April 6th, 2009 at 10:37 am by David Frum | 5 Comments |
"The new anti-semitism" is the name given to the more pathological forms of anti-Zionism often found in the Middle East, in Europe and alas on North American university campuses. Obsessive hatred of Israel serves the same purpose as the more explicit hatred of Jews that went out of style with the end of World War II.
As a result, one of the world's leading Holocaust deniers now concedes that there is no more reason to deny historical fact: Lies about Israel have now led people to hate Jews so much that it's no longer necessary to lie about the Holocaust. Lawrence Auster tells the story:
In an article posted this past January at the website of the Institute for Historical Review, Mark Weber, the director of that organization and for decades the editor of its journal and the leading Holocaust denial publication, The Journal of Historical Review, announced his abandonment of Holocaust revisionism. The real motive of the Holocaust denial enterprise, he writes, has always been to weaken and delegitimize the "Jewish-Zionist power." …
[But] Holocaust denial is no longer necessary in carrying out the war against the Jews, because, Weber says, anti-Semitism and anti-Israelism have been increasing worldwide. … As a result, a direct attack can now be made on the Jews themselves, rather than the indirect attack through Holocaust denial.
It's a jaw-dropping story, and a sad tribute to the enduring power of history's most murderous hatred.
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Debating the Holocaust: A New Look at Both Sides By Thomas Dalton
On one side is the traditional, orthodox view -- six million Jewish casualties, gas chambers, cremation ovens, mass graves, and thousands of witnesses. On the other is the view of a small band of skeptical writers and researchers, often unfairly labeled "deniers," who contend that the public has been gravely misled about this emotion-laden chapter of history.
The author establishes that the arguments and findings of revisionist scholars are substantive, and deserve serious consideration. He points out, for example, that even the eminent Jewish Holocaust scholar Raul Hilberg acknowledged that there was no budget, plan or order by Hitler for a World War II program to exterminate Europe's Jews.
This book is especially relevant right now, as "Holocaust deniers" are routinely and harshly punished for their "blasphemy," and as growing numbers of people regard the standard, Hollywoodized "Holocaust" narrative with mounting suspicion and distrust.
The author of this book, who writes under the pen name of "Thomas Dalton," is an American scholar who holds a doctoral degree from a major US university.
This is no peripheral debate between arcane views of some obscure aspect of twentieth century history. Instead, this is a clash with profound social-political implications regarding freedom of speech and press, the manipulation of public opinion, how our cultural life is shaped, and how power is wielded in our society.
Peace.
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Editorial Director
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No event in human history has been studied as thoroughly and carefully than the Holocaust. Thousands of thesis and dissertations papers have poured over all of the evidence, from anecdotal testimony to captured German war documents. Virtually every historian with a PhD in European History agrees that millions of Jews were systematically exterminated by Nazi Germany. One can no more "revise" this fact than one can revise the existence of gravity. Captured German documents alone account for enough evidence to convict Nazi Germany of mass genocide in any civil (not Islamic) court. You can suggest that 5.6 million Jews were killed, instead of six million. But, you cannot deny that millions of innocent Jews were murdered. The Wansee Conference planned the killing. Nazi concentration camp records prove that it was carried out.
ReplyDeleteWhenever we stand up to those who deny or minimize genocide we send a critical message to the world. As we continue to live in an age of genocide and ethnic cleansing, we must repel the broken ethics of our ancestors, or risk a dreadful repeat of past transgressions. We know from captured German war records that millions of innocent Jews were systematically exterminated by Nazi Germany - most in gas chambers. These facts have been proven repeatedly through countless thesis and dissertation research papers. Virtually every PhD in the world will stake their career on the veracity of known Holocaust facts. Despite this knowledge, Holocaust deniers ply their mendacious poison everywhere, especially with young people on the Internet. Such deniers have only one agenda - to distort the truth in a way that promotes antagonism against the object of their hatred, or to deny the culpability of their ancestors and heroes.
Museums and mandatory public education are tools to dispel bigotry, especially racial and ethnic hatred. Books, films and presentations can reinforce the veracity of past and present genocides. They help to tell the true story of the perpetrators of genocide; and they reveal the abject terror, humiliation and degradation resulting from prejudice. It is therefore essential that we disclose the factual brutality and horror of genocide, combating the deniers’ virulent, inaccurate historical revision. We must protect vulnerable future generations from making the same mistakes.
A world that continues to allow genocide requires ethical remediation. We must show the world that religious, racial, ethnic, gender and orientation persecution is wrong; and that tolerance is our progeny's only hope. Only through such efforts can we reveal the true horror of genocide and promote the triumphant spirit of humankind.
Charles Weinblatt
Author, "Jacob's Courage"
http://jacobscourage.wordpress.com/