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August 07, 2006
By his words, you shall know him
One of the problems with anti-semitism is that it encourages more anti-semitism. Sadly, the recent Mel Gibson episode has proven that point once again.
In an essay titled "Mel, Poor Mel," the learned Thomas Fleming takes anti-semitism to the next level:
The fact that so many troublemakers of the past 150 years have been of Jewish extraction—Marx, Freud, the Neoconservatives—is certainly no argument in their favor. Jewish “intellectuals” continue to be in the forefront of the movements that aim to destroy our religion and culture.
Well, Mr. Fleming sure showed Mel what anti-semitism really is, didn't he?
Mr. Fleming's rant is published by Chronicle Magazine, and - here's a surprise - Fleming is the editor. Chronicle is owned by The Rockford Institute, a non-profit research institute for which Fleming acts as "agent" and which is funded by... "Foundations, donations, membership fees, sales of publications." On its "website" it claims a budget for the year 2000 in the amount of $900,000. No budgets for any subsequent years are mentioned.
But, at those prices, don't assume that Fleming's learned essays are based upon the extensive research provided by The Rockford Institute. After all, no research by the Rockford Institute is referenced in his anti-semetic rant and in fact, it appears from its website that the Rockford Institute has not done any research for the past five years. It does appear to have sold a lot of books, audio taped lectures and whatnot.
In his essay titled "Bleeding Lebanon," Mr. Fleming insinuates that Israel is a terrorist nation 10 times worse than Hezbollah, based on the fact that not enough Israelis have died yet.
But if Hezbollah’s initial missile strikes were acts of terrorism, so is the much greater Israeli campaign that has so far killed nearly 400 Lebanese, mostly civilians. This is ten times the number of Israelis who have died in the conflict. If sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander, that makes Israel ten times more terrorist than Hezbollah.
I guess the crack research team at Rockford somehow failed to uncover all of these deaths, or maybe Fleming was too lazy to inquire. Still, Mr. Fleming is a little more tempered than Mel, who claims "The Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world." Fleming only blames the Jews for the war in Iraq:
If there had ever been any doubts that the security of Israel was Bush’s primary motive for invading Iraq, those doubts have been dispelled by his unequivocal support for a war against Lebanese civilians that is being condemned around the world.
Mel was drunk on tequila, and to his credit, he apologized. While there can be no doubt what flavor koolaid Fleming has been drinking, somehow, I don't think an apology will be forthcoming.
Posted by LindaSoG at August 7, 2006 12:04 AM
Comments
That is completely disgusting. The only answer I can come up with as to why people like this so loudly maintain the views they do, is that they are terrified and cowards.
Their irrational statements have no grounding in fact. In fact, all of these statements are completely conflicting with the facts. But they stand by their beliefs not letting little things like facts disuade them.
Be that as it may, a person doesn't get their head sawed off with a dull kitchen knive when speaking out against or standing up to Israel or the United States. That can't be said for any dissent against muslim states.
They are just terrified and cowardly. They can't face the realities of the world we live in.
Posted by: beth at August 7, 2006 12:43 AM
At least Mel can say he was drunk. I doubt Flemming can say the same.
Posted by: I R A Darth Aggie at August 11, 2006 04:29 PM