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Apr 20 05:02 UTC 2002 |
It's curious, to say the least, that in an item about anti-Semitism,
with news of horrible events in Europe and incitement in the official
Arab media, that instead of addressing the topic all Aaron can do is
voice his own petty hatred.
So back to the subject at hand. The following article is long, but a
must read for left-wing-wannabee Grexers (do I sound like bdh? (: )
What is written isn't surprising, it's the identity of the author.
Oriana Fallaci is a long-time political revolutionary (and also the
Italian Barbara Walters).
Originally published in Corriere della Sera.
Translation by Chris and Paola Newman
On Jew-hatred in Europe
By Oriana Fallaci April 17, 2002
I find it shameful that in Italy there should be a procession of individuals
dressed as suicide bombers who spew vile abuse at Israel, hold up photographs
of Israeli leaders on whose foreheads they have drawn the swasitka, incite
people to hate the Jews. And who, in order to see Jews once again in the
extermination camps, in the gas chambers, in the ovens of Dachau and
Mauthausen and Buchenwald and Bergen-Belsen et cetera, would sell their own
mother to a harem.
I find it shameful that the Catholic Church should permit a bishop, one with
lodgings in the Vatican no less, a saintly man who was found in Jerusalem with
an arsenal of arms and explosives hidden in the secret compartments of his
sacred Mercedes, to participate in that procession and plant himself in front
of a microphone to thank in the name of God the suicide bombers who massacre
the Jews in pizzerias and supermarkets. To call them martyrs who go to their
deaths as to a party.
I find it shameful that in France, the France of Liberty-Equality-Fraternity,
they burn synagogues, terrorize Jews, profane their cemeteries. I find it
shameful that the youth of Holland and Germany and Denmark flaunt the kaffiah
just as Mussolinis avant garde used to flaunt the club and the fascist badge.
I find it shameful that in nearly all the universities of Europe Palestinian
students sponsor and nurture anti-semitism. That in Sweden they asked that
the Nobel Peace Prize given to Shimon Peres in 1994 be taken back and
conferred on the dove with the olive branch in his mouth, that is on Arafat.
I find it shameful that the distinguished members of the Committee, a
Committee that (it would appear) rewards political color rather than merit,
should take this request into consideration and even respond to it. In hell
the Nobel Prize honors he who does not receive it.
I find it shameful (were back in Italy) that state-run television stations
contribute to the resurgent antisemitism, crying only over Palestinian deaths
while playing down Israeli deaths, glossing over them in unwilling tones. I
find it shameful that in their debates they host with much deference the
scoundrels with turban or kaffiah who yesterday sang hymns to the slaughter
at New York and today sing hymns to the slaughters at Jerusalem, at Haifa,
at Netanya, at Tel Aviv. I find it shameful that the press does the same, that
it is indignant because Israeli tanks surround the Church of the Nativity in
Bethlehem, that it is not indignant because inside that same church two
hundred Palestinian terrorists well armed with machine guns and munitions and
explosives (among them are various leaders of Hamas and Al-Aqsa) are not
unwelcome guests of the monks (who then accept bottles of mineral water and
jars of honey from the soldiers of those tanks). I find it shameful that, in
giving the number of Israelis killed since the beginning of the Second
Intifada (four hundred twelve), a noted daily newspaper found it appropriate
to underline in capital letters that more people are killed in their traffic
accidents. (Six hundred a year).
I find it shameful that the Roman Observer, the newspaper of the Pope--a Pope
who not long ago left in the Wailing Wall a letter of apology for the
Jews--accuses of extermination a people who were exterminated in the millions
by Christians. By Europeans. I find it shameful that this newspaper denies
to the survivors of that people (survivors who still have numbers tattooed
on their arms) the right to react, to defend themselves, to not be
exterminated again. I find it shameful that in the name of Jesus Christ (a
Jew without whom they would all be unemployed), the priests of our parishes
or Social Centers or whatever they are flirt with the assassins of those in
Jerusalem who cannot go to eat a pizza or buy some eggs without being blown
up. I find it shameful that they are on the side of the very ones who
inaugurated terrorism, killing us on airplanes, in airports, at the Olympics,
and who today entertain themselves by killing western journalists. By shooting
them, abducting them, cutting their throats, decapitating them. (Theres
someone in Italy who, since the appearance of Anger and Pride, would like to
do the same to me. Citing verses of the Koran he exorts his brothers in the
mosques and the Islamic Community to chastise me in the name of Allah. To kill
me. Or rather to die with me. Since hes someone who speaks English well, Ill
respond to him in English: Fuck you.)
I find it shameful that almost all of the left, the left that twenty years
ago permitted one of its union processionals to deposit a coffin (as a mafioso
warning) in front of the synagogue of Rome, forgets the contribution made by
the Jews to the fight against fascism. Made by Carlo and Nello Rossini, for
example, by Leone Ginzburg, by Umberto Terracini, by Leo Valiani, by Emilio
Sereni, by women like my friend Anna Maria Enriques Agnoletti who was shot
at Florence on June 12, 1944, by seventy-five of the three-hundred-thirty-five
people killed at the Fosse Ardeatine, by the infinite others killed under
torture or in combat or before firing squads. (The companions, the teachers,
of my infancy and my youth.) I find it shameful that in part through the fault
of the left--or rather, primarily through the fault of the left (think of the
left that inaugurates its congresses applauding the representative of the PLO,
leader in Italy of the Palestinians who want the destruction of Israel)--Jews
in Italian cities are once again afraid. And in French cities and Dutch cities
and Danish cities and German cities, it is the same. I find it shameful that
Jews tremble at the passage of the scoundrels dressed like suicide bombers
just as they trembled during Krystallnacht, the night in which Hitler gave
free rein to the Hunt of the Jews. I find it shameful that in obedience to
the stupid, vile, dishonest, and for them extremely advantageous fashion of
Political Correctness the usual opportunists--or better the usual
parasites--exploit the word Peace. That in the name of the word Peace, by now
more debauched than the words Love and Humanity, they absolve one side alone
of its hate and bestiality. That in the name of a pacifism (read conformism)
delegated to the singing crickets and buffoons who used to lick Pol Pots feet
they incite people who are confused or ingenuous or intimidated. Trick them,
corrupt them, carry them back a half century to the time of the yellow star
on the coat. These charlatans who care about the Palestinans as much as I care
about the charlatans. That is not at all.
I find it shameful that many Italians and many Europeans have chosen as their
standard-bearer the gentleman (or so it is polite to say) Arafat. This
nonentity who thanks to the money of the Saudi Royal Family plays the
Mussolini ad perpetuum and in his megalomania believes he will pass into
History as the George Washington of Palestine. This ungrammatical wretch who
when I interviewed him was unable even to put together a complete sentence,
to make articulate conversation. So that to put it all together, write it,
publish it, cost me a tremendous effort and I concluded that compared to him
even Ghaddafi sounds like Leonardo da Vinci. This false warrior who always
goes around in uniform like Pinochet, never putting on civilian garb, and yet
despite this has never participated in a battle. War is something he sends,
has always sent, others to do for him. That is, the poor souls who believe
in him. This pompous incompetent who playing the part of Head of State caused
the failure of the Camp David negotiations, Clintons mediation.
No-no-I-want-Jerusalem-all-to-myself. This eternal liar who has a flash of
sincerity only when (in private) he denies Israels right to exist, and who
as I say in my book contradicts himself every five minutes. He always plays
the double-cross, lies even if you ask him what time it is, so that you can
never trust him. Never! With him you will always wind up systematically
betrayed. This eternal terrorist who knows only how to be a terrorist (while
keeping himself safe) and who during the Seventies, that is when I interviewed
him, even trained the terrorists of Baader-Meinhof. With them, children ten
years of age. Poor children. (Now he trains them to become suicide bombers.
A hundred baby suicide bombers are in the works: a hundred!). This weathercock
who keeps his wife at Paris, served and revered like a queen, and keeps his
people down in the shit. He takes them out of the shit only to send them to
die, to kill and to die, like the eighteen year old girls who in order to earn
equality with men have to strap on explosives and disintegrate with their
victims. And yet many Italians love him, yes. Just like they loved Mussolini.
And many other Europeans do the same.
I find it shameful and see in all this the rise of a new fascism, a new
nazism. A fascism, a nazism, that much more grim and revolting because it is
conducted and nourished by those who hypocritically pose as do-gooders,
progressives, communists, pacifists, Catholics or rather Christians, and who
have the gall to label a warmonger anyone like me who screams the truth.
I see it, yes, and I say the following. I have never been tender with the
tragic and Shakespearean figure Sharon. (I know youve come to add another
scalp to your necklace, he murmured almost with sadness when I went to
interview him in 1982.) I have often had disagreements with the Israelis, ugly
ones, and in the past I have defended the Palestinians a great deal. Maybe
more than they deserved. But I stand with Israel, I stand with the Jews. I
stand just as I stood as a young girl during the time when I fought with them,
and when the Anna Marias were shot. I defend their right to exist, to defend
themselves, to not let themselves be exterminated a second time. And disgusted
by the antisemitism of many Italians, of many Europeans, I am ashamed of this
shame that dishonors my Country and Europe. At best, it is not a community
of States, but a pit of Pontius Pilates. And even if all the inhabitants of
this planet were to think otherwise, I would continue to think so.
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