“Anti-Zionists” And The Whiff Of Racism.

Non-Jewish “anti-Zionists” will frequently tell you that they have nothing against Jews. Indeed, some of their best friends are…

Or that they hold no prejudices against Jews.

Some of them even seem sincere when they say that, but the problem is when you follow the goings-on of these “non-Jewish anti-Zionists” you often come across the whiff of racism.

The Smell.

It’s not the strong poignant smell that you get from the Far Right. It is not that choking stench that you find on the Extreme Right, but it’s there all the same. For the most part, it is not vulgar or in your face, but you can detect it if you’re sensitive to the ebbs and flows of racism.

I suspect that part of the reason that it is not such an astringent smell, is that it comes from supposedly highly educated people. It is, more often than not, a product of the metropolitan elites, not vulgar thugs in the street, so is seen in a different light. Nevertheless, you can detect the racism, if you try. It leaves a bitter taste on the back of the throat.

Racist Websites.

So imagine my surprise when reading a left-wing blog, Bob from Brockley, that two racist websites were recommended by a “anti-Zionist”.

Firstly, this “anti-Zionist” suggests the Occupied Palestine blog, which I previously demonstrated had a love of neo-Nazi material.

Next, the “anti-Zionist” rates Alison Weir’s not too subtle racism, I dealt with it here.

It is an exceedingly discomforting sensation to think that you will be discussing politics with reasoned anti-racists, then to be confronted with repulsive anti-Jewish racism from one of the participants.

I think the worst part is, that this particular “anti-Zionist” is an adult, a political activist with over a decade’s experience and an Oxbridge graduate.

What Are They Thinking?

It does make you wonder what goes through the minds of “anti-Zionists” that they can read this racist material and it does not ring alarm bells with them.

None of this pricks their conscience, nothing seems to get through, their supposed opposition to racism is shown to be non-existent, their understanding of racism merely a set of words. All is a sham.

Alison Weir’s Racism.

I had the misfortune to have to read Alison Weir’s stuff again. Then I wondered how could anyone be fooled by her racism?

Clearly, Alison Weir’s approach is a bit different and it does seem to fool some people. Not for her the nakedly offensive racism of the Far Right.

No, she’s far too subtle for that, but you have to wonder when an individual is so focused on one particular, er, ethnic group or nation, why do they do it?

For example, if someone in Britain constantly went on about the French. If they were incessantly negative and pejorative about them, dug up the most salacious stories about them and consistently tried to paint them in a bad light, then it would not be unreasonable to assume that that person has animosity towards the French? Or be suffering from xenophobia? If they did it, non-stop, then you would probably say that they are an anti-French bigot.

So, in a similar fashion when Ms. Weir trawls the Web for salacious stories about one nation, one nationality then you might, not unreasonably, ask why does she do it?

Ms. Weir is the purveyor of all things anti-Israeli, and she crosses so many red-lines. However, if someone shares Ms. Weir’s particular hang-ups with Israelis then they might not see the direction in which her racism goes. We should not forget that racists tend to be insensitive to their own racism.

More recently, Ms. Weir has indulged in pushing organ libel, embellished accounts of collaboration with the Nazis and her writings are favoured by the infamous David Duke, ex-KKK Grand Wizard.

Organ Libel.

Ms. Weir is an occasional writer for the racist publication, CounterPunch, and believes that there should be an investigation into salacious lies around organ harvesting and Israelis. She does it in the best possible taste, but astute readers will see what she is getting at [cached link]:

“If Israel is innocent of organ plundering accusations, or if its culpability is considerably less than Bostrom and others suggest, it should welcome honest investigations that would clear it of wrongdoing. Instead, the government and its advocates are working to suppress all debate and crush those whose questions and conclusions they find threatening.”

[My emphasis.]

In politics, it is called a dog whistle.

Adam Holland covers this in much more detail, first and second parts.

Clearly, if this were merely one sojourn into this toxic arena, then you might, if you were a charitable person or shared her views on Israelis, ignore this, but there’s more.

Ahistorical tales from WW2.

Older antifascist readers will remember how the Extreme Right love to paint parallels between Jews and Nazis.

Still worse, how they bastardise the history of WW2 to prove that ‘Jews collaborated with the Nazis, therefore are as bad as them’, etc.

It is obvious where this argument is coming from, not an interest in history, but a conscious, visceral desire to malign all Jews. Therefore, its no surprise that the racist periodical, CounterPunch, publishes Ms. Weir on that very topic [cached link].

Her infamous admirer.

Elsewhere Ms. Weir received applause from the well known professional neo-fascist, David Duke:

“Commentary by David Duke: The following article shows once more how our government is securely in the hands of the Jewish supremacists and how their press supremacy works hand-in-glove to maintain that supremacy. As the article shows, the President of the United States hosted international criminals, gangsters really, who robbed the Russian people of hundreds of billions of dollars — at the the White House Prayer Breakfast! Not only was this fact not reported to the American people, but almost every time the press mentions the Russian crackdown on the Jewish oligarchs it is described as “politically motivated.” A tiny group of gangsters steal most of the wealth of a nation in two or three years and attempts to bring them to justice are called politically motivated!”

[Cached link.]

This topic had interest for Ms. Weir, not because of a latent attraction to all things Russian, rather the supposed ethnicity of these aforementioned oligarchs. Yes, you guessed!

Ms. Weir could have stopped David Duke from using her material, America has fairly stringent laws on that, but she doesn’t. I suspect she feels no difficulties with having David Duke congratulating her.

Her line of thinking can be seen from a similar article at Stormfront, the neo-Nazi forum, [cached link.]

Readers may wish to peruse her web site, If America Knew (sorry no link), for many more examples of her twisted thinking and cultivated racism.

Obviously, if some readers happen to share Ms. Weir’s particular prejudices then they won’t find any of her views offensive, questionable or beyond the pale, but that’s where we came in.

Anti-racists might want to view this site, If Americans Knew Alison Weir.

Update 1: Once you start looking around at Alison Weir and her associates, their veneer of respectability loses its polish.

Ms. Weir seems very popular amongst the terrain of 9/11 truthers, anti-Jewish racists and the fringes of American society.

You can listen to her being interviewed by Kevin Barrett, a very strange individual who, apparently, has sympathy for David Irving and Ernest Zundel’s views.

You can read Barrett’s offensive opinions on his blog and this entry, Am I “Unfair to Hitler” ? [Cached link.]

Last year, Barrett helped the racist Gordon Duff get an airing for his obnoxious ideas. I covered Duff before, but I hadn’t realised that he is a big fan of Irving:

“Irving, famous of late for taking on the holocaust, is the “go to guy” on World War II and Germany in particular. His research is, hands down, the best out there and he loves humiliating others for being duped by writing academic garbage based on secondary sources, too often proven, not just unreliable, but utter fiction. “

Barrett’s work is hosted on American Freedom Radio, they in turn go on about the Federal Reserve, the New World Order and the “Illuminati”.

Readers can study Barrett’s web site at their leisure, a cached copy.

The commonality between all of these disparate individuals, is that they loathed Jews. Yes, they hate Jews, so they find common cause and sadly, some people are taken in by them.

We shouldn’t be surprised that we find Alison Weir in this company.

Hamas And Women.

Over at Flesh is Grass, Hamas’s ban on women driving.

Update:

Adam Holland points out Alison Weir’s conspicuous racism:

“Alison Weir has had ample opportunity to reconsider her promotion of medieval anti-Semitic myths — myths which have been used to justify massacre and oppression — yet she has chosen to reiterate them and to cite new sources in support of them. Rather than thanking her critics for pointing out her initial error in judgment, she has attacked them as motivated by a desire to suppress the facts. Not correcting an error of the magnitude of promoting the blood libel compounds the original error and calls Weir’s good faith as a reporter into question. Her imputing the motives of those who point out her error calls into question whether she’s interested in the truth concerning this matter at all.”

Weir, Shamir And Naked Anti-Jewish Racism at CounterPunch.

Just when you thought that the Offal libel was largely confined to a greedy and unprincipled journalist in Sweden, it got worse.

Counterpunch, that valiant “anti-imperialist” magazine is pushing it too.

Alison Weir has decided to regurgitate the Offal libel with the aid of the notorious racist Israel Shamir, read more at Adam Holland.

One of Weir’s references refuted.