On 2011-01-03, at 9:33 PM, Chuck Grimes wrote:
> Er, okay, just a quick question. Why have you sent an article by Nazi provocateur to this list? Richard Seymour
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> Easy does it. I went over some info on Israel Shamir after I read your post (and had already read Wotjek's post) and I agree Shamir is suspect----but of what, by who?...Are we really looking at a nazis provocateur or just a confused slavophile with a crudge against the current Israeli regime?
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> Just make the case so the rest of us non cognoscenti can figure it out…
Ali Abunimah is the founder and editor of Electronic Intifada, an online publication in which I have a great deal of confidence (http://electronicintifada.net/). Several years ago, Abunimah co-authored an email on Shamir which was widely circulated on the internet. It read in part:
"From early on, some of Shamir's writings struck us as straying beyond criticism of Israel and Zionism, and crossing into the territory of implicit anti-Semitism. We have discussed this with many people privately, but now feel compelled to raise some of these objections publicly. While there are many passages in Shamir's rhetoric that cause serious concern, it is sufficient to cite these three:
"1) Yesterday we received an "Easter Message" from Shamir in which he repeats the most odious characterizations of Jews as "Christ killers," the staple of classic European Christian anti-Semitism…
"2) Shamir recently gave a speech at Tufts University. He is quoted as saying at that speech: "Palestinians are perfect mammals; their life is deeply rooted in the ground...Israeli people represent a virus form of a human being because they can live anywhere"…
"3) On March 30, the Jerusalem Post published an op/ed that reported: "Two weeks ago, Russian-language journalist Israel Shamir told a largely Jewish audience: 'Jews only exist to drip the blood of Palestinian children into their matzas.'" ("The Jewish student - a minnow among sharks," March 30, 2001)…
The full text of the email is here:
http://www.nigelparry.com/issues/shamir/originalletter.html
Shamir's reply is here:
http://www.israelshamir.net/FAQs/FAQs1.htm
You can also read his defence of the notorious Canadian Nazi Ernst Zundel here:
http://www.israelshamir.net/friends/Contributor13.htm