Free Republic

The United States believes there is no need for the Palestinian Authority (PA) to recognize Israel as a Jewish state as part of a peace agreement, State Department Spokeswoman Jen Psaki said Saturday. Psaki, who spoke to the PA-based Arabic-language Al-Quds newspaper, said, “The American position is clear, Israel is a Jewish state. However, we do not see a need that both sides recognize this position as part of the final agreement.” Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has been adamant on the PA recognizing Israel as a Jewish state, explaining that the Arabs’ refusal to recognize Israel stands at the heart...

Jack Angelides was about to board a flight out of Israel’s international airport when he was given a curious choice that baffles him to this day. Traveling with a laptop and a stack of printed reading material, he was told to part with one or the other, due to unspecified security concerns. […] While standing in long lines, walking through scanners and removing belts and shoes are a fact of post-Sept. 11 travel worldwide, Israel’s Ben-Gurion Airport seems to stand alone in the developed world with its security techniques, often leaving travelers dumbfounded. Though Israel denies profiling travelers, business executives,...

The New York Times exonerates Hillary Clinton on the charge that she called an aide a “f***ing Jew bastard.” That’s fine by me. I don’t think it would be that big a deal if she did say it. But I do think she said it. My reasons are simple: Three witnesses swear to it, she has a well-documented history of swearing like a Russian sailor drunk on rubbing alcohol, she comes from a background where people said these sorts of things, and she’s not very good on Jewish issues when she is not running for the Senate from the state...

Israel’s policies cannot be compared to the racist internal policies of Apartheid South Africa. The Afrikaans word “apartheid” means “the state of being apart.” As well, apartheid was a system of racial segregation, through legislation, by the National Party of South Africa between 1948-1994. Under this system of governing, political representation for non-whites in South Africa ceased in 1970. Furthermore, in that same year, non-whites were denied citizenship. This racist policy forced the majority of non-white people to live in, and become members of, 10 tribally-based bantustans, or “homelands.” The white-led minority, represented by the National Party, also segregated education,...

Anti-Semitism decreasing in France. Until september 2000, when the new intifada began. The authorities are still speaking of acts of vandalism, but the French Jews are worried. PARIS - The Oza Hatorz-school in Créteil is almost a fortress. The building and the small playing ground are outlined with a thick fence, and camera's are pointed towards two locked gates. An Israeli man with a radio is patrolling the area. He points to the place where about a month ago a fire bomb was thrown over the fence. Nobody was hurt, but a room burt out. Ozar Hatora is a Jewish ...

Rep. John Conyers, one of the founders of the Congressional Black Caucus and widely considered the dean of the African-Americans in Congress, bestowed a great honor on Louis Farrakhan over the weekend, by attending a three hour sermon before a crowd of 18,000 people in Detroit, sitting behind him and thereby implicitly endorsing his hateful message. Conyers was already well-acquainted with Farrakhan's hateful messages, having last year publicly condemned him. Caroline May writes in the Daily Caller: Last May, Conyers attended another Farrakhan speech at the Fellowship Chapel in Detroit where the black nationalist leader said President Obama "surrounded himself...

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power tweeted early Monday morning that, “Daniel Pearl’s story is reminder that individual accountability & reconciliation are required to break cycles of violence.” Pearl is the Wall Street Journal reporter who was abducted in Pakistan four months after Sept. 11, 2001. Al-Qaida leader Khalid Sheikh Mohammed slit Pearl’s throat and sawed his head off on camera, after forcing the reporter to read that “My name is Daniel Pearl. I’m a Jewish American from Encino, California, U.S.A. … My father’s Jewish, my mother’s Jewish, I’m Jewish. My family follows Judaism. We’ve made numerous family...

‘What the hell is wrong with you?’ Was this Samantha Power baffling Daniel Pearl tweet evil or stupid? Samantha Power@AmbassadorPower Daniel Pearl's story is reminder that individual accountability & reconciliation are required to break cycles of violence. @DanielPearlFNDN

Wendy Sherman, undersecretary of state for political affairs and the head of the American negotiation team to the nuclear talks between Iran and six world powers (P5+1), said Saturday that the goal is to reach a permanent agreement with Iran by July 20. Sherman was speaking to reporters in Jerusalem, where she arrived in order to brief the Israelis on the latest round of talks between Iran and the P5+1 in Vienna. In what appeared to be a warning to Israel, she said the United States hopes no one will interfere with the talks. "We don't enter these talks with...

Hollywood was an invention meant to help Jews “take over” America, according to Hezbollah’s television channel. Al-Manar TV, in a report, titled “Jews, Movies, Hollywoodism, and the American Dream”, claimed Hollywood was a Jewish invention, the goals of which were “to take over the greatest superpower in the world, to control all aspects of its daily life, and to harness it in the service of Jewish goals worldwide.” Superman, invented by “the Jews”, is part of this plan as well, according to the Hezbollah report. …

Is Israel “the Jewish state”? The answer may seem as obvious as the Star of David on the Israeli flag. Yet the question is starting to complicate the ambitious U.S. effort to ram through a peace deal between the Palestinians and Israel. A broad-based group of Israelis plans to lobby the Knesset to declare the country, for the first time, a Jewish state by law. And Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has demanded that the Palestinians recognize Israel’s Jewish status explicitly as part of any agreement. “This is the Jewish land. This is the Jewish state,” he said in a speech...

John Kerry's brother has responded to charges of anti-Semitism against the U.S. Secretary of State by some conservative Israelis — including a prominent minister — by writing publicly about the family’s Jewish roots. Cameron Kerry wrote a column in Israel's largest circulation daily newspaper, Yediot, saying the accusations “would be ridiculous if they were not so vile.” The move illustrates how seriously the State Department wants to rebut the charge of anti-Semitism by some conservative Israeli critics of the Secretary of State’s peace negotiations. Earlier this month, members of Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's cabinet accused Kerry of endorsing "anti-Semitic"...

The UN Watch NGO on Tuesday exposed a new anti-Israel report authored by Richard Falk, the United Nations’ special rapporteur on the areas controlled by the Palestinian Authority. In the latest report, Falk, who has a history of anti-Israel statements, accuses Israel of “inhuman acts" and calls on the world body to support a “legitimacy war” against the Jewish state. This will be Falk’s final report before he steps down after serving the maximum term of six years as a UN expert. …

It's time for Israel to 'fight back' and 'delegitimize the delegitimizers,' prime minister tells Conference of Presidents. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday that those who boycott Israel are anti-Semites. Speaking at the Conference of Presidents, Netanyahu told a group of visiting Jewish-American leaders that it is time for Israel to "fight back" and "delegitimize the delegitimizers." There are increasing concerns in Israel over a Palestinian-led movement of boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS). The boycott has been growing recently, mainly in Europe, where some businesses and pension funds have cut investments or trade with Israeli firms they say are connected...

A Russian Member of Parliament (MP) burst out in an anti-Semitic tirade last Thursday, attacking other Russian lawmakers as "Jews" responsible for the 1917 Communist revolution and the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. Oleg Bolychev, an MP from the ruling United Russia party, called his opponents "Jews, mired in opposition," during a debate at the regional parliament in Kaliningrad, reports AFP. "At the start of the 1990s foreign spies were infiltrated into our government who oversaw the destruction of our state," claimed Bolychev. "You destroyed our country in 1917 and you destroyed our country in 1991." The Russian...

At the Fourth Conference of Israeli Agriculture, scheduled for next week, one of the main topics of discussion will be the millions of dollars in financial damage to the Jordan Valley caused by European boycotts on Judea and Samaria.Haim Alush, editor of the monthly magazine “Agriculture Feedback,” will give figures about the delegitimization campaign against Israel at the conference, which will be held at the offices of Ben Gurion Airport. Speaking to Arutz Sheva, Alush reports that “these days we know of forces organizing in Europe against supermarkets that sell Israeli produce. The owners of the chains don’t want trouble,...

Israeli officials reacted on Thursday evening to Denmark’s decision to ban kosher slaughter as of next week. Rabbi David Lau, Israel’s Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi, said that kosher slaughter remains the only humane way to prevent animal suffering. “I will speak to the Danish ambassador to Israel and other Danish government officials, and if indeed this serious decision has been made, we will demand that it be reversed,” said Rabbi Lau. The decision to ban kosher slaughter, he added, “seriously hurts the Jewish religion and Jews in Denmark.” …

A Russian Member of Parliament (MP) burst out in an anti-Semitic tirade last Thursday, attacking other Russian lawmakers as “Jews” responsible for the 1917 Communist revolution and the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. Oleg Bolychev, an MP from the ruling United Russia party, called his opponents “Jews, mired in opposition,” during a debate at the regional parliament in Kaliningrad, reports AFP. “At the start of the 1990s, foreign spies were infiltrated into our government who oversaw the destruction of our state,” claimed Bolychev. “You destroyed our country in 1917 and you destroyed our country in 1991.” …

Passengers aboard a Belgian train from Namur to Brussels were stunned to hear an unusual message on the train’s PA system: “Ladies and gentlemen, we are approaching Auschwitz. All Jews are requested to disembark and take a short shower.” […] TV station RTL reported that the unidentified passenger hijacked the PA system at 5 pm, peak time. He made his anti-Semitic remarks in French, according to the station. …

Martin Schulz, who is visiting Israel to give a speech in the Knesset, wasn't eager to discuss settlements with reporters. Anti-Semitism has been a constant in Europe, and that hasn't changed irrespective of what goes on in the Middle East, the president of the European Parliament, who is in Israel to deliver a speech to the Knesset later Wednesday, told The Jerusalem Post. "Anti-Semitism always existed in Europe," said EU Parliament chief Martin Schulz. "I thought that after World War II we were stronger in fighting such demons in politics. This is a deception. Nothing disappeared, all the prejudice is...

A speech in Knesset Wednesday given by the head of the European Union Parliament caused outrage, and ultimately sparked a walk-out. Several MKs expressed upset as EU parliament president Martin Schulz, who spoke in German, repeated as fact Palestinian Authority claims of Israeli discrimination regarding allocation of water in Judea and Samaria, and of a “blockade” on Gaza. Schulz condemned Israeli “settlements” east of the 1949 armistice line as “an obstacle to peace,” and claimed, “The blockade of Gaza creates despair and extremism.” …

It keeps getting easier to ditch the soda can. When Coca-Cola said this week that it would let people make its drinks at home using a beverage machine, it became the latest company to take advantage of a growing trend: People turning to flavored drops or at-home carbonation machines that do away with the need to haul home bulky cans and bottles from the supermarket. […] Options that do away with cans and bottles are faring far better. Revenue for the Americas region at SodaStream, which makes at-home carbonation machines, surged 88 percent in 2012 from the previous year, the...

The French anti-Semitic comic Dieudonné was acquitted Friday on charges related to a video in which he calls for the release of a self-styled Islamist serving life for the kidnap and murder of a Jewish phone salesman, AFP reported. The controversial performer, who has a string of convictions for anti-Semitic hate speech, was cleared of defamation and illegally defending a convicted criminal because the judge ruled that it had not been proven that Dieudonné was behind the distribution of the video. As a result, the court could not consider the content of his remarks, the judge added in a ruling...

Anti-Israel musician Roger Waters proved this week that he supports freedom of speech, but only as long as it is his opinion that is presented. Waters published a post on his Facebook page in which he attacked actress Scarlett Johansson and Canadian musician Neil Young for their refusal to boycott Israel. […] Ben Red, who hosts a daily music program on Kol Yisrael radio station 88FM, responded to Waters in a polite post. […] Red’s response to Waters received almost 3,000 “likes” from other Facebook users and was widely quoted in both the Israeli and international media. It was at...

“Last year, not one Israeli was killed by a Palestinian from the West Bank,” U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry told guests at a Munich conference on Saturday, according to a U.S. State Department transcript. His comments, however, came just days after Israel’s Shin Bet security service detailed the Israeli deaths from terror attacks originating in the territory in 2013. In April, Shin Bet said, “One Israeli was killed (April 30) in a stabbing attack at Tapuah Junction (Samaria). The perpetrator, a Palestinian, resident of Shuka, Tul Karem, stabbed the Israeli, and then kidnapped his weapon and opened fire on...

A high-ranking official in German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s bureau met with representatives of the radical, anti-Zionist Neturei Karta haredi group on International Holocaust Day last week. The official met with four members of the group in Berlin when they were protesting the existence of the State of Israel and the Zionist exploitation of the Holocaust for political reasons. Ynet revealed that the official is a department head in the chancellor’s bureau, and against convention met with them openly. Members of Neturei Karta confirmed that the purpose of the meeting was to make it clear to the Germans that Zionism doesn’t...

Last month, BDS (Boycott, Divest, Sanction) activists slammed Palestinian Authority chief Mahmoud Abbas for not joining in with them to boycott Israel—and on Monday, the PA revealed just how uninvolved it was in the BDS movement. According to a PA report, 70% of the PA’s imports were from Israel, with imports worth $3.5 billion entering the Authority from Israel. It should be noted that Israel generally does not restrict imports of consumer goods to the PA, and that Israeli goods compete on Palestinian store shelves with goods from Arab countries and Europe as well as from the PA. It is...

The Ant-Defamation League, one of American Jewry's most influential organizations, condemned an Israeli parliamentarian on Saturday who intimated that US Secretary of State John Kerry's peace policies are motivated by anti-Semitism. Bayit Yehudi MK Motti Yogev told Israel Radio on Thursday that Kerry is not a fair mediator in peace talks because he has "anti-Israel roots." "Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is acting under Kerry's obsessive pressure, which may have anti-Semitic undertones," Yogev told Israel Radio. "Kerry is not here to reach a compromise. He wants to decrease the Jewish presence in the Land of Israel and create a Palestinian state."

US Secretary of State John Kerry on Saturday threatened Israel that a failure in the peace talks would lead to global boycotts and delegitimization of the Jewish state. The warning comes as no surprise to those familiar with reports earlier in the month, which revealed that Kerry is orchestrating the European boycotts against Israel. Deputy Defense Minister Danny Danon responded to Kerry’s threats of boycotts, saying “we respect Secretary of State Kerry, but will not hold talks with a gun to our head. Friends don’t put ultimatums on the security of the state of Israel.” …

When the White House scribblers were putting the finishing touches on the State of the Union address, President Obama took a moment to commemorate memory. Monday was International Holocaust Remembrance Day, the 69th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, the most notorious of Hitler's death camps. "Each year on this day," he said, "the world comes together to commemorate a barbaric crime unique in human history." But not quite the whole world. Anti-Semitism thrives in the Middle East, where certain politicians vie to see who can say the ugliest things about Jews, and such sentiment is surging in Europe. Bloody...

New York State Senate passed a bill on Tuesday that directly addressed the controversy surrounding the American Studies Association’s boycott of Israeli universities. […] The bill was sponsored by Democratic Senator Jeff Klein, and it passed with a wide margin of 56-4. […] The new legislation would prevent New York higher-ed institutions from paying membership fees to academic groups that boycott Israel and will no longer reimburse students or scholars for their travel expenses to conventions of groups that have voted to boycott the Jewish State. …

US actress Scarlett Johansson has quit as global ambassador for Oxfam after the aid group deemed the role "incompatible" with her promotion of an Israeli firm that has a factory in the occupied West Bank. Johansson, 29, appears in an advertisement for home drinks carbonation firm SodaStream, which is due to air during the US Super Bowl on Sunday. Urgent: Do You Approve Or Disapprove of President Obama's Job Performance? Vote Now in Urgent Poll It has already been seen more than 4.5 million times on the YouTube video-sharing website. The Hollywood star has worked for Oxfam since 2005 but...

It is nothing short of chilling. A video, taken on the eve of International Holocaust Remembrance Day, shows masses of French protesters marching down a Paris thoroughfare chanting openly anti-Semitic slogans and calling on Jews to get out of France. Chants include “Jews, France is not yours!” “Jews out of France“ and “The story of the gas chambers is bull***!” At one point, in a show of raw, seething hatred, the crowd simply spits out the word “Jew, Jew, Jew!” Many of the marchers can be seen giving the “quenelle” inverted Nazi salute popularized by anti-Semitic comedian Dieudonné. …

“I have often wondered what Jews or decent people could have done to push back against the anti-Semitic propaganda of 1930s Germany,” says my friend, Dr. Roberta Seid, the historian and scientific advisor of Stand With Us. Seid was describing an event at my alma-mater, UCLA, where the speaker, Omar Barghouti, co-founder of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, was “on the road again with his anti-Israel show and its pack of bigotry and lies.” I wholeheartedly recommend Seid’s opinion piece, “A Speaker who Brings Hate.” It is a must reading for anyone who has never attended an anti-Israel...

Palestinians would kill Jewish Israelis left under their rule, Economy and Trade Minister Naftali Bennett said on Tuesday, continuing a campaign against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ostensible willingness to leave Israeli settlers under Palestinian rule under a future peace agreement. Bennett also outlined his own plan for the West Bank — which he has largely been mum about since joining Netanyahu’s government — under which Israel would annex most of the territories. “Do you know why? Why Jews cannot live under Palestinian rule? Do you know why? Why Palestinians can’t rule over Jews?” Bennett said in an address at the...

Minister of Jerusalem and Diaspora Affairs Naftali Bennett (Jewish Home) is presenting to the government Sunday new statistics on anti-Semitism in Europe—and the results are revealing. […] An online survey conducted by the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights revealed that in 2013, 23% of respondents refrained from attending Jewish events or religious services for fear of being attacked on their way there; 38% are afraid to wear religious symbols, like the yarmulke or kippah, in public; and 66% view anti-Semitism as having a major and constant impact on their lives. Worse, European Jews believe that their governments view anti-Semitism...

A protest in Paris against French President Francois Hollande turned on Sunday to an anti-Semitic demonstration and ended in clashes between police and protesters. […] The march was organized by a group of some 50 small and mainly right-wing organizations and, while it failed to attract bigger anti-Hollande movements, Kol Yisrael radio reported that it was attended by neo-Nazi movements and Muslim extremists. The demonstrators chanted anti-Semitic and anti-Israeli slogans, used the “quenelle” anti-Semitic gesture that was invented by controversial comic Dieudonné and sang the anthem of the Nazi collaborators during World War II, according to Kol Yisrael. …

Italian police say they are searching for the sender of pig heads to Rome’s main synagogue, the Israeli Embassy and a city museum hosting an exhibit on the Holocaust. […] The deliveries were made Friday, three days before an international memorial day for Holocaust victims. …

Germany is conditioning research support and cooperation with Israel on the exclusion of Jewish communities in Judea, Samaria and eastern Jerusalem, AFP reported on Thursday, citing the Haaretz newspaper. According to the report, Berlin’s decision “represents a significant escalation in European measures against the settlements.” Haaretz noted that a 1986 treaty of the German-Israeli Foundation for Scientific Research and Development states that the foundation will only sponsor projects “within the geographic areas under the jurisdiction of the State of Israel” before the 1967 Six Day War. The Germans reportedly want to apply that clause to the “German-Israeli funding program (DIP)”,...

For years, Jewish residents of Judea and Samaria have been accusing Arab and leftist activists of falsely blaming them for “price tag” revenge attacks that they never carried out. Now, one determined resident of Samaria appears to have found a “smoking gun”, documenting how local Arabs have been damaging olive trees and then reporting the incidents to authorities and the media as “price tag” attacks carried out by local Jews. “Price tagging” is a phenomenon associated with fringe elements of the Israeli Right, in which assailants vandalize Arab-owned property in revenge for terrorist attacks or military demolitions of Jewish homes...

Just moments after actress Scarlett Johansson became the ambassador of Israeli company SodaStream, the celebrity was already being criticized for supporting a business that operates in the West Bank. Five years ago the Israeli carbonated drink company made its way to the US market, and Americans have since fallen in love with the soda pop-making gadget. But the product’s success has been overshadowed by a political cloud, which is threatening the Israeli business’s achievements and its spokeswoman. “While she’s openly gunning for former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for 2016, Johansson would do well to realize that ‘normalizing’ the Israeli...

In virtually every generation anti-semitism somehow finds new and unique ways to grab the imagination of people’s base prejudices. Witness the resurgence of neo-Nazi activity in parts of Eastern Europe. Here are countries where anti-semitism grew to maniacal proportions that led to the wholesale genocide of six million Jews. However, in recent attitudinal surveys, in countries such as Poland, 75 per cent of those surveyed indicated intolerance towards Jews. Even in Germany, where neo-Nazi extremism has been fought vigorously and seems to have waned, a survey conducted by the EU agency for Fundamental Rights showed fully 61 per cent of...

As a mainstreamed reverend enjoys access at City Hall, community leaders recognize change; but some still nurse grudges.Two decades ago, Rev. Al Sharpton was the ultimate civic iconoclast, speaking what he called truth to power, organizing rallies and attacking the establishment on behalf of the oppressed. Today, he’s under fire for being too mainstream. Last summer, another prominent black voice, Cornell West, attacked the National Action Network founder in a radio interview as a too-complacent “house negro” of Barack Obama’s “plantation,” failing to hold the president accountable for drone strikes or talk about “Wall Street criminality.” And as he emerges...

Experts are scoffing at President Barack Obama’s apparent belief that widespread Muslim hatred of Jews is only decades old. “Obama reveals that he has no idea, or doesn’t want to give the impression that he has any idea, about the reality of Islamic anti-Semitism,” said Robert Spencer, the author of many books on Islamic ideas and director of Jihad Watch. “Anti-Semitism is hard-wired into Islam,” from its origins before 700, said Andrew Bostom, author of three books about Islam, including “The Legacy of Islamic Antisemitism,” which lists centuries of anti-Semitic hatred, murders, pogroms and apartheid-like discrimination.

OTTAWA — Prime Minister Stephen Harper hasn’t even started packing for his first visit to the Middle East, but the trip already has its first controversy. A Canadian Muslim group wants Harper’s officials to boot a Toronto rabbi out of the official delegation that will travel with the prime minister. In a letter sent to Harper on Tuesday, the National Council of Canadian Muslims said it objected to the presence of Toronto Rabbi Daniel Korobkin as part of Harper’s official delegation. Korobkin declined to comment, but Jason MacDonald, the prime minister’s director of communications, slammed the NCCM — formerly known...

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu slammed the European Union Thursday for calling in ambassadors over plans for some 1,800 new homes for Jewish settlers in the occupied West Bank. […] “This is hypocritical. The EU calls our ambassadors in because of the construction of a few houses? When did the EU call in the Palestinian ambassadors about incitement that calls for Israel’s destruction?” Netanyahu asked foreign correspondents at his annual new year reception. “It’s time to stop this hypocrisy,” he said. “This imbalance… doesn’t advance peace; I think it pushes peace further away.” …

The United Nations’ cultural body has cancelled a Jewish exhibit following Arab pressure, the European Jewish Press (EJP) reported on Friday. The exhibition, entitled “People, Book, Land—The 3,500 Year Relationship of the Jewish People and the Land of Israel”, was co-organized by UNESCO, the UN body for education, science and culture, and the Simon Wiesenthal Center. The exhibit was scheduled to open next Tuesday at the UNESCO headquarters in Paris. It was pulled after a group of Arab states, as well as the Palestinian Authority (PA), said they found it “deeply disturbing,” reported The Jewish Chronicle. UNESCO director-general Irina Bokova...

A few months ago Ron Paul touched off a media flap by agreeing to give the keynote address, on September 11, to a conference of the Fatima Center in Niagara Falls, Canada. The American Jewish Committee said it was “appalled” and “dismayed” and called on Paul to reconsider. Of course, he did not take the advice.The Fatima Center is a Catholic fringe group whose leader, Father Nicholas Gruner, was suspended by the Vatican in 1996.As a Huffington Post blogger noted at the time, the center,has in the past published writing suggesting that Jews should be stripped of certain civil...

Karl Heinrich Marx is known as a German philosopher, economist and revolutionary socialist. How did the man who railed against economic and sexual exploitation treat those around him? What is the truth about Karl Marx? Based upon Paul Johnson's book, "Intellectuals." Marx was a child of his time, the mid-nineteenth century, and Marxism was a characteristic nineteenth-century philosophy in that it claimed to be scientific. 'Scientific' was Marx's strongest expression of approval, which he habitually used to distinguish himself from his many enemies. He and his work were 'scientific'; they were not. He felt he had found a scientific explanation...

Tom Hanks and Emma Thompson in Saving Mr. Banks If you were browsing news sites yesterday, you may have come across Meryl Streep’s rant about what a racist Nazi anti-semite that Walt Disney was and what an amazing human being Emma Thompson is.It’s easy to take shots at a dead man, but Walt Disney’s character was framed by angry left-wing union members in a town where mildly conservative politics led to cries of “Fascist�.The evidence that Walt Disney ever supported the Third Reich is flimsy and hearsay. There’s far more evidence that his critics supported the USSR.And the evidence for...