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Rhetoric - Pat Lang on Israel and the Iranian Conference ¶ A Rebuttal - Updated

by Oui Wed Jan 18th, 2006 at 10:08:28 AM EST

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Edit of title :: to avoid confusion and accusation of ill intent.

Pat Lang’s diary is about the Iranian president and the holocaust reference, my diary is about the American rhetoric on foreign policy and warmongering in the media versus Iran.

NYT & Patrick Lang Beating the War Drums ¶ Exacerbates Fear of Iran

Please do read Pat Lang’s diary first:

Iranian Conference on the Holocaust ◊ by Patrick Lang
Mon Jan 16th, 2006 at 08:56:21 PM PST

    "Last month, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said in a speech, "They have invented a myth that Jews were massacred, and place this above God, religions and the prophets."

    He added, "The West has given more significance to the myth of the genocide of the Jews."

    He argued that the "myth" of the Holocaust served as Europe's pretext for the existence of Israel." CNN

Did you say CNN translation and coverage can be trusted?

It will probably surprise a lot of people that the notion that the West invented the story of the Holocaust as an excuse for the creation and continuing support of Israel is believed by many in the Arab and Islamic Worlds.

See the rubbish spouted by a Jewish rabbi Abraham Cooper from Simon Wiesenthal Center of Los Angeles. To be clear, I have great respect for Simon Wiesenthal, his courage and his work in Vienna, Austria. Los Angeles has become a center similar to AIPAC as a lobbyist organization with mostly propaganda.

More below the fold ...


There are also many in those parts who think that the "Protocols of the Elders of Zion" is a historical document which somehow "leaked" from within Jewish circles.

It would be nice by such a general statement "There are also many in those parts", some proof is provided or a link. I personally have never heard of these protocols, so I had to do some research and added a link to the protocols.

The president of Iran is not universally thought of as a "nut" in the Middle East. Many think he is merely indiscreet. It should be instructive to those who think that the West's problem with the Islamic World is about communication that while this head of state can comfortably spout such tripe, to say the same thing is a felony crime in many European countries.

This alinea scares me that an educated person can sustain a vision of confrontation with the Islamic World, instead of limiting his concern to the extremists present on all sides and of all biblical times. When U.S. policy has been adepted to a Clash of Civilization, you are confronting 1.3bln muslims globally.

My father was in the government of occupied Germany and I was taken to see the camp at Dachau at the age of eight. Ahmadinejad is wrong. What would cause people to deny a historical catastrophe of this magnitude?

Did he deny the Holocaust or try to proportion the same related to the importance of the Biblical Land and Jerusalem for all religions? The Jewish nation refers to the Holocaust as exclusive for their people, discounting the many other victims of extermination in the Nazi camps and the multiple of deaths caused by WWII.
    On December 8, 2005, Ahmadinejad gave a speech at a summit for Muslim nations in Saudi Arabia that denied the Holocaust and suggested Israel should be moved to Europe.

Saudi Prince Turki al-Faisal

Saudi Arabia's new ambassador to the United States denigrated in an interview with the Washington Post, the Iranian president's description of the Holocaust as a myth. The ambassador said the "horrific genocide" is a "historical fact" no longer in dispute, adding that the Arab world has "made our peace" with the Jewish state's establishment.

In the interview, Prince Turki al-Faisal said "As far as Saudi Arabia is concerned, [the Holocaust is] a historical fact, you cannot deny that, and people should move forward from that."

Turki said the Arab world has "made our peace" with the creation of Israel. He noted that in 2002, the Arab League adopted a Saudi plan that committed Arab nations to a peace process that would result in the creation of Palestine and an acceptance of Israel, including normalization of relations, once it leaves territory occupied after the 1967 Six-Day War.  

Many people in "the region" see life as essentially an us versus them, zero sum game in which the "other" is felt to be altogether alien, enemy and hostile. Not all people feel that way, but many do. For folk with that mentality the actions of the other must always be seen as motivated from the same kind of exclusivist hostility that they feel themselves. This is mirror imaging with a vengeance.

Another allegation and a general view of the Arab and Islamic world. I would appreciate to know, how this is substantiated. In general, I understand Islamic teachings of heretics as a fundamental problem - see Saudi Arabia and not in particular Iran. A simple generalization and poorly founded in historic context.

Hmmm ... I googled for "zero-sum game" and "us versus them"

Oil in the Caspian Region and Central Asia
- the Political Risk of the Great Game Continued

Contribution at a conference held in Boulder, USA, April 11th. 1998. Copyright: Øystein Noreng.

Interlocking Political Risk Dimensions
This article discusses the political risk involved in developing the oil and gas resources of the Caspian Region and Central Asia and in bringing the oil and gas to the market. The risks involved should be analyzed from at least three angles: the transportation problems, the great power involvement and the potential instability of the regimes in place. These three dimensions interlock.

The New Regionalism ◊ by Allan Wallis, Ph.D.

The creation of Israel by the Zionist movement with British collusion is seen by such people as a hostile, anti-Arab, anti-Islamic plot carried out with malevolent intent. The idea that such a thing could have happened as a product of serendipitous circumstance is discounted as absurd in such a world view. The West says continuously that the impetus for the independence of Israel after WWII was the Holocaust, therefore this statement must be a lie and part of the plot.

The Western Powers have truly screwed up the region since the Ottoman Empire and the wars in Iraq by the British, CIA overthrow of regimes in Middle-East since WWII and the U.S. led invasion and occupation of the Iraq sovereign nation.

Don't believe me? Wait and see what the judgment of the conference will be...

Pat Lang

Pat Lang provides little context to the circumstances and place of the Iranian rhetoric. A far better article on the topic can be found on the website of the Jewish Library with same biased Israeli rhetoric, however given in a fuller context. Most amazing paragraph near the end:

    For years, Saddam Hussein's Iraq served as a counterweight to the regional hegemonic designs of the theocrats in Tehran; however, the removal of Saddam from power, and destruction of his army, has left Iran as the most powerful nation in the Gulf. Iran is viewed by its Arab neighbors as a menace. Iran has a long record of coveting their resources and territory, and Iran's radical Muslim leaders have consistently sought to export their revolution beyond their nation's borders.

So, after supporting the Kurds and charlatan Chalabi to have Saddam removed and Iraq destroyed, the Israeli government and society are happy to continue the struggle by entertaining the West with continuous propaganda of other Arab and Islamic nations in the Middle East.

The occupation of Palestinian land of the West Bank and Gaza, the Golan heights of Syria, the invasion, occupation and destruction of Southern Lebanon and Beirut in the eighties, what is next for American soldiers to die for?

Non-Jewish Aspects of WW2 ◊ by Soj

... There are other, non-jewish aspects of WW2 which are rarely mentioned or discussed, concerning German POW's, Roma (gypsies), Poles and other Slavic peoples (esp Ukrainians), Communist party members (German) and physically handicapped people who also suffered greatly in WW2.

The Iranian president has issued many inflammatory, extremist statements. That being said, the issue of the holocaust and questions about it are not solely the province of nuts, anti-Semites and hatemongers.

RELATED READING ::

"Treason doth never prosper: what's the reason?
For if it prosper, none dare call it treason."

▼ ▼ ▼ MY DIARY

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It started with a search for corporate media and Jewish corporate media, which led to websites on media influence on U.S. foreign policy. I recently wrote a diary Norman J. Pattiz - Chairman BBG Middle East Committee.

In another diary on the War of Words between Israel and Iran on new electronic devices for precision detonation of bombs in Iraq, I skirted some clearly anti-semitic sites, yet there was some worthwhile content to quote from.

Is this anti-semitism?

The Israeli Terrorist State and its Mossad Assassins ◊ Global Security

Jewish Assassination and Media Doublethink ◊ byAlex Burns
I find this info interesting, as it is placed in the year 2000, Sharon will be new PM of Israel after his February 2001 election victory, the setting in which the 911 attacks were executed.

State-Sponsored Assassinations by Agents of Foreign Governments ◊ by David Silverstein

Bombed remains of Elie Hobeika's vehicle, detonated by remote-control

Elie Hobeika, a key witness in the Sabra-Shatila war crimes case being pursued in a Belgian court against Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon, was blown up outside his house in Beirut on Jan. 24, 2002, together with three bodyguards and a civilian bystander. The car-bomb was the work of professional assassins in the employ of Mossad, the Israeli secret service. The explosion occurred two days after Hobeika agreed to give evidence against Sharon in Belgium. Hobeika had met Belgian Senators Josy Dubie and Vincent van Quickenborne in east Beirut, agreeing to be a witness at any trial of Sharon for the Sabra and Shatila massacre.

  «« click on pic for story
The burnt-out and twisted remains of Elie Hobeika's car

Belgian lawyers seeking to indict Sharon expressed their "profound shock" at Hobeika's murder. "Mr Hobeika had several times expressed his wish to assist the Belgian inquiry on the massacres at Sabra and Shatila," a statement from the Belgian lawyers said. "His determination to do so was reported widely on the eve of his assassination. The elimination of the key protagonist who offered to assist with the inquiry is an obvious attempt to undermine our case."


Elie Hobeika

Marwan Hamadeh, the Lebanese minister for refugees stated,"My initial evaluation is that of course Israel doesn't want witnesses against it in this historic case in Belgium..." Israeli Prime Minister Sharon dismissed the charges: "I am simply saying, from our point of view, we have no link to this subject at all, and this is not worthy of a comment," Sharon told reporters.

History of A Conflict

When a people lost 6,000,000 lives in Nazi Germany, where does its new nation place the boundary for collateral damage?

  ««  click pic for Powell's site

Additional reading: Victor Ostrovsky: How Mossad Got America to Bomb Libya & Vanunu's Case - Israel Nuclear Power

Related reading in my earlier diary --
Norman J. Pattiz - Chairman BBG Middle East Committee ¶ Al Hurra & Sawa

"Treason doth never prosper: what's the reason?
For if it prosper, none dare call it treason."
 

▼▼▼ READ MY DIARY

'Sapere aude'

by Oui (Oui) on Wed Jan 18th, 2006 at 10:13:38 AM EST


There are also many in those parts who think that the "Protocols of the Elders of Zion" is a historical document which somehow "leaked" from within Jewish circles.

It would be nice by such a general statement, some proof is provided or a link. I personally have never heard of these protocols, so I had to do some research and added a link.

The Protocols of the Elders of Zion are a very well known antisemitic provocation. Anybody that mentions the protocols uncritically or favorably can ABSOLUTELY be accused of antisemitism. If you have does your research and did not come quickly to that conclusion, you are going to dubious sources.


The Protocols of the (Learned) Elders of Zion (Russian: "Протоколы Сионских мудрецов" or "Сионские Протоколы") is a text frequently quoted and reprinted by anti-Semites, purporting to describe a plan to achieve Jewish global domination. It has been repeatedly exposed as a hoax by numerous independent investigations during the last hundred years. The Encyclopædia Britannica describes the Protocols as a "fraudulent document that served as a pretext and rationale for anti-Semitism in the early 20th century".

Mainstream historians in the United States of America and Europe have long agreed that the text is fraudulent; this has also been stated in a number of court cases worldwide, e.g., as early as the 1930s in Bern, Switzerland. In 1993, a district court in Moscow, Russia, formally ruled that the Protocols were faked in dismissing a libel suit by the ultra-nationalist Pamyat organization, which had been criticized for using them in their anti-Semitic publications.[1]

The Protocols is accepted as factual in some parts of the world in which people hold negative opinions of Jews or Israel and Zionism. In the current conflicts in the Middle East, the Protocols is sometimes used as evidence of Jewish conspiracy.

(wiki)



In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes
by Jerome a Paris (etg@eurotrib.com) on Wed Jan 18th, 2006 at 11:02:55 AM EST


My father was in the government of occupied Germany and I was taken to see the camp at Dachau at the age of eight. Ahmadinejad is wrong. What would cause people to deny a historical catastrophe of this magnitude?

Did he deny the Holocaust or try to proportion the same related to the importance of the Biblical Land and Jerusalem for all religions? The Jewish nation refers to the Holocaust as exclusive for their people, discounting the many other victims of extermination in the Nazi camps and the multiple of deaths caused by WWII.

Yes, he denied the Holocaust (link to the ET thread when he made his first pronouncement on the topic or this second one initiated by name). Repeatedly (BBC).

Even trying to "proportion" the holocaust is borderline, frankly.


In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes

by Jerome a Paris (etg@eurotrib.com) on Wed Jan 18th, 2006 at 11:13:17 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Is this anti-semitism?

The Israeli Terrorist State and its Mossad Assassins ? Global Security

Jewish Assassination and Media Doublethink ? byAlex Burns
I find this info interesting, as it is placed in the year 2000, Sharon will be new PM of Israel after his February 2001 election victory, the setting in which the 911 attacks were executed.

State-Sponsored Assassinations by Agents of Foreign Governments ? by David Silverstein

Oui, in your original BooTrib diary, you linked to a site called RevisionistHistory. MarekNYC pointed out that the site is antisemitic and racist. Here's the header from the home page as a taste:

Your source for suppressed information on Judaism's strange gods, secret societies and psychological warfare and radical history.

Now you are linking to other sites, but you have not changed the titles of the articles (the ones you link to now have different titles), or your comments. Don't you think that is misleading? If you sincerely accept that linking to RevisionistHistory was a mistake, why didn't you change that whole paragraph before posting your diary here?

I'm afraid there's another point I find strange: you say: "I personally have never heard of..." The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. But The Protocols of the Elders of Zion is, historically, an extremely well-known antisemitic propaganda fake which has been cited again and again by antisemites as historical proof of a world-embracing Jewish conspiracy. I'm sorry to have to say this, but, if you truly had never heard of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion before, I think your knowledge of the history of antisemitism is perhaps rather perfunctory, and you might refrain from writing a diary on this subject.

I generally enjoy your diaries, and I feel sad to have to object to certain aspects of this one.  

by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Wed Jan 18th, 2006 at 12:41:19 PM EST
It is interesting that at the same time Iran is organizing this Holocaust Denial Conference a new exhibit is opening at the museum where the Wannsee Conference took place. Wannsee is where the "Final Solution" was approved. An article in today's Die Welt mentions some of the new reasearch that is now on display there:
Darunter sind bislang in Deutschland unbeachtete Exponate wie ein offizieller "Wochenspruch" der NSDAP aus dem Herbst 1941. Diese Propagandaform, kalligraphisch gestaltete Blätter meist mit Hitler-Zitaten, die in Parteibüros, Schulen und Behörden ausgehängt wurden, enthielt in der Ausgabe der zweiten September-Woche 1941 ein Wort des "Führers" aus seiner Reichstagsrede vom 30. Januar 1939. Darin hatte Hitler dem "internationalen Finanzjudentum" die "Vernichtung der jüdischen Rasse in Europa" angedroht, wenn es wieder einen Weltkrieg geben sollte. Im Herbst 1941 eskalierte Hitlers europäischer Krieg zum Weltkrieg, und gleichzeitig begann der industrielle Massenmord.

So it is clear from all the documents that the mission was to eliminate Jews (not just Jews among other groups).

P.S. Im sure that David Irving is dying to attend the Iranian Conference, but he is sitting in a Viennese prison.


Dialog International

by DowneastDem (david.vickrey (at) post.harvard.edu) on Wed Jan 18th, 2006 at 01:40:04 PM EST
The TV reporting of Iran reminds me of that before the Iraq attack. Lot's of dehumanising Iranians as a bunch of anti-semitics and trouble makers in Iraq who want a nuke (no proof needed of course). Lot's of stuff by retired military men and so called strategic or military analysts on exactly how the US would take out the Iranian water purification plants - oh sorry the nuclear enrichment plants. Lot's of stuff on how Israel may be "forced" to do it if nobody else will (read if sane heads veto action at the security council).  It just seems a matter of time before a bunch of Iranian children get a bunch of bombs dropped on them.
by observer393 on Thu Jan 19th, 2006 at 01:58:46 AM EST
What is more, any discussion of Iran will begin in 1979, not in 1953. Take, for instance, the CIA World Fact Book
Known as Persia until 1935, Iran became an Islamic republic in 1979 after the ruling monarchy was overthrown and the shah was forced into exile.
There go 44 years of history, including British occupation during WWII, US meddling after WWII, the Shah, and Mossadegh.

A society committed to the notion that government is always bad will have bad government. And it doesn't have to be that way. — Paul Krugman
by Carrie (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Thu Jan 19th, 2006 at 04:32:51 AM EST
[ Parent ]
I quite agree that there's a build-up that feels like the pre-Iraq build-up, and I fear Bush will launch an attack on Iran. (In fact, I said so on this site sometime last summer -- if Iraq stuck in the craw of the Cheney/Rumsfeld crowd, what sticks in it even more is Iran, the third on the list of 1970s defeats for them after Vietnam and Watergate).

All the same, what do you mean by dehumanizing the Iranians with antisemitism? You have to go a fairly long way into conspiracy theory territory to make out that Ahmadinejab didn't utter highly provocative statements and insinuations about the genocide of the European Jews. To oppose Israel, it's not necessary to call the Holocaust in question (and yes, that is the effect of Ahmadinejab's remarks). I don't know why Ahmadinejab spoke as he did, but I don't doubt he did so.

I'm just extremely sorry for most Iranians that the lunatics have taken over the asylum. But why did it happen? Because the US lost the Iraq war, and the winners were the Iranian fanatics.

by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Thu Jan 19th, 2006 at 07:34:41 AM EST
[ Parent ]
does not automatically mean all the population think this way. Unfortunately that is not the impression all news reports give.
by observer393 on Fri Jan 20th, 2006 at 09:41:05 AM EST
[ Parent ]


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