Decrying “resurgent” anti-Semitism globally, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu argued that modern anti-Semitism primarily targets Israel at the fifth Global Forum for Combating Antisemitism hosted by Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, The Times of Israel reported Tuesday.
“Today there is no doubt that we are living in an age of resurgent anti-Semitism,” Netanyahu said at the opening of the fifth Global Forum for Combating Antisemitism. …
“This is taking place in the intolerant parts of the Middle East but it’s also taking place in what otherwise would be expected to be the tolerant parts of the West.
“It’s taking place in Beirut, in Damascus, in Tehran. But it’s also taking place, violently so, in Toulouse, in Paris, in Brussels,” said the prime minister.
In his remarks, which are embedded below, Netanyahu said that the focus of contemporary anti-Semitism is Israel and provided a stark example of the phenomenon.
Now, contemporary anti-Semitism doesn’t just slander, vilify and target the Jewish people. It first and foremost today targets the Jewish state. That’s the nexus, that’s the core, that’s the focus of anti-Semitism.
I want to give you an example of this from today, this morning. I went down to Ben-Gurion airport to welcome home the IDF’s humanitarian mission to Nepal.
The UN filed a report. Actually, this is a good UN report about Israel. It said that of all the countries in the world, and Israel is one of the smallest countries in the world, Israel fielded the second largest rescue and relief team in Nepal. Of all the nations in the earth.
Our people did a magnificent job. They saved lives. They took people out of the rubble. They treated 1,600 wounded people and sick people. They delivered life, several births.
Yet yesterday state television in both Iran and Venezuela accused our humanitarian team of trafficking in babies.
Now, did any of you see an Iranian rescue team in Nepal?
This is the quintessential example of the Big Lie technique.
The aggressor accuses his victim.
At the fourth Global Forum on Anti-Semitism, Netanyahu expressed similar sentiments, saying, “There have long been two myths: that the Holocaust would put an end to anti-Semitism, and that the State of Israel would do so. That didn’t happen. The anti-Semites simply took a respite after the Holocaust, and now hide their anti-Semitism with anti-Israelism.”
[Photo: IsraeliPM / YouTube ]