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Anti-Semitism Europe
John Heelan writes: "Edgar Morin writes an interesting article*** in which he argues that the very different threads of anti-Zionism, anti-Israeli, and anti-Judaism have been woven into a general anti-Semitism, especially by the Jewish Diaspora.
According to Morin, anti-Zionism rejects the establishment of Jews in Palestine and the existence of Israel as a nation. Anti-Israeli feelings stem from two sources; the first- differentiating itself from anti-Zionism- opposes the creation of a Jewish state on Arab lands but implicitly recognises the State of Israel. The second source is the actions of the Israeli government towards the Palestinians and its refusal to obey United Nations resolutions to return to its 1967 frontiers. The Jewish Diaspora elides anti-Israelism with anti-Judaism (the Arab world even more so.) and arrives at anti-Semitism.
Morin asks what is the root of French anti-Semitism? The Israeli thesis is that it is the persistence of old Christian anti-Judaism ("Because they killed Christ") and continuing European anti-Semitism, highlighting the collaboration of French anti-Semites with the horrors of Hitler's national-racist anti-Semitism. He argues that the evolution of the Catholic Church over recent centuries has weakened the charge of deicide against the Jews and that the negative values are the result of Israeli repression and not historical Christian anti-Judaism.
Morin argues that there is no resurgence of native European anti-Semitism but, at least in France, an increase of anti-Judaism resulting from the influx of Arab immigrants increasingly angered by the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. However, instead of understanding the root cause of Arab anti-Judaism, Israeli authorities, EU institutions and some Jewish intellectuals prefer to believe that it is proof of the persistence or reappearance of a deeply rooted European anti-Semitism impossible to eradicate.
With this logic, any criticism of Israel is considered anti-Semitic, with all the negative vibrations resonating from that word, rather than anti-Zionist or anti-Judaist.
(***El País March 2004 translated and reprinted from El Monde).
It seems to me that a similar argument could be made to explain the constant
charge of anti-Semitism in the UK and the US made against any criticism of Israeli
policies. The curious difference is the US' undying support of Israel and Judaism,
despite the strength of the Christian Right and fundamentalist lobbies being
still convinced of Jewish guilt of deicide in the death of Christ (Gibson's
film and Christopher Jones' comment being but two examples). One would expect
(as does the Jewish Defense League) a wave of anti-Judaism as a result- but
would it be termed "anti-Semitic" and will Bush's Bible Belt sponsors
demand a change in US-Israel relations a a quid pro quo for funding his reelection?
It will be an interesting fight between Israeli and Christian Right political
lobbies on Capitol Hill over the next few months.
Terrorism in Europe
Randy Black says: "Terrorism just now reaching Europe? Hardly. I vividly
remember terrorist bombings at the airports in Paris in the 80s, at train stations
in London over several decades, dozens of ETA attacks across Spain dating to
1959, planes bombed out of the sky, cruise ship attacks, bombings in nightclubs
and at the Olympics in Germany, numerous attacks in Greece and nearly everywhere
else in Europe going back decades. Perhaps this is why the Europeans are not
as "excited" about the 9/11 attacks on the United States as we are.
The Europeans /may already be immunized to the pain, the threats and the hurt.
It's clear that the Islamic attackers have only one goal and that is a world
Islamic State. ETA, for whatever reason, wants independence from Spain; the
Arabs want the Jews exterminated; the Turks don't like the Kurds; the French
are still mad at the English for sinking the French navy during WWII to keep
the fleet from falling under Nazi control; the Serbs would like to exterminate
their Muslim neighbors (many forget that the US defended the Muslims in that
war), whom am I leaving out?
Bush is not trying to "find" a war to fight just to stay in office.
The jihad on the US has been ongoing for more than a decade. I remember attacks
on the US in Africa, the Persian Gulf, in the Pacific, Europe and elsewhere,
going back many years. Previous administrations seemed to be willing to ignore
those attacks. It just took Dubya to recognize it and to attempt to do something
about it.
The Europeans may have lost their will to fight back. Rather than plan retribution,
they seem to be simply mourning their losses and blaming us, as did Howard Dean
today when he declared that the attacks in Spain were the US's fault".
RH. I do not think that the Europeans are as resigned as Randy says, or that
previous US administrations ignored the attacks.
ID Cards in the UK
From the UK. John Heelan says: "ID cards are a very topical debate in the UK at the moment. The subject has been discussed ad nauseam for the last 30 years (I worked on an ID card support system in the early 70s). The stimulus for the current debate is the impact of EU legislation.
Personally, I have no objection to having a personal ID card. My wallet already is stacked with photo IDs of various kinds for various purposes, formal and social. To replace these with a single card would be a benefit.
However, the argument turns not on the ID card itself, but the civil liberty risks surrounding its issue, they in turn seem to centre on the contents of its magnetic strip, who has access to that information, and how much national security does it really provide.
Potential contents would not only be positive identifiers but might also include level of entitlements to public services, accesses to restricted areas, criminal record, health record and so on. Who would have access to this private information and on what grounds? Would the police (and any other security service) be able to stop somebody at a whim and demand to see their ID card? What would happen if that person did not have it with him/her? A fine? Incarceration until ID proved by somebody else? Would non-security organisation have access to the data on the magnetic strip on the basis of preventing fraud on public services? How would that confidential information remain confidential?
The protection of civil liberties demands answers to all those difficult questions. Even if those answers show the civil rights risks are minimal, what real protection does the ID card provide on a national basis? Do we really believe that criminals and terrorists (such as Al Quaeda, ETA etc.) would not be able to acquire fake ID cards- and would not the use of those fake cards lull us into a false sense of security? ID cards in Spain (DNI) have not proven to protect that nation from terrorists.
The debate continues".
RH: The concern for civil liberties seems to me exaggerated. There were similar
objections to cameras in streets and stores, but they have proved to be an immense
boon in fighting crime.
EU Constitution
France, Germany call on EU to adopt constitution: France and Germany want the
EU to adopt its new constitution by the end of the year and trust the Irish
presidency to come up with a way to achieve this, President Jacques Chirac says.
Chirac, speaking during a visit to Paris by German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder,
said the text should be as close as possible to the draft that Spain and Poland
have held up because it would reduce their voting rights. Schroeder said there
was still a chance a deal could be struck by the end of the Irish presidency
on 30 June. This did not depend on Paris and Berlin, but on their partners,
he said. He did not think EU leaders could agree on a text at their Brussels
summit next week. Spain's change of government in Sunday's election following
the Madrid train bombs last week unexpectedly altered the outlook for the constitution.
Election winner Jose Luis Rodriguez
Zapatero has pledged to be flexible on the issue. Progress on the constitution,
which European leaders say is vital to ensure that the EU's expansion to 25
members in May does not paralyze the bloc, stalled in December when Spain and
Poland dug in their heels over voting rights. Under the 2000 Nice treaty, Spain
and Poland have almost the same voting rights as the EU's largest states (Reuters,
3/18/04).
The Sad Portuguese
I remarked "The French say "Les Portugais sont toujours gais", but in fact the Portuguese are imbued with a sorrow known as saudade. George Sassoon comments: "Indeed. When active as a radio ham, I sometimes let my receiver drift up to the 14-meter band and listened to Radio Lisbon. The fado songs were enough to make one burst into tears. This particular melancholy seems to afflict all peoples of the European Atlantic coast. One certainly finds it in the Bretons. What about Galicia?". RH: The Portuguese word "fado" is related to"fate", and the song is said to be of Moorish origin. Predestination is an important part of Islam. Are Muslims sad? As for Galicia, it is indeed a sad area. Erico Verissimo used to talk about Brazilian saudade, but I do not find Brazil a sad country.. After all, God is a Brazilian, and the sky is blue.
All this talk about sadness reminds me of a performance at the International
House in Berkeley, in 1938: A very fat lady played "Only the lonely heart
can know my sorrow" on the slide trombone.
Linguist Edgar Knowlton says "Romanian dor is supposed to be equivalent
in meaning to Portuguese saudade; the Spanish cognates dolor and soledad do
not suggest this same untranslatable sense". RH: Cognates can be false
friends.
Christopher Jones writes: "If I were Portuguese, I think I would be rather
happy. Portugal is a wonderful country, in a funny way rather cosmopolitan and
I think global terrorism will leave it alone. But the Fado is truly a sad song.
The Queen of the Fado was the magnificent Amalia Rodriguês (1920-1999),
and I believe she described the Fado as "uma cançao de saudade."
A Portuguese friend once translated saudade for me as "the sadness you
feel when you know that you will never see a loved one again." Think about
those words. In the same way, the great geniuses of the Brazilian Bossa Nova,
Vicinius de Morais and Antonio Carlos Jobim also wrote a song called simply
"Saudade." But the Fado is a Lisbon-Coimbra phenomena and is not very
popular in Porto and up towards the Galician border. The current Fado clubs
in the Alfama are quite good and any WAISer in Lisbon would be foolish to miss
an opportunity to enjoy the song of sadness" RH: "Saudade"is
literally "solitude". The Alfama is the old Moorish district of Lisbon,
perhaps evidence of the Moorish origin of the fado. And I endorse the eulogy
of Portugal.
Miles Seeley is a Lusophile: "I agree that Portugal is a wonderful country.
I've never lived there, but love to visit. The last time, I decided to see what
was available on CD of Amalia Rodrigues' fado, and found several. I was soon
surrounded by people in the record store, each recommending his or her favorite.
I elected to get some of her early works, which have been transferred from vinyl
to CD and cleaned up. There are major differences, but Amalia and Um Kalthoom
had much in common, in my view. I remember sitting in a blacked-out room during
the Six Day War, in Amman, listening to live broadcasts of Um Kalthoom on the
radio. Powerful stuff. Despite the pathos of fado, I think Portugal is by and
large a cheerful place. There are some fine young artists working, and writers
of mystery and detective stories (my guilty pleasure) who are terrific".
Dark Heart of Italy
The body of Roberto Calvi of the Vatican's Banco Ambrogiano was found hanging
under London's Blackfriars Bridge a few years ago. The whodonit may finally
be solved. George Sassoon reports: "There is an article in London's Sunday
Times (3/14/04) today about the Calvi murder. Four people are to be tried in
Rome for his murder, the case starting on March 16. Mafia bosses ordered his
killing as he had misappropriated money due to them, it is
said. You may be able to find out more on the Times/Sunday Times website which
has a search engine top left of main page: http://www.timesonline.co.uk
Regarding the Roberto Calvi case, I recommend The Dark Heart of Italy, by Tobias Jones (Faber & Faber, London 2003/04). The author is an Englishman living in Parma and trying to get to grips with modern Italian culture. He says that in matters to do with the law, it is impossible to get to the bottom of anything because there is so much skullduggery, corruption and obfuscation going on. According to a review, "crime is scarcely ever met with punishment". Apart from this, the book is extremely amusing and to be recommended on that score alone".
RH: It is an odd coincidence that Jones went to Parma before the big food scandal
there erupted. Did he have any foreknowledge of it?
News from Finland in Latin
Anthony Smith, President of Magalen College,Oxford, confirms what George Sassoon
said: "Yes, you only have to click to Nuntii Latini (News in Latin) (and
then to Recitatio) on YLE (Radio Finland). There you can hear the creation of
brilliantly contrived neologisms to describe the modern world in Latin,and you
can also turn to the written version. There used to be and perhaps still is
an annual volume of these news bulletins. I was once told that there are one
and a half million people in Europe who receive this service and follow the
news in Latin. The Finns also have excellent pronunciation of Latin" RH.
This brings up an interesting question. Finnish is an oddity in Europe, and
the Finns kept Latin alive as an international language. This explains Latinized
names like Sibelius. My guess is that the number of people listening to the
Latin news is rapidly diminishing.
I said "Finnish is an oddity in Europe, and the Finns kept Latin alive
as an international language. This explains Latinized names like Sibelius".
Ed Jajko answers: "With respect, the -us or -ius ending in Finnish is a
native form and not a borrowing from Latin. Nuntii Latini is a relatively recent
phenomenon, with a world-wide public. Those who may wish to read the news in
Latin can look at www.yle.fi and follow the appropriate link.
When I was an undergraduate at the University of Pennsylvania, I was a member
of the Philomathean Society, which prided itself on holding its own commencement
exercises, complete with a Latin diploma that was fancier than Penn's, marking
the passage from junior to senior membership. One year, as the Society's Moderator,
i.e. president, it was my responsibility to make the arrangements for the annual
commencement dinner. Having made the deal with the Mask and Wig Club and set
the menu, I then translated the menu into Latin and had that printed for my
Philo colleagues. I recall that the best I could come up with for carrots was
the euphonious "tubera rubera" and that I had difficulty with coffee
and tea, which became "decoquita" of leaves and berries. The whole
menu was a source of amusement during the evening, but my friends were bemused
most by the Latin word for cake, "placenta"." RH: With respect,
Ed, there is a large number of Nordic personal names (not just Finnish) which
were Latinized with a -us ending. I would refuse to eat placenta. Surely the
Romans had cake and a word for it.
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