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STRANGE SYMBIOSIS – ISRAEL & ANTI-SEMITISM
Antiwar.com ^ | December 28, 2001 | Justin Raimondo

Posted on 12/29/2001 12:08:08 AM PST by H.R. Gross

Behind the Headlines
by Justin Raimondo
Antiwar.com

December 28, 2001

STRANGE SYMBIOSIS – ISRAEL & ANTI-SEMITISM
That 'sh*tty little country' is dangerous – to its allies, and to Jews everywhere

As Israel prepares to expel its Arab helots from Palestine, its "amen corner" worldwide is also on the march, excoriating anyone who looks cross-eyed at Ariel Sharon as an "anti-Semite." The latest front in this campaign is England, where Barbara Amiel, wife of media magnate Conrad Black, went on a rampage in the Telegraph, claiming that, at a recent dinner party, the French ambassador referred to Israel as "that sh*tty little country," and wondered why the world had to be dragged to the edge of World War III on account of it. On the basis of evidence gleaned at ritzy cocktail parties, says Ms. Amiel, the world is experiencing a revival of anti-Semitism, which is now "respectable" again.

OSAMA ON MTV?

Oh, please! Does she really expect us to believe that Osama's infamous videos denouncing the "Jews and Crusaders" are the "in" thing with the hip cognoscenti? Lay off the crack pipe, lady, and get real: anti-Semitism is less respectable than pedophilia. After all, hordes of people aren't buying The Protocols of the Elder of Zion the way they're snatching up those Abercrombie & Fitch catalogs, now are they? Amiel's essay is just one breathtaking inversion of reality after another. Getta load-a this:

"For the past 25 years, I've watched sad-faced Israeli activists trudge around Western capitals with heavy hearts beating under ill-fitting suits. They carry folders of transcripts and videotapes to document the misrepresentations in the press and the moral hypocrisy of the world towards Israel. They want to win the war of ideas on its merits. Their attention to detail in translating the hate literature of the Middle East and the hate-filled speeches of its leaders is commendable."

FOLLOW THE MONEY

One can only wonder what "Western capitals" she means: surely not Washington, D.C. Everyone acknowledges that the Israel lobby is among the most powerful in the Imperial City. How else have they managed to get their hands on a grand total of $90 billion-plus in American military and economic aid since Israel's inception?

A STRANGE IRONY

Aside from US exporters, Israel is the single largest beneficiary of our "foreign aid" program: US tax dollars paid for a booby-trap bomb planted near an Arab elementary school, which blasted a group of Palestinian children – children! – to bits. American tax dollars also pay for Israeli "settlements" inhabited by violent, fanatical fundamentalists intent on provoking war no matter what. This image of sad bedraggled little underdogs making their rounds, desperately fighting an uphill battle against overwhelming odds, is nothing but a bad joke – either that, or it is meant to be ironic.

I SHOULD BE SO POWERLESS

If the Israeli lobby is so powerless, then why this American largesse? We not only arm Israel, but we also prop up their sh*tty little socialist economy with constant infusions of cash. Whatever those Israeli "activists" are carrying around in their folders, whatever is on those videotapes, it must be some pretty powerful stuff. Given the Fox News revelations about the extent of Israeli spying in the US, I don't even want to hazard a guess as to what's in them.

THE ONEIDA PURGE

They want to "win the war of ideas on its merits"? Tell that to Jean Ryan, former managing editor of the Oneida (NY) Daily Dispatch, and city editor Dale Seth (a 15-year veteran of the paper), who were both fired when a delegation of Israel Firsters approached the editor and then the owner demanding the paper retract an allegedly "anti-Semitic" post-9/11 editorial written by Seth. Seth's crime was to recall the terrorist origins of the Jewish state – as if no one had ever heard of the Irgun and the Stern Gang, both of which waged war on the Arab civilian population – and without which the state of Israel would never have come into existence. He also made the true but politically incorrect observation that the whole region is rife with religious fanaticism, and Israel is no exception to the rule:

"The United States, through its close association with Israel since its inception, has now been dragged kicking and screaming right into the middle of that centuries-old Middle Eastern conflict. From that position, it would behoove that party in the middle to consider the hearts of the warring parties. Neither can be simply beat into submission."

UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER

A local attorney, Randy Schaal, demanded a meeting with Ryan to protest the editorial: Ryan refused to meet with him, pointing out that that if the staff met with everyone who disagreed with an editorial, they would never get a paper out. She told him to write a letter to the editor, which he did. But Schaal also contacted local politicians, as well as the Anti-Defamation League, and it wasn't long before pressure was brought to bear on the paper's management, which then ordered its editors to come up with a "clarification." This was published alongside Schaal's letter, a letter from Rep. Sherwood Boehlert (R-NY), and a missive from the mayor of Oneida. Still, Schaal and his fellow Ameners weren't satisfied. They went to the President of the Journal Register Co., and demanded a retraction and an apology: it was unconditional surrender, or nothing.

GROVELING TOWARD BETHLEHEM

After a series of meetings with various self-appointed representatives of the Jewish community, the owners of the Daily Dispatch caved and published a groveling mea culpa: "We understand many felt [the editorial] expressed anti-Semitic sentiments," it said. "We will not further offend our readers by attempting in any way to justify what was written; we can only assure readers that The Dispatch is not anti-Semitic and that we acknowledge the editorial should not have been published."

So much for the Israeli lobby winning the war of ideas on the "merits" of their case. Clearly, another strategy is at work here: not debating their opponents but silencing them.

ODE TO BRUTE FORCE

The rest of Amiel's essay is really a kind of paean to the efficacy of brute force. While those poor bedraggled Israeli "activists" may have been fighting an uphill battle, according to Amiel, in the post-9/11 era the tide seems to be turning, and she can hardly keep herself from gloating that now the Arabs are really going to get it:

"Powerful as the truth may be, it needs a nudge from 16,000lb daisy cutter bombs once in a while. The Arab/Muslim world's intransigence comes into sharper focus when we see the Americans liberate Afghanistan from the Taliban in six weeks and a cornered Arafat unable to go to the bathroom without the risk of being blown into the next world."

PSYCHOPATHIA SEXUALIS

Here is the kind of Zionist who clearly enjoys the brutality and indignity of the Israeli occupation. Such people now feel free to publicly exhibit and even flaunt their perversity, which seems like something straight out of Kraft-Ebbing. What else can one call Amiel's odd interest in controlling Arafat's bowel movements other than a sh*tty little perversion?

THE TERRORISTIC IMPERATIVE

"Nothing succeeds like powerful bombs," exults this war goddess, "as bin Laden explained in his latest video release. 'When people see a strong horse and a weak horse, by nature they will like the strong horse,' he said." How natural for her to approvingly cite bin Laden on the terroristic imperative: but then that is what tribal warfare is all about, no matter which side one fights on.

CHOO-CHOO

Yes, it is force, not reason or negotiation, that is decisive, avers Ms. Amiel, who gleefully predicts that "All those people badmouthing the Jews and Israel will quieten down." Or else be quieted down, involuntarily, like Jean Ryan, Dale Seth, and now perhaps Carl Cameron, of Fox News. "You are looking," Amiel continues, "at the tail end of the train but the engine has already turned a corner and is going in the opposite direction" – and anyone who shows up at one of those ritzy parties she's always attending had better get on board, or else.

AMIEL'S JIHAD

No one would think to label denunciations of, say, Robert Mugabe, as the equivalent of anti-black racism: but we are expected to just accept that virtually all criticism of Israel and Ariel Sharon is due to "anti-Semitism." Amiel's blatantly dishonest and self-serving jihad is naturally bound to cause resentment among all thinking people – an emotion that could, easily, turn into genuine anti-Semitism. But that, I believe, is the point: anti-Semitism serves the interests of the most extreme wing of the Zionist movement, and always has.

100 YEARS AFTER DREYFUSS

Founded as it is on the permanence of Jewish victimology, and the idea that anti-Semitism is inevitable, Zionism thrives when Jewish persecution grows. It is a natural tendency of Zionist propaganda to exaggerate hostility to Jews. The founder of Zionism, Theodore Herzl, was confirmed in his opinion that it was "futile" to combat anti-Semitism when the infamous Dreyfuss case was at the center of a storm of controversy. Today, however, with the rapid decline and marginalization of anti-Semitism everywhere but in the Middle East, the pressing need for a Jewish state requires more justification.

WHY A JEWISH STATE?

Anti-Semitism in the West, as "hate crime" statistics and other research has shown in recent years, is practically nonexistent. This good news was hailed by Jewish organizations in the US when it was first announced, but the extreme Zionists were no doubt made uneasy. For if anti-Jewish prejudice is distinctly beyond the pale, at least in the civilized world, i.e., the West, then what do we need a Jewish state for? This is a question many Jews, when faced with an appeal to emigrate to Israel, must ask themselves, and, at least up until Ms. Amiel's outburst, the Zionists have had no good answer. Now they appear to have solved the problem by simply redefining "anti-Semitism" to mean any criticism of Israel's expansionist policies and its current radical right-wing government.

THE OLD ANTI-SEMITISM

Anti-Semitism used to mean legal and cultural proscriptions directed against Jews. In medieval Europe, Jews were forced into ghettos, in Nazi Germany they were branded with the yellow star and exterminated, and, in America and Europe, it used to be that some establishments, both high and low, would not do business with Jews. Certain hotels and men's clubs would not admit them, and anti-Semitism was especially rife in the universities where an unofficial Jewish quota kept their numbers and influence limited. This is real anti-Semitism, and, today, it is not only illegal but socially and politically unacceptable: anyone deemed an anti-Semite in this, the original sense, is in effect a pariah, and rightly so.

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To: dennisw
I demand nothing of Israel but the following: stop making war on OUR dime, and stop spying on the US. Oh, and come clean about what you knew in advance about 9/11 -- so the American people can know just whom and what they are dealing with.... Otherwise, I could care less where Israel's borders are or aren't.
141 posted on 12/29/2001 12:13:12 AM PST by Justin Raimondo
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To: Justin Raimondo
Very disturbing the "disappearing" news stories.
Not the first time that is for sure. The Washington Times' May 5, 2000 Insight magazine article about Israeli eavesdropping on on the White House and other sensitive telephone systems met a similar fate.
142 posted on 12/29/2001 12:13:13 AM PST by luvzhottea
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To: Frances_Marion
You are just plain wrong. In the first report, Cameron says that while there is no evidence of Israeli involvement in the actual bombing,

"But investigators suspect that they Israelis may have gathered intelligence about the attacks in advance, and not shared it. A highly placed investigator said there are 'tie-ins.' But when asked for details, he flatly refused to describe them, saying, 'evidence linking these Israelis to 9-11 is classified. I cannot tell you about evidence that has been gathered. It's classified information.'"

That is pretty damned incriminating. And clearly Cameron's sources are from law enforcement officers close to the 9/11 investigation. So spin that one, buddy....

143 posted on 12/29/2001 12:13:14 AM PST by Justin Raimondo
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To: Frances_Marion
Your riff about "generalizations" doesn't make it. No one is forcing "settlers" to invade Arab territory and plant the Israeli flag in Palestinian olive groves. This is voluntary behavior, and has nothing to do with blacks, or any of the other PC minority groups you cite.
144 posted on 12/29/2001 12:13:15 AM PST by Justin Raimondo
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To: luvzhottea
I'm pretty sure the Insight piece was actually reposted, because I saw it and wrote to the webmaster complaining that it didn't have paragraph breaks. He wrote me back and said thanks for pointing that out, so.... check it out.
145 posted on 12/29/2001 12:13:15 AM PST by Justin Raimondo
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To: Frances_Marion
Your insinuation that Israel was spying on us also isn't corroborated by FOX...they were spying on foreign nationals in the U.S. (Arabic nationals)."

You obviously haven't read the Cameron transcripts posted here on FR (do a search for "Cameron"): Parts II-IV document Israeli penetration of our phone system, and also point out that the Mossad has access to all the US wiretaps being conducted by US law enforcement. Some pretty heavy stuff.... Wake up, buddy: and do some research before you start posting....

146 posted on 12/29/2001 12:13:16 AM PST by Justin Raimondo
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To: Justin Raimondo
I was at Insight website and was unable to find it, doesn't mean they haven't reposted it but would you be so kind as to put a link here for that story. It WAS gone for a period of time and the url I have no longer works.
147 posted on 12/29/2001 12:13:25 AM PST by luvzhottea
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To: luvzhottea
http://www.insightmag.com/main.cfm?include=detail&storyid=160595
148 posted on 12/29/2001 12:13:26 AM PST by Justin Raimondo
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To: Justin Raimondo
Thanks, seems to be an abbreviated version of what was up prior, missing also is Waller's postscript which I give here:


‘So What, It’s Only Israel!’

There is a tendency in and out of government to minimize the impact of Israeli espionage against the United States because Israel is a friendly country. That overlooks the gravity of the espionage threat, says David Major, former director of counterintelligence programs at the National Security Council. “This ‘don’t worry about allied spying, it’s okay’ attitude is harmful,” he warns. “The U.S. should expect that the rest of the world is bent on rooting out its national-security secrets and the secrets that could subject its leaders to blackmail.” Minimizing or excusing “friendly spying,” he argues, only discourages vigilance and encourages more attacks on U.S. national security. “I’m not outraged by nations that find it in their interests to collect intelligence but by our unwillingness to seriously pursue counterintelligence.”
Major, now dean of the private Center for Counterintelligence and Security Studies, asks: “What price should Israel pay for this? My predictions are that there will be no impact whatsoever. Do we put our heads in the sand or do we take it as a wake-up call?”
Others observe that Israel has passed stolen U.S. secrets to America’s adversaries. The government of Yitzhak Shamir reportedly provided the Soviet Union with valuable U.S. documents stolen by Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard. “It’s the security equivalent of herpes,” says a former U.S. antiterrorism official now at a pro-Israel think tank who requested anonymity. “Who gets it [beyond Israel] nobody knows.... Once we let it happen, the word gets out that ‘you can get away with this.’”

— JMW

149 posted on 12/29/2001 12:13:30 AM PST by luvzhottea
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Comment #150 Removed by Moderator

Comment #151 Removed by Moderator

To: Yehuda
Your wit never ceases to amaze me. L'Chiam to Yehuda's wit...
152 posted on 12/29/2001 12:13:43 AM PST by College Repub
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To: Yehuda
The only insinuation here regards Barbara Amiel, not Jews in general: and even in the case of Amiel, the reference was sarcastic, in response to her gloating statement that Arafat "can't go to the bathroom" without Israeli permission. I find it funny that no one in the Amen Corner cares to answer any of the substantial points made in my column.
153 posted on 12/29/2001 12:13:43 AM PST by Justin Raimondo
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To: College Repub
Amen, brother!
154 posted on 12/29/2001 12:13:43 AM PST by Justin Raimondo
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Comment #155 Removed by Moderator

Comment #156 Removed by Moderator

To: Yehuda
We all know what you are, bud -- a nutjob who doesn't even know what he's talking about, and a relative newcomer to FR. Nor does it seems as though English is your native language: I would guess... Mordor. I repeat: Isn't it funny how none of the Amen Corner disputes anything I said in the above posted article? Character assassination, name-calling, smears, yes -- but argument? Not on your life. Keep it up, Ameners -- when the Cameron story is verified, you're going to have some 'splaining to do....
157 posted on 12/29/2001 12:14:02 AM PST by Justin Raimondo
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To: Justin Raimondo
Aside that jive you just just tried to run past me....

Are you really Jewish as Irv from JDL says? This is more interesting than your silly opining about the Jews of Israel.

158 posted on 12/29/2001 12:14:06 AM PST by dennisw
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To: Justin Raimondo
I demand nothing of Israel but the following: stop making war on OUR dime, and stop spying on the US.

Such nonsense. American Jews pay plenty of taxes. The aid we give to Israel is a GREAT use of these taxes. Your call for a halt in US aid to Israel is just you echoing what is found on countless Arab websites. Your views on Israel are about the same as Syria's or Iraq's or that of a thousand Muslim websites.

159 posted on 12/29/2001 12:14:07 AM PST by dennisw
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To: Justin Raimondo
Check out www.israelshamir.net .
160 posted on 12/29/2001 12:14:08 AM PST by wooly_mammoth
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