AWhen Israel was founded 75 years ago and immediately attacked by its Arab neighbors, its own military gave up the Jewish state a 50/50 chance of survival. Twice more – in 1967 and 1973 – Israel had to fight for survival. And even today there are states, parties and movements that want to wipe out the state.
That Israel still exists is a miracle. That it is a democracy, an even bigger one. Without natural wealth, relying solely on the inventiveness and diligence of its citizens, Israel in 1980 achieved about half of the federal German gross domestic product per person. Today Israel’s GDP per capita is twelve percent higher than in Germany.
The anti-Semites had always assumed that the Jews were incapable of forming a state and lived off other people’s work. Rarely in history have prejudices been refuted so quickly and so strikingly. But that is of no use to the Jews. Because the essence of anti-Semitism consists of simply blaming the Jews for their very existence: criticizing them when they have no state or when they do; if they are poor and backward or if they are rich and addicted to high tech; as capitalists and as communists etc. etc.
It was therefore to be expected that EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen would get into trouble with anti-Semites when she said in a greeting: “Today we celebrate 75 years of a vibrant democracy in the heart of the Middle East, 75 years full of dynamism, resourcefulness and groundbreaking innovations . They literally made the desert bloom, as I saw during my visit to the Negev last year.”
The government of “Palestinian President” Mahmoud Abbas protested against this: “Such propaganda discourse dehumanizes and obliterates the Palestinian people and distorts their rich history and civilization,” it said; that the Israelis made the desert bloom is an “anti-Palestinian, racist trope.” The President of the Commission must apologize for this.
Old prejudices resurface
nothing there Unwillingness to acknowledge Israeli achievements; attempts to defame Israel’s achievements as a result of Arab exploitation and the Jewish state as a neocolonial “apartheid” or “settler state” feed on old anti-Semitic prejudices. By Abbas and Co. only allow the designation “Palestinians” to apply to the Arab inhabitants of the former British Mandate of Palestine, although the Jews there – including my father – also had Palestinian citizenship until 1948, they want to “wipe out” the Jewish people and their millennia-old presence in the country .
Ursula von der Leyen said what needs to be said: “Europe and Israel have a duty to be friends and allies. Their freedom is our freedom.” If Abbas and Co. would stop being constantly offended and instead listen, they could realize: don’t fight Israel, but copy it – that’s the only way to improve the lives of Arabs.
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