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The Watcher’s Council

The Council has spoken, the votes have been cast and the results are in for this week’s Watcher’s Council match-up.

Before we get started, let me remind you that there’s now a seat available on the Watcher’s Council up for grabs.

We’re currently looking at candidates, so if you’re interested, think you qualify or want to find out more about what’s involved in being part of the longest established blogging group of its kind, simply leave a comment with your site URL and your e-mail address (which won’t be published) on any article over at Joshuapundit.

These don’t come up all that often and when they do, they usually fill up quickly, so if you’re interested, don’t snooze!

Even taking into consideration the normal high level of quality in both the Council and Non-Council entries, this was a tough call with some exceptional pieces to choose from and the close vote tallies reflect it.

Some things never change and one of them is that there are a lot of Europeans who will never forgive the Jews for Auschwitz… especially with the convenient cover of ‘anti-Zionism’ to hide behind.

This week’s winner by a nose, Joshuapundit’s How The UK Sunday Times Observed Holocaust Memorial Day…: is my look at how the UK’s London Times chose to observe this year’s Holocaust Memorial Day – with a cartoon that would have been right at home in Hitler’s Der Stürmer. That something like this cartoon could appear in a mainstream UK paper on this particular day says volumes about the mindset of a great deal of British society and about the nature of modern anti-Semitism itself. Here’s a slice and a little history of that that a lot of Britons would probably prefer not to look at too closely:

Today, January 27th is Holocaust Memorial Day, when people throughout the world commemorate the six million Jews who died at the hands of Hitler and his many willing assistants in all nations.

The Times cartoon above, showing a gargoyle like, hook nosed Benyamin Netanyahu ‘cementing in a wall to peace’ with the blood of those Arabs who identify as Palestinians is pretty much standard fare nowadays in the kind of country the UK has become. Or more accurately, as Caroline Glick recently pointed out, the kind of country Britain has been for some time but now feels increasingly comfortable with revealing openly.

While there are undoubtedly a number of sporadic commerative ceremonies in Britain today, the overwhelming thrust of the country’s leadership and its policies are conveyed far more accurately by the cartoon above. And whether they want to admit it or not, that cartoon, and the fact that it was allowed to run today is not only overt anti-semitism, but craven cowardice. Can you imagine the Times ever running the Mohammed cartoons?

Just a day ago, Liberal MP David Ward compared Israel’s policies with those of the Nazis at Auschwitz:

“Having visited Auschwitz twice – once with my family and once with local schools – I am saddened that the Jews, who suffered unbelievable levels of persecution during the Holocaust, could within a few years of liberation from the death camps be inflicting atrocities on Palestinians in the new State of Israel and continue to do so on a daily basis in the West Bank and Gaza.”

While he was eventually forced to make a pro forma apology by party leaders, subsequent remarks by Ward signal that he hasn’t changed his views one iota.

The sophistry that people like David Ward and many other Britons indulge in is pretty wide spread these days…that there’s a difference between ‘Jews’ – especially Left wing Jews willing to play along with the anti-Zionist narrative – and ‘Israel’.

As the above cartoon reveals, what they really object to is Jews having the nerve to actually have the right of self-determination and to insist on defending themselves, something they wouldn’t dare criticize for any other group.

What they’re ultimately comfortable with, whether they admit it or not, is the idea of Jews as victims,perpetually dependent on their tolerance and goodwill. The cartoon underlines that hideous comfort in Jews as victims by using the motif of a wall to slam Israel’s security barrier, which has saved countless Israeli lives from Islamist terrorism. Holocaust Remembrance Day, if nothing else, should be a reminder of how quickly the winds can change when it comes to the Jews, and it is a strong and powerful Israel that makes sure that passively going along with those odious breezes is not an option anymore.

The ‘anti-Zionist’ is almost inevitably an anti-semite, and usually you don’t have to dig too deeply at all.

Since this cartoon appeared in Britain’s largest newspaper,and judging by the comments a lot of people found it appropriate, it’s worth taking a moment to review a little history. Because Britain’s own record on the Holocaust is frequently glossed over.

Plus la change…

In our non-Council category, the winner was a wonderful piece by playwright, author and producer David Mamet with Gun Laws and the Fools of Chelm submitted by The Noisy Room and it really is a must-read. The Fools of Chelm, by way of illustration, is a well known piece of Jewish folklore popularized by Isaac Bashevis Singer, about a town where a group of people lived in perfect amity and content until they started listening to the elites, the so-called Council of Sages.

Okay, here are this week’s full results:

Council Winners

• *First place with 3 1/3 votes! – Joshuapoundit – How The UK Sunday Times Observed Holocaust Memorial Day…
• Second place with 3 votes – The Right Planet – Breaking Through the Right-Left Paradigm
• Third place *t* with 2 votes – Bookworm Room – Conservatives need to create powerful, “sticky” messages that lead the electorate to a tipping point
• Third place *t* with 2 votes – The Glittering Eye – Rise of the Apparatchiks
• Fourth place *t* with 1 vote – VA Right! – Meet the New Democrats: A Non-Compromising Unity of Hatred and Intolerance
• Fifth place *t* with 2/3 vote – The Mellow Jihadi – Alleged Racism at American Idol?
• Fifth place *t* with 2/3 vote – The Noisy Room – The Gathering Red Storm
• Fifth place *t* with 2/3 vote – Simply Jews – North Korea: why sticks just might work, Charles Armstrong notwithstanding
• Sixth place *t* with 1/3 vote – The Political Commentator – What does our future hold: Jim DeMint and Heritage in New York City for the Presidents’ Tour!
• Sixth place *t* with 1/3 vote – The Razor – Precious Moments Remembered

Non-Council Winners

• *First place with 2 1/3 votes! – David Mamet – Gun Laws and the Fools of Chelm submitted by The Noisy Room
• Second place with 2 votes – Storm Bringer – Destroying The U.S. Military submitted by Simply Jews
• Third place with 1 2/3 votes – Andrew McCarthy – Apes. Pigs And F-16s submitted by Joshuapundit
• Fourth place with 1 1/3 votes – The Atlantic – The Real Cuban Missile Crisis submitted by The Colossus of Rhodey
• Fifth place *t* with 1 vote – The Elder of Ziyon – A personal story for Holocaust Remembrance Day submitted by The Political Commentator
• Fifth place *t* with 1 vote – Media Nation – TNR’s new owner crosses a line with Obama interview submitted by The Glittering Eye
• Fifth place *t* with 1 vote – The Compass – Did Israeli Air Force Vote Against An Iran War? submitted by GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD
• Sixth place *t* with 2/3 vote – Army Times – Soldier with two new arms: ‘It feels amazing’ submitted by VA Right!
• Sixth place *t* with 2/3 vote – American Power – David Frum, CNN’s Faux Conservative, Claims Americans ‘Do Not Need Firearms to Protect Themselves, They Are Safer Than Ever Before…’ submitted by The Mellow Jihadi
• Sixth place *t* with 2/3 vote – The Pirate’s Cove – Sharpton: People Don’t Have The Right To Unregulated Rights submitted by Rhymes With Right
• Seventhth place *t* with 1/3 vote – Barry Rubin – Secretary of State Kerry Shows He Doesn’t Have a Clue About How Foreign Policy Works submitted by The Watcher
• Seventh place *t* with 1/3 vote – Michael Barone – Obama’s address long on audacity, short on hope submitted by Gay Patriot
• Seventh place *t* with 1/3 vote – National Review/Habeeb & Leven – After the Crack-Up submitted by Bookworm Room
• Seventh place *t* with 1/3 vote – Sultan Knish – Don’t Give Up submitted by The Watcher

See you next week! Don’t forget to tune in on Monday AM for this week’s Watcher’s Forum, as the Council and their invited special guests take apart one of the provocative issues of the day with short takes and weigh in… don’t you dare miss it. And don’t forget to like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter… ’cause we’re cool like that!