Reading and digesting news is fraught with danger; more so these days when special interest groups get far more than their share of ink and air time. Many are masters at selective dissemination of “news”, “concerns”, and “FACTS.” In Our Life there appeared an occasional leader with the title of “Media Manipulation”, triggered by an event somewhere that concerned the editor to the degree, that the manipulation needed public address.

The Soviets perfected a system of disseminating bogus information called desinformatsiya. Other totalitarian states have resorted to censorship, and frequent publication of articles, paeans really, lauding the leadership of the country and the magnificent munificence and benevolence of the people’s “chosen leader.”

Now, it seems pretty obvious that the leader of a powerful organization of the chosen people, Simon Wiesenthal has come up with a new twist on the tried and true desinformatsiya angle. Barely had the ink dried on countless broadsheets that covered the French Presidential run-off, where Jean-Marie Le Pen, a blatant extremist nationalist with a bone to pick with Jews, scant days after massive coverage of the rise of neo nazism in Russia, why, just a week after Adolf Schikelgruber’s birthday Mr. Wiesenthal decided to spread some manipulation of his own.

In a shrewd move, he purportedly told the Russian newspaper Fakty i Argumenty last Tuesday that the Wiesenthal Centre is calling for a boycott of the Baltic States and Ukraine. Simon said that these four countries are “rehabilitating” former SS soldiers. Or at least did not deny, himself, the fact that such an interview took place. Wow. In a Russian newspaper no less. Using the word rehabilitation, no less. That is the word used by Soviets, remember, when people who were unjustly imprisoned, or executed during Stalin’s rule of terror, were years after the horrors and travesty of justice either posthumously brought back into the lists of law abiding citizens, or had their incarceration, sentencing, Gulag era expunged from official documents. Yet nothing could ever erase those years for the millions of people affected by the brutal ruthless system called communism.

As the Black Book of Communism so clearly, based on historical evidence, demonstrates, tens and tens of millions more people died under communism than did during the Holocaust. Yet the Holocaust will not go away, communism has gratefully slipped between the judicial cracks of a blinkered global community. Have to keep them slavs content, and gee — without the Chinese, our children would not have all those cheaply mass produced toys made by people making a pittance in real wages. Not to mention those necessary electronical components that we need to make our life even easier.

A digression? Not really. Those that control public opinion effectively control decision making, in trade, business, and international policy. This is why Simon Wiesenthal’s pronouncement is so scary.

Sure, leading Jewish groups took pains to distance them from Wiesenthal’s interview, and there remain serious questions as to the bona fides of his statements. The damage has been done though. When you think of Holocaust hunters, you think of Wiesenthal. His calculated appearance, coming at a time when all Europe is roiling under accusations of growing anti-semitisim can be seen in two lights.

The first is to deflect attention from the atrocities commited by Israelis in the Levant. Never mind that the Palestinians are equally ruthless; two wrongs do not make a right.

Last week’s Economist dedicated considerable attention to the question. The opinion piece, titled “Europe and the Jews” , brilliantly written with the magazine’s trademark neutrality couched in positive bias asked whether anti-semitism in Europe is truly surging. Growing hostility to Israel, and Islamic attacks on Jewish targets in Europe do not, argued the piece, mean that old-style antisemitism is back. After a long period of silence and shame, the post-Holocaust blues, if you will, it has become a much accepted viewpoint that hatred of Jews is once again coming to the surface. The Economist does not find that this is the case. But: read on.

For this we can certainly thank Jean-Marie Le Pen, who as expected was soundly trounced by Jacques Chirac in last week’s French presidential election. We can also thank growing vandalism by Skinheads of synagogues. But we can also thank the Wiesenthal Centre for fueling the fire.

Consider the April 28 opinion piece in The Los Angeles Times written by Rabbi Abraham Cooper and Harold Brackman titled “Europe and Israel: Trust is Eroding”. Rabbi Cooper is associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, Brackman, a “historian” is consultant to the center. The article argues that Europe’s attitude is fueled by a fear of the OPEC countries upon which they rely. (The other alternative? Russian oil, not governed by OPEC. Smell a connection? Hmm…) The article contradicts the views of the Economist, providing detailed examples of anti-semitism in Britain for example. Meanwhile, there is little evidence of anti-semitism there, British Jews hold prominent cabinet and government positions in Tony Blair’s government, and as the Economist points out there is no discernible resentment, and “Jews have prospered in all walks of life, suffering few of the impediments that slowed advancement in the past.”

Cooper and Wiesenthal are living in the past. It is honourable and just to chase down war criminals, of whatever stripe, Serbian, Ugandan, Russian, German, even Baltic. Fact is, most of the war criminals in the Baltics were on the red side.

The curious aspect in all this is the choice of a Russian publication for the interview. Or is it? The director of the Wiesenthal Centre, Efraim Zuroff asserted on May 3rd that Simon never said anything, that he never gave the interview. Who to believe? Is there complicity? Why is Simon silent? Is Simon going to take the Russians to court? Hardly, because it serves his message to state that there are more SS veterans alive in the Baltics and Ukraine than there are victims of the Holocaust. (No-brainer: most Holocaust victims made it to the States or Israel. C’mon.)

Estonians, Latvians and Lithuanians remember their history. The Latvian Red Rifle unit, that terrorized the region during the revolutionary period had a disproporionate number of Jews in its midst. And Russia itself: It has the largest Jewish population in Europe — more than 1 million, and one of the most grimmest historical records of persecution, from the time of the tsars to the Soviet era. Post-Communist rule? Remember anti-semite Vladimir Zhirinovsky?

Much can be written on this topic. Next week this space will focus on some recent examples concerning Canada and Estonia with regard to the Jewish question.

Wiesenthal achieved his goal of roiling the Baltics with bad PR, true or not. Can one agree with Rabbi Cooper that Europe has never recovered its moral standing, and that the continent’s fascist “ghosts” are being resurrected? Perhaps, when one sees that behind the shield of the name Wiesenthal things are being attempted and accomplished, never mind the truth and historical reality.

Simon says — so it must be true. Just ask any “social activist” with a “conscience” that lives in North America. And the manipulation goes on…

(The views expressed are the author’s and do not reflect the editorial viewpoint of Eesti Elu)

Arvamus

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