Frank A. Meyer writes plain language in SonntagsBlick: “The self-destructors”

At the Venice Biennale, the oldest and possibly most important manifestation of contemporary art and culture, hatred of Israel reigns supreme. Belu-Simion Fainaru, who was born in Bucharest and lives in Haifa, reports on his experiences at this year’s art festival in the lagoon city: “Whoever I greet here, they turn away from me.”

The sculptor and installation artist is ignored and boycotted in Venice. Hardly any of his fellow artists want to have anything to do with the representative of Israel. He should even be removed from the official list of participants. His gallery is also distancing itself from him. It is afraid that the association could damage its reputation. Fainaru: “It is painful that I am classified as a danger – simply because I am an Israeli Jew.”

These days, Fainaru is personally experiencing a hostility towards Jews that presents itself as solidarity with the Palestinians. Her slogan: “Free Palestine from the river to the sea.” Translated into political German, this demand means:

The destruction of Israel.

The left-wing cultural scene justifies its hatred of Israel with the military attacks in the Gaza Strip and southern Lebanon, the Jewish nation’s war against Hamas and Hezbollah, both terrorist organizations that are in the financial favor of Iran and pursue its anti-Israeli foreign policy. The state objective of the mullah regime is firmly established:

The destruction of Israel.

The most recent highlight of this policy was the Hamas pogrom on October 7, 2023, the extermination of almost 1,200 predominantly Israeli people through murder, torture and rape – including the sadistic lynching of children. The goal:

The extermination of the Jews.

Since then, the Western cultural elite has been demonstrating solidarity. With whom? With Israel, which is trying to get rid of its murderous enemies once and for all by force of arms? No, the media-global networked solidarity is with the mass murderers of Hamas, as well as the mass murderers of Hezbollah – professional, militarily organized enemies of the Jews.

Left-wing elitist anti-Semitism in its purest form.

How can the solidarity of the left with Islamic terror be explained? How can we explain the fact that leftists regard Israel as a nation that should not, must not be? How can we explain the fact that this conviction is considered historically correct in the eyes and intentions of countless Western cultural and artistic powers?

Israel is the only democratic constitutional state in the midst of authoritarian societies. Its citizens practice criticism as an element of life, even in times of war, which for Israel means: since time immemorial! Because the Jewish state has always lived with attacks and raids and war campaigns by its Arab neighbors. October 7, 2023 is just one date among many in the Islamic calendar of aggression.

But where does this insistence of the neighboring Arab nations, which also refused Israel’s outstretched hand for peace, come from? Why the permanent war waged by Iran and its terrorist auxiliaries against a state with which the Persian Empire does not even share borders? The answer is:

Israel is the West.

Exactly: it is!

And in every respect: from the never-ending political debate about right and wrong, to the self-critical questioning of capitalist economic activity, to the unstoppable progress in research and the joyful practice of democracy, the Jewish state is an example of freedom – in the midst of a historically belated religious culture.

Israel is the bone of contention!

The modernity and success of the Jewish state not only offends its Islamic neighbors. The modernity and success of the Jewish state provoke the enemies of Western capitalism all over the world: the Marxist-inspired left with its activist cultural environment, politically committed people from science and art, postmodern popular educators of climate ideology.

Yes, the zealots of those teachings cannot cope with a secular, even laicist system. They feel close to classical authoritarian religions. Fraternization with Islam corresponds to their credo.

Israel is their emergency.

In a touching journalistic essay, Mathias Döpfner, head of Springer-Verlag, describes the postmodern, curated hostility towards Jews in activist art and cultural circles: “In anti-Semitism, the West hates and envies itself. If the West – not defined geographically, of course, but as a free world – if this West does not defeat anti-Semitism, it will destroy itself.”

The coalition of destroyers is currently forming.