Strange Things Happen In Germany, Cont.
You’ll remember that earlier this month, some extreme Leftists conspired to secure the cancellation of a talk by Karl Pfeifer, a veteran antifascist and survivor of the Holocaust. The subject of the talk was the resurgence of racism in Hungary, including the murder of eight Roma. The pretext for the cancellation of the talk was that Karl had participated in the massacre of Palestinians.
That was, of course, a lie: wholly without foundations. The true reason for the cancellation was much clearer and more basic.
Here is Karl in Haaretz
Those accusing me did not name the place where this alleged massacre was committed, or provide any other details, and even acknowledged that their information was incomplete. But when pushed for corroboration, they settled the matter by explaining that “Pfeifer is a Zionist.” At the same time, in an apparent – and bizarre – attempt to appear even-handed, those in attendance resolved that they also would not be willing to host someone who had been a member of the militant Palestinian organization Black September in the 1970s.
Of course, no one at the youth center asked me to respond to the accusations before they decided to rescind the invitation. Nor have any of them been willing to answer the questions of German journalists who learned about the incident regarding just why they excluded me. I only learned about what happened because it was reported to someone in Antifa by two of its members who had been present at the decisive meeting.
Fortunately, my hosts were able to organize an alternate space with limited notice, and I gave my lecture in the end. My subject was Hungary, where a recent resurgence of racist acts and statements can be observed. This includes the murder of eight Roma (Gypsies) in racial attacks during the past two years, and the shocking anti-Jewish verbal attacks in the right-wing media there and on YouTube.
As for me, I did indeed serve in the Palmach and the Israel Defense Forces from 1946 until 1950, after arriving in Mandatory Palestine in 1943. And although I left Israel in 1950, I am proud of my service as a soldier there, when we were defending ourselves against aggression and fighting for the right to have our own state. I did not participate in any massacres, but I know that improper acts were carried out by both sides in the conflict between Israel and its neighbors, as happens during wartime.
But the comparison of the Palmach with Black September, which carried out murderous acts of terrorism against civilians in the name of the Palestinian struggle, is an outrageous and ignorant one.
Karl does not stand alone, however.
He is supported in Germany by the true antifascists. From the Jerusalem Post:
The author of the minutes and a member of the Antifa-AG University Bielefeld, a left-wing group that organized Pfeifer’s lecture, told the Post that the rationale for barring Pfeifer’s talk at the AJZ is “anti-Semitism.”
The Antifa-AG member spoke on condition of anonymity because he could face “personal difficulties.”Antifa is an abbreviation for anti-fascists, and the chapter in Bielefeld said the member will draft a press statement which will condemn the cancellation of Pfeifer’s talk as anti-Semitism.
And we stand with you too, Karl.
Comments
| 27 November 2009, 10:04 am |
Bielefeld gibt es doch
| 27 November 2009, 10:40 am |
Antifa are anarchists. It would be interesting to know the political allegiances of those who wanted to cancel the talk.
| 27 November 2009, 11:07 am |
“Anti-fascists” blocking a Holocaust survivor from speaking about the racist attacks on the Roma.
What fascist patsies they are.
| 27 November 2009, 11:16 am |
Anti-semitism never went away. It just changed its name to anti-Zionism.
| 27 November 2009, 11:32 am |
The smarmy elitism of the rich never went away. It just changed its name to Greg.
| 27 November 2009, 2:20 pm |
Anti-semitism never went away. It just changed its name to anti-Zionism.
I’m currently debating the israel / palestine issue on another site (oddly enough set up for reptile owners – I have 4 tortoises). One individual buys into a ‘zionist conspiracy’, bandies around terms like ‘Israhell’ & ‘Zio Nazi’ & provides links to holocaust denial material to butress his arguments but says he’s not anti semitic.
| 27 November 2009, 2:43 pm |
There is nothing worse than a tortoise owning anti semite gtm, give the bastard hell.
| 27 November 2009, 2:57 pm |
There is nothing worse than a tortoise owning anti semite gtm, give the bastard hell.
I’m the tortoise owner. This guy is into ‘inverts’
| 27 November 2009, 5:29 pm |
but I know that improper acts were carried out by both sides in the conflict between Israel and its neighbors, as happens during wartime.
This guy is actually much worse than the SS men in their old age constantly hounded for just being soldiers.
Average SS person was recruited at home and knew no other country except his. But this man travels half the distance of the world to enforce a racial supremacist military junta in ME.
I am glad people are suddenly waking up to reality. Good to know that I have friends.
| 27 November 2009, 5:41 pm |
Hey, Karl, kolhakavod!!! Haaretz and JPost, you made my day!
But as disgraceful as the experience Karl now had in Germany was, there is indeed a lively scene that fights this kind of bigotry in Germany, and some of the related blogs are great fun to read (in German, though!) However, I’m not sure if they are winning, because when I’m in Germany, I get the impression that anti-Israel sentiment is as chic there as in jolly good old England.
| 27 November 2009, 5:48 pm |
Mr. M, Karl arrived in Palestine as a half-starved youngster of 15, in one of the Kindertransports that barely made it out of Europe.
I don’t doubt that you have friends, because there are still plenty of people with a Weltanschauung not all that different from those who volunteered for the SS (of course, you don’t even know that this was a volunteer force…)
| 27 November 2009, 6:51 pm |
This guy is actually much worse than the SS men in their old age constantly hounded for just being soldiers.
Average SS person was recruited at home and knew no other country except his. But this man travels half the distance of the world to enforce a racial supremacist military junta in ME.
I am glad people are suddenly waking up to reality. Good to know that I have friends.
To make it clear to people, Mr. M just said that Karl Pfeifer is “much worse than the SS men”.
Mr. M, please tell us a bit about yourself.
| 27 November 2009, 6:56 pm |
Josh, I think Mr.M told us already all there is to tell about him.
| 27 November 2009, 8:01 pm |
Well we know he hates Jews and ignorantly claims that disposessing the Palestinians is the basis of Judaism. We know he supports terrorists in Iraq. We know he conflates terrorists in Iraq “with an entire people”. We know he won’t answer the point that those terrorists kill Muslims and are responsible for most of the deaths in Iraq. We know he accuses Jews of saying that Islam is from Satan (no idea where he got that one). We know his English isn’t very good.
But we don’t really know for sure anything else about him.
Where is he from? Is he a Muslim? He must not be a Shiite or he wouldn’t support the terrorists in Iraq who kill mostly Shiites. Is his English bad because he’s from somewhere else? Because he’s from a cloistered community? Or because he’s a moron?
Maybe he’s a Nazi. Maybe he’s BNP.
It would be nice to know what kind of antisemite he is.
| 27 November 2009, 8:07 pm |
@Mr. M@ I am not arguing with nazis or people who try to play down the crimes of nazis.
So my posting is directed to all the other friendly people.
I left Hungary in 1943 a 14 year old boy just one year before the Wehrmacht occupied Hungary. I never saw my father again and 36 of my close relatives were killed.
in 1946 I was 17 years old when I joined the Palmach in order, that we the Jews of Palestine will not be butchered by those who promised us this.
Mr. M is an anti-Semite, and probably also a nazi. In Austria one could sue you for playing down the crimes of Nazis.
But there were some German POWs who escaped POW-Camps in Egypt to join the riff-raff led by that collaborator of Hitler and Himmler the Mufti of Jerusalem Hadj Amin al-Hussaini. Also muslim and croate SS-men and Ustasha came to fight the Jews.
So those are your friends Mr. M who crossed the sea in order to continue what they had to stop in 1945.
| 27 November 2009, 9:49 pm |
Yes, you all assume you had a right to ethnically cleanse natives despite having been shipped into the land from afar. You think the people of say Al-Jura are still away on a holiday cruise or SS use to deliver chocolates to Jews?
Plus it was wrong of me to comment since the whole post stank:
Haaretz, then Jpost, then a man who was involved with an organisation during its most efficient years.
With such cruelty and bestiality naturalised in your souls, I guess I can’t blame you for always assuming others are just as bad as you are. And I expect denials and counter claims just as the deniers of certain events in the second world war use. The scariest is that some of you live in the UK when you should be under investigation for crimes against humanity.
| 27 November 2009, 10:50 pm |
Mr M is indeed both a lying anti-Semitie and a complete asshole. Congratulations on being an utterly worthless human being. (Spat)
| 27 November 2009, 10:57 pm |
Mr.M, I’m so glad you realize that it was wrong of you to comment — I wholeheartedly agree, and I trust you are intelligent enough not to repeat such a terrible mistake, particularly since there are a number of forums where you will find people who know to appreciate your views.
| 27 November 2009, 11:30 pm |
And people think the war on the Jews ended in 1945.
Sheese.
| 27 November 2009, 11:46 pm |
I think we’ve had enough of an object lesson from Mr. M. It’s obvious that he won’t engage us, but merely throw meaningless unsupported invective at us, so there is nothing more to be learned about his.
As such, and since his views are both beyond the pale and opaquely unilluminating of even the source of his hatred, may I suggest that he be banned and his future posts deleted.
| 27 November 2009, 11:48 pm |
At the end of the first paragraph I meant to type “…so there is nothing more to be learned about his antisemitism.”
| 27 November 2009, 11:55 pm |
Josh, there were surefire indications of Nazi sympathies:
“SS men in their old age constantly hounded for just being soldiers”…
“Average SS person was recruited at home and knew no other country except his”
| 28 November 2009, 12:00 am |
PetraMB there were equally surefire indications of Islamist sympathies, so it’s not clearcut.
Love of Nazis is common in the middle east, look how many parties have nazi ties. The Bath, the SSNP… I think there are Nazi roots to the Muslim brotherhood.
I suppose an extreme Nazi might have Islamist sympathies too, though the world view would be completely different.
I suspect he was a muslim because of his use of the word “us” in one context.
In any case I believe he’s been banned an that mentioning his handle will put your post into the moderation queue as one of mine is.
| 28 November 2009, 12:07 am |
OK, Josh, thanks for the warning about naming names — but anyway, here’s one of the heroes of this guy making news today:
Suspect in Nazi trial proud of SS service
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3811741,00.html
| 28 November 2009, 12:25 am |
Speaking of which, it ocures to me, off the top of my head, that disparate Muslim sects have Nazi ties:
1) Muslim brotherhood is sunni
2) Iran is no longer Persia because it was supposedly named for “Aryan”. I want to know more about that. Shiite obviously
3) Syria is run the the Bath party – run by Alawis
| 28 November 2009, 12:27 am |
Oh and even secular ties like the communist SSNP of Syria and Lebanon
| 28 November 2009, 12:32 am |
Sorry for making too many posts in a row… but if middle eastern Muslims are copying western xenophobes then that is BOTH an expression of xenophobia AND xenophilia.
Human being are so strange.
| 28 November 2009, 7:46 am |
Suffolk boy:
“’Anti-fascists’ blocking a Holocaust survivor from speaking about the racist attacks on the Roma.”
The Antifas didn’t block Karl from speaking, it was some other leftists from the “AJZ,” as described in the articles. Antifa-AG was shocked by the cancellation & quickly found Karl another venue.
| 28 November 2009, 2:49 pm |
I want to strengthen Karl’s hand- I support you and think you did a good job dealing with the situation.
| 29 November 2009, 12:22 pm |
One should not forget the plain fact that most of the leftist scene in Germany is unashamedly and proudly philo-Semitic and staunchly opposing any relativisation of the Shoah. Bigoted, dogmatic and prejudiced idiots exist everywhere though, of course.
| 4 December 2009, 12:28 pm |
“most of the leftist scene in Germany is unashamedly and proudly philo-Semitic”
I don`t quite know how this information made its way to Budapest, but I can tell you that this depends on how you define the German “leftist scene”. The traditional “leftist scene” has been proudly “antizionist” for decades, with all atrocities that go along with that. Fortunately this attitude is no longer hegemonial. But if you would kindly take a look at German anti-globals, anti-imperialists, traditional Marxist-Leninists and former DDR socialists, anarchists and “autonomous” leftist, altogether representing the absolute majority of what is commonly known as the “German Left”, you will hardly find much philo-Semitism. On the contrary, you might see now and then “leftists” marching together with Islamist supporters of Hamas and Hizbollah. Some weeks ago there have been clashes in the city of Hamburg, preventing a movie by Claude Lanzmann to be shown. And even with antifascist youths you are not safe from experiences as Karl had in Bielefeld.
Remember, Bielefeld doesn’t exist.