onsdag, augusti 11, 2010

Juden som kanariefågeln i kolgruvan

Förr i tiden använde ofta gruvarbetarna
kanariefåglar som enkla gasdetektorer i
gruvorna. När fågeln dog så var det hög
tid att själva lämna gruvan...
**
Geert Wilders använde parallellen
mellan kanarifågeln och Europas judar
i en intervju i Jerusalem Post förra året.
Liksom fågeln är juden den som först
känner när det är tid att lämna en ort...
Det är väl ingen alltför djärv gissning
att Wilders ser islamismen som gasen
som håller på att förgifta Europa.
**
Den belgiske journalisten Paul Belien
använder samma liknelse i en artikel
om den ökande islamistiska anti-
semitismen i Holland och Belgien.
**
Unfortunately, the situation in Amster-
dam is not unique. Jews in other Dutch
cities also regularly complain about
harassment. So do Jews in neighboring
countries.
**
On Monday, the Belgian newspaper De
Standaard reported that large numbers
of Jews are leaving Antwerp for America,
Britain or Israel.
Antwerp – nicknamed the "Jerusalem of
the North" – is one of the major centers
of Jewish culture in the Low Countries.
"In London, you are not harassed if you
wear a skullcap, but here you are," a
young Antwerp Jew told the paper.
**
Kleinblatt, a famous Jewish Antwerp
bakery, which has been handed down
from father to son since 1903, will soon
break with that tradition because the
baker's son has emigrated to the U.S.
"We no longer feel safe and welcome
here," a young Jew who is leaving for
London told De Standaard.
"Muslim immigrants blame us for
what is happening in Israel."
**
Another young Jew, who is leaving
for New York, says: "New York is a
paradise for Jews. Unlike Belgium,
non-Jews in America are pro-Israel."
Ultra-orthodox Jews remain in
Antwerp, but the less orthodox are
leaving in droves.
Even Jacques Wenger, the director
of Shomre Hadas, the Jewish
community center in Antwerp, is
emigrating to Israel.
If the current trend continues,
he predicts, in fifty years' time
there will be no Jews left in Antwerp
except for the ultra-orthodox.