Just a few days ago, I thought I’d found the height of irony. But this beats it.
The discussion, titled: “Why anti-Zionism is not anti-Semitism,” was filmed against a backdrop reading “Zionism: The cancer at the heart of international affairs.”
If you can read that without doing a double-take, you should read it again.
Where was the discussion held? Iran? David Duke’s living room? The Carter Center?
Nope. London.
LONDON – Informed, honest debate on the Middle East has been stifled because of a fear of being accused of anti-Semitism, according to the participants in a discussion hosted by the Islam Channel in central London on Thursday. The broadcaster is the largest Islamic television outlet in Europe.
And what is considered “informed, honest debate”? Why, it’s a debate in which there is only one viewpoint.
Three Jewish anti-Zionists sat on the panel, including a representative of the haredi Natorei Karta, along with Palestinian scholar Ghada Karmi.
Ilan Pappe of the University of Haifa’s political science department, a revisionist historian at the forefront of calls for a boycott of Israel, said that to divorce Zionism from Judaism it was necessary to refrain from using Zionist terminology. For example, you should not talk about a Jewish Diaspora. “The only diaspora is the Palestinians, therefore there is a need to adopt new language,” he said.
The Natorei Karta sect was represented by Rabbi Ahron Cohen, who was a member of the delegation that went to Iran to offer support to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in March following his comments that Israel should be wiped off the map.
And what about anti-Semitism?
The discussion was chaired by Alan Hart, a former ITN and BBC correspondent whose latest book, “Zionism: The real enemy of the Jews” was recently published. He said, “The anti-Semitism card is something the Zionists have exploited to suppress debate.”
He said the mainstream media had concealed “the truth of history” out of fear of offending Jews and thanked CEO Mohammed Ali of the Islam Channel for “his courage in widening the debate.”
Uh-huh. So, in order to get “informed, honest debate,” you have to get onto an anti-Israel Islamic television station, surround yourself with people who agree with you completely, and console yourself with the fact that you got the truth out, in spite of those evil Zionists who control the world media (and probably your thoughts when you take off your tinfoil beanie).
Shyeah.
I would be more impressed with the Islam Channel’s balance if it had a program critical of Islamofascism and Jihadism.
chsw
Three Kapo Jews are their guests. I notice that Ilan Pappe despite his call for a boycott of Israeli acdemic institutions has not initiated his own boycott and resigned his position at Haifa University where he scandously recieves a salary paid for by the Israeli taxpayers.
When people are giving aid to those who, like the Palestinian Arabs or Gorilla Boy in Iran, want to kill five million Jews and destroy their state for the offense of existing, I call it antisemitism. And you know, those who deny it are simply liars. Natorei Kartai I can understand even if I can’t respect their position, but Jews who are not ultra-orthodox, fanatical lunatics calling for Israel’s destruction? Kapos indeed. Worse in many ways for they are not between the rock and the hard place the Kapos of WWII were. They adopt their treason freely, out of desire to be chic or accepted by antisemitic swine.