Oriana Fallaci on Antisemitism

[boedicca]

The New-New Antisemitism and hatred toward Israel reminds me of a piece by Oriana Fallaci from 2002. She was very observant and prescient.

I also fine the attacks on Jews and Israel to be shameful. It's appalling to see Americans turn on an ally, and the only FREE COUNTRY in the Middle East.


I find it shameful that in Italy there should be a
procession of individuals dressed as suicide bombers who
spew vile abuse at Israel, hold up photographs of
Israeli leaders on whose foreheads they have drawn the
swastika, incite people to hate the Jews. And who, in
order to see Jews once again in the extermination camps,
in the gas chambers, in the ovens of Dachau and
Mauthausen and Buchenwald and Bergen-Belsen et cetera,
would sell their own mother to a harem. I find it
shameful that the Catholic Church should permit a bishop,
one with lodgings in the Vatican no less, a saintly man
who was found in Jerusalem with an arsenal of arms and
explosives hidden in the secret compartments of his
sacred Mercedes, to participate in that procession and
plant himself in front of a microphone to thank in the
name of God the suicide bombers who massacre the Jews in
pizzerias and supermarkets. To call them "martyrs who go
to their deaths as to a party."

I find it shameful that in France, the France of
Liberty-Equality-Fraternity, they burn synagogues,
terrorize Jews, profane their cemeteries. I find it
shameful that the youth of Holland and Germany and
Denmark flaunt the kaffiah just as Mussolini's avant
garde used to flaunt the club and the fascist badge. I
find it shameful that in nearly all the universities of
Europe Palestinian students sponsor and nurture anti-
semitism. That in Sweden they asked that the Nobel Peace
Prize given to Shimon Peres in 1994 be taken back and
conferred on the dove with the olive branch in his mouth,
that is on Arafat. I find it shameful that the
distinguished members of the Committee, a Committee that
(it would appear) rewards political color rather than
merit, should take this request into consideration and
even respond to it. In hell the Nobel Prize honors he
who does not receive it......

http://www.ftpi.umn.edu/shifman/fallaci.pdf

 

[Book of Jeremiah]

My favorite story about Oriana Fallaci was when she was preparing to do an interview in Iran - it may have been Khomeini - I cannot recall - she was dressed in jeans and had to put on a burka. Her Muslim cab driver who was married was with her at the time - alone in that room she threw on the Burka when he said to her - I cannot be alone in a room with a woman - I'll have to marry you! She said it was a temporary marriage deal - but if they did not do that he would have been in big trouble - or she would have been - I'm going by memory here. Something else she walked in on while there - a room where Iranian women were sawing off the arms and legs of people who had been executed? Or perhaps they were still alive. I cannot recall - only that she was horrified at the sight of them sawing off limbs. She wasn't prepared for that sight. That is understandable.

Her book, The Rage and the Pride was quite a passionate book. She warned Europe of what was coming decades before she was proved right. Her eloquence when describing the education of our founding fathers was truly a masterful piece. She was a superb writer.

 

[boedicca]

Indeed. She was a fabulous and courageous writer.