Hat tip to Peter Lantz for sending me this article.
The Jewish community of Norway is once again under attack, on the one side from hostile Muslim immigrants, and on the other side, by their own government's hostility to Israel, which only helps fan the flames.It is not unique to Norwegian history. During the World War II German occupation, the country, under the leadership of Vidkun Quisling* deported their Jews to Auschwitz.
To help mark the 70th anniversary of that deportation, former Israeli Knesset Member Michael Melchior traveled to Norway. He has written this timely article for the Times of Israel. Norwegians should take note.
http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/they-loaded-the-jews-on-ships/?utm_source=The+Times+of+Israel+Daily+Edition&utm_campaign=a4a5c2a2e3-2012_11_30&utm_medium=email
I recently noted the anniversary in Norway with this article. As a matter of fact, the problem of anti-Semitism has often appeared on this site. Jews, in fact, are under assault all over Europe. Aside from their identification with Israel, many of the old personal canards about Jews are returning to acceptable conversation as cowardly Europeans attempt to curry favor with Arab nations and their own restive immigrant population. It is beyond sick and disgusting, especially considering Europe's not so long past history.
* Vidkun Quisling was the German-installed puppet leader of Norway during the occupation. After the war, he was tried in Norway, convicted and executed. His name has become synonymous with treason.
There is a significant difference between being an isolated and oppressed minority in your own country, and voluntarily associating yourself with one of the most militarily successful powers in the world. Israel's founders intended to form a nation where Jews would not be dependent on the good will of others, but when you win several wars in a row, you can't claim sympathy as the underdog any more.
ReplyDeleteJews in other parts of the world don't have to associate themselves with Israel, but by and large they do. Arabs expected Israel to collapse financially as unsustainable. The fact that it did not is due, in part, to substantial financial subsidies from Jewish communities around the world.
Thus, a vicious cycle is set in motion.
Findalais,
ReplyDelete70 years from now there may not be any more Norwegians either.
You forget Siarlys that Jews are one tribe. We help each other even if we can't stand them. Now Arabs are multiple tribes. They can barely stand their own tribal members let alone other tribes.
ReplyDeleteWithout Israel no Jew is safe in this world. Israel is the Jewish safety net. A final refuge from the pogroms and hatred of the world.
@ Gary
ReplyDeleteSo? They did it to themselves.
Findalis, you may be right, although I thought there were twelve tribes, or at least, that those who remain descend from both Judah and Benjamin.
ReplyDeleteBut IF you are one tribe, you can hardly complain that people who consider Israel their enemy would ipso facto consider the Israeli diaspora to be also their enemy.
Nor is it strange that two tribes of strangers in a third tribe's land would squabble with each other. Germans and Poles did so in America within my lifetime. Serbs and Croats who had been allied in anti-communist fraternal organizations in Milwaukee threw rocks at each other in the 1990s. Irish immigrants in New York organized abortive invasions of British Canada in the 1880s.
Not nice, not paragons of civic peace, but not unusual.
The remnants of the tribes merged into one tribe with 3 parts: Cohens (Priestly caste), Judah (House of David) and Israelites (everybody else). I am an Israelite and proud member of the tribe. Membership into the tribe is by 2 ways: Birth (Through a Jewish mother) or conversion.
ReplyDeleteA Cohen male cannot marry a divorcee, woman who is not a virgin, or a convert.
It is our oneness that has kept the Jewish people alive for 2000 years. How else could we have done it?
It seems to me Jewish life has become quite diverse.
ReplyDeleteIncidentally, genetic studies suggest that outward migrating Jewish men often married natives of the lands they migrated to, so SOMEONE has been marrying shicksas for many centuries. Its in your blood now.