Busting NewsBusters September 24, 2007

You see, it’s things like this that get me angry at right-wing pundits who imagine themselves as “catching liberals in a lie” or “exposing liberals for what they are”.

Paul Krugman, writing in an op-ed piece for the New York Times (a publication of which I am by no means a fan) entitled “Politics in Black and White”, says what basically all of us non-white Americans have known for quite some time: voting GOP is not necessarily voting our “best interest”. Giving the past few decades’ electoral history in a nutshell, Mr. Krugman shows how the GOP has played into the pervasive racism that plagues this country in order to get votes:

Racial tension, especially in the South, has never gone away, and has never stopped being important. And race remains one of the defining factors in modern American politics…And yes, Southern white exceptionalism is about race, much more than it is about moral values, religion, support for the military or other explanations sometimes offered. There’s a large statistical literature on the subject, whose conclusion is summed up by the political scientist Thomas F. Schaller in his book “Whistling Past Dixie”: “Despite the best efforts of Republican spinmeisters to depict American conservatism as a nonracial phenomenon, the partisan impact of racial attitudes in the South is stronger today than in the past.”

Republican politicians…have tacitly acknowledged this reality. Since the days of Gerald Ford, just about every Republican presidential campaign has included some symbolic gesture of approval for good old-fashioned racism. Thus Ronald Reagan, who began his political career by campaigning against California’s Fair Housing Act, started his 1980 campaign with a speech supporting states’ rights delivered just outside Philadelphia, Miss., where three civil rights workers were murdered. In 2000, Mr. Bush made a pilgrimage to Bob Jones University, famed at the time for its ban on interracial dating…

One of the truly remarkable things about the contest for the Republican nomination is the way the contenders have snubbed not just blacks…but Hispanics. In July, all the major contenders refused invitations to address the National Council of La Raza, which Mr. Bush addressed in 2000. Univision, the Spanish-language TV network, had to cancel a debate scheduled for Sept. 16 because only John McCain was willing to come.

Glimpse at the past, tying it in to present behavior — a well-written opinion piece.

Would you believe that some people are calling this a blanket accusation that “Republicans are racist”? Noel Sheppard, blogging for Newsbusters.org says in bluntly-titled piece, “NYT’s Paul Krugman Calls Republicans Racists”, that Mr. Krugman is “shameless” and engages in “racist finger-pointing”:

I wonder how many NewsBusters readers knew they were racist.

After all, if the New York Times publishes a column saying that we are, it’s got to be so given that it is the paper of record in this country, correct?

Ironically, it does seem fitting days after the civil rights protests in Jena, Louisiana, that one of the Times’ leading columnists would point fingers at the Party largely responsible for getting civil rights laws passed four decades ago.

Yet, that didn’t stop the Times’ Paul Krugman, as facts never seem to matter whenever he puts his fingers on a keyboard…This man is so much a part of the problem in this country that I refuse to reprint another word of this detritus…

America’s press want a Democrat in the White House, and they’re willing to say anything to accomplish that goal, including calling all of us racists!

Calling “all of us” racists? Did someone have a little extra paranoia mixed in with their oatmeal this morning?

First of all, Mr. Krugman was referring to decisions made by presidential campaign strategists. This is reflective of Republican leadership. Not Mr. Average-Republican. To say that millions of people were branded as foaming racists by this op-ed piece is just living a lie. Second of all, save one link to CNN.com giving 2006 poll results, Mr. Sheppard’s article amounts to little more than a verbose “tsk tsk” with no content. Mr. Sheppard can not argue with the bare facts: there was no Univision debate, Bush dissed the Urban League, there was no La Raza meeting.

An accounting for these types of things was what Mr. Krugman was offering. No more. This amount of oversensitivity implies that Mr. Sheppard thought Mr. Krugman was hitting a little close to home.

I mean, hey, if the hood fits…

Some Post-Holiday Jewish Ethics

The Jewish Press ran an interview with Prof. Marc Shapiro, professor of Judaic Studies at the University of Scranton and author of Between the Yeshiva World and Modern Orthodoxy: The Life and Works of Rabbi Jehiel Jacob Weinberg, 1884-1966. Rabbi Yechiel Ya’akov Weinberg was better known by the name of his magnum opus, the Seridei Eish, and was one of the greatest Torah giants of Southeastern Europe in the late 19th century.

Among the interesting points Prof. Shapiro brings up is this quote, which bears repeating:

The Jewish Press: In your opinion, what would Rabbi Weinberg, author of the Seridei Eish and the subject of your first book, think of the Orthodox Jewish community today?

Shapiro: He’d think what a lot of gedolim would think from that generation. They would be very surprised that things they took for granted are now considered unacceptable – that the yeshiva world today in Israel, for example, sees something wrong with earning a living.

I think the frumkeit would surprise them. For example, the turn to glatt kosher as a standard, as well as the number of chumrot. This would surprise them only because part of traditional Judaism is reliance on the gedolim of the past and it’s very unusual for a tradition that regards itself as following the past to reject what previous standards were….

Rabbi Weinberg wrote that “perhaps we [the Jewish people] also bear some guilt” for anti-Semitism. What did he mean by that?

SHAPIRO: Rabbi Weinberg raised the possibility that perhaps the way Jews treat non-Jews contributes to anti-Semitism. He no doubt had in mind things such as how the Jew treated the Polish peasant and wondered if this didn’t have some impact on how the Poles viewed the Jews. Many Orthodox Jews thought it was okay to be less than honest in their business dealing with non-Jews.

Rabbi Weinberg argued that we must formally declare that we hold like the Meiri [13th century French sage], that all the negative things in the Talmud against non-Jews were only stated with regard to the wicked pagans of old, but didn’t apply to non-Jews as a whole.

We must relate to non-Jews just like to Jews, being absolutely honest in all monetary matters and regard them as having dignity as creations of God.

May every creation of G-d be treated with dignity this year, Jewish or otherwise. Shanah tovah, to a blessed sweet new year for everyone.

Perplex: Nazi News…for Teens!

The British Independent brings us the story:

Germany’s main neo-Nazi party has launched a youth propaganda campaign by distributing newspapers in schools that portray Adolf Hitler as a Second World War peacemaker and the Allies as warmongers.

State prosecutors in the east German city of Dresden said yesterday that police had confiscated some 150 of the offending newspapers circulated by the country’s neo-Nazi National Democratic party (NPD) at schools in the region.

They said the newspapers, entitled Perplex, carried a seemingly harmless front page picture of two hands about to join under the slogan “Young, Cheeky and German”. However, inside pupils were encouraged to turn their schools into German-only institutions and to despise foreigners….

German intelligence officials said the newspapers were part of a far wider campaign by the party to distribute tens of thousands of similar documents at schools nationwide.

These publications are being given out for free.

I sincerely hope no one believes this is going on in a vacuum. The rise of anti-Semitism must be fueled by a young populace: the average middle-aged citizen, no matter how virulently racist, has responsibilities which his 20-year-old counterpart does not. The middle-aged citizen will not chuck Molotovs as quickly as his younger counterpart. These organizations, to stay “doing their thing”, must keep their constituency fresh. Not to mention, these are young voters — or, at least, soon will be — young voters who the NPD wants to lock down.

The NPD holds Parliamentary seats in two eastern provinces in Germany. Eastern Germany has a number of “liberated zones”, where “local governments and judges either sympathise with or fear the neo-Nazi”. This, compounded with unemployment and hopelessness, provides fertile ground for the NPD to seep into school systems.

When the racists break into the education system in such a brazen manner, anti-racist education, by default, becomes a priority.

About the Ahmadinejad Interviews… September 21, 2007

I dropped my opinion on the upcoming Ahmadinejad interview at Columbia University over at the Life Of Rubin blog. Mr. Rubin said that he was disappointed in Columbia for honoring an enemy of America with a keynote speaking engagement.

As an academic, I couldn’t say that I was bothered by Ahmadinejad’s speaking per se; in and of itself having a controversial (or even tyrannical) speaker give his viewpoint at an academic institution is not necessarily a bad thing. This is something I learned from my 11th grade English teacher. However, while I’m quite left — and, dare I say, “liberal” — I couldn’t quite stomach the air that the Iranian President assumed during his interview with 60 Minutes, in which he stated that he couldn’t understand why some Americans might consider his planned visit to Ground Zero insulting (and couldn’t believe some Americans believe Iran to be terrorist):

I disagree with you on the Columbia count. Columbia is not a place where political issues are supposed to come into play, it’s supposed to be an institution of higher education. IMO, Ahmadinejad, to academia, represents “the opposing viewpoint”. It’s “the other side of” the Bush policy regarding terrorist states, esp. Iran & Syria.

When I was in high school, my (Jewish) high school English teacher made us read a portion of the Communist Manifesto by Marx/Engels and was going to have us read a piece of Mein Kampf. We DID get the handouts of the Manifesto (though we never did a unit on it). The teacher almost got fired over Mein Kampf.

His defense was that he wanted us to see “all the viewpoints” and to hear the “story from every point of view”. He got to keep his job, but got a stern warning. IMO it is important to hear all sides of a story.

That being said, Ahmadinejad’s COMING to speak isn’t the issue. It’s the TIMING. Which plays into his colossal denial in the second piece. Forget the “not knowing it would be insulting” part. That might be a genuine naivete/apathy. He might not actually realize.

But to not even have an inkling that at least SOME Americans consider your country a terrorist nation? I mean COME ON. Does he not have contact with anyone with ACCESS to a TV? Does he not realize: Iran’s not on anyone’s A-list and hasn’t been for quite some time? Shouldn’t he have put 2 and 2 together after all those summits and meetings? Why did he put together 130+ countries to form a “non-aligned movement”? He doesn’t even think a FEW ppl in America might not like IRAN? AFTER the Holocaust conference and AFTER “wipe Israel off the map”?

WTF, President Ahmadinejad. WTF.

The Toll Racism Takes On The Brain September 20, 2007

Science Daily yesterday printed a news release of the findings of a new study from Princeton University. The study shows that subtle, “under-the-surface” racism takes a greater toll on one’s cognition than overt, outwardly expressed racism. Princeton psychologists Jessica Salvatore and J. Nicole Shelton ran an experiment in which volunteers, both black and white, witnessed a fake “company”’s hiring decisions from the inside, complete with racist overtones, and then took a standardized test of cognitive ability.

The premise of the study:

All human beings are driven by a few core needs, including the need to understand the world around us. When people do things to us, we must know why, and if we are uncertain we will spend whatever cognitive power we have available to diagnose the situation.

The problem is that we have limited cognitive resources, so when we are solving one problem, we have difficulty focusing on another at the same time. Some psychologists reason from this that subtle racism might actually be more, not less, damaging than the plain antipathy of yesterday, sapping more mental energy. Old-fashioned racism–a “No Negroes Allowed” sign, for example–is hateful and hurtful, but it’s not vague or confusing. It doesn’t require much cognitive work to get it. But if you’re the most qualified candidate for a job, and know it, and still don’t get the job for some undisclosed reason–that demands some processing.

Fair enough. This premise was consistent with the findings of the study:

The experiment left no doubt about which candidate was best qualified, and sometimes that candidate was chosen, sometimes not. Sometimes the company passed over the best candidate for blatantly racist reasons; the reviewer might comment that the candidate belonged to “too many minority organizations,” for example. Other times the best candidate was simply passed over for no good reason. The psychologists ran the experiment many times, in every combination, so that both black and white volunteers saw black candidates reviewed by whites and by blacks and the same for white candidates.

After witnessing these fair and unfair hiring decisions, the study volunteers took the so-called Stroop test. During this test, the names of colors flash on the screen for an instant, but in the “wrong” colors (the word “red” in green letters, for example), and the idea is to quickly identify the color of the letters. It tests capacity for mental effort, and the idea in this study was to see if experiencing subtle racism interfered with that mental capacity.

It did, at least for blacks, and more than the overt racism did. As reported in the September issue of Psychological Science, black volunteers who had witnessed unfair but ambiguous hiring decisions did much less well on the Stroop test, suggesting that they were using all their mental resources to make sense of the unfairness….Interestingly, white volunteers were more impaired by overt racism than by the more ambiguous discrimination. Salvatore and Shelton figure this is because whites rarely experience any racism; they do not even notice the subtle forms of racism, and are thrown off balance when they are hit over the head by overt acts.

Many blacks, by contrast, have developed coping strategies for the most hateful kinds of racism; it’s the constant, vague, just-below-the-surface acts of racism that impair performance, day in and day out.

We’ll add this to the now over 100 studies documenting links between racism and physical and psychological heath. Racism-related stress is linked to heart disease and stroke. Perceived racism is linked to blood pressure. Subtle racism is linked to depression and anxiety.

This Stroop test, however, measures cognitive acuity — how quickly can a person assess what’s being presented to them — and because of this it is unique. As the Association of Psychological Science’s We’re Only Human blog points out, life is not a series of Stroop tests. Life is comprised of series of situations which require mental prowess and focus. A victim of covert racism is probably not going to have to sit in front of flash cards after being showed out of a store or turned down by a taxi driver.

That person is, however, going to have to, perhaps, enter in someone’s medical history information to prevent a prescription interaction. They may have to get behind the wheel of a car. They may have to take an examination for a job. These things could have disastrous or lamentable outcomes because of the extra 0.2 seconds it takes for the victim’s brain to process information.

To connect this back to my own personal home, it is already known in the Jewish community that non-white Jews go “off the derech” (leave Jewish observance) at a much higher rate than their White counterparts. Perhaps, in light of this study, we can understand another facet of this phenomenon… (more…)

MORE Israeli Nazi Filth

This is really starting to become a soapbox of mine. I literally can not believe that this is being allowed to go on in the Holy Land to this extent. Now, the charedi newswire Vos iz Neias tells us, it’s in Ashkelon:

Ashkelon, Israel - Dozens of tombstones were destroyed overnight in the Jewish cemetery in the Givat Tzion neighborhood of Ashkelon. Local police have begun an investigation.

The reason for the cemeterys desecration is unclear. Synagogues and private Jewish property were vandalized by neo-Nazis in several separate incidents earlier in the week.

(Just for background: an in-depth article from the British Independent from the indictment.)

Israeli Neo-Nazis: “Not some Marginal Phenomenon”

Sign and Sight.com, in its weekly rundown of news and analysis from today’s headlines, gave a link to this story in Die Neue Zürcher Zeitung by journalist Naomi Bubis. Ms. Bubis says that the reflex to sweep such a story under the rug has now been replaced by “outrage and incredulity” and that these neo-Nazis are not an isolated phenomenon.

That there are people in the Jewish state who tattoo Nazi symbols into their arms, perform the Hitler salute and attack Orthodox Jew comes as a shock to most Israelis. But we’re not talking about some phenomenon on the margins. Since 2002 over 500 anti-Semitic incidents have been reported, most of them involve swastika graffiti and graveyard vandalism but also attacks against Orthodox Jews.”

Also, as I noted before, Sultan Knish pointed out that these Nazis are joining the IDF — indeed, Ms. Bubis tells of what the founder of Pogrom.org.il found:

Sorge bereitet Gilitschinski eine rassistische Internetseite, die junge russische Einwanderer dazu aufrufe, zum israelischen Militär zu gehen, um dort den Umgang mit Waffen zu erlernen…Ilia Zolotov, der ehemalige Betreiber der Internetseite «White Israeli Union», sei beim Militär gewesen. Als die Polizei letztes Jahr sein Haus durchsuchte, fand sie neben Drogen auch jede Menge Nazipropaganda auf seinem Computer.

(Gilitschinski learned of a racist website which calls upon young Russians to join the Israeli military, where they will be educated on weaponry…Ilia Zolotov, webmaster of the “White Israeli Union” site, was also in the military. When police raided his house last year, they found drugs and a stash of Nazi propaganda on his computer.)

There is but one solution for this filth, and unfortunately, while the social work and concentration camp visit to which Mr. Zolotov was sentenced do serve him justice as a personal enrichment, measures like these do not serve their victims justice, nor do they benefit the social character of the state of Israel. Israel is behooved to make only one decision regarding these anti-Semitic, racist hoodlums.

Deportation now.

Why A Non-Muslim Observes Ramadan September 18, 2007

Today, Dave Matthews, (ha!) a non-Muslim writing for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, decided to observe the Muslim holy month this year, as a non-Muslim:

OK, I’m not Muslim. In fact, I can’t claim to be of any religious persuasion. I practice Sufism, but that isn’t like practicing medicine. In the community of Sufis I belong to, we understand that we are forever striving but never really achieving Sufism.

Be that as it may, I have for the past several years decided I would observe Ramadan. You might well ask why.

OK. Why?

For my children’s sake and as a model for my community, I observe Ramadan in honor of my brothers and sisters in the Muslim world. In honor of their suffering. In honor of their pain. In honor of the truth of their teachings.

The world we inhabit seems to be splintering apart around me. All the hopes I have harbored for peace on the planet, in the Middle East, even in my neighborhood, seem to be floating forlornly to the ground like the last autumn leaves.

This powerful, remarkable nation that I have lived in all my life seems incapable of wielding its influence in a responsible way. Every move by our current administration seems to dig us deeper into the pit of hatred and anger that has already manifested on our shores with the deaths of thousands of innocents. Radicals on all sides seem to command the lines of communication. So that instead of hearing the pope speaking about loving everyone in the way that Christ taught, he is famous for insulting the Muslims. Instead of hearing of Muhammad’s call for peace and tolerance, we only hear of jihad and a call to murder.

It’s hard not to feel powerless in the midst of the ubiquitous strife and fury. But in some small way, perhaps we can work within our own communities and our own relationships to demonstrate a different reality.

May we all succeed in doing so. May this Ramadan drive all of its observers to “demonstrate a different reality.” May we all work together to usher in peace and unity.

More on the Israeli Nazis: Video

Pogrom.org.il, an organization dedicated to combatting anti-Semitism in Israel, has the video of Combat 36, the Neo-Nazi organization recently rounded up in Petach Tikva.

Sultan Knish has also been vocal about the Nazi-demic that’s infecting the Holy Land. While I don’t agree with all of his views, one of his observations particularly struck me:

At Amona when a Jewish girl appealed to one of the police officers, how how could do this to his brothers and sisters, he replied, “I’m not your brother, kike.”…

It isn’t the Russians and the other ‘immigrants’ who have joined gangs and are scrawling Swastikas or even beating up people that should be worrying us. It it those who have gone into the military and law enforcement. In a time when the key loyalty question has become “Are you prepared to evict Jews from their homes?” and “Do you listen to Rabbis or to your commanders?”, this large population is ideal for recreating the pogroms of the late 19th century on Israeli soil. And they have. At Amona and throughout the many police brutality cases that go unreported and unmentioned.

The one kid at the military academy ostensibly would have gone into the IDF. Had he never turned on his camera, the IDF would have silently absorbed a Nazi into its ranks, a Nazi who would then be responsible for enforcing law. Enforcing law on people who he considers to be subhuman.

May G-d help us.

Israeli Nazi Filth Strike Again

Let’s just go down the list.

Swastikas were found on buildings in Holon over the weekend:

Around 1pm Sunday, the residents of an apartment building in Holon’s Bialik Street discovered swastika graffiti on the side of their building. The word “Hitler” was sprayed alongside it. A short while after, several other swastikas were discovered spray-painted on a building on Weizmann Square in central Holon. The Ayalon district police launched an investigation into the matter, but no arrests have been made so far.

Swastikas were also discovered in Dimona on Friday, sprayed on the walls of the Beit Ephraim synagogue. Dimona Mayor Meir Cohen offered a NIS 2,000 (about $488) reward for information leading to the perpetrators.

Swastikas and “666″ appeared on a car in Haifa yesterday.

The holy city of Tzfat was shocked by swastikas which turned up on a building there. YNet also tells us today of a pro-Nazi video made by a cadet in a military high school:

A star pupil at a military boarding school in Israel shocked peers and educators when he published videos on the web of himself performing and teaching Nazi salutes in an IDF uniform.

The cadet was an outstanding senior at the Beit Biram High School, a branch of the renowned Reali High School in Haifa whose alumni include an impressive number of former generals, defense ministers and IDF chiefs of staff.

In the first video, the cadet is filmed by himself, in full military uniform, goose-stepping to the Nazi anthem. In a second video, he is joined by a friend, also in uniform. A third video shows him teaching his eight-year-old sister to perform a Nazi salute, in response to the girl’s request to watch a children’s film.

Under the third video, the student wrote the caption: ‘In this clip, I’m teaching my sister important life lessons.’

Israel needs an Anti-Racist Action chapter. Where is Israel’s Anti-Fascist Action? Or Antifascist Rock Action . Something. Apparently the police are just not quick enough to catch these people (although Israel’s security forces do have their hands full as it is). In absence of public outcry, it is often up to the kids to regulate the streets themselves to rid them of filth like this.

Would treating Nazis like this be the worst thing in the world? I would never, G-d forbid, advocate violence against Jews, but this is self-preservation. Nazi organizations simply can not be allowed to operate in Israel to this extent.

“When the kids are united, they will never be divided.” The people of Haifa, Holon, Petach Tikva and every other Nazi-infected city need to take back their streets, their cities, their country.

And may the work of every antifascist in Israel, and of everyone anti-racist worldwide who works to decrease the filth of racism in their societies, be blessed and established by G-d (Psalm 90).

NY Salon Owner Victim of Islamophobic Attack

A nail salon owner in Matinecock, Suffolk County, Long Island was the victim of a bias crime over the weekend, and police are probing “all avenues” to find the perpetrators, Newsday reported. Iranian-born Zohreh Assemi, 50, of Bayville, had her chest and neck slashed with a box cutter and was robbed of $2,000:

Nassau police continued searching yesterday for two men wanted in a Locust Valley nail salon robbery they say was motivated not only by greed, but also hate, including an attack on the Iranian-born business owner, slurs and anti-Muslim graffiti.

The high-end Givan Nail and Skin Center at The Plaza was robbed about 6:30 a.m. Saturday. The men made off with jewelry, police said, and $2,000, according to the owner, Zohreh Assemi.

Assemi, 50, of Bayville, was accosted by the two men and forced inside the shop, where they assaulted her. They slammed her head on a counter, shoved a towel in her mouth, repeatedly smashed her hand with a hammer and used a knife and box cutter to slice her face, neck, back and chest.

During the robbery, the men used “anti-Islamic language” and wrote anti-Muslim graffiti on a mirror with a marker, [Detective Lt. John] May said. “We are investigating all avenues from the robbery to the assault to the bias incident,” he said.

Assemi said she began receiving threatening phone calls last month from people calling her a terrorist and telling her to leave the shopping center, where her salon is located.

Long Island’s News 12 has video.

A more in-depth piece from Newsday tells of precisely how traumatizing this attack was for Ms. Assemi. A victim of terrorism herself who had to cross borders and come to America as an asylum-seeking refugee, she said what hurt most was the racist attackers calling her a “terrorist”:

On Sept. 11, when 19 hijackers attacked her adopted country, she decided to become a U.S. citizen. So when two men ambushed her in her Locust Valley nail salon Saturday, it was their words — not their blows — that hurt her most.

They called her a terrorist.

“When you’re a victim of terrorism and you lose everything you have to terrorism, the worst thing they can call me is a terrorist,” she explained Sunday in her Bayville home. “That hurts a lot.”

They called her a terrorist, screamed “Muslim, leave Locust Valley, leave The Plaza…go back to the place you came from”, and attacked her with boxcutters.

Kudos to Ms. Assemi for standing her ground and not letting the Islamophobes win. Kudos for saying defiantly, “I will not be homeless again.” G-d willing, she never will be — and G-d willing, her attackers will also have their own defined, heavily guarded place to live for the next 15 or 20 years.

MORE Israeli Nazis? Now It’s A Crisis September 17, 2007

Anti-semitic incidents and neo-Nazi activity is spreading throughout Israel. Like a virus. While it may not be an epidemic, it’s a crisis.

Arutz Sheva gives the shortlist of this week’s swastikas and sieg heils in the Holy Land:

Neo-Nazis attacked a 70-year-old woman who was walking on the bridge connecting the Meridian Hotel and the Neveh David neighborhood in Haifa Monday morning. The gang members beat her and shouted out “Heil Hitler,” in the latest of a series of Nazi attacks that began with the arrest of a Nazi gang in Petach Tikva 10 days ago…

Teen Arrested for Spraying Swastikas in Migdal Haemek

Neo-Nazism also found its way this week to the town of Migdal Haemek, southeast of Haifa. A 17-year-old anti-Semite was caught Sunday spraying a swastika on a neighbor’s car. Police requested permission from the court to extend custody of the teenage attacker, who they said had admitted to spraying Nazi symbols on cars and public shelters, according to a report by Ynet. Further questioning was necessary, said detectives, in order to determine whether the young Ukrainian immigrant is a member of a neo-Nazi gang…

Nazi Vandalism in Eilat Synagogue on Rosh HaShana Eve

Nazi and Christian slogans were scrawled on the walls of a Sephardic synagogue in the resort city of Eilat on the eve of the Rosh HaShana holiday last week. The graffiti was discovered Monday evening by congregants who arrived to attend a class and to pray the evening service. The synagogue is located in a heavily religious neighborhood.

“Hitler is the Messiah,” proclaimed one of the statements.

There is no reason that this should happen in Israel on any scale. Even if one will hold up freedom of speech lishmah and defend a citizen’s right to say absolutely anything that pops into their mind, there simply must be some level of cultural sensitivity — if not respect — when one is a new citizen of the only country with a Star of David on its flag.

Israel simply must crackdown on this type of activity. In another country, these would be actions of misguided youth. In another country, this would be a lamentable trend one could pooh-pooh or sweep under a rug. But in Israel, the only country which calls itself “Jewish”, the country so many Jews have died to create and sustain, this activity strikes at its very national fabric with such ferocity it must be dealt with as domestic terrorism, if not as a coup.

To say “Hitler is the Messiah” in America makes one a jerk. For an immigrant to say it in Israel is a direct slap in the face to virtually everyone who gave him a home.

I don’t think these immigrants should have to get deported — I think that, if they have any honor and if their “White pride” dictates any morality, these people should have the conviction to get out of Israel voluntarily. To sit and enjoy the benefits of a country paid for with Jewish blood while actively promoting Nazism is an unconscionable hypocrisy. And for Israel to put up with this under the reasoning of “this is free speech and must be protected” is asking far too much.