Eretz Israel is our unforgettable historic homeland...The Jews who will it shall achieve their State...And whatever we attempt there for our own benefit will redound mightily and beneficially to the good of all mankind. (Theodor Herzl, DerJudenstaat, 1896)

We offer peace and amity to all the neighbouring states and their peoples, and invite them to cooperate with the independent Jewish nation for the common good of all. The State of Israel is ready to contribute its full share to the peaceful progress and development of the Middle East.
(From Proclamation of the State of Israel, 5 Iyar 5708; 14 May 1948)

With a liberal democratic political system operating under the rule of law, a flourishing market economy producing technological innovation to the benefit of the wider world, and a population as educated and cultured as anywhere in Europe or North America, Israel is a normal Western country with a right to be treated as such in the community of nations.... For the global jihad, Israel may be the first objective. But it will not be the last. (Friends of Israel Initiative)

Wednesday 14 December 2011

The Wiesenthal Center's Worst Of The Worst For 2011

The Simon Wiesenthal Center has published its list of  the top anti-Israel/antisemitic slurs of the past year that have been made by mainstream individuals (as opposed to members of terrorist groups,  the lunatic fringe, and the Iranian Government).

As the Center states, the list should serve as "a wake-up call" to people who assume that such ravings are the exclusive preserve of "neo-Nazis and crackpots".

Quibbles are no doubt inevitable, and I can't help thinking that the Center has perhaps placed John Galliano and Lars Von Trier (both of whom have apologised) way too high, and Hermann Dierkes (seen and heard in the following video uploaded in 2010) way too low.


Here's the list, but there's more to be read and seen on the Center's website


1.  “I come before you today from the Holy Land, the land of Palestine, the land of divine messages, ascension of the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him and the birthplace of Jesus Christ peace be upon him, to speak on behalf of the Palestinian people…”
-Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas at his UN General Assembly address, September 23, 2011 (omitting any reference to the Jewish people’s connection to the Holy Land.)

2. “I would like to see accurate statistics of how many Israelis have been killed by the bombs thrown by Palestinians or with the rockets that were launched by them?…. we know that hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were killed… neither Turkey nor the Muslims in the region have exerted such cruelty on Israel… Israel is inexplicably cruel, against innocent Palestinians, hiding behind the Nazi Holocaust and seeking victimhood....Everybody knows what Israel is about.”
-Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan during CNN Interview with Fareed Zakaria, September 25, 2011

3.  “Everything that happens today in the world has to do with the Zionists… American Jews are behind the world economic crisis that has hit Greece also.”
-Zorba The Greek composer, Mikis Theodorakis, winner of the International Music Council-UNESCO International Music Prize, also told Greek TV that he was “anti-Israel and anti-Semitic,” February 15, 2011

4.  “I love Hitler…People like you would be dead. Your mothers, your forefathers, would all be f****** gassed.”
– Christian Dior fashion designer John Galliano was fired and later convicted in a French court for his anti-Semitic rants screamed at Jews in a Paris bar.

5.  “I understand Hitler... He’s not what you would call a good guy, but yeah, I understand much about him and I sympathize with him a little bit. But come on, I’m not for the Second World War, and I’m not against Jews... I am of course, very much for Jews. No, not too much, because Israel is a pain in the ass… I’m very much for Speer. Albert Speer [Hitler’s Architect]… He was also maybe one of God’s best children… Okay, I’m a Nazi.”
-Director Lars Von Trier was thrown out of the Cannes Film Festival after this rant,
May 18, 2011.

 6.  “[Jews] want that sucker of Syrian blood to remain and continue to prey and suck blood. They not only want their security, but also to enjoy the sight of Syrian blood being spilled…. Asking myself why Jewish support of Bashar [Assad] increased after they saw the rivers of Syrian blood this mass-murderer spilled in Syrian towns, an old image leapt to my mind, of Jews bleeding people and using their blood to prepare matzas. Logic does not accept this, but the facts prove it.”
–Syrian writer Osama Al-Malouhi, an opponent of President Bashar Assad, posted on an opposition website, October 26, 2011, The Middle East Media Research Institute.

 7. “Not all the Jews in the world are evil….The ratio is 60-40. Sixty percent are evil to varying degrees, all the way to a level that words cannot describe, while 40 percent are not evil.”
–Tawfiq Okasha, a presidential candidate in post-Mubarak Egypt added that among the 40% of ‘non-evil’ Jews there is only one in a million who is blameless, Al-Faraeen TV, October 31, 2011.

8. “The source that finances and incites all these international organizations… especially in the Arab world… are led by a single, evil organization, known as Zionism. It is behind all these movements, all these civil wars, and all these evils… Jesus Christ healed the sick among the Jews… and resurrected their dead. [How did they repay him?] “They strived to crucify him until he died…”
“Do the people of the opposition [today]… belong to Christianity or to Islam? No. They are deeply rooted in Judaism and in Zionism… Any intelligent person who reads
The Protocols of the Elders of Zion will see the extent of its influence on the politics of our region and the world.”
–George Saliba, Bishop of the Syrian Orthodox Church in Lebanon, Al-Dunya TV, July 24, 2011. The Middle East Media Research Institute

 9. “Oppose the moral blackmail of the so-called Holocaust! [“Arbeit macht Frei!”] Truth makes free!”
– Hermann Dierkes, leader of the Left Party in Duisburg, Germany, April 2011.
(Dierkes posted a flyer on the website with a swatiska morphing into a Star of David and called for a boycott of Israeli products, labelling Israel a “rogue state” and a “warmonger.”)

10. “The state of Israel is an illegal, genocidal place… to equate Judaism with the State of Israel is to equate Christianity with [rapper] Flavor Flav.”
– Rev. Jeremiah Wright in a speech to thousands of people, June 14, 2011, Baltimore, Maryland.

4 comments:

  1. Really, really disappointed (not to say horrified) to learn that about Theodorakis.

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  2. It did come as a nasty surprise.

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  3. No surprise about #10. Obama's rabid anti-Semite revered.

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  4. I'd forgotten about that Obama connection!

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