Day: March 20, 2024

JONATHAN GLAZER IS JUST A USEFUL IDIOT FOR THE ENEMIES OF THE JEWISH PEOPLE

As Jewish history teaches us, there will always be “useful [Jewish] idiots” like Jonathan Glazer, and some of the dangerous anti-Zionists will be Jewish.

By Dr. Efraim Zuroff

(First appeared in The Jerusalem Post)

The natural response to Jonathan Glazer’s acceptance speech of an Oscar for his recent movie The Zone of Interest, is one of utter disgust and disappointment. 

Glazer specifically said that he refutes his Jewish ancestry and secondly accuses Israel (whom he doesn’t mention by name) of “hijacking the Holocaust by an occupation which has led to conflict for so many, for so many, innocent people.”

Devious Director. A scene from the Oscar award-winning “The Zone of Interest” where the commandant of Auschwitz, Rudolf Höss, and his wife, Hedwig, strive to build a dream life for their family in a house and garden next to the extermination camp and  (right) director Jonathan Glazer who “refutes” his Jewishness.  (Photo: A24/Getty)

These days, such an accusation by a Jew is probably the most damning accusation imaginable, and when it is leveled at us by the director of an apparently highly successful film, which focuses on the Hoess family of the commander of the Auschwitz – Birkenau death camp, and purports to deal with “where dehumanization leads,” it is hard to ignore.


To add to the irony, the Friday before the Oscars, Yedioth Aharonot had a very lengthy profile on Glazer by Benjamin Tobias, their film correspondent, who described Glazer as a “proud” Jew.

THE NEW NORMAL SINCE OCTOBER 7

The truth is, however, that Glazer’s comments should hardly surprise anybody. How many times have we recently read about Jewish groups that support the Palestinians? Just the other day, I read an article in The Jerusalem Post about the dedication of the new Holocaust Museum in Amsterdam, attended by President Isaac Herzog. Among those who came to “greet” the president were members of a Dutch Jewish anti-Zionist organization called Erev Rav, which organized the protest together with Jews Against Genocide, the local Palestinian community, and Socialists International.

Jewish groups of this sort have emerged in many Jewish communities, especially in the United States, such as Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) and IfNotNow, and have become much more active and visible in the wake of the Hamas mass murders of October 7.

Speech that left Jews Speechless. (l-r)James Wilson, Leonard Blavatnik, and director Jonathan Glazer accepting the award for ‘The Zone of Interest’ for best international feature film during the Oscars, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles, March 10, 2024. (Photo: Chris Pizzello/AP)

For those of us born after 1948, such criticism of Israel is unusual and hardly popular. The establishment of the State of Israel turned many opponents of Zionism into ardent supporters of the lone Jewish state. 

Who remembers the anti-Zionist American Council for Judaism and the opposition to Zionism of numerous Reform rabbis? Who remembers the anti-Zionist socialist Bund, one of the largest Jewish parties in Poland? Or the notorious Yevsekstiya, the Jewish section of the Soviet Communist Party, whose goal was for all Russian Jews to join the party and abandon Judaism? In fact, Zionism was a small minority movement in world Jewry until the middle of the 20th century.

Three events changed practically the entire Jewish world – the Holocaust, the establishment of an independent sovereign Jewish state, and Israel’s stunning victory in the Six Days War. From a distinct minority of world Jewry, Zionism became the majority ideology of the committed Jews of the world, and one of the most important elements of modern Jewish identity.

Pride and Prejudice. While proud of winning the Oscar, director Jonathan Glazer (right, with producer James Wilson) can’t resist displaying his prejudice against his own people, anchoring it on the war in Gaza.  (Photo: JEFF KRAVITZ/FILMMAGIC)

So, it is particularly unpleasant when successful and famous Jews accuse the state of Israel publicly and unfairly of exploiting the Holocaust to commit war crimes, probably the most disgusting accusation one can make against the Jewish state. But we should not overestimate the impact of such accusations. In most cases, they are a function of ignorance, or a desire to find favor with audiences who have little knowledge of the circumstances; or out of fear of losing fans.

As Jewish history teaches us, there will always be “useful [Jewish] idiots” like Jonathan Glazer, and some of the dangerous anti-Zionists will be Jewish. The best way to combat their lies is to teach the history of Zionism and Israel’s efforts to make peace with our neighbors, and expose the extremism of our enemies and the crimes committed against us, as painful as that might be.





About the writer:

Dr. Efraim Zuroff. Director, Simon Wiesenthal Center – Israel office and Eastern European Affairs. Coordinator, SWC Nazi war crimes research worldwide
1 Mendele Street
Jerusalem, Israel 92147
Tel: 972.2.563.1273/4/5
Fax: 972.2.563.1276
www.swcjerusalem.org <http://www.swcjerusalem.org> 





While the mission of Lay of the Land (LotL) is to provide a wide and diverse perspective of affairs in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world, the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by its various writers are not necessarily ones of the owners and management of LOTL but of the writers themselves.  LotL endeavours to the best of its ability to credit the use of all known photographs to the photographer and/or owner of such photographs (0&EO).

HER HIGHNESS HAS REACHED AN ALL-TIME ROYAL LOWNESS

Presenting a façade on CNN of the ‘motherly’ queen, Jordan’s Queen Rania questions authenticity of Palestinian massacre of Israelis.

By Lawrence Nowosenetz

In an interview with CNN (Tuesday 12 March 2024) Queen Rania was discussing the humanitarian aspects of the Gaza war. She said:

 “Aid under bombardment does not stop the destruction, the death and the heartbreak. We cannot save people from hunger only then to bomb them to death”.

Selective in Caring. Queen Rania of Jordan spoke to CNN’s Christiane Amanpour, and was asked how she responded to October 7 ‘as an Arab, as a Palestinian, as a mother, as a human being’.

Rousing words indeed. 

As usual, she reduced the root cause of the conflict – as all the twisted and dishonest opponents of Israel do – to historical injustice: occupation, settlement expansion, human rights abuses and disregard for international law.

Have we not heard this litany of slander abundant times before?

Naturally the democratic peace-loving nature of Palestinian society was nowhere mentioned.

Even the interviewer Christina Amanpour, not known for her regard for Israel or her balance in coverage of the conflict, could not hold back from questioning the queen about the events on 7 October 2023.

False Feelings. CNN’s Christiane Amanpour argued with Rania’s denial of Hamas butchering babies. She said there was proof they had shot and burned babies’ bodies, and prompted her for sympathy towards Israelis saying: “How did you feel on October 7?” 

Queen Rania gave this astonishing response:

“Israel experienced one October 7, since then, the Palestinians have experienced 156 October 7’s”.

This breathtaking lie suggest that for the last 156 days of the Gaza war, Israel has been committing similar atrocities on a daily basis on the civilians of Gaza. Not one single instance has been recorded of anything remotely approximating (G-d forbid), torture, burning, mutilation, rape, even necrophilia by Israeli soldiers on Palestinian women and children.    

However, her rank hypocrisy and dishonesty reveal a far more profound dimension of gross historic amnesia. Airing her crocodile tears to a gullible global audience over the plight of the Palestinians in Gaza – dismissing that it began with a massacre of Jews – she conveniently overlooked the history of what befell the Palestinians in Jordan at the hands of her husband’s father – King Hussein!

Remember the Black September massacre of the Palestinians by the Jordanian armed forces in 1972?

The viewers of CNN should have been reminded by Amanpour of this glaring historical fact. So should Queen Rania if she is unfamiliar with her own inconvenient history!

Gazan Child Killers. What Jordan’s Queen Rania prefers to forget or ignore – a blood-soaked child’s bed in Kibbutz Kfar Aza in the aftermath of the Hamas assault on Israel on October 7.

Quick rewind.  After the Six Day war in 1967, the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) and hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, mostly from the former Jordanian occupied West Bank, fled to Jordan. Refugee camps were set up. The fedayeen i.e. PLO fighters, conducted their international terrorism activities from Jordan. In 1970, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a splinter group of the PLO, hijacked three civilian aircraft to Dawson’s Field in Jordan. The aircraft were blown up and Jewish hostages were taken. The left wing of the PLO became emboldened calling for the overthrow of the Jordanian monarchy to create a Palestinian state within Jordan. There were assassination plots against King Hussein. The king saw these actions as a threat to the sovereignty of Jordan and took military action against fedayeen posts in the refugee camps. Some writers describe this conflict as a civil war.  In September 1970, the Jordanian armed forces launched full scale military attacks on Palestinian strongholds and the PLO was expelled. Many sought refuge in Lebanon. Palestinian fatalities including civilians are estimated to be between 4000 and 25,000 depending on the source. 

Another elephant in the room during this interview is the question why Jordan has refused to accept refugees from Gaza. This would be a natural and immediate humanitarian response from Jordan. Queen Rania was silent too on this issue preferring to soldier on blaming Israel’s “hardline leaders keeping their people in this perpetual state of fear of an existential threat that doesn’t exist…”

Doesn’t exist?

How can Her Highness say that following Hamas’s political bureau member Ghazi Hamad emphatically expressing to the world on 1 November 2023 in an interview with a Lebanese TV channel that the terror group will repeat the October 7 attack time and again until Israel is annihilated.

Did she not see and hear Hamad express the following:

“We must teach Israel a lesson and we will do that again and again. The Al-Aqsa Flood is just the first time, and there will be second, a third, a fourth.”

While Queen Rania chose to ignore this egregious declaration of genocide, she surely can’t escape the Hamas charter which seeks to establish an Islamic state in all of Israel.

Black September Massacre. The late General Zia-ul-Haq, President of Pakistan, was referred to in reports as a ‘butcher’ of Palestinians following his assistance to Queen Rania’s father-in-law, King Hussein in reorganizing Jordan’s army and later participation in Jordans civil war against the Palestinians living around Amman. (Photo: AFP)

The Queen may be forgiven for her ignorance or dishonesty, but her compliant interlocutor Amanpour cannot. She is a seasoned news veteran on a major news network and one would assume has some smidgen of journalistic ethics to place the real facts on record. Would that be expecting too much from CNN?  

In the words of Bob Dylan from the songA Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall –

“And I’ll tell it, and speak it, and think it, and breathe it

And reflect from the mountain so all souls can see it

And I’ll stand on the ocean until I start sinking

But I’ll know my song well before start singing”

We know our song well and we will never be silent or silenced by a world that turns a blind eye and a deaf ear to the injustices and lies against our people.



About the writer:

Born in Pretoria, Lawrence Nowosenetz obtained his BA at University of the Witwatersrand and LL.B at the University of South Africa. Admitted as an attorney and advocate in South Africa, he practiced at the Pretoria and Johannesburg Bar and worked as a human rights and labour lawyer at the Legal Resources Centre, a public interest law firm. Awarded a Fulbright Scholarship, Lawrence completed an internship in the USA and is presently a part-time Senior Commissioner at the Commission for Conciliation Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) as well as a panelist at Tokiso Dispute Settlement – the largest private dispute resolution provider in South Africa. He has also served as an Acting Judge of the Hight Court, South Africa.





While the mission of Lay of the Land (LotL) is to provide a wide and diverse perspective of affairs in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world, the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by its various writers are not necessarily ones of the owners and management of LOTL but of the writers themselves.  LotL endeavours to the best of its ability to credit the use of all known photographs to the photographer and/or owner of such photographs (0&EO).