New "Anti-Semites" Week of Sept. 27 - Oct. 3 2007

WHO: Israeli elites: Israeli "barons of the press," "capitalists" and of course the Israeli "academic world"
WHY: For questioning - in any way whatsoever - any of the founding myths of Israel or the nationalist ideology of Zionism or in any way voicing sympathy for the legitimate grievances of the indigenous Palestinian people.
FOR THE RECORD: This is just a standard reiteration of the tired canard that "anti-Zionism" = "anti-Semitism," that is, if you question the nationalist ideology of Zionism or any of its founding myths, you must by extension be a Jew-hating Nazi lusting after the Jewish blood. The whole "anti-Zionism" = "anti-Semitism" is a creative reversal and adaptation of the traditional Christian blood libel against Jews, now converted in a similar blood libel directed against anyone who questions the ideology of Zionism, the state of Israel (or its ethnocentric basis), or any Israeli policy or practice. By Gadi Eshel's definition, most Israelis are in fact raging anti-Semites.
SOURCE: Gadi Eshel, "In other words, anti-Semitism," Ha'aretz, 3 October 2007

WHO: Agatha Christie, the world's most successful author of murder mysteries who died in 1976.
WHY: No specific instances are cited, just "the casual anti-Semitism and xenophobia found throughout the early novels."
FOR THE RECORD: "She [Laura Thompson] defends Christie against charges of snobbery and racism, arguing that the novels only reflected the views of their day, though she prefers to consider a passing remark made in a letter – 'Like all Dagoes, he couldn’t swim' – rather than address the casual anti-Semitism and xenophobia found throughout the early novels. Raymond Chandler, Michael Dibdin and Ruth Rendell are quoted as critics of Christie’s plotting and characterization; T. S. Eliot, A. L. Rowse and Michel Houellebecq are marshalled for the defence. But Thompson does not engage with the novels themselves."
SOURCE: Lindsay Duguid, "Agatha Christie's anti-novels," The Times Literary Supplement, 3 October 2007

WHO: Conservationists and residents of Manchester (UK) who want to maintain the historic 600-acre Heaton Park
WHY: For opposing the destruction of the park to construct a new school, King David's Juniors, when the school could - and did - remain in its current location. "Now this highly-sensitive issue has been resolved I hope the local community will unite and condemn a small minority who have sought to use it as an excuse for ill concealed anti-Semitism." No one else mentioned in the article appears to have noticed any racism or anti-Semitism.
FOR THE RECORD: "The 600-acre park was bought from the Egerton family in the early 19th century. It is one of Manchester's most popular nature spots and recently underwent an £11m restoration. Local MPs Ivan Lewis and Graham Stringer held talks with the council and school bosses over the summer to agree a compromise. Mr Lewis, MP for Bury South, said the decision to refurbish the entire King David campus would be in the best interests of pupils and green groups."
SOURCE: Yakub Qureshi, "'School in the park' scrapped," Manchester Evening News, 3 October 2007

WHO: Archbishop Desmond Tutu, South African Nobel Laureate and famous anti-Apartheid activist
WHY: "During that speech, titled 'Occupation Is Oppression,' Tutu lambasted the Israeli government for its treatment of Palestinians in occupied territories. While a transcription clearly suggests his criticism was aimed at the Israeli government ('We don't criticize the Jewish people,' he said during the speech. 'We criticize, we will criticize when they need to be criticized, the government of Israel'), pro-Israeli organizations such as the Zionist Organization of America went on the offensive and protested campus appearances by Tutu, accusing him of anti-Semitism."
FOR THE RECORD: "Hennes says the input officials received from 'the Jewish community' in this case was confined to Swiler and a few rabbis teaching within St. Thomas's Center for Jewish-Christian Learning. 'I think there's a consensus in the Jewish community that his words were offensive,' Swiler reiterates.That was news to Marv Davidov, an adjunct professor within the Justice and Peace Studies program. 'As a Jew who experienced real anti-Semitism as a child, I'm deeply disturbed that a man like Tutu could be labeled anti-Semitic and silenced like this,' he says. 'I deeply resent the Israeli lobby trying to silence any criticism of its policy. It does a great disservice to Israel and to all Jews.'"
SOURCE: Matt Snyders, "Banning Desmond Tutu," City Pages (Minneapolis), 3 October 2007

WHO: Ken Livingstone, Mayor of London
WHY: Not many of examples are given in the article, just a lot of ranting: "'[Livingstone] is a bad guy, he's a miserable guy, he's an anti-Semite, he's a racist,' says Assemblyman Dov Hikind (D-Brooklyn). 'He believes the state of Israel shouldn't exist, never should have been created.' ... 'The man is an anti-Semite. The man compared a reporter to a nazi concentration guard,' Hikind says. ... Last year the Simon Weisenthal Center even blamed Livingstone's past remarks for increasing anti-Semitism in London, saying last October: 'Ken Livingstone has made it crystal clear that he is more interested in embracing terrorist proponents than dealing with anti-Semitism.'"
FOR THE RECORD: "Racism is a uniquely reactionary ideology, used to justify the greatest crimes in history - the slave trade, the extermination of all original inhabitants of the Caribbean, the elimination of every native inhabitant of Tasmania, apartheid. The Holocaust was the ultimate, "industrialised" expression of racist barbarity. ... As mayor, I have pressed for police action over anti-semitic attacks at the highest level, and my administration has backed a series of initiatives of importance to the Jewish community, including hosting the Anne Frank exhibition at City Hall and measures to ensure the go-ahead for the north London eruv. ... Throughout the 1970s, I worked happily with the Board of Deputies in campaigns against the National Front. Problems began when, as leader of the Greater London Council, I rejected the board's request that I should fund only Jewish organisations that it approved of. The Board of Deputies was unhappy that I funded Jewish organisations campaigning for gay rights and others that disagreed with policies of the Israeli government. Relations with the board took a dramatic turn for the worse when I opposed Israel's illegal invasion of Lebanon, culminating in the massacres at the Palestinian camps of Sabra and Shatila. The board also opposed my involvement in the successful campaign in 1982 to convince the Labour party to recognise the PLO as the legitimate voice of the Palestinian people. The fundamental issue on which we differ, as Henry Grunwald knows, is not anti-semitism - which my administration has fought tooth and nail - but the policies of successive Israeli governments. To avoid manufactured misunderstandings, the policies of Israeli governments are not analogous to Nazism. They do not aim at the systematic extermination of the Palestinian people, in the way Nazism sought the annihilation of the Jews. ... All racist and anti-semitic attacks must be stamped out. However, the reality is that the great bulk of racist attacks in Europe today are on black people, Asians and Muslims - and they are the primary targets of the extreme right. For 20 years Israeli governments have attempted to portray anyone who forcefully criticises the policies of Israel as anti-semitic. The truth is the opposite: the same universal human values that recognise the Holocaust as the greatest racist crime of the 20th century require condemnation of the policies of successive Israeli governments - not on the absurd grounds that they are Nazi or equivalent to the Holocaust, but because ethnic cleansing, discrimination and terror are immoral." Ken Livingstone, "This is about Israel, not anti-semitism," The
Guardian, 4 March 2005
SOURCE: "Bloomberg's London Visit Incenses Jewish Leaders," CBS News, 2 October 2007

WHO: Gerald Schiller, author of a Letter to the Editor to the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, "('Abandoning Israel,' Sept. 21 and PghTrib.com)"
WHY: "Letter-writer Gerald Schiller thinks that Israel's Mossad might be feeding us fabricated intelligence to keep us in Iraq ... What's next? Discovering that Elvis has been flipping burgers at a McDonald's in Detroit all these years? Excessive liberalism and a bad case of anti-Semitism obviously have altered Mr. Schiller's ability to think clearly."
FOR THE RECORD: "Israeli intelligence overplayed the threat posed by Iraq and reinforced the U.S. and British assessment that Saddam Hussein had large amounts of weapons of mass destruction, a retired Israeli general said Thursday. The Israeli assessment may have been colored by politics, including a desire to see the Iraqi leader toppled, said Shlomo Brom, who was a senior Israeli military intelligence officer and is now a researcher with Israel's top strategic think tank. Brom stopped short of accusing Israeli intelligence officials of intentionally misleading Britain and the United States. His assertions could, however, undermine the reputation of the Israeli intelligence service, one of the most respected in the world. The Israeli military declined comment, while other experts said Brom was exaggerating. ... Brom told The Associated Press in an interview Thursday that 'Israeli intelligence was a full partner with the United States and Britain in developing a false picture of Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction capability.' He said Israeli intelligence 'badly overestimated the Iraqi threat to Israel and reinforced the American and British belief that the weapons existed.' Brom said the Israeli assessment may have been influenced by politics. 'Israel has no reason to regret the outcome of the war in Iraq,' he wrote, noting Saddam was an implacable enemy." Associated Press, "General: Israelis exaggerated Iraq threat," USA Today, 4 December 2003
SOURCE: Darlene Walter, "Defending Israel," Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, 2 October 2007

WHO: University of California - Irvine
WHY: "UC Irvine routinely hosts events at which speakers inaccurately call Israel an apartheid state, blame 'the Zionist Jews' for the Sept. 11 terror attacks and other problems in the world, and accuse 'the Zionist Jews' of bullying, conspiratorial conduct, and trickery."
FOR THE RECORD: "The conflagration in the Middle East has roiled American college campuses for decades, and as the violence continues abroad, the debate rages on in the United States. For several years, the flash point of this conflict in Southern California has been UC Irvine, a dubious distinction that was again highlighted last week when the university's chancellor met with representatives of the Orange County Jewish community at their request in the wake of escalating rhetoric from both sides. ... 'When I got to UCI, I did not have any idea that I would be hit hard with such a strong anti-Israel sentiment,' said Reut Cohen, a third-year student active in pro-Israel groups. 'It's really strange because Irvine in general is very Christian (and) very conservative.' Marya Bangee, a third-year student who serves as spokeswoman for the Muslim Students Union, echoed that sentiment, but from the opposite perspective. 'We're in the middle of conservative Orange County, and that is obviously a difficult atmosphere to be discussing political issues here,' she said. 'There are definitely organizations ... that are trying to shut down free speech with regard to Israel.' Tensions escalated throughout the spring as former President Jimmy Carter visited the campus to discuss his latest book, which is highly critical of Israel. Last month, the Muslim Student Union held an annual week of events sharply criticizing Israel, and one member of the group had a bizarre run-in with an FBI agent who appeared to be monitoring students on campus. Jewish groups have raised concerns that campus events ostensibly criticizing Israeli policy have crossed over into anti-Semitism, while some Muslims have complained that rhetoric from the other side denigrates their religion. Still, Vice Chancellor Manuel Gomez said the campus has an obligation to allow free speech to be stretched to its limits. 'If we don't allow the discussion and the debate of these ideas within a university community, where there are so many rich intellectual resources, where do we allow it?' he asked rhetorically. ... " Dan Laidman, "Orange County not geopolitical hotbed," Copley News Service, 3 June 2007
SOURCE: Susan Tuchman, "UC Irvine," Zionist Organization of America Press Release, 1 October 2007

WHO: Woody Allen, Jewish-American comedian, actor, and film director.
WHY: "The charge of anti-Semitism has been leveled at Woody Allen so many times as to sound unoriginal. Without rehearsing all the evidence and counter-arguments, the very least one can say is that, when it comes to seizing on a tired stereotype and utterly exhausting it, Allen has shown himself a modern master of unoriginality."
FOR THE RECORD: "I have been called a self hating Jew any number of times over the years, sometimes based on jokes I've made in my cabaret act or films and particularly when I wrote an op-ed piece for the New York Times suggesting that it was not only indecent but not great public relations for Israel to have their soldiers go door to door and preemptively break the hands of Palestinians. Following that piece I was named Pig of the Month by the Jewish Defense League and they descended upon the venue I play jazz at with a live pig to present to me. These issues are always so sensitive and it's impossible not to offend but be assured that I long for the same peaceful, humanitarian solution that seems so simple and yet remains elusive." Woody Allen, Letter to Ed Koch dated 28 May 2002, "Ed Koch vs. Woody Allen on Anti-Semitism," BeliefNet
SOURCE: Benjamin A. Plotinsky, "Mere Anarchy by Woody Allen," Commentary Magazine, October 2007

WHO: The American Latino population
WHY: The article doesn't exactly mention what views are popular in the Latino community that they consider "hardcore anti-Semitic." Quotes: "'For Latinos, their perceptions of Jews, if any exist at all, are in part framed by their current economic encounter, principally in an employee-employer relationship,' Steven Windmueller, L.A. dean of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, wrote in the book 'California Jews.' ... The Pew Hispanic Center reported in April that only 44 percent of Latinos hold a favorable view of Jews, compared with 77 percent of all Americans. The negative feelings are strongest among Latino Catholics. A survey conducted by the ADL in 2005 found that 35 percent of foreign-born Latinos held "hardcore" anti-Semitic beliefs. That was down from 44 percent of those surveyed in 2002."
FOR THE RECORD: "The stereotypes swing both ways, though. This reporter was recently told a story about students at a Jewish day school being asked during last year's immigration debate to share what they knew about Latinos. 'They're gardeners,' was one response. 'They're nannies' was another. 'They are not hateful stereotypes. They are just stereotypes borne from inexperience,' said Rabbi Gary Greenebaum, AJC's national director of inter-religious affairs. He said programs that bring Latinos and Jews into communion help dispel myths about both groups. With the Latino population of the United States expected to grow significantly during the next few decades, many Jewish leaders are attempting to strengthen bonds between the communities. ... Danoch, who is fluent in Spanish from the three years of his youth he spent in Uruguay, where his father worked for the Jewish Agency for Israel, thinks outreach to Latinos is given too short shrift by many American Jews."
SOURCE: Brad A. Greenberg, "Latino pastors celebrate Sukkot and Israel in Westwood," JewishJournal.Com, 28 September 2007

WHO: Barack Obama, Democratic presidential candidate
WHY: For calling for global neclear disarmament: "Nukes - M.A.D. - kept us safe. And the same deterrent value exists today (except against jihadists). And nuclear parity is what kept India and Pakistan from attacking each other in recent years. NUKES FOR PEACE! If Obama REALLY wanted to make the world safer, instead of promoting the idiotic “dream” of disarmament, he’d be backing more NMD. And nukes are the ultimate defense for Israel. Does Obama want Israel to try to deter the arab states without them!?!? If so, then Obama is either an anti-Semite or and idiot or both."
FOR THE RECORD: "Democrat Barack Obama called for ridding the world of nuclear weapons Tuesday and offered his early opposition to the Iraq war as evidence of sound judgment that trumps his lack of Washington experience. Obama argued that U.S. policy is still focused on the defunct Soviet Union instead of combatting the nuclear threat from rogue nations and terrorists. The United States shouldn't unilaterally disarm, he said, but it must work with other nations to phase out weapons and control atomic material. 'Here's what I'll say as president: 'America seeks a world in which there are no nuclear weapons,' Obama said. 'The best way to keep America safe is not to threaten terrorists with nuclear weapons — it's to keep nuclear weapons and nuclear materials away from terrorists,' the Illinois senator said. Aides said the process Obama envisions would take many years, not just a a single presidency." Christopher Wills, "Obama urges eliminating nuclear weapons," Associated Press, 2 October 2007
SOURCE: "Enough exercise: is there such a thing?," Artueel Blog, 3 October 2007

WHO: Richard Dawkins, Wiki: "Richard Dawkins ... is a British ethologist, evolutionary biologist and popular science writer who holds the Charles Simonyi Chair for the Public Understanding of Science at the University of Oxford. Dawkins first came to prominence with his 1976 book The Selfish Gene, which popularised the gene-centered view of evolution and introduced the term meme, helping found the field of memetics. ... He has since written several best-selling popular books, and appeared in a number of television and radio programmes, concerning evolutionary biology, creationism, and religion. Dawkins is an outspoken antireligionist, atheist, secular humanist, and sceptic, and he is a supporter of the Brights movement. In a play on Thomas Huxley's epithet "Darwin's bulldog", Dawkins' impassioned advocacy of evolution has earned him the appellation 'Darwin's rottweiler'."
WHY: For this quote: "When you think about how fantastically successful the Jewish lobby has been, though, in fact, they are less numerous I am told - religious Jews anyway - than atheists and [yet they] more or less monopolise American foreign policy as far as many people can see. So if atheists could achieve a small fraction of that influence, the world would be a better place."
FOR THE RECORD: "The accusation of anti-Jewishness is ludicrous, offensive, and one might almost say paranoid. It reminds me of an occasion when I was lecturing on a ship, and I spoke strongly against religion in general, ALL religion. I never once mentioned Jews or Judaism. Yet I heard afterwards that a Jewish member of the audience was going around accusing me of anti-Semitism behind my back. To him, the very word "religion" was apparently synonymous with Judaism, and therefore to be anti-religious was tantamount to being anti-Jewish. I don't know enough about the recent history of Israel/Palestine to be either pro or anti-Zionist, but I do know enough to say that oao's phrase 'current general anti-semitism/anti-zionism', implying as it does that anti-zionism is equivalent to anti-semitism, is offensive to my many Jewish friends who do know a lot about the history of that unhappy region, and who are passionate anti-Zionists." Richard Dawkins, "Comment #36688," RichardDawkins.net : The Official Richard Dawkins Website, 2 May 2007
SOURCE: Paul Halsall, "Is Richard Dawkins an Anti-Semite?," English Eclectic, 1 October 2007