Playing with fire, again!

By now the events in Crete, where the Jewish synagogue Etz Hayim (Tree of Life) in Hania, was burned twice in the course of three weeks, are well known. After the second fire, which was much more destructive than the first, the local police finally arrested several individuals, apparently spurned into action by the, by now, international condemnation (including that from Greek-American organizations) of these events. What has been completely absent, of course, was any reaction from local political, religious and civic authorities and groups. The people of Hania and their political, cultural and spiritual leaders did not care one bit about the destruction of a historical building that was much more than that: A reminder of a once thriving Jewish community that was destroyed during the German occupation of Crete in WW II. Deafening was also the silence of the national political and cultural figures, but, unfortunately, this was not surprising as they have been silent during other antisemitic outrages, which appear to be happening with increased frequency in Greece these days. Some months ago, the ancient Jewish cemetery in Ioannina was desecrated repeatedly by "persons unknown", without the local police having managed to arrest anyone yet. But at least in Ioannina, unlike Hania, some local people (although, again, without their civic and religious leaders) demonstrated in support of the Ioannina Jewish community. For details of these events and an interesting discussion (mostly in Greek) check out abravanel.wordpress.com.

So the police in Hania have now arrested several people, one Greek, two British citizens and one U.S. citizen. And all of a sudden, the national socialist antisemites are breathing a sigh of relief, since allegations of antisemitism among the Greek public have been proven, in their opinion, unfounded, given the nationality of the alleged perpetrators of the two arson attacks. Of course, the fact that this was a multinational crime provides no excuse for the complete indifference shown by the majority of the population to the arson, especially since when the two arson attacks occurred the identities of the perpetrators were not known. Unless, of course, those who are trying to justify the near universal absence of reaction, actually knew all along that some of the alleged perpetrators of the arson attacks were foreign nationals. Which begs the question: How and when did they have this information?

That foreign nationals were arrested is in itself not particularly significant: Both the United States and Great Britain harbor many individual antisemites, as evidenced by a number of high profile antisemitic incidents in both countries, like the shootout at the Holocaust Museum in Washington in June 2009, which resulted in the murder of a Museum security guard. The difference, of course, is that in these and other countries, such episodes are condemned immediately and vigorously by the political, religious and civic leadership and by the population at large. Even episodes that result in relatively little property damage and put nobody's life in danger, such as the defacement of synagogue exterior walls or of Jewish cemeteries, which do happen in the United States, draw immediate condemnation and generate tangible expressions of solidarity with the local Jewish communities by elected officials, civic groups and religious organizations. It is not an uncommon to see Christian clergymen from various denominations and their folk helping out Jewish congregants with the cleaning of antisemitic graffiti and repair of damages. This is what civilized people do! Antisemitism in a society is defined less by the actions, however vile and violent, of a relatively small number of malignant personalities and much more by the reactions of the population and the political, cultural and spiritual leadership. Has anyone seen or heard any expressions of outrage or just regret by local authorities and Greek Orthodox leaders in Hania, never mind offers for help, especially before this whole affair became an international embarrassment?

However, it gets even worse. Latching on the multinational composition of the band of arsonists, the national socialist blogs are alleging a conspiracy (*), led by Jewish organizations and the secret services of "foreign countries" (read United States and Israel), to defame Greece by setting fire to the Etz Hayim synagogue. I have posted before on the paranoid conspiratorial musings of the Greek antisemites. The latest reaction, blaming if not the victims at least those who, in the eyes of the Greek antisemites, have some kind of connection with the victims, is best explained by the Greek proverb "Φωνάζει ο κλέφτης για να φοβηθεί ο νοικοκύρης!" ("The thief is yelling so the homeowner will be afraid" - It does sound better in the original). Of course, no matter what smokescreens (no pun intended) the antisemites put up to obscure the truth, we all know who are responsible for such acts, in Hania, in Verroia, in Ioannina,. And once again, it is painfully obvious that Greek society has failed to react and to respond in a meaningful way to attacks against Jewish Greek citizens.

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(*) This information was found in the Abravanel blog, mentioned above