March 17, 2005

Belgian PM on anti-Semitism

This is from Ha'aretz. The Belgian PM, Guy Verhofstadt, has said that "any attempt to negate the existence of the State of Israel is a form of anti-Semitism." He "differentiated between legitimate criticism of Israeli policy and anti-Semitism" but said "when you're tackling and directly criticizing Israel or the Jewish community, that's anti-Semitism." What a buffoon. He conflates Israel with the. Jewish community and then accuses others of anti-Semitism.

He then went and spoiled it completely when he was invited to look at one of Israel's apartheid laws.
Verhofstadt, who participated in yesterday's inauguration ceremony for the new Holocaust museum in Jerusalem, added that the Law of Return forms "the basic idea of the foundation of the State of Israel."*

Asked whether he sees the law as problematic insofar as it discriminates against non-Jews, Verhofstadt said, "That's a question of the internal lawmaking of Israel, but I think that legislation like this exists in other countries too. It's not the monopoly of Israel."**
*So "tackling and directly criticising" the Law of "Return" is anti-Semitism since said law is "the basic idea of the foundation of the State of Israel.
**Which other country has a law calling in people who don't come from there in preference to people who do come from there? Australia used to have the white Australia policy but that fell foul of the UN. And South Africa had a similar policy but that fell foul of the ANC.

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