izraelczyk1
04.12.02, 12:24
I Stand with Israel: I Stand with the Jews
by Oriana Fallaci
Corriere della Sera | December 2, 2002
(http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Printable.asp?ID=4830)
[A French court on Nov. 20, 2002, dismissed a request to ban
"The Rage and the Pride," the best-selling book by [leftist]
Italian journalist Oriana Fallaci that critics say incites hatred
of Muslims. Fallaci, 73, is a former Resistance fighter and war
correspondent best-known for her uncompromising interviews
with world leaders]
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.
I find it shameful (we're back in Italy) that state-run television stations
contribute to the resurgent anti-Semitism, crying only over Palestinian
deaths while playing down Israeli deaths, glossing over them in unwilling
tones. I find it shameful that in their debates they host with much deference
the scoundrels with turban or kaffiah who yesterday sang hymns to the
slaughter at New York and today sing hymns to the slaughters at Jerusalem, at
Haifa, at Netanya, at Tel Aviv.
I find it shameful that the press does the same, that it is indignant because
Israeli tanks surround the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, that it is
not indignant because inside that same church two hundred Palestinian
terrorists well armed with machine guns and munitions and explosives (among
them are various leaders of Hamas and Al-Aqsa) are not unwelcome guests of
the monks (who then accept bottles of mineral water and jars of honey from
the soldiers of those tanks).
I find it shameful that, in giving the number of Israelis killed since the
beginning of the Second Intifada (four hundred twelve), a noted daily
newspaper found it appropriate to underline in
capital letters that more people are killed in their traffic accidents. (Six
hundred a year).
I find it shameful that the Roman Observer, the newspaper of the Pope--a Pope
who not long ago left in the Wailing Wall a letter of apology for the Jews--
accuses of extermination a people who were exterminated in the millions by
Christians. By Europeans. I find it shameful that this newspaper denies to
the survivors of that people (survivors who still have numbers tattooed on
their
arms) the right to react, to defend themselves, to not be exterminated again.
I find it shameful that in the name of Jesus Christ (a Jew without whom they
would all be unemployed), the priests of our parishes or Social Centers or
whatever they are flirt with the assassins of those in Jerusalem who cannot
go to eat a pizza or buy some eggs without being blown up.
I find it shameful that they are on the side of the very ones who inaugurated
terrorism, killing us on airplanes, in airports, at the Olympics, and who
today entertain themselves by killing western journalists. By shooting them,
abducting them, cutting their throats, decapitating them. (There's someone in
Italy who, since the appearance of Anger and Pride, would like to do the same
to me. Citing verses of the Koran he exorts his "brothers" in the mosques and
the Islamic Community to chastise me in the name of Allah. To kill me. Or
rather to die with me. Since he's someone who speaks English well, I'll
respond to him in English: "F*** you.")
I find it shameful that almost all of the left, the left that
twenty years ago permitted one of its union processionals to
deposit a coffin (as a mafioso warning) in front of the synagogue
of Rome, forgets the contribution made by the Jews to the fight
against fascism. Made by Carlo and Nello Rossini, for example, by
Leone Ginzburg, by Umberto Terracini, by Leo Valiani, by Emilio
Sereni, by women like my friend Anna Maria Enriques Agnoletti who
was shot at Florence on June 12, 1944, by seventy-five of the
three-hundred-thirty-five people killed at the Fosse Ardeatine,
by the infinite others killed under torture or in combat or
before firing squads. (The companions, the teachers, of my
infancy and my youth.)
I find it shameful that in part through the fault of the left--or
rather, primarily through the fault of the left (think of the
left that inaugurates its congresses applauding the
representative of the PLO, leader in Italy of the Palestinians
who want the destruction of Israel)--Jews in Italian cities are
once again afraid. And in French cities and Dutch cities and
Danish cities and German cities, it is the same. I find it
shameful that Jews tremble at the passage of the scoundrels
dressed like suicide bombers just as they trembled during
Krystallnacht, the night in which Hitler gave free rein to the Hunt of the
Jews.
I find it shameful that in obedience to the stupid, vile,
dishonest, and for them extremely advantageous fashion of
Political Correctness the usual opportunists--or better the usual
parasites--exploit the word Peace. That in the name of the word
Peace, by now more debauched than the words Love and Humanity,
they absolve one side alone of its hate and bestiality. That in
the name of a pacifism (read conformism) delegated to the singing
crickets and buffoons who used to lick Pol Pot's feet they incite
people who are confused or ingenuous or intimidated. Trick them,
corrupt them, carry them back a half century to the time of the
yellow star on the coat. These charlatans who care about the
Palestinians as much as I care about the charlatans. That is not
at all.
I find it shameful that many Italians and many Europeans have
chosen as their standard-bearer the gentleman (or so it is polite
to say) Arafat. This nonentity who thanks to the money of the
Saudi Royal Family plays the Mussolini ad perpetuum and in his
megalomania believes he will pass into History as the George
Washington of Palestine. This ungrammatical wretch who when I
interviewed him was unable even to put together a complete
sentence, to make articulate conversation. So that to put it all
together, write it, publish it, cost me a tremendous effort and I
concluded that compared to him even Ghaddafi sounds like Leonardo
da Vinci. This false warrior who always goes around in unifo
