I have never been able to stand Life Is Beautiful by Roberto Benigni, the Italian comedian canonized while still alive, an opportunistic master in the art of winning over audiences. Benigni’s film tells the story of an innocent man, Guido, his whimsical love story, and his deportation to a German camp together with his wife and son. The innocent man cannot believe the enormity of what is happening around him; he sees a horse painted green with the words “Attention, Jewish horse" and notices signs in shops reading “Jews and dogs not allowed."
Only then does reality finally reveal itself to him.
The clever Benigni wanted to turn horror into a fairy tale in order to make the unbearable digestible. Through his Guido Orifice, he delivered a comforting parable: antisemitism as a humorous misunderstanding that a playful father can exorcise through imagination.
An innocent man who laughs while the world dies, and the audience applauds, moved by its own sensitivity.
Benigni’s indolent comedy allowed the extermination of Europe’s Jews to become family entertainment. During a presentation at the Simon Wiesenthal Center, some viewers were so offended that they stood up and left the room.
When Steven Spielberg was asked whether he liked it, he replied: “I’m pleased whenever a film says that the Holocaust happened. I would feel uncomfortable saying anything more."
That green horse is galloping again, but it no longer bears Gothic lettering: it waves a keffiyeh and the Palestinian Arab flag.
The eternal dissident Boualem Sansal, speaking to Le Figaro this week on the occasion of the release of his new book, says:
“Islam and Islamism brought Algeria down and crossed the Mediterranean. They settled in France and corrupted it. It is now deeply threatened in all its public and private institutions. The French flag has begun to turn green, and the mosque has Islamized the urban landscape. What happened to the France of old?
"My first novel was published in France twenty-five years ago, and even then I was saying that what was happening in Algeria would eventually happen in France. Today it has happened. I fear that one day the French will be forced to seek refuge elsewhere. Today some books are practically banned. Certain people are prevented from expressing themselves. For someone like me, it has become very difficult to be invited to a university or to Sciences Po to give a lecture."
And one of the first signs of Islamization is the departure of Jews.
That is what happened in Sansal’s Algeria. The chief rabbi of Médéa was killed. The Great Synagogue of Algiers was set on fire. Between the end of 1961 and June 1962 there were murders of rabbis and Jewish figures, attacks against synagogues and Jewish cultural sites. One hundred and thirty thousand Jews left Algeria.
Over the last twenty years, more than 20 percent of French Jews have left France. A figure similar to Algeria’s. According to one survey, 40 percent of those who remain want to leave. Although Jews make up less than 0.8 percent of the French population, half of the military and police deployed in the streets are guarding Jewish schools and synagogues.
Hundreds of French Jewish doctors already have their suitcases packed.
The End of the Jews of France? is the title of an investigative book by Dov Maïmon and Didier Long. “We firmly believe that French Jews, at a certain point, will have to leave. And we ask them to prepare."
Long, a Benedictine monk, French writer, and theologian, is author of several books on the links between Judaism and Christianity. According to their investigation, if nothing is done, there will be no Jews left in France by 2050. Long says:
“It is a brutal title because the facts are brutal. And we must wake up. The situation is truly catastrophic. Of the 440,000 French Jews we counted in France, 150,000 are in danger."
The children of French Jewish leaders have already all left. Joel Mergui, president of the Paris Consistoire, revealed that all four of his children moved to Israel. Meyer Habib stated that two of his four children live in Israel. Paris chief rabbi Michel Gugenheim has eight children: all of them moved to Israel.
In Norway, one of Europe’s most pro-Palestinian and Islamized countries, there are only 1,500 Jews, and these days they must hide. Norwegian Jews are reportedly afraid even of being treated in hospitals. “Norwegian Jews have begun making aliyah to Israel," writes Hanne Ramberg from Oslo. “I feel bad because the Norwegian government does not protect its minority, which therefore has to emigrate in order to live safely."
Life is truly beautiful in the multicultural parable...
“Norway could be the first country in Europe to become judenfrei," wrote journalist Julie Bindel. Judenfrei: free of Jews.
The British Museum in London has just cancelled an event on Jewish history for fear of attacks, while Jewish homes in the British capital were going up in flames. Even Jewish babies’ strollers were burned.
“Sorry, Jews are not allowed in our hotel."
That was the response an Upper Bavarian hotel gave in English to Israeli tourists. German authorities are now investigating for incitement to hatred, while Booking removed the hotel from its listings.
“We do not rent to Zionists."
That was the response from a condominium in London.
Jews are no longer hated as a race, but rather as “Zionists," guilty of existing as a state after daring to survive the attempt at total annihilation of October 7, 2023. In other words: we accept you only if you renounce yourself.
Menachem Margolin, president of the European Jewish Association, revealed that “40,000 Jews have left Europe with no intention of returning."
Meanwhile, a new green horse is passing by and no one seems to notice.
“I do not want to live in a country whose chancellor brings in millions of antisemitic Muslims who attack Jews and Jewish institutions in Germany," said Semen Gorelick, president of the Brandenburg Jewish community, in an open letter explaining that he had left and urging all German Jews to follow him.
Arriving in Germany in 1996 as a refugee from the former Soviet Union, Gorelick wrote:
“You cannot live in this country as a Jew, and I no longer want to live here. I will not live in a country where, as a Jew, I must hide everywhere and at all times. You cannot live in a country where you cannot wear a kippah in the street."
The old virus has mutated into a form acceptable to the woke era.
A guesthouse owner in Naples, participating in a campaign against what she called the Palestinian Arab genocide, was filmed telling Israeli tourists: “Zionists are not welcome here."
“We hide, we make ourselves unrecognizable, and we cover the kippah with a hat," confessed Cesare Moscati, chief rabbi of Naples.
A few days ago, I was in Naples.
Walking from the waterfront toward Central Station, I stopped to grab something to eat in a beautiful square near via dei Tribunali. A “literary café," the sign said. An LGBT venue where everything seemed wonderful. Next door, an “Arab Café" full of Palestinian Arab flags and “Free Gaza" slogans (Naples is covered in Palestinian flags - a strange mystery).
Then I thought of poor Ahmad Abu Murkhiyeh, the gay Palestinian Arab who had lived in Israel for two years as an asylum seeker. One day, Ahmad was convinced by someone he trusted to return to Hebron, in the Palestinian Authority, where he was beheaded. His headless body was dumped on the side of the road, and images of his dismembered corpse were circulated on Palestinian Arab social media. But it’s easier to accuse those who offer asylum of “pinkwashing" rather than those who throw gays off rooftops.
Antisemitism has discovered that hating the Jewish state is much more chic, profitable, and socially acceptable than hating the individual Jew.
We’ve gone from the Nazi slogan “Kauft nicht bei Juden" (Don’t buy from Jews) to “Kauft nicht beim Judenstaat" (Don’t buy from the Jewish state). From “Jews, go to Palestine" to “Jews, get out of Palestine."
“When I walk around London wearing a kippah, I’m always afraid." Jeremy Jacobs, a leader of the British Jewish community and former president of the United Synagogue in London, wrote in a letter to The Telegraph that he has put his house up for sale and packed his bags: “We’re moving to Israel." Jacobs urges others to follow before it’s too late. “Right now we still have the freedom to choose. But I wonder: how much longer will that last?"
Lenny Kuhr also has packed her bags. The Dutch music icon, who won the Eurovision Song Contest in 1969 with “De Troubadour," is moving to Israel. Kuhr announced that she no longer feels safe in her home in Amsterdam. And who would feel safe in “Tehran on the Amstel"? The Amsterdam Holocaust Museum recently canceled a conference on antisemitism for security reasons; it was moved to a church.
Even Ralph Pais, a real estate investor who splits his time between Antwerp and Brussels, is ready to sell his house and leave Belgium before it becomes “Europe’s first Islamic state."“It feels like we’re back in the 1930s," Pais told the Wall Street Journal. His two sons have already moved to New York and have no intention of returning. “Young people are leaving en masse," he said. He himself considered moving but decided to stay to set an example for his community. “My rabbi told me that if I leave, everyone will panic."
But when even the last Jews have left Europe, the only question left will be: who’s next? Gays? Atheists? Christians who don’t want to be dhimmis?
“If it weren’t for the Mossad, I’d be dead," revealed Volker Beck this week. He is not Jewish but a former Green Party leader, Bundestag member, and key pro-Israel figure in Germany. Iran tried to assassinate him, and he ended up under protection thanks to Israeli intelligence tips to Berlin: “For every activity of mine, six to ten security personnel have to be mobilized."
Life is beautiful! Allahu Akbar!