Simon Wiesenthal Centre jumps the shark

Posted on January 10, 2009 by Sabina Becker

Oh, the poor Wiesenthalers, how they’ve come down in the world. They’ve gone from hunting Nazis…to inventing them where none exist. How pathetic is this?

It appears that Mr. Chavez did not wait very long to do an about face. And it unfortunately demonstrates that such declarations and agreements do not really reflect the “facts on the ground”. It is not yet understood why the Wiesenthal Center waited until the Ambassador left this morning to issue this release.

The Wiesenthal Center indicated that Chavez is in violation of the agreement which calls for “Argentina, Brazil and Venezuela to condemn racism, religious intolerance, racial discrimination and related intolerance”.

It may also be that the Wiesenthal Center is taking prophylactic measures against what others have stated may be violations against Venezuela’s current Jewish population. It is unfortunate, however, that both Brazil and Argentina have had their share of anti-Semitic incidents, despite having sizable Jewish communities.

Emphasis added on the most interesting bits.

Notice that there have been no antisemitic incidents named–at least not in Venezuela. That’s because there haven’t been any. Brazil and Argentina, on the other hand, have had them, but since their presidents have not expelled any Israeli ambassadors, they’re not being singled out for whatever threats the Wiesenthalers are trying to make. What does that tell you?

Here’s what it tells me:

This is not about antisemitism or “violated” agreements in Venezuela; this is about punishing a leader who dared to speak out against human rights violations committed by the Israeli government and military. In other words, they’re denouncing Chavecito for holding to his agreement, but not in the “right” way. He’s opposed to racism, religious discrimination, persecution, etc.–not only against Jews, but also Arabs, Muslims, and most specifically, the Palestinians of Gaza. Somehow, though, that’s not kosher with you-know-who.

The Wiesenthal Centre has just tipped its hand and revealed that it is no longer a human-rights organization, but a tool of Israeli foreign policy. They’ve also revealed that when it comes to Arabs, Muslims and Palestinians, they make a major exception to their anti-racist/anti-discrimination stand.

In short, they’ve jumped the shark. The only difference between them and Fonzie is that the Fonz never did a faceplant at the end of his shark-jump.

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8 Responses to Simon Wiesenthal Centre jumps the shark

  1. Utpal says:
    January 10, 2009 at 11:14 PM

    It never was a human rights organization. It has always been a tool of USraeli foreign policy.

  2. Sabina Becker says:
    January 10, 2009 at 11:19 PM

    That’s pretty much what I figured. Why else wait so long to go chasing after Adolf Eichmann, or fail to go after any of those other Nazis that became torture-trainers for very US-friendly dictatorships in South America?

  3. Utpal says:
    January 10, 2009 at 11:26 PM

    Israel apologists are getting increasingly silly and desperate (I am told that there is very visible American Jewish opposition in the US to the Gaza thing that they can’t ignore anymore).
    I mean the Wiesenthal Center is trying prophylaxis against what may in the future be anti-semitic Venezuela, as opposed to antisemitic incidents that *have* happened in Brazil and Argentina, if I understand this right?
    There is a Fisk piece here:
    http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/fisk/robert-fiskrsquos-world-wherever-i-go-i-hear-the-same-tired-middle-east-comparisons-1297595.html
    Money paragraph there:
    In Ireland, my favourite journalistic justification for this bloodbath came from my old mate Kevin Myers. “The death toll from Gaza is, of course, shocking, dreadful, unspeakable,” he mourned. “Though it does not compare with the death toll amongst Israelis if Hamas had its way.” Get it? The massacre in Gaza is justified because Hamas would have done the same if they could, even though they didn’t do it because they couldn’t. It took Fintan O’Toole, The Irish Times’s resident philosopher-in-chief, to speak the unspeakable. “When does the mandate of victimhood expire?” he asked. “At what point does the Nazi genocide of Europe’s Jews cease to excuse the state of Israel from the demands of international law and of common humanity?”

  4. Sabina Becker says:
    January 10, 2009 at 11:41 PM

    Fintan O’Toole hits it bang on the head. Being the past victim of a genocide doesn’t give anyone carte blanche to commit one of their own. Most thinking Jews would cheerfully agree with that one, not to mention that it’s shameful to turn into that very thing you swore you wouldn’t let happen again.
    As Nietzsche said, “Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in so doing, he does not become one himself. And when you look into the abyss, the abyss also looks into you.”
    BTW, what crack was Kevin Myers smoking, making ridiculous speculations like that? The fact that the entire Arab world hasn’t gotten together a unified army to wipe out Israel–or fund Hamas to do it–should be proof that this is NOT what Israel is making it out to be. Moreover, Hamas is also a puppet of Israel–they received indirect funding from the Israeli government starting in the 1970s. They were meant to help divide and conquer Palestine–by opposing the secular, socialistic PLO of Yasser Arafat. Of course they’re not going to fire anything much more dangerous than bottle rockets! That would be biting the hand.

  6. Utpal says:
    January 11, 2009 at 3:21 PM

    See this picture:
    http://www.indybay.org/uploads/2009/01/10/01_promassacre_rally_1.jpg
    Do you think that’s a Bolivian flag there?

  7. Sabina Becker says:
    January 11, 2009 at 9:31 PM

    No, it’s not a Bolivian flag–it’s a rainbow flag of some sort.
    Nice sign in the front there. >:(

  8. Utpal says:
    January 11, 2009 at 10:58 PM

    You are right. Eewww. Some group called “Gay Nazis for Israel” or something?

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