VOLUME 3 No. 4 APRIL 2003 ti^a^^-h.i. ri-j'traiSt,.^^! journal ^ Association of Jewish Refugees Proportionate response The phrase proportionality of response, civilian casualties? And isn't what Putin which is much bandied about these days, did to Grozny far worse than the connotes that if one party to a conflict uses 'massacre' of Jenin, which cost 57 civilian a certain class of weapons, the other ought lives? Not to mention nuclear-armed Kim not to raise the ante by retaUating with Yong II, who has turned North Korea into a "lore advanced - and therefore more stage set for Orwell's 1984. devastating - armaments. The reason why these miscreants Thus, when Israeli soldiers used receive less harsh treatment from the rubber-coated bullets to disperse stone- cartoonist probably Ues in a mixture of throwing Palestinian youths, the IDF was double standards and ignorance. Double widely accused of a disproportionate standards means that a Third World '"esponse - and this sort of criticism has dictator is less harshly judged than a First exponentially increased since. World one. After all, Mugabe was Among Israel's most influential UK exonerated by South Afiica's Premier Tom cntics are the left-of-centre broadsheets Mbeki, chosen heir of Nelson Mandela. ^ Guardian and The Independent. In his The ANC leaders even collude at UN f the ^ti-Sharon zeal, the Guardian editor elections with Colonel Gaddafi, the man behind Lockerbie. (In consequence of an Bank. 'lotoriously drew an analogy between the The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse at The ^^^ed Israeli incursion into Jenin and al- by Albrecht Durer African/Muslim bloc vote, a Libyan now stiniaf^ ^a'ida's attack on the twin towers. Over at heads the UN Human Rights Commission, . Nazi "^e Independent, the cartoonist Dave of the charge of disproportionality. and, as if that were not grotesque enough, '^rown is an equally vehement scourge of Thanks to his cartoons (and Robert Fisk's thanks to the bloc's numerical pwisti ^^ Jewish state. His cartoon of a naked, dispatches). Independent readers, if asked preponderance within the world body, an baby-eating Sharon, pubUshed on the eve to name the single individual who most Iraqi is about to chair the UN °' the Israeli elections (and on Holocaust gravely threatens the peace of the Middle Disarmament Commission.) Memorial Day), stung both the Israeli East, would undoubtedly say Israel's More important still is ignorance. Left- •embassy and the Board of Deputies into Sharon - and not one of those Four Liberal opinion-formers in the UK simply strongly-worded public protests. Horsemen of the Apocalypse: Saddam of lack any conception of the dehumanising In reply, the offending cartoonist Iraq, Assad of Syria, Khatami of Iran, and fanaticism driving the godfathers of 'Contended that he merely meant to King Fahd of Saudi Arabia. Hamas and Hezbollah terror gangs, and produce a topical variation on Goya's flesh- In the sheer number of their individual sundry other enemies of Israel. Non- ^eeping painting Saturn Devouring One of victims - not to mention their denial of acquaintance with real evil also His Sons. Persuasively seconded by human rights - they are all villains of a far determines attitudes in the wider world. ^rald Kaufman MR he refuted the charge deeper die than Sharon. Each of the four, Western Europe has not experienced t antisemitism, although the image ofthe moreover, finances Palestinian terror dictatorship since 1945, while for the East '"aeli leader devouring babies chimes organisations which specifically target ofthe continent, liberation only dawned in eerily with the age-old blood libel, Israeli children on school buses and in 1989. Therefore two generations have *^ording to which Jews bake Passover discotheques. And why does the double- grown up in France and (West) (iermany '^tzos in the blood of slain Christian dealing Arafat, who is perfidy incarnate that take the luxury of freedom for children. and the virtual instigator of Sharon's granted, and indulge in the perverse sport political resurrection, not receive of biting the hand that both fed and i^ Since Britain, unlike Continental commensurately savage treatment from liberated them. Czechs and Poles iC ^^Pe, has not witnessed a modern lia Dave Brown? experienced repression until a mere 13 ^crudescence ofthe medieval blood libel, lat years ago. That is why President Bush - . ^e Brown could probably enter a plea of What about the monstrous Robert Dave Brown's other favourite target Snorance in the wholly hypothetical event Mugabe, who threatens to starve an alongside Sharon - draws jeers in Paris and . '^e case coming to court. No mitigating astronomically larger number of his own Berlin, but cheers in Prague and Warsaw. "^^"mstances, however, can absolve him subjects than Sharon's tally of Palestinian AJR JOURNAL APRIL 2003 Mock-profound Hitler's willing punditry victim Ronald Channing Richard Grunberger An Austrian Government commission of independent historians which has Late on Friday evenings Arts Review examined the country's wartime role - follows BBC Two's Newsnight - the latter the first such investigation since 1945 - programme being about politics, and the confirmed that between 1938 and 1945 former about culture. Frequently this the Austrian people commonly demarcation guideline is followed more plundered Jewish property, motivated by antisemitism, social factors and in the breach than in the observance - Austrian youth greet Anschluss greed. It also denounced Austria's lack which seems unavoidable, since the of generosity to Jewish victims and Austrians were identified as having Israel-baiting academic Tom Paulin is a concluded that restitution had been played leading roles in the Nazi death regular contributor (as is the Afro- made grudgingly. The commission's machine, and that thousands of American playright Bonnie Greer). work took four years to complete and Austrians enriched themselves. Hitler, of Early in February the latter was asked involved 160 historians and other course, was an Austrian, as was Adolf to comment on an exhibition of experts on the Nazi persecution of the Eichmann. photographs of contemporary country's Jewish population and the In 2001 the Conference on Jewish Afghanistan at the Imperial War expropriation of its property. Material Claims Against Germany Museum. She answered in her trademark For half a century Austria claimed that negotiated a restitution and tones of no-contradiction-brooking it was Hitler's first victim', a myth suited compensation agreement, worth self-regard: 'War never solved anything!' to the agenda of the Western powers at approximately $500 million, with In other words, invited to pass the end of World War II. When Germany Austria's government and industry. This aesthetic judgement, Ms Greer annexed Austria in March 1938, to an covered payments for stolen assets, enthusiastic reception by the general including businesses, apartment leases characteristically vouchsafed viewers public, Austria's Jewish population was and household items, and welfare what she clearly considers a cosmic some 200,000-strong. While about half benefits for needy and aging former philosophical insight instead. were forced to flee the country, they, as Austrian Jews. The Claims Conference's However, one hardly needs to be a well as those destined for extermination executive vice president, Gideon Taylor, graduate historian to instantly call to in concentration camps outside welcomed the report: 'For decades, mind several wars that quite evidently Germany's borders, had to pay a special Austria did not attempt to right the solved 'something'. 'flight tax' and a 'Jewish property levy to wrongs done to its former Jewish Thus, the Persian Wars saved Greece leave the Third Reich. A total of 65,000 community. There now seems to be a and democracy and the struggle with the were murdered in the death camps and, new outlook on this matter and we Spanish Armada saved England and by the end of the war, just 1,000 welcome the change.' Protestantism. Above all, who in their survived on Austrian soil. The commission's report could oper^ right mind would question that the Of some 25,000 Jewish businesses the way to previously unmet restitution Second World War solved the problem of that existed before World War II, the claims from Jewish victims of the Nazis Nazi aggression? report indicates that two-thirds were and their heirs, which, some speculate, closed down, private banks were may amount to £6.3 billion. The Finally, a 'close-up and personal' sequestered by the state, and others historians warned, however, that the question to Ms Greer: would she rather were taken over by 'Aryans'. Jewish idea that compensation might bring the her great-grandparents, grandparents, homes and properties also were matter to an end for Austria could wel parents and herself had continued to live systematically looted by the authorities, be 'mistaken', as it might lead to 3 in slavery, than that Abraham Lincoln Nazi Party factions and private citizens, 'conversion of guilt into debts'. The prosecuted the bloody Civil War against and at least 59,000 Jewish tenants were commission concluded that it waj the South? driven from their homes, says the report. impossible to quantify either what had Vapid bien-pensant sentiments like Reliable historical records show that a been lost by Austrian Jews or what had those of Ms Greer, which put the speaker disproportionately high number of been paid back over the years. on the side ofthe angels, trip easily off the tongue. What is