My comment...
This video reminds me of an observation:
If the Palestinians put down their guns, there will be peace in the Middle East;Edward Said (Barenboim’s “late lamented colleague”) was a silkily poisonous influence whose chief legacy is a grander jihad against Jews and the West. Read his writings. (his most famous is “Orientalism”, which drew its inspiration from Sayyid Qutb and gave succour to the likes of Arafat, and in turn to bin Laden).
If the Israelis put down their guns, Israel will be annihilated...
Listen to Barenboim reading out the ideals of the establishment of the state of Israel — wonderful ideals... Then read the Hamas charter, with its murderous and perfervidly genocidal screed. And then imagine that’s your neighbour, a neighbour who aims “to kill every Jew under every stone and behind every tree” [Article 7]. But if you’re Barenboim, who do you criticise? Why, Israel, of course!
Barenboim fixes Israel with his basilisk eye; if he could kill it, he would. He is a self-hating Jew, of which there are many, who only encourage Arab and Palestinian victimhood, encourage the future annihilation of Jews and encourage the annihilation of the only liberal and democratic state in the middle east.
It used to be only the likes of Ahmadinejad and Hamas who openly called for the destruction of the state of Israel. Europe was its stern critic, but usually defended at least its right to exist. Now the salons of London and Paris echo with doubts about Israel’s very legitimacy. Decades of Palestinian propaganda are bearing fruit. Barenboim’s travesty of history goes a long way to justify that view. It’s certainly not one I agree with.
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PS: do a little thought experiment. In 1949 the communists took over China and killed and kicked out tens of millions of Chinese. That was pretty unfair. Imagine if those Chinese had set up in Hong Kong and started lobbing rockets into China and set about lobbying the UN for their “right of return”, labelling the communists “imperialist, zionist, crusading invaders”, or the equivalent. In short, imagine if these Chinese — every bit as unfairly kicked off their lands as were the Palestinians from Israel — had spent the last sixty years with their energy expended on that effort, an effort they found encouraged on all corners by the western commentariat. How would they now be? Why, like Gaza, of course!
Imagine on the other hand that they didn’t do that; that they sucked up the unfairness, that they were pragmatic, and began building. What you then end up with is Hong Kong, and Taiwan and Singapore, three of the riches states in the world, with the highest standards of living... Now these places may not be to every one’s tastes — I know they’re not to yours — but they’re one hell of a lot better than Gaza....(oh, I forgot... Gaza’s Israel’s fault too)
Reference:
Barenboim's Wolf prize
