The Jüdische Allgemeine publishes excerpts from the Heidelberg University speech of July 11, 2024 by its editor-in-chief Philipp Peymann Engel in the current issue in print and online.
"October 7, 2023 was a brutal turning point, a caesura, not only for Israel and every Israeli, but also for all Jews worldwide. Since then, nothing has been the same. What was before has given way to a new reality.
The non-Jewish part of our society likes to ignore it, or at least not really notice it, but it is a fact: many Jewish journalists, intellectuals and artists take a completely different stance on certain issues today than they did before October 7. If you talk to Jews, this will become very clear to you.
The following is very important for me to emphasize. Because it still seems to be the case that this point is often not recognized in the discussion: The Jewish people have been in a state of emergency since October 7. The emotions triggered by the Hamas terror - anger, shock, bewilderment, grief - have not gone away. They are still present. They hurt. It is an open wound.
People like to say that time heals all wounds. But the problem is - and I know what I'm talking about, my wife is a doctor: a wound can only at least begin to heal if it is well cared for and is not torn open again day in, day out. But as far as October 7 is concerned, this is exactly the case. In my line of work, journalism, it is obvious.
Yes, almost the whole world reacted with shock after October 7. But unlike other terrorist attacks such as September 11, the horror of the worst massacre of Jews since the Shoah did not last long for most people. There was initially solidarity with Israel, including in Germany. But the counter-movement was already in full swing on October 7 and quickly picked up speed, and I don't just mean the spontaneous distribution of baklava and honking concerts in Neukölln, with which Berliners of Arab origin expressed their joy at the massacres.
What happened happened again and again: Hamas' deeds were "categorized", "contextualized". In other words, they were played down. High-ranking political decision-makers such as UN Special Envoy Francesca Albanese were also at the forefront of the trivialization.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres occasionally condemned the actions of Hamas, but pointed out that none of this had happened in a vacuum - and spoke explicitly of the occupation of Palestinian territories by Israel in 1967.
What Mr. Guterres did not mention was that Israel had already completely withdrawn from the Gaza Strip in 2005. Gaza could have become a second Singapore. Peace, freedom and gradual prosperity could have come to Gaza.
Instead, the Hamas militias threw political opponents from Fatah from high-rise buildings and from then on invested almost every dollar of the billions provided annually by the international community not in the welfare of their own population, but in gigantic terror tunnels and rockets, which were then fired at Israel by the tens of thousands. Hamas' foremost and only goal: the annihilation of the Jewish state and every single Jew in the Jewish state. So much for the "context".
Even then, I asked myself: how can anyone have the slightest bit of sympathy for these gangs of murderers? António Guterres was by no means the only one who talked like that. Publicists, artists, intellectuals and others also indulged in acrobatic intellectual contortions.
Judith Butler, the star philosopher who is shaping entire generations of young students, for example: Hamas as a liberation organization? The atrocities of October 7, one of the most documented massacres of our time, may not have taken place? October 7 is actually the fault of the Israelis? The hatred of Israel, the hatred of the West, can sometimes make even the most intelligent people lose reason and compassion.
I ask myself: why must Israel always be blamed for everything terrible that happens in the Middle East? Why is Israel blamed for everything that happens in Gaza? Why are Hamas and the fundamentally corrupt, Jew-hating, terror-promoting Fatah so absent from the discourse?
Hasn't Hamas ruled the coastal enclave since 2007? Was it not elected with a majority in free parliamentary elections in the Palestinian Autonomous Territories in 2006? And is Israel responsible for the fact that no more elections have been held there since then?
The fact is: Hamas has been firing rockets at Israel from Gaza with great regularity for years. Israel must defend itself against terrorist attacks in order to protect its citizens and prevent further attacks. And it is also a fact that Israel does everything it can to avoid civilian casualties. Hamas, on the other hand, is doing everything it can to increase the number of civilian Palestinian victims in order to win the war of images against Israel. Terrorists often make no secret of their goals. Hamas openly calls on its own population to do so: Become martyrs! More Palestinian victims are needed to defeat the "Zionist enemy" in the long term.
After October 7, Israel defended itself more massively than before. It had to fight back, and there is a broad consensus on this in Israel from right to left. And it still has to defend itself, because Hamas is still firing rockets that it manufactures itself in its huge underground system. Yes, there are underground rocket factories in Gaza. My colleagues in other newspapers read little or nothing about this either.
Instead, Hamas is often subliminally portrayed as a backwoods, militarily hopelessly inferior force, which it definitely is not. Not to mention the ongoing attacks from Lebanon, with the friendly support of Iran. Did you know that there are still around 100,000 Israeli internally displaced persons because of these incessant Hezbollah attacks? Calculated down to the total population of the Federal Republic of Germany, that would be 800,000 German internally displaced persons, i.e. around five entire cities with a population like Heidelberg. (...)
Israel has set itself the goal of destroying Hamas. Israel wants to eliminate the terrorist organization militarily. This is a legitimate and indeed existentially necessary concern. Any other country that has been attacked by such a terrorist organization for decades would claim this right. Every other country. Even Germany.
As a Jew, I often feel like I'm watching the wrong movie when it comes to the debates after October 7. Don't Jews have the right to defend themselves against pogroms? Should they just let themselves be slaughtered?
Of course, no one says that explicitly, but that's exactly what it boils down to. The consequence of the Nazi era for many Germans is: "Never again war!" The consequence of the Jews in Israel is also: "Never again Auschwitz!" Those who are attacked must defend themselves. The Israelis do not have the luxury of ignoring this truth.
I was shocked that on October 7, an editor and former Israel correspondent was allowed to rant in a commentary in the Süddeutsche Zeitung about how the massacre suited the Israeli prime minister politically. I was also shocked that many journalists in Germany believe that Israel is deliberately waging a war against the Palestinians just so that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu can stay in power.
No, you may think what you like of the Israeli Prime Minister - and I don't think much of him - but to accuse Israel's army of acting as a stooge for the personal interests of a politician is, yes, exactly: infamous. Israel's soldiers are not fighting for Prime Minister Netanyahu, they are fighting for the survival of their state and its citizens. An honorable motive, if you ask me.
Unfortunately, there is a lot wrong with German journalism. Ethical standards are slipping, double standards are being applied. All too often, people are demonized and defamed. Incidentally, the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine was different. It was clearly stated who was the victim and who was the perpetrator. By the vast majority at least. (...)
Which, as already mentioned, is little known: In northern Israel, whole swathes of land have been uninhabitable for some time due to Hezbollah attacks. Here, too, it is worth taking a look at the history books: it was Israel that withdrew from southern Lebanon in 2000. Hezbollah quickly followed suit at the time. Today, it is an even greater threat than it was back then.
A question for all of you: Do you read about this in your daily newspaper or in the Tagesthemen, Tagesschau or ZDF main news? Do you hear about it on the radio news? I don't, except in the "Welt", "Bild", "NZZ" or the "FAZ". That may sound like a lot, but in view of the still very pluralistic German media landscape, it is unfortunately not at all.
However, when Israel reacts to the constant bombardment from Lebanon, when Israel defends itself, when Israel appears to be doing something wrong: then everyone reports, above all dpa, the German Press Agency, which supplies pretty much every medium in Germany with news. The tenor of the reporting, at best: "Escalation in the Middle East". The fact that Hezbollah is attacking and Israel is merely defending itself is not mentioned.
Such a one-sided focus is perhaps unintentional. Sometimes there is a misunderstanding of equidistance behind it. But with a terrorist organization on one side and a democratic state on the other, there can be no equidistance and "false balance". Sometimes there is ignorance behind it. It is by no means always anti-Semitism. But, and believe me, I know one or two colleagues, sometimes it is.
Let's be specific: anyone who claims that calls such as "Free Palestine, from the River to the Sea" or the battle cry "Yalla Intifada" or the slander "Zionists are fascists" are simply any expression of opinion that must be allowed and not punished because people are supposedly only protesting for the good cause of the Palestinians is also playing a false game here. Where exactly should there be room for the state of Israel if a state called Palestine were to exist between the Jordan and the Mediterranean?
Parts of German journalism are almost helpless in the face of hatred from a certain milieu. There is a tendency towards pseudo-balance in this country. If one side has done something bad, the other side must also be accused of something bad. You could call it the "yes, but..." principle.
I would have expected at least my journalist colleagues and civil society in Germany to have the courage to be clear and truthful. It starts with never allowing the democratic constitutional state of Israel to be put on the same level as a terrorist organization like Hamas. Because anyone who compares the Jewish state, the only democracy in the Middle East, with Hamas, Hezbollah and the mullahs in Iran, even if only implicitly and in a fuzzy way, is engaging in propaganda."
(All pictures by Johannes Hoffmann, RNZ)
