Good Morning from the Zundelsite:

More news as I am clearing my desk from a week's worth of absence:

• France

  Read this, and then reread it:

  According to a January 14, 1996 ANA release, the French government has dropped a bill that would tighten anti-racism laws. The bill, which was drafted by Justice Minister Jacques Toubon last October, was left out of the agenda of the National Assembly for the next six months.

  The bill has been criticized as opening the way for restricting freedom of expression. The proposed bill would punish a "racist" statement by up to a year in prison and a fine up to $60,000.

  If such a statement was deemed an incitement to discrimination, hatred or violence, the penalty would be two years in prison and a $100,000 fine. Also under the bill, an individual would no longer have to cite a specific religion or national or ethnic group to be prosecuted for a "racist" statement.

• Canada

  Well-known immigration-curbing activist, Paul Fromm, has received word that his contract as a teacher will be terminated, according to a hand-delivered letter from the Peel Board of Education.

  Why? Here's why, according to Superintendent of Human Resources, Sandra Birthelmer:

  "It has recently come to our attention that you have continued to participate in conferences and meetings sponsored by organizations which advocate white supremacy and anti-Semitism . . . Remarks which you have made at such gatherings have indicated strong support for these organizations and the individuals associated with them, and have demonstrated a profound disrespect for the principles of mult-culturalism and ethnocultural equity. . . "

  And here Mr. Fromm believed all the while that he was standing up for his own race, protecting it from rampant, out-of-control immigration. This case, expected to be fought hard against the core from which it springs, will be a further shock to Canada!

• Furthermore, the organized Canadian Jewish community is up in arms, it seems, over the weakening use of the world "Nazi." According to an article published in the Toronto Star on January 12, 1996, the usage of the word is getting trivialized.

  Whereas before, ". . . a word that used to conjure hateful, horrific images" is now being used to make a joke. These days, you hear remarks about "feminazis," "niconazis", "healthnazis", "jazznazis" and even "ticketnazis", the name Bruce Springsteen fans gave to the box office bureaucrat who ". . . denied them show tickets." Amazing where Deniers will spring up!

• Germany

  A German reader wrote:

  "Just four days after your Z-Gram "PC Prayer Chants", our Chancellor Helmut Kohl did another pray. He thanked Ignatz Bubis, the leader of Germany's Jewish community, at his 70th birthday for his ". . . patriotic thinking, acting and behavior" as he said in German TV today."

  Bubis has a checkered past as a slum landlord in some red light district and was convicted in formerly DDR or East Germany to a lengthy prison term for black marketeering. He fled before he had to serve the term.

  Another German reader wrote:

  "I am the person awhile back who asked for information about Mr. Kussel, but today I found a posting on the Internet about a freedom initiative for him.

  It is a document entitled Nationale Initiative - Freiheit fur Gottfried Kussel. It is all in German, so I couldn't translate it completely but apparently there is going to be a protest in February or March about his continuing imprisonment and to mark the five-year anniversary of his eleven-year sentence."

  Readers will want to know the background why the key was thrown away on this man: Kussel was sentenced to 10 1/2 years after appearing on the Ted Koppel show - ". . . denying the Holocaust and wanting the Austrian state to allow the National Socialist Party to run candidates in elections."

  In appeal, his sentence was increased to eleven years.

  To shift focus:

  There is a "Bleak Debate in Berlin on a Holocaust Memorial," according to a January 10 article by Alan Cowell. (No further reference supplied in a fax sent to us). This article bemoans the usual:

  ". . . Half a century after World War II, and the killing of six million Jews by the Nazis, many Germans still cannot confront the defining horror of their modern history without anguished debate over how they should relate to it."

  This article is noteworthy for its last paragraph, however:

  "We have to ask ourselves what purpose can be served by a memorial 50 years later," as Germany's government moves from Bonn to the new capital in Berlin to start a new era, said Kathrin Hoffman-Curtius, a member of the group that met today. "Do we need a monument to remember, or does the new republic need a monument as a political insurance policy?"

  A penetrating question!

• Switzerland

  Although there was some information in several wire service stories indicating that the Swiss are appropriately contrite about their outgoing president, Delamuraz's, remarks about the latest "Holocaust" request being "blackmail" and "extortion", it looks like the Swiss folks are stiffening their spines.

  On January 13, Swiss banks rejected threats of a boycott from world Jewish groups, saying any such action would not help joint efforts to find the "lost" bank accounts of Holocaust victims. The Swiss Bankers Association is reported to have stated that it

  ". . . does not regard sanction and boycott threats or ultimatums as an appropriate means to foster the work already started.''

  One Jewish leader, Abraham Burg, is reported to have said in response:

  "It will be almost impossible for us to sit together around the same table with people who did not deny, did not regret and did not oppose the president calling me a blackmailer.''

  Burg said the silence by members of the joint commission set up to look into this matter could be construed as support for Delamuraz's remarks.

  (Compare the laudable silence to the abusive and arrogant behavior of Jewish leaders towards the Swiss, the Germans and even US Presidents like Reagan over Bitburg and Busch because he refused the loan guarantees . . . )

• USA

  Last but not least, I have had a flood of complimentary letters about the two-part ZGram/book review by J. B. Campbell on the fratricidal wars of this past century. We need more articles like that. They show the web of global manipulation and deception that land us in a blood bath time and again - for no better reason than artificially stoked hate campaigns that make us treat our sons and other people's sons as cannon fodder in what are nothing more than media-incited and media-endorsed trade wars for the rich to get richer and the poor, the ignorant, the gullible and trusting to be killed.

  Bruce wanted me to tell you that the original review ran in the Liberty Bell, Box 21, Reedy, WV 25207.

• And finally, I have to do a retraction. In a previous ZGram, I reported that Professor Israel Shahak's house had been raided by Israeli authorities. This information came to us via Australia.

  It has been double-checked, and the information was wrong. According to a message from Dr. Robert Countess, a Southern minister and well-known Revisionist,

  ". . . Professor Israel Shahak's house has not been invaded by Israeli authorities. Bob spoke with Professor Shahak's closest friend at Connecticut State University who called Bob last night from New York. He says there is no truth to this story which has been disseminated on the Internet. This professor called Shahak and verified this. Please post on the Zundelsite that this story is misinformation."

   

"Dr. Israel Shahak is one of the most self-effacing and yet courageous Jews whom I have ever met," says Ernst, who met Dr. Shahak in Toronto in the 1970s. I have heard many other Revisionists speak of him in most respectful terms. The Zundelsite regrets the error. We thank our readership for double-checking it.

Ingrid

Thought for the Day:

"Definition of Manners: A contrivance of wise men to keep fools at a distance."

(Ralph Waldo Emerson)