What Makes an Anti-Semite? Wiesenthal List Induces Hand-Wringing in Germany

[redgreenandblue]

http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/wiesenthal-list-of-top-anti-semites-triggers-debate-in-germany-a-875774.html

The Wiesenthal Center included a top German publisher on its 2012 list of leading anti-Semites alongside the Muslim Brotherhood and Iranian President Ahmadinejad. His writings have been have highly critical of Israel, but how far is too far?

Most of the entries on the 2012 list of top anti-Semites published by the Simon Wiesenthal Center just after Christmas are unsurprising. Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood makes the list. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is there. European soccer fans, some of them notoriously racist, land at No. 4. A handful of right-wing extremist parties in Europe are also fingered.

Number nine on the list (PDF), however, has caused many in Germany to scratch their heads. It is Jakob Augstein, the editor of the weekly paper Der Freitag and a columnist for SPIEGEL ONLINE (whose editorials are occasionally translated for publication in English). His offense? The fact that he has been vociferously critical of Israeli policy.

[graham4anything]

1. He is.Similiar example in US would be Pat Buchannan

One has to look at totality of his work and yes, I would consider him anti-semitic myself
(and I am Jewish).
Time and again he steps over the line, and is far more than just putting Israel down.

So yes, would keep him on the list.

The Wiesenthal center does not make rush judgements.

Americans like Ron Paul should also be on those lists too, for that matter.

[redgreenandblue]

2. Ron Paul?

I am not an expert on all of his actions. Can you elaborate what makes Ron Paul an anti-semite?

[BainsBane]

3. The paper he published years ago

Was full of racist stuff.

[Scootaloo]

4. It's hard to take the SWC seriously with a list like that

Where a cartoonist pointing out Netanyahu's attempt to jimmy extra votes via a war on Gaza is apparently more anti-semitic than not one, not two, but three anti-Jewish fascist parties in Europe.

Of course to the Zionist mind, actual, active, belligerent antisemites like Golden Dawn are allies of the Zionist cause, since their abuses might manage to drive more Jews to Israel. So it's understandable that political parties whose thugs like to beat up Jews might be lower on the list than a cartoonist who points out the cynicism of the ruling government of Israel.

[napoleon_in_rags]

5. Oh, watch that. Israel has had some right wing forces take charge from time to time.

The smart leftist will zoom in to incredibly progressive, peace oriented groups in Israel and immediately discard the idea that these wacky right wing ideas are in fact representative of all of Israel or is people. Intelligent analysis will reveal that Israel is an incredibly diverse place, with all kinds of ideas blossoming.

[shaayecanaan]

6. This is the paragraph the ADL considers anti-semitic

“With backing from the US, where the president must secure the support of Jewish lobby groups, and in Germany, where coping with history, in the meantime, has a military component, the [Binyamin] Netanyahu government keeps the world on a leash with an ever-swelling war chant.”

[Scurrilous]

7. Brazilian cartoonist hits back at Simon Wiesenthal Center

<snip>

"A Brazilian cartoonist hit back at the Simon Wiesenthal Center for his inclusion on its top 10 slur list.

Carlos Latuff recently published a cartoon of the center's founder, Rabbi Marvin Hier, awarding Latuff a medal in response to the center’s publication in December of a list of the top 10 anti-Israel and anti-Semitic slurs of 2012. Third on the list was Latuff’s caricature of Israeli Premier Benjamin Netanyahu squeezing votes out of the body of a dead Arab child.

In the cartoon, an aggravated Hier presents a beaming Latuff with a medal that says “3rd” as Latuff sits on a chair drawing an airplane indiscriminately bombing Gaza. Hanging above Hier’s right ear are two lightning bolts.

Petra Marquardt-Bigman, a historian and blogger for The Jerusalem Post, noted that the bolts are the symbol of the SS – an elite Nazi unit.

Latuff said the two flat S letters are a “cartoon representation of headache.”

http://www.jta.org/news/article/2013/01/04/3115991/brazilian-cartoonist-nazifies-founder-of-simon-wiesenthal-center

[holdencaufield]

8. Yes ... there are those ...

... who would see an accusation of antisemitism as a badge of honour.

Sorry to say