Waving the Flag of Hatred Source: Calgary Herald Byline: Marvin Hier, Abraham Cooper and Leo Adler

August 21, 2006

Waving the Flag of Hatred
Byline: Marvin Hier, Abraham Cooper and Leo Adler

Source: Calgary Herald
Wednesday, August 16, 2006
Section: The Editorial Page

Canadian politicians were dead wrong to march in a Montreal demonstration under the flag of Hezbollah. While they may have been motivated by a desire to express their solidarity with the suffering of innocent Lebanese civilians, they instead validated the terrorist group that effectively has held an entire nation hostage as it pursues Iran's proxy war against Israel.

But they inadvertently may have helped to open the flood gates of genocidal hate, not seen in the world since the Nazi era.

We speak of a central pillar of Hezbollah and its charismatic leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah that virtually no Western journalist has had the courage to confront: It's time to break the virtual media blackout of the visceral genocidal anti-Semitism of Nasrallah, his TV outlets and websites.

Instead of heaping scorn on Nasrallah's bigotry, some politicians and the media, including The New York Times, help promote an image of a shrewd revolutionary, a courageous underdog confronting a regional goliath occupier. It adds credibility to the Lebanese prime minister's claim that Nasrallah's only beef with the Zionists is their "occupation" of the Sheba Farms.

But that is not who Nasrallah really is. His world view goes far beyond real estate. His hate and bigotry extend to all Jews universally, wherever they may live.

Here are some examples:

—"Anyone who reads the Qur'an and the Holy writings of the monotheistic religions sees what they did to the prophets and what acts of madness and slaughter the Jews carried out throughout history . . . anyone who reads these texts cannot think of co-existence with them ... they are a cancer which is liable to spread again at any moment."

—The Jews invented the legend of Nazi atrocities . . . they can speak of fabricated or exaggerated massacres that occurred during the Second World War, but we must forget the massacres they committed against us which are documented and proven." (April 4, 2000)

—"Throughout history, the Jews have been Allah's most cowardly and greedy creatures. If you search the entire face of the Earth, you will find no one more miserly than the Jews, or more greedy." (Sept. 28, 2001)

—"If the Jews all gather in Israel, it will save us the trouble of going after them worldwide." (Oct. 22, 2002)

Consider the poisonous fare of Hezbollah's satellite network, Al-Manar, which fed a worldwide primetime Muslim audience during the holy month of Ramadan:

—Two dramatizations The Protocols of ZionAsh-Shatat (The Diaspora) and Horse Without a Horseman, a 41-episode Egyptian-produced television miniseries featuring a grotesque throat slitting scene validating the canard that Jews at Passover drain the Blood of Christian children

— Zara's Blue Eyes, whose plot line involves the harvesting by Jewish doctors of a Muslim child's eyes to sell on the organ transplant market.

There's a steep price for the world's silence over Hezbollah's anti-Semitic bigotry. While always looking for an opportunity to pay lip service against racism and anti-Semitism, the European Union has steadfastly spurned Israel's plea to place Hezbollah on its list of terrorist organizations.

In a rare expression of concern, Nasrallah told the Arab media that European blacklisting would "destroy" Hezbollah. "The sources of our funding will dry up and the sources of moral, political and material support will be destroyed."

Not to worry.

Pressed by France, the EU to this day refuses sanctions, even as President Jacques Chirac sheds bitter tears over a Lebanon paying the price for an unbridled Hezbollah.

As for the media?

The International Federation of Journalists condemned Israel for bombing Hezbollah's TV station, as "a clear demonstration that Israel has a policy of using violence to silence media it does not agree with."

That malicious charge would be equivalent to criticizing the Allies for bombing Josef Goebbel's Propaganda Ministry, the epicentre for the dissemination of Nazi hatred of the Jews during the Second World War.

In 2004, Nasrallah said this: "We have discovered how to hit the Jews where they are the most vulnerable. The Jews love life, so that is what we shall take away from them. We are going to win because they love life and we love death."

Whatever the results of the UN's efforts to stop the fighting, given Nasrallah's mindset, it is difficult to imagine a ceasefire in Hezbollah's war against the Jews.

Concerned North Americans should think twice before they treat the Cedar of Lebanon and Hezbollah yellow and green logo as two sides of the same flag. If any public figure fails to recognize and publicly denounce Hezbollah's anti-Semitic genocidal agenda, the reach and toxicity of Nasrallah's hate will impact Canadian society with a ferocity as devastating as the hundreds of deadly ball bearings unleashed by Katyusha rockets.

Rabbi Marvin Hier is the president and founder of the Simon Wiesenthal Center; Rabbi Abraham Cooper is associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles; and Leo Adler is director of national affairs, Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies.