Since when have Maccabi Tel Aviv or Israel been part of Europe?
The members of my extended family and friends who are Jewish (including 2 who are descended from Holocaust survivors) are in an almost permanent state of incandescent rage over the way Israel is given the kid-gloves treatment by a significant part of Western media. While they are routinely called 'antisemitic' or 'self-hating Jews' for daring to challenge Israel's conduct in Gaza. (The last spat was over: 'snipers killing kids & health-workers'...)
Up to about 5 or 6 years ago, I truly believed that a country that was partially founded in opposition to the horrors of the Holocaust was socially and politically 'vaccinated' against the possibility of fascism succeeding. How wrong I was. I subscribe to the Israeli newspaper 'Haaretz' and on a daily basis now, it is full of articles which confirm the ever-intensiying right-wing, apartheid-embracing, authoritarian nature of the government. To be fair, they do report about the way many more Israelis are waking up to the fact that the corrupt crew who rule them with their 'permanent war' economy are turning Israel into a pariah state and impinging on their own safety and security and fomenting anti-semitism across the globe.
My friend, David Mond, active in Jewish Voice for Labour (JVL), reminded me that history didn't begin on the 7th October 2023 and to have a look at the letter written by Albert Einstein and Hannah Arendt (famous chronicler of totalitarianism) and 20 other leading Jewish people in Israel, to the New York Times in December 1948. The letter refers to the terror tactics being used to subdue the Arab population produced a real danger that fascism was being planted and could thrive in a future Israel as a result of these tactics.
I've always been proud of the way Villa didn't kow-tow to the Nazis by refusing to perform the 'Hitler-gruss'. It would be good if Villa could make some gesture that what's happening in Palestine/Israel is not'normal' and 'sportswashing' it without comment isn't acceptable. Symbolic it may be, but however pathetic it might seem to some, it would give some hope to Palestinians and many Israelis that the whole world's watching and not ignoring the predatory, land-grabbing violence of the current rulers of Israel.
Oh, and the answer to the first question is: Unlike other countries in the Middle East, they are 'white' so are regarded as honorary Europeans. That is the blunt truth of the matter.
