A German official appointed to confront antisemitism has been himself accused of “Jew-hatred” after he accused the “father of the Israel Defence Forces” of being a “murderer”.
Michael Blume, Baden-Württemberg’s state commissioner for combating antisemitism, accused Major-General Orde Wingate of being a “war criminal” and “British murderer”.
Zionist Wingate is revered in Israel, where he is considered the father of the IDF. Streets and squares are named after him, as well as the national centre for physical education and sports, the Wingate Institute.
Following Blume’s comments, which first appeared on his Twitter account, several leading military, diplomatic and intelligence experts in the UK, the US and Israel have urged the government of Baden-Württemberg to fire him.
Retired British army chief Colonel Richard Kemp, who commanded troops in Afghanistan, said: “Wingate was a highly decorated British officer who was killed fighting for his country in the Second World War and bravely defended Jews in Palestine against murderous Arab gangs in the 1930s.
“He was a committed Zionist, revered as a hero and friend in Israel.
“That is enough to incite hatred from those opposed to Israel and Zionism. Germany, of all of the countries in the world, has a responsibility to fight Jew-hate at every turn and for one of its public officials — whether or not he’s an antisemitism commissioner — to support this sickness is a cause for national disgrace. Herr Blume shames Germany and should resign or be fired.”
Brigadier-General Amir Avivi, founder and CEO of the Israel Defense and Security Forum (IDSF), said: “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.
Wingate fought gallantly against oppressors on at least three continents, and will forever be enshrined in Israeli memory as a hero.”
And former Israeli ambassador to the US Michael Oren, himself a former paratrooper who fought in the 1982 First Lebanon War, said Blume “should resign” for denigrating the British general.
Richard Grenell, the former US acting director of national intelligence during the Trump administration, also called for Blume to quit. “Blume stokes antisemitism and isn’t uniting people.
“He should either resign or be forced to quit.”
Grenell served as ambassador to Germany and is on the Holocaust Memorial Council in Washington.
The Simon Wiesenthal Center classified Blume’s output as the seventh worst outbreak of antisemitism in 2021. In 2019, he liked a Facebook post likening Israelis to Nazis, prompting the Wiesenthal Center’s top Nazi-hunter, Efraim Zuroff, to urge him to resign.
Wiesenthal Center associate dean Rabbi Abraham Cooper said: “Haters of Zionists and Zionism seek to denigrate and demonise our people’s history. Can anyone still question Blume’s antisemitism? Surely German authorities can find someone to be antisemitism czar who is prepared to fight Jew-hatred, not contribute to it.”
And Dan Pollak, director of government relations for the Zionist Organization of America, said: “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.
“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 US Navy submarine officer, added, “Like so many anti-Zionists, Michael Blume cannot hide his actual agenda of Jew-hatred.
“He should resign or be fired at once.”
Israel’s first prime minister, the late David Ben-Gurion, thought that Wingate might have become the IDF’s first chief of staff, had he not been killed during the Second World War and Sir Winston Churchill said of him: “I had recognised him as a man of genius, and I hoped he might become a man of destiny.”
And the late IDF chief of staff and defence minister Moshe Dayan said of Wingate: “He taught us everything we know.”
Wingate, an officer steeped in the traditions of Christian Zionism, served in Mandatory Palestine from 1936-39. He created and commanded the Special Night Squads – armed groups of British and Hagana volunteers – to fight Arab saboteurs and terrorists. He is buried in the United States Military Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia.