Defamation

By Adel – PeaceMaker

January 30, 2010

'Defamation' by Israeli director Yoav Shamir embarks on a provocative Quest to answer the questions – What is anti-Semitism today? Does it remain a dangerous and immediate threat? Or is it a scare tactic used by right-wing Zionists to discredit their critics? Speaking with an array of people (including the head of the Anti-Defamation League and its fiercest critic, author Norman Finkelstein) and traveling to places like Auschwitz (alongside Israeli school kids) and Brooklyn, (to explore reports of violence), Shamir discovers the realities of anti-Semitism today. His findings are shocking, enlightening and surprisingly often wryly funny.

Abe Foxman amplifies anti-Semitism by focusing so intently on even the most minor incidents, things which American minorities laugh about and shoot right back to bigots.

The general statement of Yoav is that Israelis concentrate far too much on their past persecutions and are actually trained to be fearful nearly everywhere they go, outside of Israel, which is perhaps the intent of such intense indoctrination regimes as are shown in the film. What is so fascinating is the comparison to these youth’s feelings and fears to Jewish youth in the USA, who seem oblivious to even their Jewishness.

If Israeli’s were to put themselves in Palestinians shoes and apply Abe Foxman's standards of anti-Semitism to the real Semites in Palestine, the list of anti-Semitic infractions would wrap around the planet a thousand times and Foxman would be salivating with vehement anger and threats of holocaust denial by Israeli and Americans.

Israel’s right-wing Zionist government is spending a fortune keeping the Israeli people afraid calling it anti-Semitism and inciting hatred around the world toward the Jewish people even more to prove their ideology.

Is there Anti-Semitism? Yes! Is it mostly self inflicted? I would have to say yes! Is it a control mechanism for the Zionists - absolutely! The trip that the kids took was a very expensive indoctrination exercise to instill hatred, and fear against non-Jewish global society.