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03/02/2005:

"GOP Jewish Group Critizes Byrd's Remarks"

WASHINGTON (AP) - A pair of Jewish groups accused Sen. Robert Byrd on Wednesday of making an outrageous and reprehensible comparison between Adolf Hitler's Nazis and a Senate GOP plan to block Democrats from filibustering. A GOP senator called for Byrd to retract his remarks.

Byrd spokesman Tom Gavin denied that Byrd, D-W.Va., had compared Republicans to Hitler. He said that instead, the reference to Nazis in a Senate speech on Tuesday was meant to underscore that the past should not be ignored.

``Terrible chapters of history ought never be repeated,'' Gavin said. ``All one needs to do is to look at history to see how dangerous it is to curb the rights of the minority.''

But Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania, the Senate's No. 3 Republican, called for Byrd to retract his statement.

``Senator Byrd's inappropriate remarks comparing his Republican colleagues with Nazis are inexcusable,'' Santorum said in a statement. ``These comments lessen the credibility of the senator and the decorum of the Senate. He should retract his statement and ask for pardon.''

Abraham H. Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League, said Wednesday that Byrd's remarks showed ``a profound lack of understanding as to who Hitler was'' and that the senator should apologize to the American people.

``It is hideous, outrageous and offensive for Senator Byrd to suggest that the Republican Party's tactics could in any way resemble those of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party,'' Foxman said.
Full Article: guardian.co.uk

Methinks they dost protest too much.

Columbia University and the New Anti-Semitism
Rape, massacre, theft, torture, ethnic cleansing: these are not crimes which nations can defend with ease - especially when unearthed by their own historians. Israel recently faced this most troubling predicament. Combing through declassified state archives, Israeli scholars of the past twenty years have discovered their nation was founded upon the mass expulsion and deliberate destruction of the native Palestinian people. (1) Israel, it turned out, was far more Goliath than David. Since this presented somewhat of a public relations problem for a state still engaged in brutalizing Palestinians and stealing their land, a new self-justifying rationale needed to be authored.
Enter the "new anti-Semitism." This doctrine turns reality on its head, declaring criticism of Israel's racist behavior to be itself racist ­ "anti-Semitic." Empathy for Palestinians being beaten, bullied, and bulldozed out of existence, the doctrine goes, is nothing but some disguised expression of Jew-hatred. Goose-stepping Germans and uprooted Palestinians are portrayed as part of the same unbroken line of anti-Semitism, even though those inhabiting concentration camps today ­ "the largest ever to exist," says Israeli historian Baruch Kimmerling - are the Palestinians themselves. (2) But no matter. Abusing the memory of Holocaust victims to shut down criticism of Israeli crimes ­ crimes unearthed mostly by Jewish historians - may be obscene, but it is also effective.

Wielding this new ideological weapon, Israel's champions aim to cut down pro-Palestinian voices inside America with the same ruthlessness Israeli soldiers employ to shoot up Palestinian children outside their homes. (3) The latest targets in this well-organized hit are Arab-American professors at Columbia University who teach Middle Eastern studies. The targets have been judiciously selected. Since these particular professors are Arab in an age when bombing and torturing Arabs has virtually become a national sport, they make for easy prey; and since they have added to their original sin of being Arab the even graver sin of speaking the truth about Israel's past ­ no less in a country which subsidizes Israel's existence - they also make for necessary prey.
Full Article: counterpunch.org