<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML><HEAD> <META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> <META content="MSHTML 5.50.4611.1300" name=GENERATOR> <STYLE></STYLE> </HEAD> <BODY bottomMargin=0 bgColor=#ffffff leftMargin=3 topMargin=0 rightMargin=3> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV>I bumped this over from another thread, since this one sports Vidal's name.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Doug wrote:</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>"Years ago, the white supremacist Tom <BR>Metzger was offering a Gore Vidal video for sale via his Aryan Update <BR>phone hotline. Metzger's endorsement doesn't make Vidal a Nazi, of <BR>course, but clearly Mr White Ayran Resistance (WAR) found some <BR>affinity there."</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Well, you can find Chomsky's and Finkelstein's books on various neo-fascist lists, given their critique of Israel, etc. I once asked Noam if this bothered him, and he said he didn't think about it much, save for the fact that it showed how utterly depoliticized the culture was, and that he had more important things to worry about than monitoring marginal groups that sell his books.</DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>"</FONT>A few weeks ago I retrieved Vidal's article from the Marc 22, 1986, <BR>issue of The Nation, 'The Empre Lovers Strike Back.' It's a rather <BR>hideous piece. It attacks Norman Podhoretz & Midge Decter, who god <BR>knows deserve plenty of criticism - but Vidal really crosses the line <BR>into anti-Semitism. Podhoretz' 'first loyalty would always be to <BR>Israel.' 'But then, like most of our Israeli fifth columnists, Midge <BR>isn't much interested in what the goyim were up to before Ellis <BR>Island.' 'I've got to tell you I don't much like your country, which <BR>is Israel.' "</DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV>I don't think that piece was anti-Semitic at all. Vidal used the Commentary technique of questioning your enemy's allegiances to the state (both US and Israeli) on Poddy and Midge, and it totally stung them. In fact, Vidal attacked the pair for consorting with the real anti-Semites of the Christian right. Vidal's animus toward Greater Israel is clear, but he also speaks of cutting off US Arab clients and promotes Peace Now (for what that's worth). Rough? Yes. Anti-Semitic? Not to me.</DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV>"And then there was his later piece in the Nation, which I've got down <BR>at the office, proposing a grand white folks alliance with the USSR <BR>against the Asian threat."</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Well, that one I won't defend.</DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV>DP</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT><BR><BR> </DIV></BODY></HTML>