February 2, 1998

Good Morning from the Zundelsite:

I received a number of letters from readers chiding me gently and not-so-gently that I didn't know who Naguib Mahfouz is. That is not surprising at all, for I only had access to books and libraries starting in my early thirties. (Too long a story to tell here . . .)

There are a hundred thousand excellent books and writers I haven't yet read, and now I know that Naguib Mahfouz happens to be one of them. Thanks for letting me know that this man is an Egyptian novelist of merit and distinction, and I am glad to pass it on for others I suspect might have been equally as ignorant as Ingrid.

Now to today's ZGram.

The Internet anger at the duplicity of people "dining on the Holocaust" (a Doug Collins phrase) while shaking a self-righteous finger at anyone who wonders when anti-German hate propaganda is ever going to stop, continues to grow.

Here is an excerpt of one such letter I received:

"50 years after the war, long after people have buried their dead, started new lives, looked to the future; one group has decided to make it a part of their culture, recited in religious ceremony, pushing it into our living rooms, movie theaters, and written news.

They own these mediums. They have forced their cause into our culture, our government. It has taken deep root, and only an alternative source of information will pull it out."

And here is what I mean, precisely, by "duplicity":

According to an Associated Press article, dated January 12, 1998 and coming out of Jerusalem, the Israeli Supreme Court refused Sunday (Jan 11) to

". . . temporarily bar Israeli interrogators from tying a Palestinian detainee to a tilted stool with his hands cuffed behind his back, a sack over his head and loud music blasting in his ears."

The judgment was 5-4. The decision was seen by many as a landmark case brought by two Palestinian detainees protesting against "shabah," meaning a "stretching forth". They say it is torture and should be barred. Most people would agree.

This case was heard in the first week of the new year. State Attorney Shai Nitzan acknowledged that detainees often are forced to sit in the position while cuffed, hooded and blasted with music.

However, explained this Talmudic twister, this condition

". . . occurred only in the waiting period between interrogation sessions and was meant to keep detainees from communicating with each other or from attacking Israeli agents."

The article goes on to enlighten the readers next by informing them that the two Palestinians who filed these charges are

". . . suspected of having ties to the Islamic group Hamas, which has carried out more than a dozen suicide bombings in Israel since 1994.

"(One of the detainees) is suspected of membership in a Hamas cell blamed for three drive-by shootings, the abduction and slaying of an Israeli soldier and a suicide bombing in a Tel Aviv cafe in March.

"The Supreme Court has not yet announced when it will rule on the
petition to bar the "shabah" altogether."

Writes my ZGram correspondent:

"I wonder why the human right organizations are not up in
arms? And why the so-called "news media" isn't running this in prime time slots"?

One explanation comes to mind, of course, which has been summarized rather poignantly in a definition of the "Ostrich Syndrome" that our world is now afflicted with - thanks to the "Holocaust"! - where you can't criticize anything that Israel has done in the past, is doing now, and will do in the future:

What is the Ostrich Syndrome? Head in the sand, with posterior exposed to all outside attacks. What a world we live in. Where are the men of yesterday?

Ingrid

Thought for the Day:

"I don't give two flakes off a mouldy matzoh, of course, who is protecting our children from the evening news . . ."

(An angry female Zundelsite aficionado)

Comments? E-Mail: irimland@cts.com

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