New antisemitism?

Howard Jacobson of The Independent writes:

"In the early 1940s some 100,000 Jews and Romanis died of engineered starvation and disease in the Warsaw Ghetto, another quarter of a million were transported to the death camps, and when the Ghetto rose up it was liquidated, the last 50,000 residents being either shot on the spot or sent to be murdered more hygienically in Treblinka. Don’t mistake me: every Palestinian killed in Gaza is a Palestinian too many, but there is not the remotest similarity, either in intention or in deed – even in the most grossly mis-reported deed – between Gaza and Warsaw.

Given the number of besieged and battered cities there have been in however many thousands of years of pitiless warfare there is only one explanation for this invocation of Warsaw before any of those – it is to wound Jews in their recent and most anguished history and to punish them with their own grief. Its aim is a sort of retrospective retribution, cancelling out all debts of guilt and sorrow. It is as though, by a reversal of the usual laws of cause and effect, Jewish actions of today prove that Jews had it coming to them yesterday.

Berating Jews with their own history, disinheriting them of pity, as though pity is negotiable or has a sell-by date, is the latest species of Holocaust denial, infinitely more subtle than the David Irving version with its clunking body counts and quibbles over gas-chamber capability and chimney sizes. Instead of saying the Holocaust didn’t happen, the modern sophisticated denier accepts the event in all its terrible enormity, only to accuse the Jews of trying to profit from it, either in the form of moral blackmail or downright territorial theft. According to this thinking, the Jews have betrayed the Holocaust and become unworthy of it, the true heirs to their suffering being the Palestinians. Thus, here and there throughout the world this year, Holocaust day was temporarily annulled or boycotted on account of Gaza, dead Jews being found guilty of the sins of live ones. Anti-Semitism? Absolutely not. It is 'criticism' of Israel, pure and simple."

Need a Job? Become a Bank Robber

It seems alarming the number of bank robberies that have happened lately. As of Feb. 11th there had already been 30 bank robberies in Washington this year. That is .714 robberies per day. Last month, in a single day, three banks were robbed within four hours of each other.

The FBI claims that this spike in the number of bank robberies is not related to the economy, but you have to consider the old adage that desperate times call for desperate measures. In the Month of January 598,000 more jobs disappeared across the United States. The job losses and subsequent increase in unemployment has left many people desperately searching for a source of income. People still need to provide for themselves and their families. With limited options available for the unemployed, one “career path” has become increasingly popular, Bank Robbery.

The increase of people entering this “profession” is not alarming when the ease with which the bandits can make off with the money is considered. All that is required to rob a bank is a simple note saying that you have a gun. No weapon need to be shown. In fact the robber does not even need to have a weapon at all, just a harmless little note. Once the note is shown it is bank protocol to meet the robber’s demands, let them leave, and then contact the police if an alarm has not already been sent. This policy makes sense when the potential risk of a real gun is considered, but something just seems weird about giving a thief money that easily.

Today's Bank Robber

Sources: cnn.com, seattletimes.com