Comment Trail:

@ TNR: Marty Peretz's through a glass, darkly.
Page 2

@ The Big Picture: A modest prophecy about OWS

@ Harry's Place: On the question of newting: Are Palestinians an invented people?

@ TNR about William Carlos Williams

@ Commentary: Rushing to Gutman's Defense

My comment (pending moderation):

There is a kernel of truth in Gutman's diagnosis. The kind of virulent Muslim antisemitism that we see in Europe and elsewhere is indeed fed by Palestinian animosity towards "Zionists" whom they just happen to misname as: "Yahud" . As we can see in the following example, cited by the Israeli journalist Ben Dror Yemini:

"Two researchers, Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik of “Palestinian Media Watch”, published recently a book “Deception”, in which they chronicle the systematic incitement to hatred against Israel and Jews under the auspices of the Palestinian Authority.

Some of the evidence is already well-known, since the nineties when there was a joint Palestinian-Israeli committee for the prevention of incitement. The state of affairs, however, is going from bad to worse. Here is one example: The PA subsidizes a monthly youth magazine entitled “Zaizafoona” (name of a forest tree). Last summer that magazine carried a story written by a young girl about an imaginary encounter with four ideal historical personages: The first is the eighth century Persian mathematician Al-Khwaizmi (from whose name the terms "algorism" and "algorithm" are derived. The second admirable figure is the great Muslim conqueror Salahdin. The third is the Egyptian author and Nobel Laureate Naguib Mahfuz. From each encounter with the each figure, the young author learns something that contributes to forming her thinking and future endeavours. Then there is another historical figure in this roster of historical model figures: Hitler. And Hitler tells her: “I killed the Jews because I wanted everyone in the world to know that this is a destructive nation, that wreaks havoc and death upon the entire world”.*

The story is well integrated into other stories in that magazine that ostensibly speaks for values taken from the Human Rights discourse, and combined with Islamic, Arab and Palestinian pride. Until they get to Jews. Then it is another matter. Jews are evil beasts worthy of extermination. And in that context, Hitler morphs into a laudable figure. There is no editorial qualification accompanying the story, that would clarify to the reader about who Hitler was, or what Nazism is, or what the Holocaust was."

http://www.nrg.co.il/app/index.php?do=blog&encr_id=f2b4c1b55be76d1e6d7b777256ea0370&id=3068

Such virulence spreads by contagion, easily, among Muslims and Arabs. Where the good ambassador is wrong is in his displacement of the cause on to the Israelis. It is the Palestinian side of the conflict and their many fans in Europe that stimulate this kind of antisemitism, that for some reason they pretend serves the "peace process", or whatever it is that the Palestinians are after.

As in the case of the notorious "come back to Israel" ad campaign, Goldberg lacks the acumen to zero in on the real story. In his silly analogies and interpretations he reminds me of the meticulous editor who goes to a great deal of trouble to separate the wheat from the chaff and then publishes the chaff.

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Update December 14: The following story provides another proof of how antisemitism works in Europe today. The person who makes these accusations about Jews is a Turkish Belgian "Human Rights" activist:

"These people [the Jews] can get away with anything because they have money and financial power, but they also exploit our guilt [meaning the Holocaust]."

It comes to a point that whenever I read "anti-racist" I brace myself for some antisemitic rant following.

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* Update, December 25, 2011: (Comment by davem):

The magazine’s director, Shareef Samhan, did not dispute the translation, though he said the girl was “accusing” Hitler and not praising him. He said he had not been aware of the text and noted that Unesco was not a central backer of the magazine.

Hrmmmm.

توجهت للباب الثاني كان ينتظرني هناك هتلر
قلت: انت من قتل اليهود
قال: نعم و لقد قتلتهم حتى تعرفوا انهم قوم يعيثون فسادا في الارض. وانا اطلب منك الصبر و التحمل لما تلقاه فلسطين من عذاب على ايديهم
قلت: شكرا على النصيحة

which PMW have corrextly translated as

I turned to the next door; there Hitler awaited me. I said, ‘You’re the one who killed the Jews?’
He [Hitler] said: ‘Yes. I killed them so you would all know that they are a nation which spreads destruction all over the world. And what I ask of you is to be resilient and patient, concerning the suffering that Palestine is experiencing at their hands.’
I said [to Hitler]: ‘Thanks for the advice.’