Two Israeli Jews have been killed in Brussels’ Jewish Museum. Jews have been victimized again in the heart of Europe. But certain Jewish leaders and organizations bear part of the responsibility for the rising violence of attacks against Jewish targets. They should stop legitimizing anti-Jewish incitement. Why did the Umbrella Organization of Jewish Institutions of Belgium host André Flahaut, president of the Belgian Chamber of Representatives, as a guest of honor at a gala dinner? The Socialist Flahaut is a former defense minister has been filmed at a pro-Palestinian demonstration in Nivelles, saying: “I’m determined to fight all extremism, all Nazism, all fascism wherever, whenever they occur. That’s why I’m here”. The demonstration, where Flauaht compared the Jewish State to Nazism, was held in commemoration of Israel’s creation and featured actors dressed as Israeli soldiers, shouting and loading other actors dressed in Arab garb onto a truck. Joël Rubinfeld, ex-president of the Umbrella Organization of Jewish Institutions of Belgium, was the only one with the courage to resign in response to the organization’s decision to host Flahaut, while Maurice Sosnowski defended the invitation as “a means of keeping dialogue open”. By hosting people like Flahaut, Belgian Jews didn’t keep the dialogue open. They gave a tremendous legitimacy to Jew-hatred. They knew who Flahaut was. But they choose to honor him. Jewish criticism is a kind of self-cannibalism which destroys itself... The same happened a few months later in Berlin, where the internationally renowned Jewish Museum hosted a podium discussion with US academic Judith Butler, who not only promotes the boycott of Israel, but has also spoken sympathetically about the terrorist organizations Hamas and Hezbollah. The largely German audience of 700 people showered Butler with applause during the discussion titled “Does Zionism belong to Judaism?”. Such an event could have been hosted in Teheran. Why did the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York shamefully invite New Republic editor John Judis, who questioned the legitimacy of Israel’s creation? Why did the Anne Frank museum in Amsterdam, with impunity, exhibit a photo of former MP Ariel Sharon alongside one of Adolf Hitler? When the Simon Wiesenthal Center included Jakob Augstein, the editor of a leftist magazine and the columnist of Der Spiegel , in the black list of anti-Semites, the German Jewish mainstream slammed not the journalist, but the Wiesenthal Center. Salomon Korn, vice president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, said Mr. Augstein’s writings “are not anti-Semitic”. Despite his “hideous” articles, the inclusion of Augstein trivializes all the others on the list, added Dieter Graumann, president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany. The list is long. What happened to moral clarity? This Jewish criticism is a kind of self-cannibalism which destroys itself in a grim pleasure that saves nothing. It is an epidemic of false Jewish "tikkun olam" and Jewish parochialism. It is the pride of those who recognize themselves as better than others. It is the paternalism of a bad conscience. The Jewish mainstream should stop giving a podium and legitimacy to those who promote anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism. Or should we rehabilitate the old Jewish expression “don’t provoke the Nazis”?
