Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Iran Dons the 'Mantelpiece'

Heard on Phillip Adams' Late Night Live program (4/5/09) on the ABC's Radio National: "Antisemitism* which has been formented [sic] now for 3 generations in the Sunni Arab world in places like Saudi Arabia and Egypt has been left unchecked, and now that Egypt does have a peace treaty... but there's been 3 generations of hatred formenting [sic] under the ground, and now the populations of Egypt and Saudi Arabia are quite confused because, on the one hand, the Egyptian government has been saying for 3 generations to annihilate Israel, and suddenly they have a peace treaty with Israel, and now, as Iran rises and is now taking the mantlepiece [sic!!!] of the saviour of all Arabs and the Palestinian people, and I say that in quotes, they're now filling the vacuum of 3 generations of education of hatred, and they're rising and going unchecked, and the Obama administration ought to pay very close attention to the fact that the Shiite regime in Iran, with the help of Hezbollah and now Hamas and now even the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, is poised to destabilise if not topple the Egyptian government and state." (Anti-Semitism & talking to Iran, Dr Charles Small, Director and Founder of the Yale Initiative for Interdisciplinary Study of Anti-Semitism; Director of the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism & Policy.)

Typically, Norman Finkelstein had this "Initiative" all figured out when he predicted in his introduction to the AP article, Yale creates first university-based center to study anti-Semitism (19/9/06): "Yale Offers First Ever Interdisciplinary Program in Jewish Navel-Contemplation: a triple major in Judaic Studies, The Holocaust, and Anti-Semitism. Course offerings include: Why are the Ivy Leagues only 95% Jewish? Why didn't Hollywood produce a film on the Holocaust last week? Why are the major media ignoring anti-Semitic graffiti in a Burundi parking lot?"

[*For a sensible perspective on anti-Semitism in the Middle East see my 19/10/08 post The Party Line.]

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Credit where credit is due (and I don't often give Adams any credit on this subject) - Adam did try to get him to address reasonable questions, and his other guest did balance the insanity.

What amused me is the extent to which the field is dominated by Jewish voices. The media are so terrified of the lobby that if they want to find a balancing voice they have to find another Jew.