European Parliament Election: May 23-26, 2019

[America Needs R'hllor]

Amazing result. Huge PiS, Confederacy out (which presumably means they'll be in shambles and fighting each other long before the parliamentary election too).

https://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Polish-prime-minister-equates-returning-Jewish-property-to-Nazi-victory-590112

REALLY?!

[America Needs R'hllor]

Amazing result. Huge PiS, Confederacy out (which presumably means they'll be in shambles and fighting each other long before the parliamentary election too).

https://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Polish-prime-minister-equates-returning-Jewish-property-to-Nazi-victory-590112

REALLY?!

I actually agree with the Polish guy. I find Israeli outrage at Poland lately to be almost fainting-couch worthy. Especially coming from an almost unapologetically racist government like ours.

The authoritarian PiS government has shown to, again and again, engage in foul rhetoric on the Holocaust and Jews. Comparing compensating Jews for their lost property to a "Hitler victory" is not even trying to hide their antisemitism.

[America Needs R'hllor]

Amazing result. Huge PiS, Confederacy out (which presumably means they'll be in shambles and fighting each other long before the parliamentary election too).

https://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Polish-prime-minister-equates-returning-Jewish-property-to-Nazi-victory-590112

REALLY?!

I actually agree with the Polish guy. I find Israeli outrage at Poland lately to be almost fainting-couch worthy. Especially coming from an almost unapologetically racist government like ours.

The authoritarian PiS government has shown to, again and again, engage in foul rhetoric on the Holocaust and Jews. Comparing compensating Jews for their lost property to a "Hitler victory" is not even trying to hide their antisemitism.

As if Foreign Affairs Minister (!) Yisrael Katz's statement generalizing all Poles as antisemites was acceptable.

The diplomatic conflict between Poland and Israel is highly unfortunate, but in essence I think Poland is right: forcing 'compensation' for something that cannot possibly compensated from a nation that, often forgotten, was one of the main victims of Nazism and Communism too, is wrong. I wouldn't use PiS' language but I also wouldn't use Likud's language towards Poles and yet I'm happy Likud won the Israeli election too, despite my problems with them. It is what it is.

I guess the zionist left can legitimately support Ilhan Omar and her sort now. Her rhetoric is hardly worse than PiS', and she didn't pass a law limiting Jewish freedom of speech.

[America Needs R'hllor]

I guess the zionist left can legitimately support Ilhan Omar and her sort now. Her rhetoric is hardly worse than PiS', and she didn't pass a law limiting Jewish freedom of speech.

Poland not being willing to pay tens of millions (or even more) in reparations isn't the same as Omar questioning Israel's right to exist.

Comparing a debatable proposal (that I don't necessarily agree with, though many countries in eastern Europe bear a lot of responsibility they still need to account for, even if with words only) to Hitler's victory is worse than her dodgy comment attacking AIPAC with a classic antisemitic trope. Throwing people into jails for speaking about the Holocaust is not just a severe attack on the freedom of speech that people seem to be willing to ignore in these types of authoritarian governments, but is also a worse attack on Jews than any of Omar's mere rhetoric. She's just an example, of course. Far-right governments in eastern Europe have too long played a double game of legitimization by the Israeli right while encouraging and emboldening the worst antisemitic parts of their societies.

[America Needs R'hllor]

I guess the zionist left can legitimately support Ilhan Omar and her sort now. Her rhetoric is hardly worse than PiS', and she didn't pass a law limiting Jewish freedom of speech.

Poland not being willing to pay tens of millions (or even more) in reparations isn't the same as Omar questioning Israel's right to exist.

Comparing a debatable proposal (that I don't necessarily agree with, though many countries in eastern Europe bear a lot of responsibility they still need to account for, even if with words only) to Hitler's victory is worse than her dodgy comment attacking AIPAC with a classic antisemitic trope. Throwing people into jails for speaking about the Holocaust is not just a severe attack on the freedom of speech that people seem to be willing to ignore in these types of authoritarian governments, but is also a worse attack on Jews than any of Omar's mere rhetoric. She's just an example, of course. Far-right governments in eastern Europe have too long played a double game of legitimization by the Israeli right while encouraging and emboldening the worst antisemitic parts of their societies.

Eastern European governments' poor choice of words doesn't endanger Jews, just like the Israeli government's poor choice of words doesn't endanger Poles. Omar and her fellow travelers' ambiguity on the legitimacy of Israel's existence does endanger Jews.

Both are "just rhetoric". In my view, the sometimes ambiguous and sometimes blatant rhetoric of these governments does much more to endanger Jews by emboldening antisemites. It's not a coincidence that a lot of the antisemitic attacks in Europe are not just by immigrants, but by far-right thugs too.

[America Needs R'hllor]

Isn't there another place to discuss that fascinating Polish-Israeli affair? I have an opinion of their respective governments too, but the topic here is EP elections.

Yes, you're right, but the connection is support for far-right parties in the EP election. Internal discussions between Jews on these issues do tend to seem disconnected to others, because they veer to different and more all-encompassing topics In any case, I think we're done.