ZGram - 12/28/2001 - "STRANGE SYMBIOSIS - ISRAEL & ANTI-SEMITISM"

[irimland@zundelsite.org]

Copyright (c) 2001 - Ingrid A. Rimland

ZGram - Where Truth is Destiny

December 28, 2001

Good Morning from the Zundelsite:

A few words from the Zundelsite prefacing yet another exceptional Justin
Raimondo article that will undoubtedly feed the mounting paranoia of the
Enemies of Freedom - the Trojan Horse within our gates.

Justin Raimondo - a young, brash, outspoken intellectual - has laid it on
the line in this and other articles.  The small, embattled Revisionist
community welcomes articles like this - it seems that finally the graduates
of some of our Ivy League colleges are coming off the fence - almost! -
and are joining the battle for America's values and freedoms if not (yet)
the revisionist struggle.

Their analyses brings with it the freshness of innocence.  Undoubtedly they
will have their baptism of fire, just as Revisionists did, when the
political hatchet men of the old, worn-out order of yesterday will go after
them with their dirt files, bugged telephones, threats to employers,
friends, wives, girlfriends - the inexhaustible arsenal of all the dirty
tricks for which the enemy is known.

(http://www.zundelsite.org/english/debate/victims/index.html - particularly
Dr. Robert Faurisson:
http://www.zundelsite.org/english/debate/terror1.html )

Some of these young men and women might well become similar casualties in
the battle for America's and the world's freedom.
Remember Patrick Henry's exhortation to his contemporary American Freedom
=46ighters - "Give me liberty or give me death!"? Time will tell if such a
slogan of the Old America has meaning still in our days.
=0BJustin Raimondo is an Adjunct Scholar with the Ludwig von Mises Institute
in Auburn, Alabama.  He writes frequently for "Chronicles: A Magazine of
American Culture."  He is a Senior Fellow at the Center for Libertarian
Studies, a non-profit organization sporting an interesting website -
<www.antiwar.com> .  Its mission statement reads in part:

[START]

Our dedication to libertarian principles... is reflected on this site, and
we make no bones about it. While openly acknowledging that we have an
agenda, the editors take seriously our purely journalistic mission, which
is to get past the media filters and make the truth about America's foreign
policy as widely known as possible. Citing a wide variety of sources
without fear or favor, and presenting our own views in the regular columns
of various contributors, we clearly differentiate between fact and opinion,
and let our readers know which is which.

Here is Raimondo's latest:

[START]

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.

  THE NEW ANTI-SEMITISM

  This, however, has nothing to do with the French ambassador's  purported
"hate crime." To begin with, in describing Israel as "a  sh*tty little
country," Ambassador Bernard is at least half right in that  it is little.
That, after all, has been the chief complaint of the more  extreme
Zionists, who dream of a Greater Israel and claim such a  small sliver of a
country is militarily indefensible. As for being  "sh*tty," perhaps the
ambassador was referring to the attitude of  Israel's leaders, and, again,
who can contest this?

  Wasn't it Ariel Sharon who compared the President of the United  States
to Neville Chamberlain, and declared that he would not let the  US sell out
Israel like Chamberlain sold out Czechoslovakia? Isn't it  the Israelis who
are openly wielding a nuclear stick, threatening the  whole region with
annihilation if anyone dares stand in Sharon's way?  Wasn't it the Israelis
Carl Cameron was talking about on Fox News  last week when he said that a
certain foreign intelligence agency had  been watching the hijackers or
their associates closely - and may  have failed to tip off the US to their
plans?

  THE RIGHT WORD

  I think Ambassador Bernard has chosen just the right word: sh*tty.  This
is not an ethnic slur, but an entirely accurate description of  Israeli
government policy. The New Anti-Semitism, however, as  unveiled by Ms.
Amiel, would forbid the public expression of such  obvious truths, because
it has nothing, really, to do with dislike of  Jews or Jewishness per se.
The way Ms. Amiel means it, the charge  of anti-Semitism is a smokescreen
that conceals a campaign to  delegitimize all critics of Israel, and rule
them out of order.

  NO MORE SCOOPS?

  Speaking of the Israeli spy operation uncovered by Fox News:  when Carl
Cameron turned over that rock, what wriggled out wasn't  pretty, and it
didn't take long for the drumbeat to start: has Fox News  gone
"anti-Semitic"? A JTA story on the response of some Jewish  organizations
and the Israeli government reiterates their contention  that the story is
"totally baseless," and notes that "virtually no other  American media
organization has run a piece on the Fox allegations -  a sign that the
story lacks merit, Jewish leaders say." Oh, really? This  defines the idea
of a "scoop" out of existence, and reduces journalists  to a pack of
conformists, ruled not by a desire to discover and report  the truth but by
a primitive herd instinct. If not for the scoop, we  would never have known
about Watergate, Cointelpro, Monica-gate,  or any other news stories that
erode blind faith in government and the  wisdom of our glorious leaders.

  FIXING FOX

  The JTA piece slyly raises the subtle suggestion of anti-Semitism  when
the author avers that "American Jewish and Israeli officials are  baffled
about what might have led Fox or Cameron to pursue so  controversial a
story on the basis of evidence they regard as so  flimsy," especially
because Fox has been seen by Jewish groups as  "fair in its reportage on
Israel." The clear implication being that the  problem is Cameron, not Fox.
Ominously, the article also reports that  "American Jewish leaders and
Israeli officials said they are holding  conversations with Fox News
representatives." Will Cameron meet  the same fate as Dale Seth and Jean
Ryan?

  DOWN THE MEMORY HOLE

  A Fox News spokesman is quoted as saying, "We stand by the  story" - but
apparently not enough to keep it on their website. As I  reported the other
day, all four parts of the Cameron piece were  summarily pulled from the
=46ox News website: visitors to the previous  url get a smiling picture of
Carl Cameron and the Orwellian message:  "This story no longer exists."
Indeed.

  RETURN OF THE THOUGHT POLICE

  This, of course, is what Israel's amen corner in the US and Great
Britain would ultimately like to see: they want to make it a "hate  crime"
to criticize Israel, even as that evil dwarf Sharon drives us to  the brink
of World War III. In Tony Blair's Britain they've gone to  great lengths to
outlaw and prosecute "hate speech," and are now  going after the
anti-Muslim neo-Nazi British National Party with new  proposals extending
"anti-racist" defamation laws to include religion.  But there is nothing to
prevent this kind of left-wing political  correctness from being used
against critics of Israel, and the Israeli  lobby, so that the dinner party
conversation Babs Amiel so avidly  denounces could be grounds for legal
prosecution. For the new  definition of "anti-Semitism," if it is to be
properly enforced, requires  a political police, and this is really the
role Amiel and her fellow Israel  Firsters in the US are ideally suited
for: police spies.

  SINCE WHEN?

  If, like Congressman Darrel Issa (R-CA), Carl Cameron escapes a  Jewish
Defense League bombing, such as the one that was thwarted  the other day,
will his career survive this controversy? I certainly  hope so, but the
removal of the story from the Fox News website -  and now this news of
"conversations" taking place between Fox News,  unnamed American Jewish
leaders, and the Israeli government - does  not bode well for his future in
journalism. By the way, since when  does an American media outlet engage in
"discussions" or  negotiations regarding the content of its news coverage
with any  government, let alone a foreign one?

  DEBUNKING THE DEBUNKERS

  Cameron's debunkers claim that the use of anonymous sources
automatically discredits Cameron's work. So Woodward and  Bernstein were
wrong to have relied on "Deep Throat"? I don't think  so. Such a standard
would eliminate 95 percent of the journalism  done today: there would be no
"leaks" of embarrassing information  by government whistleblowers, and
government officials would tell us  what they think we need to know, while
reporters record their words  verbatim. That's not journalism, however:
it's taking dictation.

  BEYOND BETRAYAL

  Cameron's story came straight from the lips of law enforcement  officials
who clearly have inside knowledge of the direction the 9/11  investigation
is taking. These investigators are convinced that Israeli  intelligence had
foreknowledge of the 9/11 attacks, and Cameron's  reports demonstrated that
they certainly had the means to acquire it.  Israeli penetration of the
phone system -- and even supposedly  "secure" phone lines in the White
House, the Department of Defense,  and the Justice Department, as well as
local law enforcement -- has  long been suspected: Cameron showed how it
operates through Israeli  hi-tech companies which are practically arms of
the Israeli  government.

  But even this kind of penetration would hardly come as a surprise to
anyone, really: the Mossad is well-known for its boldness, and the  history
of Israeli spying in the US is notorious. But the core of  Cameron's story
goes waaay beyond that. While "there is no  indication that the Israelis
were involved in the 9-11 attacks,"  Cameron avers,

  "Investigators suspect that the 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.'"

  YOU WANT THE TRUTH?

  You're not allowed to know the truth about 9/11 - why, that's  classified
information, sir! Now this is bound to arouse a certain  amount of
resentment, just like Ms. Amiel's smear campaign. But  that's the idea, you
see. If anti-Semitism is not a problem, then that is  a problem for the
Zionist project, and so the idea is to provoke it,  create it where it
never before existed. One way to do that is to  redefine "anti-Semitism" in
such broad terms that it could include  practically anybody but Norman
Podhoretz.

  THE COLLABORATORS

  Another method is to evoke anti-Semitic sentiments and reactions  by
means of a deliberate provocation. Remember that the notorious  "Stern
gang," the Zionist equivalent of Hamas, collaborated with the  Nazis on the
grounds that they shared a common goal: the expulsion  of the Jews from
Europe. They thought this strategy would encourage  emigration to Palestine
and help establish the state of Israel. Chaim  Weizmann, put in charge of
selecting which German Jews would  emigrate to Palestine - and later to
become Israel's first president -  made the argument that, in choosing
between establishing a Jewish  state and rescuing the Jews from the Nazis,
the Zionist project had to  come first. His intellectual and political
heirs are entirely capable of  justifying and executing the same tactics.

  FUELING THE FIRE

  The possible firing of Carl Cameron, and/or the spiking of his  story,
would certainly give real anti-Semites plenty of ammunition to  repeat the
tired old canard that the media is "controlled by the Jews."  But that is
precisely what the nuttier Zionists want. They know that  time is not on
their side: Israel is demographically doomed if more  Jews don't emigrate,
and here is where the symbiotic relationship  between anti-Semitism and
Zionist extremism comes into play.

  A BAD STRATEGY

  At its current rate, the Arab birthrate will overwhelm the Jewish  state
sooner rather than later, just on the strength of sheer numbers.  By
objectively encouraging anti-Semitism, and building it up into this
looming mass movement, Zionist ideologues can appeal to their own  people
to come "home." What other hope do they have of holding off  the rising
demographic tide? Apart from whatever moral qualms one  may have with this
tactic, just in practical terms the great mistake of  such a strategy is
that it may succeed all too well - and that would be a  tragedy. Regardless
of her intent, Ms. Amiel's complaint of  anti-Semitism could easily turn
out to be a self-fulfilling prophecy.

  A NOTE

  I want to apologize for the rather intimidating length of this column,
but I think the subject is important enough to merit using up so much
bandwidth. This should answer, then, all those fervent letter-writers,
including supporters of Israel who accuse me of anti-Semitism, and  also
those anti-Semites who berate me for ridiculing their  psychopathology.

[END]

Herewith a brief Zundelsite comment:

That last paragraph of this otherwise exceptional article is troubling.  Is
it just a rhetorical device?  A habitual genuflection in the direction of
the enemy?  Or is it simply that this young cyber warrior, the modern
prototype of freedom fighters of another era, still clings to some of the
old, comfortable clich=E9s that surrounded him in college?

If so, there is much yet to learn.

=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D

Justin Raimondo has penned "Reclaiming the American Right: The Lost Legacy
of the Conservative Movement" (with an Introduction by Patrick J.
Buchanan), (1993), and "Into the Bosnian Quagmire: The Case Against U.S.
Intervention in the Balkans" (1996).  His latest is "An Enemy of the State:
The Life of Murray N. Rothbard" - forthcoming from Prometheus Books.

=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D

Thought for the Day:

"Nothing has threatened the survival of 'Western values' as much as the
triumph of the West."

(George Monbiot in The Guardian, December 18, 2001)