Thursday, May 15, 2008
Wikipogrom
disseminated via the anti-Semitic 'ALEF' chat list that operates under the
auspices of the University of Haifa, attempting partially to deny the
Holocaust. The material can be read here:
http://zioncon.blogspot.com/2008/05/when-haaretz-was-enamoured-by-hitler.html
The ALEF list is a list for outright anti-Semites, cheerleaders for
terrorism, and Neo-Nazis. The 'dialogue' concerning the Holocaust began
when Shraga Elam, an ex-Israel best known for his lavish praise for David
Irving, claimed that 'at most' 5.1 million Jews were murdered by the Nazis
during World War II. This was supposed to be based on an estimate of the
world Jewish population posted on a Hebrew University web site by HU's
demographer Prof. Sergio DellaPergola at
http://www.huji.ac.il/cgi-bin/dovrut/dovrut_search_eng.pl?mesge121057565332688760
.
There it says that there were 11 million Jews world wide (elsewhere it
says 11.4) after World War II and 16.5 before the war in the entire world.
Elam and his ilk then claim that 'at most' 5.1 million Jews were murdered,
and the 'Six Million' number is Zionist propaganda. Elam was then joined
on the ALEF list by Stalinist British anti-Semite Tony Greenstein and
others, including a professor of [psychology from Haifa University), who
not only agreed but claimed that as few as 1.5 million Jews may have been
murdered.
This is all familiar stuff taken from Neo-Nazi and Holocaust
Denial web sites, who make similar 'statistical arguments.'
What is one to make of all this?
First of all, the 11 and the 16.5 numbers on the Hebrew University web
site are hardly firm authoritative data points and are little more than
wild guesses.
But suppose for the sake of argument that they are correct.
Would this give credence to the claims of the anti-Semites and Neo-Nazis
that the Six Million number is a fabrication? An invention of Zionists?
Where is the 'missing million' if we take those numbers at face value?
The answer is that the claim reveals far more about the demographic
illiteracy of the anti-Semites than about the actual scope of the
Holocaust. The 'claim' of the anti-Semites that the numbers show that
fewer than Six Million were murdered in the Holocaust ignores natural
growth of Jewish populations in other, non-European parts of the world,
that is, the excess of births over deaths there. (These included all
high-birth Jewish populations in North Africa and Asia.) It assumes a
static world Jewish population between 1939 and 1946, other than the
effect of the Holocaust. If the Jewish populations outside Europe in 1939
were about ten million, and if these Jewish populations were growing
naturally at 2% per year during the years of World War II, which is
probably close to or less than they were actually growing, then do the
math and that more than 'explains' the supposedly 'missing million' in the
data of the anti-Semites.
In fact, the number of Jewish deaths during the Holocaust may have been
closer to 7 million than six million.
The anti-Semites, including the Jewish anti-Semites, are misusing
demographic data about the Holocaust so that they can engineer a second
Holocaust of Jews.
2. As you may know, Wikipedia, the amateurish web 'encyclopedia,'
although a reference source that no one with a high school diploma would
regard as reliable, has been systematically sabotaged by a group of
anti-Semites, who distort and vandalize any entry having anything to do
with Israel or Zionism. These anti-Semites seem to be working as a team
of editors.
Details about a campaign, led by CAMERA, to correct this can be read here:
and
http://www.camera.org/index.asp?x_context=2&x_outlet=118&x_article=1485
Since so many high schoolers and .laymen. too lazy to do real research on
topics use Wikipedia, it is important to assist those attempting to
correct the problem. Contact CAMERA for ways you can help.
3. Tel Aviv University held 'Nakba' events this week mourning
Israel.s existence on campus facilities, conducted with university
official approval and support.
4. Getting high with Hebrew University's Timothy Leary (Benny
Shanon):
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/3e2bc1ac-14c6-11dd-a741-0000779fd2ac.html?nclick_check=1
First Person: Benny Shanon
As told to Serge Debrebant
Published: May 3 2008 01:31 | Last updated: May 3 2008 01:31
I don.t think of myself as naive. But I was too innocent to foresee the
reactions to an academic essay I published recently. It suggested that
Moses and the early Israelites might have used psychoactive plants.
After I gave an interview to an Israeli newspaper about it, the story was
picked up by news wires all over the world. Hundreds of people wrote to me
because they.d seen headlines like .Was Moses high on psychedelic drugs?.
Some of them called me a sinner or an idiot, others heaped praise on me
because they thought I was some kind of 1960s Timothy Leary
counter-culture figure advocating hallucinogenic drugs. Just to be clear:
I.m not.
I.m a professor of cognitive psychology at the Hebrew University of
Jerusalem; my expertise is in the study of human consciousness and the
philosophy of psychology. I became interested in non-ordinary states of
consciousness when I was on holiday in the upper Amazonian region of
Brazil. I got the chance to take part in a religious ritual that meant
drinking a powerful psychoactive brew called ayahuasca. This potion plays
a central role in the cultures of the indigenous tribes of the region,
where it is used in religious rituals and medicinal practices. Ayahuasca
is famous for the vivid visions that it induces. Common effects include
psychological insights, philosophical-like reflections and deep religious
and spiritual sentiments. I have had similar experiences, which had a deep
personal impact on me.
I decided to study the potion from a psychologist.s approach. Since then,
I have consumed ayahuasca about 160 times and published my research in an
academic book, called Antipodes of the Mind.
The article on Moses was just a small offshoot of this work. I had started
noticing clues showing that the early Israelites might have used a potion
similar to ayahuasca.
I should explain that although I am not religious, I deeply respect
religious feelings and the Jewish tradition in which I was raised.
I believe that Moses was an extraordinary man.
Journalists simplified my theory and misquoted me, saying that Moses was
stoned when he received the 10 commandments. It was like the children.s
game called .broken telephone.: a child whispers a message to a friend and
this child to another, and so on . and in the end the message is totally
distorted.
Most people who wrote to me had never read my essay. I received about 100
hate messages, mostly from American fundamentalist Christians. One
Christian woman wrote to say she was praying for me and urged me to
repent. A Muslim called me a stupid Jew and said I had better never write
anything like that about the Koran.
Other people just thought I was in favour of drugs. A father wrote to say
that his son was a drug addict and that I shouldn.t publish such theories.
He didn.t know that in traditional native American societies, only mature
people are allowed to use ayahuasca. I was 42 when I first drank it . not
exactly a kid taking drugs at a rave party.
There were other people who realised I had been misinterpreted. One
message I liked a lot came from a religious Jew living in the US. He said
he thought I was right but that I should have kept my theory secret.
Indeed, in the Jewish mystical tradition of Kabbalah esoteric knowledge is
not meant for everyone. But I.m a scientist and believe in the power of
arguments.
I don.t want to hide a theory just because it could create an uproar.
5. Daniel Barenboim is back:
"We wanted to own land that had never belonged to Jews and build
settlements
there. The Palestinians see this as imperialistic provocation, and rightly
so. Their resistance is absolutely understandable - not the means they use
to this end, not the violence nor the wanton inhumanity - but their
~Qno.~R
We Israelis must finally find the courage to not react to this violence,
the
courage to stand by our history."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/may/14/israelandthepalestinians.classic
almusic
6. Remembert hat old definition of chutzpah - where someone kills his
parents and then asks the judge for mercy cause he is an orphan? Well,
read this
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1210668639064&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
7. Nutty Nadine:
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1210668636801&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
8. MES Fiction:
http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID=EB88598E-D17C-44DD-A142-4F63A1377651
9. Jews and Jew Haters II: From Cranks to Clowns
May 8th 2008, 9:28 am
(This is a guest post by Mikey)
Six months ago, I posted Jews and Jew Haters: The Anti-Zionist Jewish
Squabble. It was about the nasty feud between Tony Greenstein, an
anti-Zionist British Jew, and Gilad Atzmon, an anti-Zionist Israeli.
Greenstein wants "the state of Israel to be destroyed" and claims that
Hamas and Hizbollah are not antisemitic. Atzmon says that burning down a
synagogue is a "rational act." I wasn't sure if a sane person could
support either side, but I concluded: "this argument is set to run and
run."
And so it has turned out. The Tony Greenstein camp has established its own
blog, Anti-Zionists against Anti-Semitism, to "opppose [sic] that small
current around Israel Shamir and Gilad Atzmon who wish to introduce the
ideas of racism and anti-Semitism into the Palestine solidarity movement."
A large proportion of the posts are attacks on Atzmon, described as "a
holocaust denier" who is "fundamentally racist and reactionary."
The blog is very dull and only masochists will enjoy it. Apparently even
Greenstein finds it boring, which may explain why he is anxious for the
excitement of a court case. He has initiated legal proceedings against
Atzmon in respect of:
False allegations of serious criminal conduct and fraud concerning
alleged offences over 20 years ago, contrary to s.8 of the Rehabilitation
of Offenders Act 1974.
False allegations of violent crimes, in particular against Jewish people
False allegations of race hate crimes against Jewish people
False allegations of vandalising church property
In full litigation mode, Greenstein has also threatened to sue Google for
hosting the website of Atzmon's main defender.
In the Nazi mind, the ultimate evil is being a Jew. In Atzmon's mind, the
ultimate evil is being a Zionist. This is worse than being a Nazi:
there is no room for comparison between Israel and the Nazis. If a
comparison is to be made, then it is the Israelis who win the championship
of ruthlessness. Israel and Zionism endanger our world. We have to admit
that Israel is the ultimate evil rather than Nazi Germany. We should never
compare Israel to Nazi Germany. As far as evilness is concerned, we should
now let Israel take the lead.
Since it is the worst insult he can imagine, Atzmon has taken to calling
the Greenstein camp crypto-Zionists. Since it is the worst insult he can
imagine, Greenstein throws the same accusation against the Atzmon camp,
whose ideas "can only lead in one direction - to the strengthening of
Zionism." But Greenstein is more promiscuous with his abuse. Not long
after the BNP's legal adviser attacked the Board of Deputies as "a clique
of self serving Zionist racists" and a "Zionist-Nazi organisation" and the
Jewish Chronicle as "the mouthpiece of the same clique of Zionist
parasites and crooks," Greenstein wrote that the BNP is "pro-Zionist."
Perhaps he was trying to enliven his blog by making it hard for his
readers to keep a straight face.
It may become a double-act. Both Gilad Atzmon and Tony Greenstein despise
Anthony Julius for his criticisms of anti-Zionism. Greenstein recently
dismissed Julius as "quite a simple fellow" under a headline that
screamed, "Gilad Atzmon Joins with Anthony Julius to Attack Jewish
Anti-Zionists." That was shortly after Atzmon attacked Julius for his role
in "the destruction of history revisionist David Irving's career."
Meanwhile the Trotskyist Alliance for Workers' Liberty has rallied to
Greenstein defence. This is in spite of Greenstein's boast on the very
same webpage that he
would lose no sleep if they [AIPAC], the Bush White House, the leadership
of the Republican Party, New Labour's cabinet and any other warmongers I
can think of, were vaporised.
As Paul Bogdanor commented:
Previously I exposed Greenstein's thoughts on vapourising as many as
100,000 American Jews in AIPAC, along with the inhabitants of the White
House, as well as his endorsement of the IRA atrocity at the Brighton
hotel. Greenstein now extends the list to the leadership of the Republican
Party, New Labour's cabinet "and any other warmongers I can think of."
Thus Greenstein's "anarchist wishful thinking" encompasses the mass murder
of the entire democratically elected leadership of America and Britain,
and, apparently, anyone at all who supported the Iraq war. That would
presumably include everyone from Iraqi voters who support Coalition forces
to those he has elsewhere described as "the racist warmongers of Harry's
Place"!
Greenstein's troubles go beyond allegations of serious criminal conduct
and the exposure of his "wishful thinking" about terrorism. While coping
with the tedium of his own blog, he faces the humiliation of a spoof blog
by a supporter of Atzmon. The unidentified blogger has even started
posting videos mocking a certain "Mony Gripstein" and his comrade, the
irreplaceable Roland Rance.
Watching the farce of the Jewish anti-Zionists, you may think that the
lunatics have taken over the asylum. I prefer to say that the clowns are
now running the circus
