Pilar Rahola – Another Spanish Friend of Israel
Recently, we have profile strong Europeans Christians who have come out against anti-Israel sentiment and we hope to continue this series. We have come across an amazing speech given by Pilar Rahola, a Spanish politician, journalist and activist, at the Global Forum for Combating Anti-Semitism. Here she begins her talk:
“I’ve been trying to answer this question for years: why? Why, of all the World’s conflicts, only this one interests them? Why a tiny country which struggles to survive is criminalized? Why does the manipulated information triumph so easily? Why are all the people of Israel, reduced to a simple mass of murderous imperialists? Why is there no Palestinian guilt? Why is Arafat a hero and Sharon a monster? Finally, why when it is the only country in the World which is threatened with destruction, it is the only one that nobody considers a victim?”
She answers her question partially by comparing modern anti-Israelism to classical anti-Semitism where both types of prejudice “drink from the fountain of intolerance and lie. If, also, we accept that anti-Israelism is the new form of antisemitism, we conclude that contingencies may have changed, but the deepest myths, both of the Medieval Christian antisemitism and of the modern political antisemitism, are still intact.”
She goes on further to express her frustration at many in the West, especially the left, who apparently have a double-standard: “Leaders of Hezbollah are considered resistance heroes, while pacifists like Noa, the singer, are insulted in the streets of Barcelona. Today too, as yesterday, that left is hawking totalitarian ideologies, falls in love with dictators and, in its offensive against Israel, ignores the destruction of fundamental rights. It hates rabbis, but falls in love with imams; shouts against the Tsahal [IDF – the Israeli Defence Forces], but applauds Hamas’ terrorists; weeps for the Palestinian victims, but scorns the Jewish victims, and when it is touched by Palestinian children, it does it only if it can blame the Israelis. It will never denounce the culture of hatred, or its preparation for murder.”
She then goes on to repeat some question she asked at an AIPAC conference in 2009: “Why don’t we see demonstrations in Europe against the Islamic dictatorships? Why are there no demonstrations against the enslavement of millions of muslim women? Why don’t they declare against the use of bomb-carrying children in the conflicts in which Islam is involved? Why is the left only obsessed with fighting against two of the most solid democracies of the planet, those which have suffered the bloodiest terrorist attacks, the United States and Israel?” and then answers her questions “… Because the left no longer has any ideas, only slogans. It no longer defends rights, but prejudices. And the greatest prejudice of all, is the one it has against Israel.”
Pilar Rahola is a Christian hero of Israel – she deserves our full support. To read her entire speech, please visit here.
