Jews: the pestilence of the world

I was going to devote this blog to the first day after the summer, when autumn begins here with a vengeance, and we even have a few drops of rain.

So I went down to the Haifa beach for a morning swim, with the sea at its glorious best, with hardly any waves, people joking (if you understand Israeli humour, which I still don't) and a couple of women from Denya offering me a lift home by car. One turned out to be a cartographer from Haifa University, who had taught geography to the present Rector.

And on return to spot the welcome face of newcomers to our building with a 4-months-old baby. Turn up for the books in this city, renowned for its large number of pensioners.

And the bank employee who asked me to bring out a copy of

Country Living

http://www.isubscribe.co.uk/title_info.cfm?prodid=331

next time I go to England, as she adores British country houses

and the encouraging e-mails from three prominent Anglicans.

But then you get this from

Normblog

http://normblog.typepad.com/normblog/2007/10/la-peste-by-eve.html

and you have to admit that

Eve Garrard

http://www.keele.ac.uk/depts/pk/people/garrard.html

of

Engage

http://www.engageonline.org.uk/fighting/

has surpassed herself here:

There's something on it here too:

http://stumblingandmumbling.typepad.com/stumbling_and_mumbling/2007/10/dawkins-inconsi.html

and here:

http://timesonline.typepad.com/comment/2007/10/dawkins-on-the-.html

Always wondered how to really interpret Camus' book, one of the first our school class encountered in French. We read nearly all his stuff.

http://www.camus-society.com/the-plague-albert-camus.htm

And we all know what that great poet (and anti-semite)

T. S. Eliot

thought of us as well: he actually used anti-Semitism in the service of his art:

http://www.uwm.edu/~gjay/Julius.html

This was also the subject of my very first blog, here:

http://irenelancaster.typepad.com/my_weblog/2006/05/to_begin_at_the.html

And now the metaphor is coming true.

I know it's jealousy - it's not economic, political, social, or rational, but the irrational jealousy of one of the world's greatest scientists - reputedly - who has a problem with himself.

Because, let's face it, however brilliant you are (and I'm not sure he is, really), there's always someone more brilliant, and often, for some reason, they tend to be Jewish.

That was certainly the case with Hitler and his mob and those who ignore history do so at their peril.

Mein Kampf

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/GERmein.htm

is all about jealousy gone bananas! But jealousy with a master plan!

And just when many were thinking that the university boycott palaver was over and even the Church appeared to be changing its mind over its connections to Judaism, as well as to the Israel question ....

No: pigs will fly!

Which reminds me, that was the Blairite Labour Party campaign slogan at the last election of May 2005, except that their target was - guess what - Jews!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/4217009.stm

And a German friend now living and working in Britain who wrote in to complain to the Labour Party was given short shrift and told that he had a cheek criticising a British political party and that many Jews had been in favour of the posters. Really, I wonder whom they might have had in mind. Not Jewish Labour MPs, surely!

Wonder what Brown will choose when the next one (which he's now postponed for obvious reasons) comes up!

http://www.melaniephillips.com/diary/?p=1651

Brown still hasn't answered or even acknowledged my e-mail about the pernicious anti-Israel Church of Scotland (of which he's a member) World Mission Report which is surprisingly full of hate of guess who for a church based on so-called Christian love! Even though friends in Lambeth Palace tell me that Brown gave a wonderful pro-Jewish speech to the annual Board of Deputies dinner!

Now, divide and rule: where have we heard that before, I wonder!

But then, when you're no better than a rat, or a pig, what else can you expect.

Have a good year!

(PS: just seen Melanie on the same subject here: http://www.melaniephillips.com/diary/?p=1655)

Comments

[Lawrence]

Hi, Irene,

Here's a T.S. Eliot story. When spending a semester in Rome during college studying Roman archaeology, I attended the American Episcopal church there. The Rector invited me to a dinner at his apartment with the monk who had instructed TS Eliot prior to his (?) baptism/conversion/whatever. When I was introduced to him, his first words to me were "and what religion are you?" When I confirmed that I was indeed Jewish, he continued "well, don't you believe all those stories of Tom's antisemitism. That was all very unfortunate." Out of politeness I let the matter drop there. England must be a strange place to be a Jew.

Larry Budner