Saturday, July 9, 2011

Jewish Validation of Anti-Semitism from Richard Falk and Amira Hass

In March 2008, Richard Falk, who taught at Princeton for 40 years and was known for his radical leftist leanings, was appointed by the United Nations Human Rights Council as a UN Special Rapporteur on "the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967." In January 2009, Falk made headlines by accusing Israel of war crimes during Operation Cast Lead and by comparing Gaza with the Warsaw Ghetto (http://www.haaretz.com/news/un-human-rights-official-gaza-evokes-memories-of-warsaw-ghetto-1.268743).

In 2010, Falk initiated a blog "in celebration of his 80th birthday" (http://richardfalk.wordpress.com/). Falk, who is Jewish, recently used his blog to disseminate a virulent anti-Semitic and anti-American "cartoon":



In the face of harsh criticism, Falk removed the "cartoon," claiming it was "unintentional" and blamed the posting on his vision, which purportedly prevented him from identifying the yarmulke, replete with a Star of David, on the dog's head:

"Even now I needed a magnifying glass to identify the anti-semitic character of the dog. My vision (at 80) is pretty good, but not good enough. It looked like a helmet to me, and the main visible symbol on the dog was the USA midriff covering."

Falk notes in his blog the "stream of venomous comments" which this cartoon, posted on his blog attracted. Note, however, that this was not the original excuse provided by Falk, who stated (http://blog.unwatch.org/index.php/2011/07/06/timeline-falks-reaction/):

"Maybe I do not understand the cartoon, and if it offends in this way I have removed it from the blog. It may be in bad taste to an extent I had not earlier appreciated, but I certainly didn't realize it could be viewed as anti-semitic, and still do not realize."

In his blog, Falk puzzles over the "venomous comments" elicited by the posting of this cartoon (http://richardfalk.wordpress.com/2011/07/06/a-final-attempt-to-clarify-my-posting-of-the-cartoon/).

Sorry, but I don't buy any of this claptrap. Even it were remotely possible that Falk did not identify the yarmulke and the Star of David, I object to his vile denigration of the United States. Apologies notwithstanding, this explosion of raw sewage from Falk's blog cannot be excused.

Equally horrifying was the declaration by Amira Hass of Haaretz in a July 7, 2011 "opinion" entitled "In dealing with flotilla, Israel is anything but smart" (http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/in-dealing-with-flotilla-israel-is-anything-but-smart-1.371879), in which this reporter, covering the failed Gaza flotilla from Greece, wrote:

"Like an anti-Semitic caricature, Israel has extended its long tentacles around the globe in an effort to stop 10 decades-old ships from sailing to Gaza."

In no less than an Israeli newspaper, Hass would give creedance to the anti-Semitic caricatures of Israel and the Jews as a monster capable of global dominance. See, for example, this 2002 "cartoon" from Al-Ahram, Egypt's most widely read, government owned, daily newspaper:



Hass is also well known for her leftist views, and when reading her recent articles from Greece, it was never clear to me whether she was reporting on, opining on, or participating in the failed flotilla. Clearly, she was infuriated by the refusal of the Greek government to permit the flotilla to embark on its planned journey to Gaza, but there is no excusing the hateful language used to express her rage. Even more remarkable was the willingness of Haaretz to publish this rant and its failure to apologize.

In the past, I took The New York Times to task for publishing an op-ed by Roger Cohen entitled "Obama in Netanyahu's Web" (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/28/opinion/28iht-edcohen.html). In an e-mail to the Times, I observed that the title of Cohen's op-ed evoked horrifying Nazi images, portraying Jews as voracious spiders. A senior editor from the Times agreed that the title of the op-ed was inappropriate:

"It was not a good headline, I agree. By the time this column gets to the times website it has already been published in the IHT on paper and online. This is not an excuse. It is an explanation. The headline should have been changes [sic] there."

However, Falk's posting of the anti-Semitic "cartoon" and Hass's outburst are far worse than the title of Cohen's op-ed. The fury of the left, particularly when it relates to Israel, knows no bounds, even from Jews.

1 comment:

  1. Haaretz has recently gone off the deep end when it comes to their leftist, anti-Zionist bias and self hatred. I was shocked to read this piece from Yossi Melman in yesterday's on-line edition: http://www.haaretz.com/weekend/week-s-end/setting-the-record-straight-entebbe-was-not-auschwitz-1.372131
    ...something I would have expected to read perhaps in Stormfront or Jew watch, but not in a Jewish owned publication. But even more shocking was reading feedback from commenter #2, Gerd Schnepel, who claims he was romantically involved with Brigitte Kuhlmann, one of the German terrorists who participated in the hijacking. He goes on to say that she was "just following orders" and everyone would have lived if Israel and other governments has just given in. Truly sickening.

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