“Jews Run Your Country”
Jewish Witnesses for Peace and Friends hosted two directors of Deir Yassin Remembered last week and have been invited by Dan McGowan and Paul Eisen to join their organization as members. Speaking at our salon, Mr. Eisen postulated that American Jews run the United States and encountered little dissent. Although the main item to be discussed at the forum was the influence of Jews in leadership positions in the Palestine peace movement, Paul’s declaration, though provocative and hyperbolic, opens the door to discussions of the disproportionate power of the Jewish community, as evidenced in its domination of US foreign policy (ref: The Israel Lobby by Mearsheimer and Walt). Twenty-six people attended the salon.
Mr. McGowan offered as suggestion for our vigil group that we adopt a weekly theme to our signs, reflecting the news of the week. He feels more of our target audience – the general public – would appreciate and connect with timely messages. Both men joined our vigil on Saturday, raising the attendance to twelve.
Those Darn Revisionists
Joined by Vigil Supporter M, Dan, Paul and I visited the Tennessee home of Ingrid Rimland Zundel, Ed.D. Dr. Zundel is an award-winning writer and the wife of avowed pacifist Ernst Zundel, who spent years in prison for his rejection of the standard narrative of “the Holocaust.” While perusing their vast library, offices and art studio, I came upon a small pamphlet sub-headed “Ernst Zundel Responds to the Atlantic Monthly Article by D.D. Guttenplan Re: the Irving/Lipstadt Trial.” Having read other historical revisionists, I’ve come to give due regard to their claims, because they back them up with sources, many of them primary. But while reading the pamphlet I encountered a claim that seemed dubious. Ernst wrote:
The word “Holocaust” was a propaganda term, appropriated in the middle seventies by the Holocaust promoters. It never had any political meaning attached to it before. Check any dictionary or encyclopedia published before 1975.
I found it hard to believe that within the first 30 years after the end of World War II there had been NO holocaust. We hurried over to the 10-pound 1966 Random House dictionary upon our return to Ann Arbor, and found the definition of holocaust:
1. a great or complete devastation or destruction, esp. by fire. 2. a sacrifice completely consumed by fire; burnt offering
No mention of Jewish suffering, unlike in today’s Dictionary.com results:
3. (usually initial capital letter) the systematic mass slaughter of European Jews in Nazi concentration camps during World War II (usually preceded by the).
It’s been this writer’s observation that not many folk have read revisionist literature on the Holocaust, but it personally has been an eye opening experience, to say the least. Readers are encouraged to start with the short Debating the Holocaust by Thomas Dalton.
Comments?
Israel: Illegitimate from the start
Henry Herskovitz
Jewish Witnesses for Peace and Friends
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