They are both infectious and deadly.
April 13, The Jerusalem Post, Cnaan Lipshiz reported that during a televised Easter message, a Catholic Priest in Romania compared Jews to the corona virus.
The reference was part of the April 9 message, broadcasted by national television stations, by Father Francisc Dobos, the spokesperson for the Archdiocese of Bucharest.
“The disciples of Jesus,” he said, “reading from the Christian Bible, ‘feared the Jews,’ and here in the bracket we should read: feared the virus.”
Let me point out that the disciples were fearing the Romans as well as the Pharisees. But the disciples themselves were Jewish!
The ill-fated attempt, so the priest claims, was the compare a notion of fear, but what it did was connect Jews to a killer virus—so it was wrong on all counts.
Maximillian Marco Katz, director of the MCA Romania Center for Monitoring and Combatting Antisemitism responded, “Unfortunately, what many of the listeners of your message will will be the comparison between Jews and a killer virus. And so the traditional religious antisemitism is passed down from generation to generation: for over 2000 years.”
April 13, The Jerusalem Post, Marcy Oster reported two synagogues in Alabama were vandalized (additional reports in various outlets on this story are available).
The Chabad of Huntsville was spray-painted with swastikas and what was decribed as anti-Semitic graffiti and racial slurs on April 9.
Surveillance video reveals two suspects painting on the synagogue’s property for about 20 minutes, defacing the organization’s driveway, garage doors, a mailbox and more.
On Wednesday night, the 8th, the Etz Chayim Synagogue, a Conservative congregation of about 60 families in South Huntsville, was vandalized with neo-Nazi graffiti.
During a time of stay-at-home orders and social distancing, it seems this attempt to spread hate backfired as the community of each location rallied in support to help clean up and send a message of solidarity.
“If the intention of the hate crime was to bring hate and division in our midst, he failed miserably. Instead, we have a wonderful showing of togetherness and love that I know to be the true character of our community. Our friends and neighbors have been wonderful, and the community at large has certainly turned an act of hate into an outpouring of love,” wrote Chabad directors Rabbi Moshe and Mushky Cohen in a post on Facebook that Saturday night at the end of two days of the Passover holiday and Shabbat.
As the anti-Israel, BDS, and let’s just call it what it is, Antisemitism continues, Anti-Israel groups on college campuses use Coronavirus to Attack Israel even when schools are not in session and students are using online formats to communicate and collaborate. A continued drum beat of slander Israel is ongoing online among college campus anti-Israel activists. According to an April 6 article by Ariel Behar in The Algemeiner,
Groups such as the Students for Justice in Palestine and others continue to claim Israel is somehow responsible for virus issues in Gaza and the PA. Varying forms of fault is set at Israel’s feet from sending the virus in to the territories to withholding help to mitigate it.
Israel’s Coordinator of Government and Activities in the Territories (COGAT) on April 1, issued a statement: “145 tons of medical supplies were transferred through the Kerem Shalom Crossing into Gaza last week.” That number has since been revised to over 204 tons as of April 19.
As well, Israeli medical teams are training PA medical teams.
The anti-Israel factions blame blockades for the Gazan and PA’s ills but fail to mention the entire reason the blockades are necessary in the first place: the context of the proven threat to Israelis the terrorists in these areas pose. Rocket fire from Hamas and other Gaza-based terrorists make it impossible for Israel to remove security measures they put in place in response to the contact attack on the Israeli populations. We recognize that this puts the general population of Gazans poor quality of life. Anti-Israel campus groups fail, over and over, to put into any context the reason why civilians in Gaza live under such oppressive conditions and the requirement for Israel, and even Egypt, to employ security measures as they do.
And how does Hamas ask for help? Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar — the man in charge of Gaza — made a direct threat: “If ventilators are not brought into , we’ll take them by force from Israel and stop the breathing of 6 million Israelis.”
Those threats do nothing to help people in Gaza. But they will not be mentioned, much less condemned, by those obsessed with demonizing Israel.
Egypt also has its own blockade on Gaza for security reasons. But when it comes to coronavirus fears, neither Egypt nor Hamas, which governs the area, is blamed. Only Israel.
Keep in mind the people in Gaza suffer and many know it is their own leadership that put them into their current status. More than two-thirds of Palestinians surveyed support “cooperation between Israel and the Palestinians to prevent the spread of coronavirus.” This according to a Palestinian Center for Public Opinion poll. This goes against the narrative groups like IfNotNow, Jewish Voice for Peace, and Students for Justice in Palestine consistently push—and push onto college campuses where future leaders are being educated.
More than that, let’s look at the response Israel-haters have to deaths of Israelis from COVID-19:
Israel’s first coronavirus death was an 88-year-old Holocaust survivor named Aryeh Evan. David Collier, a British activist and blogger whom I have referenced in my reports before, noted the response to the tragic death. He posted on the internet a screenshot anti-Zionist activists celebrating the death of the Holocaust survivor:
“Now tell me again that anti-Zionism isn’t antisemitism. This is the sickening way that some received the news of the death of a survivor on Twitter.”
The PA and anti-Israel (anti-Semites) cannot have it both ways—relying on Israel to save them while they continue to try to rally to annihilate the Israel state and all Jews. It doesn’t make any sense whatsoever.
Thank God He remains on His throne and overseeing it all. We are His hands and feet and rely on His Guidance and Providence, and Mercy.
It is our duty to not be anxious or afraid—and I know it can be difficult, but it is our duty.
Joshua 1:9 Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.”
Shavua Tov, have a great week.