On Jew-hatred in Europe
By Oriana Fallaci April 17, 2002
Originally published in Corriere della Sera. Translation by Chris and
Paola Newman
I find it shameful that in Italy there should be a procession of
individuals dressed as suicide bombers who spew vile abuse at Israel,
hold up photographs of Israeli leaders on whose foreheads they have
drawn the swasitka, incite people to hate the Jews. And who, in order to
see Jews once again in the extermination camps, in the gas chambers, in
the ovens of Dachau and Mauthausen and Buchenwald and Bergen-Belsen et
cetera, would sell their own mother to a harem.
I find it shameful that the Catholic Church should permit a bishop, one
with lodgings in the Vatican no less, a saintly man who was found in
Jerusalem with an arsenal of arms and explosives hidden in the secret
compartments of his sacred Mercedes, to participate in that procession
and plant himself in front of a microphone to thank in the name of God
the suicide bombers who massacre the Jews in pizzerias and supermarkets.
To call them "martyrs who go to their deaths as to a party."
I find it shameful that in France, the France of
Liberty-Equality-Fraternity, they burn synagogues, terrorize Jews,
profane their cemeteries. I find it shameful that the youth of Holland
and Germany and Denmark flaunt the kaffiah just as Mussolini's avant
garde used to flaunt the club and the fascist badge. I find it shameful
that in nearly all the universities of Europe Palestinian students
sponsor and nurture anti-semitism. That in Sweden they asked that the
Nobel Peace Prize given to Shimon Peres in 1994 be taken back and
conferred on the dove with the olive branch in his mouth, that is on
Arafat. I find it shameful that the distinguished members of the
Committee, a Committee that (it would appear) rewards political color
rather than merit, should take this request into consideration and even
respond to it. In hell the Nobel Prize honors he who does not receive
it.
I find it shameful (we're back in Italy) that state-run television
stations contribute to the resurgent antisemitism, crying only over
Palestinian deaths while playing down Israeli deaths, glossing over them
in unwilling tones. I find it shameful that in their debates they host
with much deference the scoundrels with turban or kaffiah who yesterday
sang hymns to the slaughter at New York and today sing hymns to the
slaughters at Jerusalem, at Haifa, at Netanya, at Tel Aviv. I find it
shameful that the press does the same, that it is indignant because
Israeli tanks surround the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, that it
is not indignant because inside that same church two hundred Palestinian
terrorists well armed with machine guns and munitions and explosives
(among them are various leaders of Hamas and Al-Aqsa) are not unwelcome
guests of the monks (who then accept bottles of mineral water and jars
of honey from the soldiers of those tanks). I find it shameful that, in
giving the number of Israelis killed since the beginning of the Second
Intifada (four hundred twelve), a noted daily newspaper found it
appropriate to underline in capital letters that more people are killed
in their traffic accidents. (Six hundred a year).
I find it shameful that the Roman Observer, the newspaper of the Pope--a
Pope who not long ago left in the Wailing Wall a letter of apology for
the Jews--accuses of extermination a people who were exterminated in the
millions by Christians. By Europeans. I find it shameful that this
newspaper denies to the survivors of that people (survivors who still
have numbers tattooed on their arms) the right to react, to defend
themselves, to not be exterminated again. I find it shameful that in the
name of Jesus Christ (a Jew without whom they would all be unemployed),
the priests of our parishes or Social Centers or whatever they are flirt
with the assassins of those in Jerusalem who cannot go to eat a pizza or
buy some eggs without being blown up. I find it shameful that they are
on the side of the very ones who inaugurated terrorism, killing us on
airplanes, in airports, at the Olympics, and who today entertain
themselves by killing western journalists. By shooting them, abducting
them, cutting their throats, decapitating them. (There's someone in
Italy who, since the appearance of Anger and Pride, would like to do the
same to me. Citing verses of the Koran he exorts his "brothers" in the
mosques and the Islamic Community to chastise me in the name of Allah.
To kill me. Or rather to die with me. Since he's someone who speaks
English well, I'll respond to him in English: "Fuck you.")
I find it shameful that almost all of the left, the left that twenty
years ago permitted one of its union processionals to deposit a coffin
(as a mafioso warning) in front of the synagogue of Rome, forgets the
contribution made by the Jews to the fight against fascism. Made by
Carlo and Nello Rossini, for example, by Leone Ginzburg, by Umberto
Terracini, by Leo Valiani, by Emilio Sereni, by women like my friend
Anna Maria Enriques Agnoletti who was shot at Florence on June 12, 1944,
by seventy-five of the three-hundred-thirty-five people killed at the
Fosse Ardeatine, by the infinite others killed under torture or in
combat or before firing squads. (The companions, the teachers, of my
infancy and my youth.) I find it shameful that in part through the fault
of the left--or rather, primarily through the fault of the left (think
of the left that inaugurates its congresses applauding the
representative of the PLO, leader in Italy of the Palestinians who want
the destruction of Israel)--Jews in Italian cities are once again
afraid. And in French cities and Dutch cities and Danish cities and
German cities, it is the same. I find it shameful that Jews tremble at
the passage of the scoundrels dressed like suicide bombers just as they
trembled during Krystallnacht, the night in which Hitler gave free rein
to the Hunt of the Jews. I find it shameful that in obedience to the
stupid, vile, dishonest, and for them extremely advantageous fashion of
Political Correctness the usual opportunists--or better the usual
parasites--exploit the word Peace. That in the name of the word Peace,
by now more debauched than the words Love and Humanity, they absolve one
side alone of its hate and bestiality. That in the name of a pacifism
(read conformism) delegated to the singing crickets and buffoons who
used to lick Pol Pot's feet they incite people who are confused or
ingenuous or intimidated. Trick them, corrupt them, carry them back a
half century to the time of the yellow star on the coat. These
charlatans who care about the Palestinans as much as I care about the
charlatans. That is not at all.
I find it shameful that many Italians and many Europeans have chosen as
their standard-bearer the gentleman (or so it is polite to say) Arafat.
This nonentity who thanks to the money of the Saudi Royal Family plays
the Mussolini ad perpetuum and in his megalomania believes he will pass
into History as the George Washington of Palestine. This ungrammatical
wretch who when I interviewed him was unable even to put together a
complete sentence, to make articulate conversation. So that to put it
all together, write it, publish it, cost me a tremendous effort and I
concluded that compared to him even Ghaddafi sounds like Leonardo da
Vinci. This false warrior who always goes around in uniform like
Pinochet, never putting on civilian garb, and yet despite this has never
participated in a battle. War is something he sends, has always sent,
others to do for him. That is, the poor souls who believe in him. This
pompous incompetent who playing the part of Head of State caused the
failure of the Camp David negotiations, Clinton's mediation.
No-no-I-want-Jerusalem-all-to-myself. This eternal liar who has a flash
of sincerity only when (in private) he denies Israel's right to exist,
and who as I say in my book contradicts himself every five minutes. He
always plays the double-cross, lies even if you ask him what time it is,
so that you can never trust him. Never! With him you will always wind up
systematically betrayed. This eternal terrorist who knows only how to be
a terrorist (while keeping himself safe) and who during the Seventies,
that is when I interviewed him, even trained the terrorists of
Baader-Meinhof. With them, children ten years of age. Poor children.
(Now he trains them to become suicide bombers. A hundred baby suicide
bombers are in the works: a hundred!). This weathercock who keeps his
wife at Paris, served and revered like a queen, and keeps his people
down in the shit. He takes them out of the shit only to send them to
die, to kill and to die, like the eighteen year old girls who in order
to earn equality with men have to strap on explosives and disintegrate
with their victims. And yet many Italians love him, yes. Just like they
loved Mussolini. And many other Europeans do the same.
I find it shameful and see in all this the rise of a new fascism, a new
nazism. A fascism, a nazism, that much more grim and revolting because
it is conducted and nourished by those who hypocritically pose as
do-gooders, progressives, communists, pacifists, Catholics or rather
Christians, and who have the gall to label a warmonger anyone like me
who screams the truth.
I see it, yes, and I say the following. I have never been tender with
the tragic and Shakespearean figure Sharon. ("I know you've come to add
another scalp to your necklace," he murmured almost with sadness when I
went to interview him in 1982.) I have often had disagreements with the
Israelis, ugly ones, and in the past I have defended the Palestinians a
4great deal. Maybe more than they deserved. But I stand with Israel, I
stand with the Jews. I stand just as I stood as a young girl during the
time when I fought with them, and when the Anna Marias were shot. I
defend their right to exist, to defend themselves, to not let themselves
be exterminated a second time. And disgusted by the antisemitism of many
Italians, of many Europeans, I am ashamed of this shame that dishonors
my Country and Europe. At best, it is not a community of States, but a
pit of Pontius Pilates. And even if all the inhabitants of this planet
were to think otherwise, I would continue to think so. |
