Jabotinsky and the anti-Semitism of men and media

As the great Zionist leader Ze’ev Jabotinsky once said, “It is not the anti-Semitism of men; it is, above all, the anti-Semitism of things, the inherent xenophobia of the body social or the body economic under which we suffer.” Owning a PR Agency, I work on the front lines – and I would argue that much of mainstream media has an anti-Semitic bias against Israel. The anti-Semitism of things which Ze’ev Jabotinsky  spoke of? Media would be among them.

In a recent act of anti-Semitism, a survey of more than 28,000 people in 27 countries asked respondents to rate 12 countries — Britain, Canada, China, France, India, Iran, Israel, Japan, North Korea, Russia, the USA, Venezuela, and the European Union — according to positive or negative influence. The country with the highest number of mostly negative responses overall is Israel (56% negative, 17% positive), followed by Iran (54% negative, 18% positive), the United States (51% negative, 30% positive), and North Korea (48% negative, 19% positive). “Israel also stands out for having the largest number of countries (23 of 27) viewing it negatively. Iran is regarded unfavorably in 21 countries, the United States and North Korea in 20.”

Iran, which calls for the death of homosexuals, stones people in the streets and denies the Holocaust. North Korea, a legendary dictatorship where human rights is a non existent word. To compare these countries to Israel can only be described as sickness, and so scary only a couple generation after six million Jews were slaughtered. One wonders why the worlds media pays so much attention to Israel — why not simply leave the Jews alone after all they have suffered through ?

There is a simple core anti-Semitism of so many media members – shaping the minds of the world. Why is there such a disproportionate number of media representatives stationed in Israel ? One doesn’t see headline after headline every minute of every day when a former (woman) president in Ukraine is imprisoned, nor do they see a nonstop dredge of headlines when blacks are insulted at the worldcup by multiple national teams. Its simply nonstop negatives about Israel.

A few years ago, Pilar Rahola, a Spanish politician, journalist, activist, and member of the far left, wrote some important words:

Why don’t we see demonstrations against Islamic dictatorships in London, Paris, Barcelona? Or demonstrations against the Burmese dictatorship? Why aren’t there demonstrations against the enslavement of millions of women who live without any legal protection? Why aren’t there demonstrations against the use of children as human bombs?

Why is there never any outrage against the acts of terrorism committed against Israel?  Why is there no outcry by the European left against Islamic fanaticism?  Why don’t they defend Israel’s right to exist?  And finally, the million dollar question: Why is the left in Europe and around the world obsessed with the two most solid democracies, the United States and Israel, and not with the worst dictatorships on the planet? The two most solid democracies, who have suffered the bloodiest attacks of terrorism and the left doesn’t care.

And then, to the concept of freedom. In every pro Palestinian European forum, I hear the left yelling with fervor: “We want freedom for the people!” Not true. They are never concerned with freedom for the people of Syria, or Yemen, or Iran, or Sudan, or other such nations. And they are never preoccupied when Hamas destroys freedom for the Palestinians. They are only concerned with using the concept of Palestinian freedom as a weapon against Israeli freedom. The resulting consequence of these ideological pathologies is the manipulation of the press. So many stupid things have been written about Israel, that there aren’t any accusations left to level against her.

It’s truly amazing that through it all the Jewish nation and the Jewish people continue to thrive and grow. One wonders if it makes the media even more upset to know that through it all — no matter what hardship is thrown at the Jews — the dream of Herzl lives on: “If you will it, it is no dream.”