic Destruction of Iraq - Cradle of Civilisation.
Millions of Human Beings Set to Suffer and Die for No Reason.
P.22 How the UN was hi-jacked.]
A Discussion of Anti-Semitism. J'Accuse!
THE USA AND ENGLAND HAVE BEEN ACTIVELY ENGAGED IN THE ANTI-SEMITIC DESTRUCTION OF A HOMELAND OF ALL JEWS AND ARABS - IRAQ - FOR 18 YEARS.
A TERRIBLE CRIME. THEY WILL FACE JUSTICE.
The destruction that Israel has wreaked in the Lebanon is totally disproportionate, unnecessary and probably constitutes a war crime.
I believe there is also an element of anti-Arab anti-Semitic racism in Israel's response.
Arabs and Jews are basically the same thing so this is extremely sad and ridiculous.
Israeli anti-Arab anti-Semitism is quite open and easy to find.
"The only good Arab is a dead Arab." "We must go to Lebanon and kill all the Arabs there."
"Arabs are like snakes." etc. etc. Ovadia Josef etc.
Thankfully it is a recent phenomenon and is mainly inherited from Europe and the US.
The US and England's destruction of Iraq is also basically racist and anti-Semitic.
Disraeli called Jews "Mosaic Arabs"!
[Please see:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/may/20/themosaicarabs
for related discussion]
Arabs and Jews are basically the same thing.
The words Habiru, Hebrew and Arab are possibly cognate and possibly have the same origin.
It would be interesting to research this.
Israelis will no doubt say that organisations like Hizbollah seek the destruction of Israel therefore we must defend ourselves. Maybe true. But you are not attacking Hizbollah alone - you are attacking a country - Lebanon. You may say it is harbouring and supporting Hezbollah. Therefore we should attack it. Well, what you are doing is not guaranteed to decrease support for Hezbollah.
Ultimately there could always be people who wish to destroy Israel and seek arms to attack Israel. Ultimately you will have to persuade such people that their beliefs are wrong rather than just kill them.
The US and England's destruction of Iraq is also basically racist.
I feel that Arabs are my brothers, that Iraq is one of the homelands of the Jewish people, and I feel that an attack on Baghdad is an attack on Jerusalem and all Jews.
The truth is that we didn't need to bomb Iraq to get its army out of Kuwait.
We didn't need to destroy Iraq with bombings and sanctions.
There were no weapons of destruction. And those who said there were knew there weren't any.
The Hutton Report was a pathetic whitewash.
We didn't need to invade and occupy Iraq to oust the fascist regime of Saddam Hussein.
One of the only places that I have seen this simple fact in print is in Private Eye.
So why was it done? Some people say it was to get control of the oil.
Now how precisely does killing loads of people in and of itself help gain control over oil?
It may be a factor. As is imperialism and the desire to take over the country and destroy independent development and control.
But basically, my view since 1991 is that the governments of the USA and England are actively involved in the racist anti-Semitic destruction of Iraq.
Between 1991 and the present time many crimes have been committed by the USA and England in their treatment of Iraq.
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Here are some letters about the term "anti-Semitism."
Dear ****
" One might go on here about the anti-Arab racism that has been such a prominent feature of American culture this past decade and more - e.g. in numerous simple things like the mindless "terrorists" in the otherwise excellent "Back to the Future" film by Spielberg - but this would require another article. It is just another twist in the story of anti-Semitism: people tend to forget that both the Arabic and the Jewish peoples are Semitic. "
Tom Leonard.
I think this is the only example I can find that comes anywhere close to my view that the attack on Iraq from 1991 onwards is in some way "anti-Semitic." I wrote the following letter to **** that explains my view.
I also enclose a design that I made.
Dear ****,
I would like to make a point regarding the use of the term "Anti-Semitism".
The term "Anti-Semitism" is conventionally used to describe hatred of Jews alone, and was probably envisioned as such by its instigator. However, I personally believe that the hatred of all Semitic people as a whole has broadly the same origin and the same cultural dynamics. I would make so bold as to say that hatred of Jews and hatred of Arabs are manifestations of one and the same thing. Consequently the term is very revealing in my view, and points to a reality that it does not conventionally denote.
Undoubtedly in modern European history hatred of Jews has a dimension all of its own.
This does not change the point that I am making.
A modern example is the effective genocide of Iraqis perpetrated by the USA and England in 1991, when 100,000 Iraqis were killed for no reason whatsoever; and then the continued effective genocide of Iraqis during the 1990s when at least half a million died as a direct result of sanctions, once again for no reason whatsoever. This could only be explained in the context of racist, and I would say anti-Semitic, hatred. There is no other logical explanation.
The portrayal of Arabs in European culture during the last 15 years in particular as well as during previous centuries, shows clearly the phenomenon of anti-Arab anti-Semitism. Similarly, I would say that Israeli hatred of Arabs is in some ways an extension of European anti-Arab anti-Semitism.
I would suggest that a new term should be used to denote hatred of Jews alone; perhaps judeophobia; but that anti-Semitism is a meaningful term and means exactly what it says (even if it was conceived to denote hostility to Jews alone).
Yours sincerely,
Anon., England.
I believe that anti-Arab anti-Semitism exists in Europe and Israel and has a long history. It is very clear in Israel today and in Europe and the US today.
It is anti-Arab but I believe that anti-Arab racism is fundamentally the same thing as anti-Jewish racism.
I ought to read Edward Said's "Orientalism" to see whether this text elucidates this phenomenon any more; but as I say you are the only person I can find (as yet) who comes anywhere close to a similar view. Basically to me its as clear as day. Of course I might be wrong.
Do you know of others? For all I know there might be loads. I think there are certainly quite a few writers and thinkers who think that the term anti-Semitism is definitely an inaccurate term since Arabs are Semites too.
There are a lot of people who don't share this view or haven't heard of it; it seems so anyway.
They mainly fall into the camp of saying that since the term Anti-Semitism was conceived only to describe hatred of Jews then that is all it refers to, which is in a sense is correct (For example, Fred Halliday in his recent book 100 Myths About the Middle East.)
I would consider trying to write more and research more about this.
Do you have any reading recommendations or comments on any of this, please?
Thanks for listening. Hope you might be able to help.
from
"UR OF THE DEPLETED URANIUM".
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Also, why is Israel in the Eurovision Song Contest and the European Football Cup when it is not by any stretch of the imagination in Europe?
It is not in Europe in any way.
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Arab anti-Jewish feeling ("anti-Semitism") as pointed out by Fred Halliday in his excellent 100 Myths About the Middle East is mainly a post-1945 import from Europe.
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"It is a singular paradox, considering the modern Arab-Israeli confrontation, that Jewish hopes were sustained largely in the land that became known as Iraq: "the credit .... for giving Israel its all-important start, physically and culturally, belongs to ancient Mesopotamia." "
p.133, in The Ancient Crucible in "Iraq From Sumer to Saddam", Geoff Simons.
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It is worth noting that the word "Anti-Semitism" was invented by a German in the last half of the 19th c.
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"THIS IS THE CRADLE OF CIVILISATION.
AND WE ARE DESTROYING IT.....NOW.....WHAT?...."
EDWARD SAID, JANUARY 1991.
