Dissident Veteran For Peace

I have been attacked as a self-hating Jew, as an anti-Semite, but it does not matter to me because I consider the accusation of anti-Semitism to be the first refuge of scoundrels. Patriotism is the last refuge, anti-Semitism is the first. In [the United States] it has been used to silence so many people.


Below are the first four paragraphs from " 'Respecting Lebanon's Sovereignty' Foxman defames" (July 31, 2006) by Ran HaCohen. Thanks to Catherine for the tip.

Nothing compares to Israel's open, independent, and pluralistic media in times of war. Saturday we had the pleasure of watching Anti-Defamation League national director Abraham Foxman give an especially repulsive horror show on Israeli public television (Channel 1). Foxman was invited to the studio to comment on Kofi Annan's announcement that four UN observers had been apparently killed by Israel deliberately. From the odd choice of "expert" for this subject to the style and content, the "interview" – in a prestigious foreign news weekly magazine – looked like propaganda from the darkest regimes. Moderator Yaakov Achimeir stated time and again as a matter of fact that the observers had been killed "by accident," so that the only realm left to investigate was Annan's personal psychopathology for suggesting otherwise.

Foxman cooperated enthusiastically. Annan had gained a lot of respect for his successful efforts to globally commemorate the Holocaust. In a dirty trick of demagoguery, Foxman explained these efforts away by saying the UN secretary-general (or "the secretary of state," as Foxman repeatedly misnamed him) liked only dead Jews, not living ones. Foxman also accused Annan of having "guilty feelings because of the Holocaust"; one could actually gain the impression that Hitler's extermination units had consisted predominantly of black Ghanaian children like Annan was at the time.

"Can anyone imagine," the infuriated demagogue rhetorically asked, "that the Jewish people would intentionally kill UN observers?!" Yes: Foxman actually used the term "the Jewish people" as the agent of the killing, following the footsteps of traditional anti-Semitism and its notorious blood libels, in which the entire "Jewish people" was blamed for whatever individual Jews had or had not done.

At this lunatic stage, the moderator tried, not once but twice, to add even more fuel to the fire by "suggesting" that the UN wanted to see Israel wiped off the map. Alas, Foxman wasn't ready to go that far, and just reminded viewers that the UN had given Israel its "birth certificate," but had been in a "love-hate relationship" with the Jewish state ever since – again, because the Gentiles love us only when we are dead and buried, not when strong and "defending ourselves."

Labels: Abraham Foxman, hasbara, Israel, Lebanon