Passer l'antisémitisme sous silence

Ci-dessous la photo de Zebulon Simentov, le dernier Juif afghan.

Dave Rich de CST (Community Security Trust) revient sur l'article de Bret Stephens du Wall Street Journal [En Europe, le naturel revient au galop - La réponse de l'Europe à l'antisémitisme ? "Pas de commentaire."] dans lequel celui-ci s'interroge sur le manque de réaction aux commentaires du Commissaire européen Karel de Gucht sur le pouvoir et l'irrationnalité des juifs.  Dave Rich reconnaît qu'une fois de plus, en Europe, l'antisémitisme est passé sous silence ou ignoré.  Un des exemples qu'il cite est cette phrase d'un taliban qui n'a pas été reprise dans un reportage de la BBC : "Nous, les moudjahidin de l'Émirat [islamique d'Afghanistan], défendrons chaque recoin de la province de Ghazni.  Les Juifs et leurs esclaves, par conséquent, ne mettront pas un pied dans notre terre." Par souci de ne pas offenser - pas les Juifs évidemment -, par négligence, parce que l'antisémitisme est devenu banal ?

Passing over antisemitism (extraits)

"Stephens goes on to explain this by arguing that Europe “is pervasively antisemitic”, which is not an assessment I share. But he is right to point out that this is just another example of antisemitism being glossed over or ignored.

We have written before on this blog [Ayatollah Fadlallah: obituary of an antisemite] about the inability of many commentators to recognise antisemitism as a relevant factor in analysing the behaviour of, say Hezbollah or Hamas. There was another example in the BBC’s coverage of the Taliban’s efforts to obstruct upcoming elections in Afghanistan. In their online report and video, a Taliban commander is reported as saying:


"Elections aren’t possible here. Last year, during the presidential race, a few people came by helicopter and stuffed the ballot boxes. Today, the district is under the total control of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. No candidate, election worker or voter can enter."

But on Radio 4’s PM programme yesterday, the commander’s comments were broadcast in full:

"Elections aren’t possible here. Last year, during the presidential race, a few people came by helicopter and stuffed the ballot boxes. Today, the district is under the total control of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. No candidate, election worker or voter can enter. We the mujihadeen of the Emirate will defend every step of Ghazni province. Jews and their slaves will not step, therefore, onto our land."


I don’t know why this last sentence, about the “Jews and their slaves”, was cut from the other two versions of the BBC report: perhaps it was just for reasons of space, or editorial flow. Whatever the reason, it gives the impression that this comment is rather trivial, a rhetorical flourish which can be discarded without losing anything from our understanding of the Taliban’s actions or motivations.

I hope this is not the case, because I think it is a comment that reveals a great deal. There is, famously, only one remaining Jew in Afghanistan, and there has not been a functioning Jewish community in the country during the entire time of the Taliban’s existence. The foreign forces in Afghanistan are part of a NATO operation fighting under UN authority, neither of which are bodies run or strongly influenced by Jews or by Israel. The idea that the opposition to the Taliban is actually controlled by Jews is absurd: the only way to understand the commander’s remark is through the idea of a global Jewish conspiracy, in which NATO, the UN, the American or even Afghan governments are “Jews”, and everyone working for them are “their slaves”. This would not be a surprise, because the Taliban is an Islamist extremist organisation, and Islamist organisations and individuals have a long record – both historical [Islamic Antisemitism And Its Nazi Roots] and contemporary – of antisemitism, including conspiracy theories. It is always tempting to omit absurd ideas from political analysis or reportage, precisely because they are so absurd, but sometimes the irrationality of a movement like the Taliban is the whole point."