German Washington Correspondent at Work

Over time I have developed my own little theory that much of the anti-Americanism that can be found in the German media is the result of the deliberate and collective efforts of a special group of activists: the German correspondents in the U.S. We have collected quite a few examples (you have to scroll down the linked page) of biased reporting from this group in our blog.

And here's another striking example: Michael Backfisch. The irony is - the guy works for Germany's # 1 business daily Handelsblatt, not for some traditionally loony Left media outlet such as Frankfurter Rundschau, SPIEGEL or Stern.

During a Foreign Press Center Briefing at the U.S. Department of State on January 3, 2005, William Garvelink, U.S. Agency of International Development, and Brigadier General John Allen, U.S. Department of Defense, made a very comprehensive and detailed presentation of the American Government's assistance to the countries in South East Asia that have to cope with the devastation caused by the tsunami catastrophe. In the ensuing Q&A session with international journalists questions were asked about the enormous challenges facing the relief operation, about the security situation in some of the more remote areas, about the delay in reaction to the earth quake and the tsunami, and so on. All journalistic questions addressed serious logistics issues of the U.S. operation.

There was just one journalist who had the nerve to pose a question that was purely motivated by distrust and antipathy against the American government's relief operation:

MR. DENIG (moderator): Okay. Let's go to Germany, up front here.

QUESTION: Michael Backfisch, Germany's business daily, Handelsblatt.

It's a tremendous effort you're conducting right now. And how far are there political considerations? You know, there has been high criticisms of the war in Iraq. And how far is it the attempt of the United States to present itself as the benevolent superpower and to decrease the criticism of the past, especially in countries like Indonesia, which is a very important Muslim country?

Now, Backfisch may be ideogically one-eyed - but he's not an idiot (I give him the benefit of the doubt). He couldn't possibly have expected an affirmative answer to his question, like: "You caught us, smart guy. Yes, sure, this whole help operation is just meant to present the United States as the benevolent superpower! All we want is people to forget about the Iraq war."

Instead, of course, the answer of the officials was predictably different from Backfisch's assertion:

MR. GARVELINK: Well, the Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance and the Office of Food for Peace, which respond to these disasters on behalf of the U.S. Government and the Agency for International Development, are charged to respond to humanitarian needs, wherever they occur in the world, without regard to politics. That sometimes may be a little hard to believe, but these offices respond to humanitarian needs.

So when this happened and our initial teams got on the ground and began their assessment, we're responding to the needs as we see them, as the requirements have become known to us. (emphasis added)

The sole reason for Backfisch's question was to introduce the concept of an immoral motivation of the U.S. government's help efforts to an audience of international journalists - in the hope some would pick up the story ("More and more international observers question the motives of the U.S. administrations relief efforts for the tsunami victims...")

BTW, Backfisch is no stranger to hate-filled rhetoric in qualifying the policies of the U.S. current administration. Here is an example from his blog at Handelsblatt "Transatlantischer Beobachter" ("Transatlantic observer"):

In fact there are signs of a war of the civilizations in America: Seldom has there been so much hate, pharisaicalness, crusader-mentality that reminds of witch burnings. So the newly elected Republican Senator Tom Coburn from Oklahoma is demaning the death penalty for doctors who perform abortions. 75 percent of Bush supporters are convinced that Saddam Hussein cooperated closely with the terror network Al-Qaeda or was even responsible for the attacks of September 11. Will it soon be taught in the schools that the earth is flat? Faith, values, religion have a high popularity in the USA that is seldom. (emphasis added)

The America correspondent of Germany's # 1 business daily Handelsblatt (I have to repeat his job description in connection with this quote) completely lost his temper describing the campaign strategy of President Bush in October 2004:

With that the born-again Christian Bush has once again revealed his true arsenal in the fight for the White House: When things get close, he fires off hate torpedos, operates with personal attacks and panic tactics. A bang-bang argument, that reminds one of the "Socialist Realism" of earlier days. Or to the agitation canonade a bit further back in history (Are we drawing comparisons to the Nazis here, Mr. Backfisch? How appropriate for a German...). The Bush camp pushes the niveau of the political contest to ever new low points. In the end it is only just about "wumm" and "peng": Pure dumbing down.

You may want to congratulate Handelsblatt (editor in chief is Bernd Ziesemer) for this gem of an unbiased, nuanced journalist. With journalistic qualifications like Mr. Backfisch's a job as a Washington correpondent for a reputable German media outlet is virtually assured.

Comments

[Sandy P]

Beobachter"

Are you sure that doesn't translate into back-biter or ankle-biter?

[Gabi]

"Keine Zeitung ließ es gestern aus, einen skeptischen Blick zu werfen auf die vehemente Hilfsbereitschaft deutscher und japanischer Politik. Darauf, dass der deutsche Bundeskanzler sein symbolisches Vermögen nutzt, in Krisen eine gute Figur zu machen. Das mag so sein. Aber es ist egal. Es ist gleichgültig, ob daran etwas Kritisierenswertes ist. Denn es ist für eine indonesische Familie, die kein Trinkwasser hat, gleichgültig, ob sie die lebensrettende Schnelligkeit, in der sie an uninfiziertes Wasser gelangt, der Beimischung politischer Intentionen in die Hilfsaktivität eines westlichen Landes verdankt."

Dies sagt Ursula März in der FR. So typisch wieder: Da präsentiert man den Kritiker der deutschen Kritiker, niemand setzt sich jedoch damit auseinander, wie ekelhaft es ist, amerikanische Hilfe zu kritisieren. Wie stehen wir denn international da? Rümpfen die Nase über andere Länder und kritisieren diejenigen Deutschen, die Deutschland kritisieren.

Warum geht die Denkweise der Frau März nur bis zum deutschen Tellerrand. Warum fällt ihr angesichts dieses Themas "Kritik an der Kritik" nicht das viel schlimmere Phänomem auf, daß viele dt. Journalisten auch anläßlcih dieser Katastrophe den US wohl das unterstellen, was Schröder macht: Guckt mal, wie gut wir sind. Wir geben 500 Millionen. Schröder und die Großmannsucht.

[Florian Euring]

„Backfisch“ nannte man früher Vertreter jener Altersstufe, die man heute als „Teenager“ bezeichnet. Betrachtet man das präbubertäre Niveau der Äußerungen dieses Herrn, kann man nur sagen: Nomen est Omen

[kewil]

Schröder will nicht nur in die UNO, sondern auch noch bei der schleswig-holsteinischen Landtagswahl demnächst punkten. Ob Elbeflut oder Tsunami, die Rotgrünen schlagen Kapital daraus.

Ein interessanter kostenfreier online FAZ-Artikel heute beleuchtet die wirksame amerikanische und die verkorkste europäische Hilfe:

Kommentar
Wenig Respekt für Europa
Von Jochen Buchsteiner

faz online

[Gabi]

Danke für den Hinweis, kewil. Offensichtlich hat Buchsteiner Davids Medienkritik gelesen und sich nunmehr bemüht:

"Hilfe leisteten nicht die Netten, sondern die Starken

Um zur größten internationalen Rettungsaktion der Geschichte einen nennenswerten logistischen Beitrag zu leisten, fehlen Europa die Kraft, die Präsenz, das Material. Wirksame Hilfe leisteten nicht die Netten, sondern die Starken, nicht Versorgungsschiffe, sondern Flugzeugträger. Der Startschuß zum Großeinsatz fiel nicht in Brüssel oder Berlin, sondern in Washington."

Wobei die Netten immer wir sind und nicht die Amerikaner, was ich für Blödsinn halte.

[joaninho]

Nur eine kleine Beobachtung am Rande: die Berliner Zeitung betitelte vor drei Tagen einen Artikel mit "USA beschränkt Hilfe auf Öl-Provinz Aceh", im Artikel selbst wurde dann klargestellt, dass dies eine der am stärksten betroffenen Provinzen überhaupt ist. Fügt sich doch irgendwie ins Bild.

[Anthony]

As an American with Italian cousins and German inlaws, I am very interested in what goes on onthe continent.

Here is a question -- do Germans (and other Europeans) tend to uncritically believe what they read in the papers?

Americans of all political stripes tend to be somewhat skeptical of what is in the news media. Are Europeans the same?

[werner]

Wenn Ihr Euch ärgern wollt, hier die Fortsetzung der Schmierkampagne aus dem
Stern. Eigentlich sollte man diesen ganzen Mist ja ignorieren.

[Bator]

The worst of them, in my eyes, is Carsten Schmiester of WDR. Unforgettable his countless anti-bush reports before the election in november that can, in part, be accessed under www.tagesschau.de!
But anyway. While I think you´re absolutely right, saying that much of the german peoples´ anti-americanism is due to the work of our Washington-Corrsespondents, they are just a representative cross-section of the german journalistic elite.
And their attitude is due to what they learn in school and at university. So this is the main base for anti-americanism in germany...

[Joe]

Would this be the link to ask a question about aid?

Looking at the actions of Berlin a bit differently than what has so far appeared in the media. “IS GERMANY TRYING TO BUY A UNSC SEAT?”

[Pogue]

This guy has the nerve to talk about the negative opinions of the Republicans and Bush...perhaps he should look in the mirror and discover how his hatred of Americans ( particularly Christian Americans who don't toady to France ) has affected his ability to do his job

I must say such a buffoon would be fired in short order if he wrote for the Wall Street Journal as the US correspondent covering Germany in such a way

Of course, writing for a German financial publication must be like working at the Saudi bureau of diversity and tolerance

[Doughnut Boy Andy]

@Joe

"Looking at the actions of Berlin a bit differently than what has so far appeared in the media. “IS GERMANY TRYING TO BUY A UNSC SEAT?”"

I think you can safely say... YES, and not just Germany. There are perhaps three main contenders going for a place/ new places. Two have little military power but economic clout and 1 has a huge military but little (although growing) economic power. The first two happen to be Germany and Japan who are currently "bidding in" at first and second place. The third is a country that was also hit by the disaster but claimed it could manage alone and would also send aid abroad.... you got it, India.

Considering that to get their places on the security council the others (France as well?) fought the second world war against two of the contenders, it may seem rather cheap and easy to get a seat for 500 million (especially as this is the pledge and not what might actually arrive and also probably includes debt relief). On the other hand, by the time Germany gets a seat on the UNSC it might be possible to buy America´s seat on E-bay for much less, rendering the UN in effect useless.

[amiexpat]

if germany does get a seat, there will be four european powers there.. Germany, France, UK and Russia.. yes, Russia is part of Europe.
I hope Germany doesnt get a seat. All we hear is 'EUROPE, EUROPE', but do they want the EU to have a seat? instead of three countries?
NO!
moral hypocrites

[Joe N.]

Picture it now! With all the lefty revision to the UNSC, the majority of members would be "provinces" of the EU! We are the world...

We all know what multilaterism means, don't we? It means doing the bidding of the EU, which through endless guilt trips and an a verbal hall of mirrors is sort of a new dictatorial hegemon!

[Joe N.]

Hawaiians! Demand a seat on the Security Council! The world should be required to submit to our "wisdom"!

[Scuderia Austria]

@ Gabi

Bitte melde Dich bald bei mir.

scuderiaaustria-at-web-dot-de

[Scuderia Austria]

"Is Germany trying to buy a permanent UN Security council seat?" - what a marvellous headline that would be!

[Bator]

"Is Germany trying to buy a permanent UN Security council seat?"

Actually this is a question that was posed by the german media many times during the last days.
After all, self criticism is still the german medias favourite excercise. Of course after america-bashing.
That shouldn´t be forgotten...

[Karin Quade]

After having read this stupid article on Sunday in the "Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung" I did not feel like watching the news any more. So today, I switched on TV at 19:25, usually , the news on ZDF, our second tax-payed TV-program, are over then. But no, they showed a ZDF-Spezial about the Tsunami-catastrophe "Die Todesflut", and of course, the first thing I heard was some EU-official complaining (!) that the U.S. had helped immediately, without first consulting the UN or the EU. It is frightening to see how cold-hearted a lot of people are, they do not care a bit about the victims of the Tsunami. For, if they did, they would praise the U.S. for having helped so quickly, instead of blaming them.

[Gabi]

Donnerstag 6. Januar 2005, 18:22 Uhr

Schweizer Hilfe durch Powell-Besuch verzögert

Bern (AP) Die Schweizer Hilfe in Indonesien ist durch den Besuch von US-Außenminister Colin Powell verzögert worden. Die Luftbrücke von der Stadt Medan nach Banda Aceh sei wegen des Besuchs teilweise geschlossen worden, sagte Marco Ferrari, stellvertretender Chef der humanitären Hilfe der Direktion für Entwicklung und Zusammenarbeit am Donnerstag vor den Medien. Deshalb habe eines der Schweizer Hilfsflugzeuge nicht weiterfliegen können und sollte erst am (heutigen) Donnerstag in Banda Aceh landen.

Die Ankunft von zwei weiteren Hilfsflügen sei für den (morgigen) Freitag geplant. Auch der Chef des Schweizerischen Korps für humanitäre Hilfe, Toni Frisch, musste in Medan unplanmäßig mehrere Stunden warten. Er werde voraussichtlich erst am Freitag in Banda Aceh eintreffen. Dass auch der Besuch der Schweizer Außenministerin Micheline Calmy-Rey in Thailand Hilfskapazitäten blockierte, glaubten die Krisenmanager des Außenministeriums in Bern nicht. Der Aufwand für eine Reise der Außenamtschefin der kleinen Schweiz sei um ein Vielfaches geringer als jener für den US-Außenminister.

http://de.news.yahoo.com/050106/12/4d4eo.html

Jetzt haben sie ihren letzten Verstand verloren.

[Ken Summers]

Was that "Transatlantischer Beobachter" or "Voelkischer Beobachter"?

[Doughnut Boy Andy]

@ Gabi. They really have lost the plot!

There was this from Reuters / ABC:

"PLANE BLOCKS RUNWAY

At the airport in Banda Aceh, a chartered Boeing 737 cargo plane was blocking the runway after its landing gear collapsed.

Helicopters continued to fly in and out of the airport, but airplanes had not been able to land since about 2:30 a.m. (2:30 p.m. EST on Monday).

An Australian air force corporal said the plane, resting on one wing about one-third of the way down the runway, may have hit a cow.

"If you look at the amount of damage done to the wheel, it had to be something that size … Livestock in this area would be used to the noise," Corporal Craig Cutler told Reuters."

Thats more likely to have caused aid delays, including those from Switzerland. UNLESS Colin was dressed up in a cow costume!

[Gabi]

Die deutschen Medien haben es ebenfalls im Guardian Sinne gebracht.

Guardian of British Distortion

Irresponsible coverage like The Guardian's leaves Israel reviled in Great Britain; also, HR for Campus group in Israel for winter break.

A new, comprehensive poll of British opinion on foreign nations was just released by The Telegraph. The results: Israel is considered by Britons the #1 'least deserving of international respect,' the 'least beautiful country,' the country Britons would 'least like to take a holiday in,' and would 'least like to live in.'
How did this British animosity toward Israel come about, with Israel ranked worse than Egypt, India, China and 20 other countries?

Today's (Jan. 5) UK media coverage of an incident in Gaza goes a long way toward explaining it. The Guardian announced a horrific IDF act of child killing:

seven children on their way to pick strawberries were mistaken for Palestinian militants and killed by Israeli tank shells... The tanks used anti-personnel shells, which throw out thousands of metal darts in a deadly cloud... The attack took place near Beit Lahiya, in northern Gaza, from where militants had been firing mortars at Israeli positions on the Gaza border...

The Guardian report 1) presents as established fact a 'mistaken killing' of innocent Palestinian children, 2) reverses the actual series of events ― IDF response named first, Palestinian mortars second, 3) describes the Israeli civilian target of the Palestinian mortar fire as an Israeli 'position' ― falsely implying a military target, and 4) calls the IDF response an 'attack,' while the Palestinian mortar fire (against civilians) receives no such derogatory description.

Here's what actually happened, according to an altogether fair report from The New York Times:

The troubles began when Palestinians fired four mortar rounds in the morning, wounding an Israeli civilian in an industrial zone on the northern edge of the Gaza Strip, the Israeli military said. One shell nearly hit a school bus carrying children in northern Gaza, the military added.

Soon afterward, an Israeli tank fired on a group of Palestinians believed to have been responsible for firing the mortars from farmland on the outskirts of Beit Lahiya, the Israeli military said. Seven Palestinian youths working in a strawberry field, ages 11 to 17, were killed, according to relatives, witnesses and Palestinian officials at Kamal Adwan Hospital...

Col. Avi Levy, a brigade commander in northern Gaza, told Israel radio that "we understand that the fire actually hit that cell [of Palestinian terrorists]." But he acknowledged the possibility of civilian casualties. "In the event that our fire hit civilians, then this is the place to protest against terrorists who fire mortars from the midst of civilians."

Note that the Times account acknowledges 1) who started the violence ― Palestinians targeting Israeli civilians, 2) the IDF claim that its tanks actually struck the mortar-firing terrorists, and 3) the all-important issue of terrorists firing mortars from the midst of Palestinian civilians, thereby endangering innocents' lives.

Now we understand the results of the UK public opinion poll. Years of reports such as today's from the Guardian have left Britons with a highly distorted understanding of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

HonestReporting asks: How much longer will an irresponsible UK media continue to deceive the British public by blaming Israel for all the region's woes?

Comments to the Guardian: [email protected]

http://www.honestreporting.com/articles/45884734/critiques/Guardian_of_British_Distortion.asp

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"Above all, it is a post-Auschwitz anti-Semitism. For many people, provided they are not Holocaust deniers or neo-Nazis, Auschwitz as the symbol of the Holocaust is the obstacle to expressing anti-Semitism and aversion to Jews and Israel. Hence Germans, like many other anti-Semites, use the "anti-Zionist" disguise. This enables declaring Israel "the most evil country" and "nazifying" Israel with comparisons to the Third Reich, or advocating that it vanish from the world’s stage. This, in turn, opens the door to proclaiming Jews to be evil people in general.

These manifestations of anti-Semitism in Germany are deeply linked to the German past from 1933 to 1945 and the wish to get rid of guilt or responsibility for dealing with that past. Germany’s ideological unification since 1989 has two main pillars: a strong anti-American and anti-Israeli attitude, and a new position toward the history of WW II.

Rewriting History
For more than fifteen years, German intellectuals, writers, politicians, and ordinary people have gradually worn down moral and political barriers that for decades kept the overwhelming majority away from open and extensive anti-Semitism.

It started with the Historikerstreit, a series of articles written in 1986, and did not end with the anti-Semitic election campaign in spring 2002. The Historikerstreit was mainly propelled by an article by the historian Ernst Nolte in Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, which portrayed the National Socialist state and its terror as only a reaction to the Bolshevik threat, and the persecution of Jews and the Shoah as not really singular in human history. (Jürgen Habermas, a representative of the Critical Theory school and intellectual descendant of Theodor Adorno, sharply protested Nolte’s claims.) Germany is a country with far more memorials and museums to the concentration camps, as well as Jewish museums, than other European countries. The volume of Holocaust education in schools and other educational institutions, the number of conferences and workshops devoted to the subject, seems close to unique in Europe. As Yehuda Bauer, chief historian of Yad Vashem, said in an interview:

Germany is most active in promoting Holocaust education for which there is a very good reason. Given their history, they understand the importance of education as a means of preventing future disasters. The Holocaust today serves as a symbol for what we ought to oppose: racism, genocide, mass murder, ethnic hatred, ethnic cleansing, anti-Semitism and group hatred.14
Nevertheless, the opposition to inhumanity in general is no obstacle to German anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism. Holocaust education in Germany may be intensive, but most of the textbooks use cliche's and stereotypes. Moreover, many of the teachers convey compassion for the murdered Jews along with strong reservations toward the Jews of today and, of course, the anti-Israeli attitude. Although Germany is proud of its well-developed culture of Holocaust remembrance and education, which for many years was seen as a force against anti-Semitism, the latter force has gone weak. It was a fallacy to think that knowledge about the Shoah would lead people to love their neighbors or even their Jewish neighbors. Holocaust education in Germany is being slowly but steadily undermined by the new trend of seeing Germans themselves as victims, with many people feeling that they are fed up with the Shoah.15 Well-intended rituals and remembrances have not proved an effective shield against anti-Semitism and the rewriting of history. This widespread "victim" trend in Germany needs to be monitored carefully, since in the long run it may lead to a rewriting of the history of WW II and, in the worst case, to a minimization of the Shoah.

The leading figure among the German "new historians" is Jörg Friedrich, who has published two books on the Allied bombings of Germany.16 The first book deals with the strategy of the Allied bombings and condemns them as inhuman and pointless. Friedrich’s popularized style helped this book become a bestseller. He uses terms that for decades were associated with Nazi persecution and the Shoah; thus, cellars and air-raid shelters in which Germans died are "crematoria," an RAF bomber group is an Einsatzgruppe, and the destruction of libraries during the bombings constitutes Bücherverbrennungen. In this way the Shoah is minimized through language.

Friedrich’s second book was also a bestseller and also depicts Germans as victims. There are no SA men, no SS, no soldiers involved in persecution, murder, and "aryanization." The book contains horrifying photos of the effects of the Allied bombings of Germany. Ruins, burnt bodies, and ashes everywhere evoke associations with the Warsaw Ghetto after its liquidation in 1943 and well-known images from Auschwitz and other extermination camps. Friedrich even declared openly, in several television interviews in winter 2002: "Churchill was the greatest child-slaughterer of all time. He slaughtered 76,000 children." Yet Friedrich, formerly known as a serious historian, never devotes a single word to the 1.5 million murdered Jewish children.

German historiography increasingly portrays Germans as victims in WW II and not as perpetrators, bystanders, or people deriving benefit from persecution. The revised perspective on German history - from the Allied bombings to the Germans’ expulsion from Poland and East European countries - undoubtedly reflects a historical consciousness that is newly embraced by the majority, though not new in itself. There was never any taboo on speaking about the Allied bombings or the postwar expulsions; documentaries, books, journals, and films have dealt with these subjects since the early 1950s, and WW II was commonly discussed in families and by certain organizations. What is new, however, is the public reinterpretation of history, encompassing intellectuals and politicians of both the Left and the Right.

From a Trickle to the Mainstream
A few examples will illustrate this trend. In Frankfurt in 1998, when he received the Peace Prize of German Publishers, the famous German writer Martin Walser gave a speech in which he expressed his weariness at being confronted with Auschwitz; he was supported by large numbers of Germans including intellectuals and politicians. Jews who spoke out in protest were almost on their own. Four years later in 2002, for 8 May - the day marking the liberation in 1945 - Walser was invited for a discussion with Chancellor Gerhard Schröder on "Nation and Patriotism." Their dialogue focused on the question of whether the Allies of WW I were really the ones responsible for Hitler’s coming to power. Walser maintained that patriotism must be based on emotions and deeply rooted in history, and the German chancellor asserted: "The way we as Germans deal with our history shall be decided by each and every generation anew." The decision seems to have been made.

Since the second Palestinian uprising began in the fall of 2000, many consider that Israel is losing the media battle. The Israeli government is frequently blamed for not making its viewpoints known effectively. Pro-Israeli media watchers are an important source of information for their readers. But above all, they are private actors in the Arab-Israeli public relations war.

On 9 November 2002, the memorial day for Kristallnacht in 1938, German public television for the first time in years did not screen the usual quantity of movies and documentaries on this topic. The main news programs devoted about ten seconds to a historical review. Two documentaries were shown at around 11 p.m., one on Hitler’s secretary and the other, not broadcast on either of the two national channels but on three of the sixteen federal stations, on the Sonderkommando (Jews forced to work in the crematoria) in Auschwitz. However, this time the first national channel, ARD, presented the first episode of a three-part series on the German general Erwin Rommel and also the first episode of a six-part series on the SS, and although the SS was portrayed as a brutal organization its victims were absent.

On 17 November 2002, the Day of National Mourning, which is dedicated to soldiers and civilians who died in WW I and WW II, parliament held a four-hour ceremony. Tall black crosses were emplaced in the parliament despite the supposed separation of church and state. Between some classical music pieces, a young woman read from letters written in 1942 by German soldiers based in Stalingrad. During the whole ceremony there was not one word about war crimes, or about the army units that slaughtered Jews. ¨

Peter Sloterdijk, a German philosopher born in 1947, has stepped out of academia and become a star of German television. Since 2002 he has had his own show, Philosophical Quartet,17 in which he and his regular comrade Rüdiger Safranski, a philosopher and writer, host two other guests to discuss the latest issues. Sloterdijk is known for an elitist and anti-American attitude that goes hand in hand with a conservative view of the German past, a synthesis of leftist and rightist positions. His latest book, Airquake: At the Source of Terror18 recounts catastrophic events that for Sloterdijk are all similar: the Holocaust, the Allied bombings of Germany, the atomic bombing of Japan, and September 11 are the strange pearls on Sloterdijk’s string. He maintains that the source of all these catastrophes was the first attack with poison gas in WW I, which, he emphasizes, was primarily made possible by the German chemist Fritz Haber. With a cynical undertone Sloterdijk stresses the fact that Haber was Jewish, and then alleges a continuity between Haber’s experiments and the gas chambers during the Shoah. Although Sloterdijk does not make the connection explicitly, he implies a horrible conclusion: that without a Jewish chemist there would have been no Holocaust.

In November 2002 Sloterdijk invited to his show Luc Bondy, a theatrical director, to discuss the topic of anti-Semitism. Bondy told the audience: "After WW II, as small children, we were confronted with guilt. It was so massive. We as children in postwar times were under fire nearly nonstop and saw those pictures everywhere. My thesis is: the only possible way to get rid of anti-Semitism is therefore to be anti-Semitic again."19

These and many other popularized historical reinterpretations reflect the fact that Germany is on a path toward self-reconciliation. It is a reconciliation between the generations, as the gap that opened between the 1960s leftist movement and the parent generation, who were accused as participants in the war, is closed; and it is also a reconciliation between Left and Right. No longer do historical debates drive a wedge between Germans.

As Anne Applebaum has written:

The country’s collective conscience was enlightened by the TV-Series "Holocaust" to an extent that could never have been achieved by historical science and all its publications. What imperative message, fuelled by emotionalism, is carried by today’s self-reconciliation trend? The discussion on victimhood has now been extended to include the perpetrators. In the dispute over the planned "Centre against Expulsion," for example.20
The gates are wide open to a new cult of victimhood that minimizes - even without malicious intention - Germany’s guilt for the outbreak of war, its crimes against humanity (including those committed by German army units), as well as the uniqueness of the Holocaust.

Misusing the Shoah
The decreasing interest in the Holocaust does not prevent Germans from invoking it in political debates. The "lesson" that Germans now draw from WW II and the Holocaust is one of opposition to the United States and Israel.

It is often claimed that the German public has been sensitized to realities such as the 2003 war in Iraq or the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by decades of education on German war crimes and the Shoah as a unique genocide. The Shoah is misused to oppose military conflicts, particularly if they are carried out by the United States or Israel against terror regimes, terror movements, and Islamic fundamentalism. Once a domain of the Left, anti-Americanism and anti-Zionism are now embraced by ordinary Germans, reinforced by the books on the Allied bombings and the like. The extreme Right, which normally is identified with xenophobic attitudes, has discovered its solidarity with Islamic and Palestinian "freedom fighters." Pro-Palestinian, anti-American, and anti-Semitic themes were common in the 2003 demonstrations against the war in Iraq.

Israel is condemned, but terrorist movements in Spain, Ireland, or Israel itself are not. The German public does not organize demonstrations after a bus bombing in Israel, but it does after a Hamas leader is killed. Israel, and hence "the Jews," are accused of horrendous behavior that is alleged to be even worse because they are "former victims." In other words, Israel and the Jews have not learned their lessons from the Shoah, whereas Germans have learned them thoroughly.

To clear themselves of the suspicion of being anti-Semitic, Germans accompany every castigation of Israel with the mantra that it is "only criticism" motivated by a just, democratic preference for peaceful solutions. The other side of this coin is their claim that because of the Holocaust, Germans have to side with today’s victims, namely, the Palestinians. Undoubtedly the best tactic, however, is to quote leftist Jews or Israelis to buttress their own views. Jewish witnesses are taken to court against Israel.21

Anti-Semitism and Anti-Zionism Go Hand in Hand
This anti-Israeli attitude is state-of-the-art in parts of the German media.22 Photos and illustrated reports present the Israeli Goliath against the Palestinian David, Palestinian children against heavily armed Israeli soldiers. We see ruins of Palestinian buildings with distressed women and children standing in front of them, juxtaposed with settlers who live in green, opulent surroundings and act aggressively toward Palestinians.

A 2002 study showed that German media coverage of the Middle East is often characterized by a lack of context and hostile undertones against Israel. Not uncommonly, the Holocaust is minimized by comparing Israel with the Third Reich, blood libels are invoked regarding Palestinian children, and Zionist conspiracy theories are mentioned. The study concluded: "German media coverage of the conflict contributed to an anti-Semitic view of Israel among the German population."23

At the end of 2002, the Federal Centre for Civic Education in Bonn followed up with its own study, which concluded that "an important effect in media is to present Israel and its military power only to convey the impression that Israel is the aggressor."24 During the official presentation of this study, however, the results were distorted and played down. The opening lecture was by Werner Stüber of the University of Düsseldorf, who had lived many years in East Jerusalem and taught at Bir Zeit University. He did not say a sentence about Palestinian terror, but did speak of the "powerful Jewish lobby in the United States." An attempt to dispute this lecture was stifled with the words that the lecture backed the position of the Centre for Civic Education - which, seemingly, did not consider the results of its own study, and, incidentally, is directly connected to the German state. As the conference continued, the focus was not on anti-Semitic tendencies in German media but rather on Israel’s "aggression," "inhuman" behavior, and so on.

After the Jenin operation in April 2002, Süddeutsche Zeitung published a cartoon showing Sharon in front of an Israeli tank that was identified as Jewish-Israeli with a Star of David. To the left of the tank was a bulldozer carrying away dozens of dead, emaciated bodies. UN staff were trying to approach, but Sharon shouted at them, "Go away, this is war!" The bulldozer with the dead bodies is a clear association with images from the liberated extermination camps, in which thousands of dead bodies were carried by bulldozers into mass graves. The simple message of the cartoon is that "the Jews" are Nazis. As Deidre Berger, head of the American Jewish Committee in Germany, noted succinctly, "Israel is under fire in the German media."25

Conclusion
There are various facets of anti-Semitism in Germany today:

Pre-Auschwitz anti-Semitism, found above all in neo-Nazi circles
Neo-Nazi anti-Semitism, typically combining Islamism and anti-Zionism
Neoliberal anti-Semitism, combining massive anti-Israeli attitudes and resistance to both financial and moral responsibility for the Holocaust
Leftist anti-Semitism, hand in hand with anti-imperialist and antiglobalization attitudes
Anti-Semitism disguised by general, reflexive “criticism” of Israeli policies
Anti-Semitism and, hence, anti-Zionism as part of the new German claim of having been victims in WW II
There are no effective, large-scale activities against anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism, and the majority of Germans would not support them. Although certain individuals and organizations try to put the problem on the agenda, this is much more cosmetics than a successful strategy.

As the historian Julius Schöps of Potsdam University put it in the newspaper Tageszeitung:

Protests against anti-Semitism, organized by small groups, do not get extensive attention in Germany. Resolutions by the German parliament to reject anti-Semitism are drivel of the worst kind....But all those ineffective actions are presented to the world as a strong defense against the charge of anti-Semitism. The truth is: no one is really interested in these matters. No one really cares.26
* * *

http://www.jcpa.org/phas/phas-urban-f04.htm

[Angie Schultz]

Actually, that sort of questioning was de rigeur at CENTCOM briefings at the start of the Iraq war. I read many Europeans congratulating themselves on the fact that American reporters were asking softball questions ("If Saddam runs, will that make him hard to find?"), as opposed to the unflinching, hard-hitting questions posed by the foreign media ("Now that you have killed upwards of 200,000,000 Iraqis in the first three days of your illegal, immoral war, will you stop extracting the oil needed to power your obscenely-bloated SUVs from the skins of Palestinian babies? Oh, and I have a followup about quagmire.")

Anthony asks:

Americans of all political stripes tend to be somewhat skeptical of what is in the news media. Are Europeans the same?

No! Europeans are much, much more skeptical of what is in the American news media. Thank god they have a free press, there in Europe.

[roman thomas]

WHEW!!! GABI THAT WAS GOOD. BUT I'M GOING TO HAVE TO DOWNLOAD IT, PRINT IT AND TAKE IT TO WORK TO FINISH READING IT. NICELY DONE.

[Promethea]

I can understand why Germans might be tired of feeling guilty about the Holocaust. However, the problems the world is facing today WILL NOT be alleviated by bashing Jews, Israel, and America.

Time for a reality check among sensible Germans. It's time to take a look at some "root causes" as to why many Americans are now concerned by what we see on the European horizon. It's not pretty, folks.

I used to think that the past could remain the past, but now it's jumping up to bite us all. Maybe history doesn't repeat itself, but antisemitism is a clear sign of social rot. The EU, antisemites, and other anti-Zionists should start looking for a better solution to problems than Israel bashing.

Israel will not allow itself to be destroyed. Trust me on this.

[zeta]

Gabi wrote:
On 17 November 2002, the Day of National Mourning, which is dedicated to soldiers and civilians who died in WW I and WW II, parliament held a four-hour ceremony. Tall black crosses were emplaced in the parliament despite the supposed separation of church and state. Between some classical music pieces, a young woman read from letters written in 1942 by German soldiers based in Stalingrad. During the whole ceremony there was not one word about war crimes, or about the army units that slaughtered Jews.

The Day of National Mourning ("Volkstrauertag") has been proposed by the "Volksbund deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge" (VdK - www.volksbund.de) back in 1919 and was celebrated in 1922 in the Berlin Reichstag for the first time. The VdK organizes the ceremony in the Bundestag and its emblem are 5 black crosses. The Volksbund has nothing to do with the church.

The main task of the Volksbund is to maintain existing and build new war cemetaries for German soldiers who died during WWI and WWII. I, for instance, am a member of the VdK and have been cleaning crosses on war graves in France (WW I) for three weeks when I was 16. A year later I went to Mauthausen (Austria) during my long vacation from school (Wort für Sommerferien?) to renovate buildings of a former concentration camp (which is now a memorial). This is all organized by the Volksbund and brings teenagers of different countries together. Their motto is "work for peace".

Trying to imply that the Volksbund or what they did (or didn't do) on 17 November 2002 on the National Day of Mourning was Anti-Semitic is nonsense!

[Mike H.]

There are others who won't allow Israel to be destroyed. Trust me on that.

[Pogue]

I for one feel that the German people have done an admirable job of dealing with the events of WW2 and the responsibility the German nation must bear for the atrocities of the period

Contrast this with Japan whose policies were at times just as brutal yet whose national life has gone on with scarcly any accounting for this past

That being said - neither the German or Japanese people seem to pose any threat to their neighbors today

I find this hopeful for the future of the Arab world - for there was a time when many felt that Germany and Japan would never rejoin the community of nations

Sadly - the Israel and America bashing of the Euro media assists the Arab regimes and despots in their continued efforts to blame all the ills of their societies on others

[George M]

""Now that you have killed upwards of 200,000,000 Iraqis in the first three days of your illegal, immoral war, will you stop extracting the oil needed to power your obscenely-bloated SUVs from the skins of Palestinian babies? Oh, and I have a followup about quagmire."

What do you get if you cross Bagdad Bob with Axis Sally?

You get Angie Schultz!

[George M]

Finally, two German journalist get it right:

Amerika hilft - Europa verspricht
Geberkonferenz in Jakarta erhöht Hilfe auf vier Milliarden Dollar - USA legen ihre Hilfe in die Hände der UNO

von Daniel Kestenholz und Martin Halusa

Die größte Hilfsmission des Erdballs seit Ende des Zweiten Weltkriegs hat bei der gestrigen Tsunami-Geberkonferenz in Jakarta ein Volumen von vier Milliarden Dollar erreicht. UN-Generalsekretär Kofi Annan hatte dabei an die angereisten Führer wie Japans Premierminister Junichiro Koizumi oder den chinesischen Ministerpräsidenten Wen Jiabao appelliert, eine Milliarde Dollar Soforthilfe bereitzustellen, um die Opfer des Tsunami "davor zu bewahren, daß keine zweite Todeswelle folgt, die von vermeidbaren Umständen herrühren" würde.

Die Kerngruppe der sogenannten Helfer der Willigen unter Anführung der USA hat auf der Konferenz ihre Selbstauflösung beschlossen, um sich den Anstrengungen der Vereinten Nationen und anderer multilateraler Hilfsgruppen anzuschließen. US-Außenminister Colin Powell gab im Namen der Gruppe bekannt, daß Australien, Japan, Indien, Kanada und die Niederlande entschieden hätten, ihre Hilfsbemühungen in jene der Vereinten Nationen einzufügen. "Die Kerngruppe", so Powell, "hat geholfen, die internationale Reaktion zu katalysieren". Damit habe die Gruppe ihren ursprünglichen Zweck erfüllt, weshalb sie sich in die "breiteren Bemühungen der Vereinten Nationen einbetten" werde.

Die am 2. Weihnachtstag von Tsunami-Flutwellen verwüstete Region am Indischen Ozean ist in Jakarta geradezu überhäuft worden mit Hilfsversprechen, die es jetzt mittels nachhaltiger Projekte zu implementieren gilt. War die erste Soforthilfe noch allenthalben aus der eigenen Bevölkerung und eigenen Sicherheitskräften erfolgt, waren es die Amerikaner, Australier und Japaner gewesen, die binnen Tagen mit konkreter Hilfe ankamen, während es aus Europa hauptsächlich bei Geldversprechen blieb, die jedoch von Tag zu Tag erhöht wurden.

Bundeskanzler Gerhard Schröder hat die Hilfsversprechen Deutschlands auf 500 Millionen Euro erhöht, und die Schweiz spricht von 30 Millionen Franken, ohne daß aber am zerstörten Boden bislang viel zu spüren gewesen wäre von der Hilfe aus Europa.

Europas von der Katastrophe betroffene Staaten waren vorerst um das Wohl und die Rückführung eigener Staatsbürger besorgt. Die versprochene Hilfe gerät nur zögerlich ins Rollen, während die Amerikaner und Australier längst mit schweren Maschinen, Hubschraubern und auch eigenen Soldaten beispielsweise in Indonesien gelandet sind. Auf Sumatras größtem Flughafen bei Medan haben australische Truppen Hubschrauber aus Transportflugzeugen geladen, während die Amerikaner seit Tagen vor der Westküste Acehs mit einem Flugzeugträger präsent sind und mit rund 90 Hubschraubern Hilfsflüge tätigen und Notgüter abwerfen.

Die EU hat unterdessen ihre Hilfe für die Flutopfer in Asien deutlich aufgestockt. Bis Ende Januar sollen 1,5 Milliarden Euro in die betroffenen Länder fließen. Am Donnerstag erhöhte auch die EU-Kommission ihren Beitrag um 450 Millionen Euro. Zusätzlich will die EU über die Europäische Investitionsbank (EIB) einen Kredit in Höhe von einer Milliarde Euro gewähren: Das Geld soll für humanitäre Hilfe und den Wiederaufbau in den Katastrophengebieten verwendet werden. Hinzu kommen Hunderte Millionen durch Privat- und Firmenspenden.

Darüber hinaus erwägt die EU einen Schuldenerlaß für Länder, die von der Flutwelle betroffen sind. Das Thema steht oben auf der Tagesordnung, wenn sich heute in Brüssel die Außen- und Entwicklungsminister der EU treffen. Weiter soll auf dem Sondertreffen über Tsunami-Frühwarnsysteme gesprochen werden.

Die Christdemokraten (EVP) im Europaparlament fordern den Aufbau eines solches Systems für den europäischen Küstenraum. Dies gelte vor allem für das Mittelmeer und den Atlantik, sagte EVP-Chef Hans-Gert Pöttering. Unterdessen wurde bekannt, daß Spenderländer ihren Beitrag für die Flutopfer bei der Berechnung ihres Staatsdefizits berücksichtigen können.

Artikel erschienen am Fre, 7. Januar 2005

[Gabi]

zeta wrote:
"Trying to imply that the Volksbund or what they did (or didn't do) on 17 November 2002 on the National Day of Mourning was Anti-Semitic is nonsense!"
---------

Where did I post the quotation who referred to? My English is limited. I think it was a quotation from a newspaper, not by myself. So when you refer to my postings and you spread it here, be fair and honest. Usually I tell people what is my own opinion and what somebody else wrote.

Zeta, the next generation of Germans have the responsibility (not guilt) for the Holocoust and a special resonsibility for the Anti-Semitism what is growing up again.

Wouldn't it be wonderful, when my concern is nonsense?! I would love to be wrong.

So give me the source where you found my quotation, then I will reasearch it, if I am wrong.

[kid charlemagne]

If anyone wants a generous helping of anti-American bullshit, read the extended interview of Franka Potente in Berlin's zitty magazine this week. She just got back from a year in L.A. and has nothing but negative things to say about her experience there. I would guess she's upset about not having achieved much success in Hollywood. No surprise, really: Lola Rennt was overrated and she's not exactly a captivating performer. http://www.zitty.de

[zeta]

Gabi, wie soll man das anders interpretieren als, dass der von Dir gebrachte Zeitungsartikel auch Deine Meinung wiederspiegelt, wenn Du ihn hier kommentarlos reinstellst? Deine Intention war doch nicht, Dich davon zu distanzieren!

Ich finde ihn sogar in großen Teilen gut, da man ja zumindest hinterfragen kann, wie antisemitisch die Deutschen noch oder schon wieder sind bzw. was all die Anstrengungen im Kampf gegen Antisemitismus überhaupt gebracht haben.

In diesem Kontext wird aber auch der Volkstrauertag erwähnt, deren Gedenkfeiern jährlich vom Volksbund organisiert werden. Nein, es steht nicht explizit da, dass der VdK antisemitisch ist, es wird aber durch den Kontext eindeutig impliziert - übrigens nicht ohne einen hämischen Kommentar über Trennung von Kirche und Staat abzugeben, der allerdings schlecht bzw. gar nicht recherchiert war.

[WhatDoIKnow]

Potente has to be a total idiot, there is no other way. Sorry for that. All that she could see in the US, really ALL, were stereotypes. Nothing else. (Of course, otherwise she is open-minded. Not like the dumb Americans.) Seems that there is a lot of personal frustration behind her attitude.

[Scuderia Austria]

@ Zeta

Gabi gebührt Dank dafür, dass sie einen vortrefflichen Artikel über Antisemitismus in Deutschland in diesen Blog reinstellte.

Unglücklicherweise weiss ich zu wenig über den VdK. Was Du in Frankreich für die gefallenen deutschen Soldaten geleistet hast, finde ich auf alle Fälle grossartig. Ebenso verhält es sich mit Deiner Tat in Österreich für die ermordeten Juden.

[kid charlemagne]

WhatDoIKnow: I would say there's a fair bit of projection in her attitude as well: Everything she complains about in L.A. - incompetent workmen, people not keeping appointments, people not knowing about current events - are things I have experienced in spades in Berlin.

[WhatDoIKnow]

kid

I just got back from a series of appointments in LA. Strange, but everybody was in time. In fact it was me, the European, who was late(well, because of the rain...). If I were to pass absolutist judgment, like potente, I would have to say that Americans are more punctual than Swiss watches. Period.

[Gabi]

"Gabi, wie soll man das anders interpretieren als, dass der von Dir gebrachte Zeitungsartikel auch Deine Meinung wiederspiegelt, wenn Du ihn hier kommentarlos reinstellst? Deine Intention war doch nicht, Dich davon zu distanzieren!"

Zeta, ich finde es erschreckend, daß du mir Sätze aus Artikeln als persönliche Zitate zuordnest. Sind jetzt schon derartige Selbstverständlichkeiten nicht mehr bekannt?!

[Gabi]

@Zeta,
inhaltlich sagt der Artikel, daß es einen Trend in Deutschland gibt, die Geschichte so zu interpretieren, daß man sich auf die deutsche Opferrolle konzentriert. Schau dir die Feiern in den Städten an, wie man der Bombardierungen gedenkt. Ich hatte mal die Feier in Siegen hier gepostet. Man gedachte der totalen Bombardierung vor 60 Jahren im November 1944 und vergaß es nicht zu erwähnen, daß die Ursache für die Auslöschung Siegens Nazideutschland war. Die Deutschen sind Opfer ihrer eigenen Gewaltherrschaft geworden, nicht unschuldige Opfer fremder Nationen, wie es jetzt oft anders dargestellt wird.

Wie kann man am D-Day 2004 die Befreiung durch die Alliierten feiern (wobei ich es peinlich fand, daß unser Bundeskanzler die USA nicht genannt hat) und in anderen Städten die Toten betrauern, die durch alliierte Bomben getötet worden sind und denen die sog. Schuld daran geben? Vergleiche mal die Reden zu den jeweiligen Erinnerungsfeiern, vor 30, 20, 10 Jahren. Das ist sicherlich interessant.

Wenn also der VdK nur der Opfer gedenkt und die eigene deutsche Verantwortung daran NICHT erwähnt, so gehört das mit zum Thema Antisemitismus. Wo sagt denn jemand, DAS SEI antisemitisch. Du machst es wie so viele, behauptest einfach, was niemand gesagt hat und redest dann dagegen. Man muß schon mal zuhören und lesen, was andere genau sagen und schreiben und dann nachdenken und dann antworten. Aber zu behaupten, jemand hätte den VdK oder was dieser tut als antisemitisch bezeichnet, das ist eine Lüge, lieber Zeta. Später versuchst du das zu relativieren. Sei in Zukunft präzise.

Das Thema Antisemitsmus ist sehr wichtig, Zeta, mit Lügen über andere machst du es noch schlimmer. Setzt dich ernsthaft mit dem Thema auseinander, dann lernst du, Antisemitismus zu erkennen. Denn das Thema des Artikels ist Antisemitismus und der Verfasser hat einen Trend in Deutschland aufgezeigt. Diesen Trend sehe ich auch, deshalb finde ich, daß diese Beobachtungen zum Volkstrauertag genau in diesen Artikel gehören. Das Abwehren hilft nicht. Es reicht nicht zu sagen, stimmt nicht. Fakt ist, es wurde nur die deutsche Opferrolle betrauert.

Wie kann man die deutschen Toten verstehen, über sie trauern, wenn wir die Ursachen nicht kennen und verstehen und sie in Zukunft vermeiden wollen?! Wie kann ich die deutschen Opfer in Stalingrad betrauern, ohne zu würdigen, daß die dort nichts zu suchen hatten, um es mal lässig auszudrücken. Meine persönliche Kritik geht da viel weiter als die des Verfassers. Aber das ist ein anderes Thema als Antisemtismus.

Ich lebe in einer deutschen Stadt, die von Allierten in Grund und Boden gebombt worden ist. Ich habe in der Schule und in der Familie gelernt, daß wir Deutschen die Verantwortung dafür tragen. Offensichtlich wird das nicht mehr so klar gelehrt, denn die jetzige Schulgeneration hat auf dieses Thema absolut keine Lust mehr. Was haben wir denn damit zu tun, ist die große Frage. Bücher und Sendungen mit den Deutschen als Opfer überschwemmen den Markt. Das hat zu tun mit dem Holocaust, aber da mußt du dich einarbeiten, wenn du hier einfach reflexartig reagierst, versäumst du es, die Fakten zu werten.

[Gabi]

DIE ZEIT

02/2005

Wachsende Judenfeindlichkeit

Alte Vorurteile auf dem Vormarsch: Ergebnisse aus dem neuen US-Bericht zum Antisemitismus

Von Michelle Kossel für ZEIT.de

Judenhass ist in Europa, im Mittleren Osten und in den Staaten der ehemaligen Sowjetunion auf dem Vormarsch. Das geht aus dem aktuellen Antisemitismus-Report des US-Außenministeriums hervor, der kürzlich in Washington veröffentlicht wurde. Jüdische Friedhöfe, die immer wieder geschändet werden, brutale Ausschreitungen gegen Juden oder eine iranische TV-Serie, in der die israelische Regierung die Augen von palästinensischen Kindern stiehlt, sind Ausrucksformen des wachsenden Antisemitismus.

In Deutschland sei die Verbreitung antijüdischer Hetzkampagnen längst nicht mehr Sache glatzentragender Stammtischbesucher. Denn aller Aufklärung über den Holocaust zum Trotz: Vorurteile gegen Juden haben sich nach dem US-Bericht seit Jahrhunderten in den Köpfen der Menschen Europas festgesetzt. Sie werden nicht als Teil der sozialen Gemeinschaft wahrgenommen, sondern als Gäste oder als Fremdkörper. Daher trauen sich Rechtsextreme und muslimische Fundamentalisten immer häufiger, brutal gegen Juden aufzutreten. Als Folge reagieren jüdische EU-Bürger in der Öffentlichkeit zunehmend verängstigt und trauten sich nicht, zu ihrer Identität zu stehen.

Die Gründe für die Ausgrenzung und Bekämpfung der Juden auch hierzulande sind vielfältig. Antisemitismus ist nicht nur in den einschlägigen rechtsextremen Kreisen anzutreffen: Vermeintlich längst vergessene NS-Hetze über den hässlichen Juden mit Spitzbart, der Regierungen und Finanzmärkte von Amerika oder Israel aus kontrolliere, grassieren vornehmlich in linken Globalisierungsgegnerkreisen. Neben der Unwissenheit über die jüdische Religion fördern Fremdenfeindlichkeit und bürgerliche Existenzängste den Antisemitismus.

Muslimische Einwanderer kultivieren auch in Europa ihren Hass auf die israelische Regierung und transportieren die Kriegsproblematik aus dem Nahen Osten in ihre neue Umgebung. Darin sieht der US-Report ein beträchtliches Konfliktpotential, aus dem antisemitisch motivierte Gewalt hervorgehen könnte. Insgesamt spielten radikalisierte Muslime in Westeuropa eine immer größere Rolle.

Das Mittel zur Verbreitung der Hetzkampagnen ist neu: Im Internet wird antisemitische Propaganda breit und schnell gestreut. So führt der US-Bericht an, dass es allein in Deutschland 1.000 Websites mit judenfeindlichen Inhalten gebe. Auch in Fernsehprogrammen oder Zeitungen seien antisemitische Tendenzen wahrzunehmen. Häufig sei Kritik gegen die israelische Regierung nicht sachlich aufbereitet, sondern mit judenfeindlichen Untertönen garniert. Das beeinflusse maßgeblich die öffentliche Meinungsbildung - auch in Deutschland.

...

http://www.zeit.de/2005/02/antisemitismus

[Pato]

A little german barbi doll/wanna be actrees/"reporter" named Potente comes to the US, stays in LA and shares a few experiences with her readers.
She can't believe that many people say when she telephones them- "oh, I have to call you back.. I am busy etc."
Does she not understand that she is not a priority on these people's lives? Did she consioer that perhaps many people just didn't like her?
With her looks she might get a few stares and appreciation in Berlin. Here in LA her look is as common as a palm tree. It's nothing for anyone to get excited about. That seemed to hurt her greatly.
She wonders why she has to maek appointments days out in advance to get together with people for wine or song. In the US little Ms Potente- We WORK for a living and for a good life. We DO have tight schedueles as we are a "Do'er nation, not a talking board nation" similiar to the one she comes from. We work allot, we play allot, we live allot. With only 24 hrs in a day, sometimes one needs to plan a few things in their life such as liesure time.
She cannot believe all the "nationalistic flag waving" here in LA. This little bimbo finds it an incredibley odd thing for someone to be proud of their country and fly a flag.
(Has this little twit ever been to Denmark to see all the flags? It is a great sight AND the Danes DO have allot to be proud of with their country)
This being proud of one's country- It is something she knows nothing about, and has NO experience to speak of in this regard.
An American can translate that article, read her points and her observations and easily come to this conclusion- this little bimbo did NOT get auditions when in Hollywood, she was not greeted like a cousin of Maxemillion, people did NOT fawn over her... and she is now hurt by that.
Good. Now Ms Potente'- Could you please promise us Yanks that you'll stay home in the safe and sterile confines of your office in Berlin? please?
A busy, productive, and fun life here in the US would eat a person like this alive. There would be far too many choices for her to make- and she would then break under the pressure and scream off the jounalistic nonsense she does so well now, even better.
The animousity this twit conveys is very similair to the Prom Queen whose quest for a date falls on deaf ears.
Try your local Berlin theater group next time Ms. Potente, and stick with the role as that of a Mime. You may find people embrace you more.

[kid charlemagne]

Thanks, Pato. You ranted so I don't have to!

[Pato]

right on Kid C!

[gerold]

@pato

"This little bimbo finds it an incredibley odd thing for someone to be proud of their country and fly a flag."

a constructive question: What would You be honest of if You were a german? seriously! It's really hard to figure that one out. Of course Martin Luther comes to mind, but thats almost 500 years back. And Bach later on. But, say the last 200 years. So can You really blame Ms.Potene for her position on the issue of patriotism, after all, it's just that, HER position.
Another point would be: Isn't patriotism about being proud of certain Individuals (e.g., the Founding Fathers, G.Washington, R.E.Lee, etc. and their Ideas and Accomplishments) and not a STATE or NATION as a whole (anybody proud of the american Charles Manson or the austrian Adolf Schickelgruber)? If patriotism means nothing more than red, white and blue, well I would say than it's not worth much. So, lets talk about values and the things that really count in the end!

[Pato]

@gerold-
Thank you for taking the time to comment.
I think the solution here is- if Ms Potente cannot or does not, understand the concept of being proud of one's country simple because she is german, and germany has a horrible past...
You would then think she would not berate or defame those who DO have pride in their country.
This is childish journalism at it's worst.
Those in the "eu" need to understand that the US is NOT one breed of people or a race.
It is a collection of races from each and every damn country on the globe who come here to share an "IDEA", not to share blood lines.
Why is that so hard to understand coming from the sterile confines of old euorpe?
We are the people who fled your continent, came to the US and put together something that has just blown you people away with such childsih envy. Not you directly, but such a majority within the "eu" feel such.
For an american to hate the french (now at 275 million who despise france out of 300+ million") is not racisim, its common sense.
Racisim is to hate a person for the color, not the ideologies.
It is evident that p[eople in LA wreally didn't like litttle ms potente, and it shows, so she in turn has to disparage LA.
At elst we shall not see her again...
Unless, she joind the local Mime troup in Berlin.
Prost! Gerold

[Pato]

one last thought- red white and blue US flags are, to an American (yes, each brown, reddish, white, grey and the green colors among us), a symbol we all share of individual liberty and an idelogical mind sets that makes the PEOPLE rule the goverment, not the government running the people.
It is the exact opposite of europe, even in these modern times.

[Anthony]

About the flag waving.

I agree that patriotism needs to be about more than waving flags. However, go to Canada sometime. A few years ago, the Canadian government was actually giving out free flags for people to fly from their houses.

[amiexpat]

yes, in canada they are crazy about their flag..
and you will often see the American and the Canadian flag flying together.. well at least it was that way in 2001 before 9/11

How patriotic would the Germans be if they had won the second world war and were now the leading superpower? (in other words, if they were in the shoes of the US)
there would be a swastika on every corner!!!
me, I think old Glory (stars and stripes) - warts and all - is
a hell of a lot more to be proud of then a swastika!!!!

@pato

Proud of what?
i have been in the usa many times, I would never ever want to live there. Never seen so many fat people before as I saw in Houston........god they are realllly fat there! Some areas in miami look like the ghettos in Pretoria/south africa!
Tourists get warned not walking alone in some areas at night because of gang members killing you for some fancy clothes you wear!
I would really like to know how come that the "most powerful" country has the highest criminal rate in the western world if everything is so good over there!
This sounds like a 3rd world country not a superpower!
yeah thats indeed a country everybody would like to live........haha