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By Benjamin Weinthal
(AUGUST 12, 2022 / JERUSALEM POST) Top military and intelligence experts in Israel, the United States and Great Britain have urged the government of Baden-Württemberg to oust the German state’s commissioner for combating antisemitism, Michael Blume, for terming Israeli national hero Orde Wingate a “war criminal.”
There has been widespread outrage among Israelis, American Jewish organizations and supporters of Israel about Blume’s anti-Israel remarks, because in his role he is supposed to combat modern antisemitism, including hatred of the Jewish state.
“The late Orde Wingate was a trailblazer and revolutionary military commander whose daring raids and tactics are still studied at military schools around the world,” Brig.-Gen. (res.) Amir Avivi, founder and CEO of the Israel Defense and Security Forum (IDSF), told the Jerusalem Post. “Wingate fought gallantly against oppressors on at least three continents, and will forever be enshrined in Israeli memory as a hero.”
Avivi, a former commander of the IDF’s Gaza Division, said that, “to accuse Wingate of war crimes is a reprehensible attempt to rewrite history and blemish the exceptional legacy of a British officer. This attempt should be squarely rejected. The IDSF will continue to advocate exactly the type of military strategy that Wingate embodied: initiative, creativity and a firm belief in the justness of our cause.”
Former Israeli ambassador to the U.S. Michael Oren told the Post that Blume “should resign” for denigrating the British general, who is widely considered the father of the Israel Defense Forces.
A distinguished military historian and a former deputy minister in the Prime Minister’s Office, Oren served as a paratrooper during the 1982 First Lebanon War.
“These quotes by Michael Blume are unacceptable and, together with his other antisemitic actions, clearly require the German state of Baden-Württemberg to remove him from his post as commissioner,” Dan Pollak, director of government relations for the Zionist Organization of America, told the Post.
“The ZOA stands against Jew-hatred of all kinds, but it is particularly unacceptable when it comes from a government official whose job it is to fight against antisemitism.
Pollak, a former U.S. Navy submarine officer, added, “The memory of Orde Wingate is an inspiration to both Christians and Jews who have followed the path he pioneered as the most important British officer to serve in the Yishuv during this period. Slandering General Wingate to achieve a contemporary political purpose is particularly despicable. Like so many ‘anti-Zionists,’ Michael Blume cannot hide his actual agenda of Jew-hatred. He should resign or be fired at once.”
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