The Deir Yassin Remembered Blog

Report on Beth Israel vigil 11-02-13

Posted on November 11th, 2013 at 5:57 pm by

Dynamic Silence (again)

Benjamin Ginsberg, in his book The Fatal Embrace, identifies the term “Dynamic Silence” for us. From page 124 we read:

Together with their allies, Jews also organized efforts to deprive anti-Semites of access to the media. This effort began during the late 1940s and continued into the 1950s. For example, during this period, the American Jewish Committee developed a strategy it called “dynamic silence” to combat the activities of Gerald L.K. Smith. Working together, officials of the American Jewish Committee, the American Jewish Congress, and the ADL [Anti-Defamation League] would approach the publishers of major newspapers and owners of radio stations in cities where Smith had scheduled appearances to ask that Smith be given no coverage whatsoever. If newspapers and radio stations failed to cooperate on a voluntary basis, Jewish organizations were usually able to secure their compliance by threatening boycotts by Jewish advertisers. This strategy of dynamic silence was extremely effective in suppressing Smith and other right-wing anti-Semites.

In other words, rather than confronting people allegedly holding anti-Jewish attitudes and trying to persuade them and their listeners that the positions they held were logically unsupportable, Jews merely silenced the voices they didn’t like by exerting financial pressure.

Now fast-forward to 2013 and observe the continued practice of dynamic silence applied by a powerful New York Jewish Assemblyman by the name of Dov Hikind. Mr. Hikind took offense that the Institute for Historical Review was distributing books casting doubt on the dominant narrative of the treatment of Jews in German hands, aka “The Holocaust”. And rather than factually dispute the charges in these books, or challenging the directors of the IHR on the merits of their scholarship, Mr. Hikind took the back door to the issue by pressuring MasterCard to revoke its credit card services to the IHR.

He then bragged about this personal coup by publishing a photo of himself and a smiling Richard Santoro, MasterCard Worldwide’s VP of Government Affairs. Dov is smiling probably because he got the dynamic silence he craved, and Mr. Santoro is also smiling, probably because he got to keep his job.
Dov_MasterCard
Putting his money where his mouth is, this writer is now waiting for a response from MasterCard to a letter I penned after reading about this successful Jewish effort to stifle historical discourse (letter follows signature). If Jews are powerful enough to bend the will of major credit card companies, who knows the limits of their ability to silence critics of Israel, Jewish identity politics, or political speech disguised as religious worship?

Comments?

Note: There was no Report for 10-26-13 (10 vigilers)
On 11-03-13 there were 4 vigilers
Illegitimate Israel
Henry Herskovitz
Jewish Witnesses for Peace and Friends
#

October 28, 2013

To; Richard Santoro
Lobbyist, Vice President, Government Affairs
MasterCard Worldwide
2000 Purchase St
Purchase, NY 10577

Dear Mr. Santoro,

I’m writing in the hope that we can “dig in and do good” together regarding the recent blacklisting of the Institute for Historical Review by MasterCard, the credit card company you represent. The hope I have is that you will reverse your recently initiated policy of not allowing me to charge books in on-line transactions with IHR. Censorship is the realm of dictators.

I currently belong to a local credit union that uses MasterCard as its debit card offering to union members. I have now located another local credit union that does not utilize MasterCard as its debit card offering. I have come to be quite dependent on this small form of private banking.

I would like to remain at my present credit union, and will do so upon MasterCard dropping the policy of blacklisting companies that have come to find disfavor with influential men like Assemblyman Dov Hikind.

I should not have to remind you how Americans as myself cherish freedom of speech, which includes purchasing and reading books of my choosing.

Thank you for taking time to read this, and thanking you in advance for your quick and principled response.

Best wishes,

Henry Herskovitz
404 Mark Hannah Pl.
Ann Arbor, MI 48103

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