Max Blumenthal sent me this. Blumenthal's been doing all my thinking lately. It's Noah Pollak's response to the murder of Vittorio Arrigoni. Blumenthal said it's a macaca moment. I don't know what to say. This has been a deeply dispiriting month. All I want to do is beam love to the families of Juliano, Matthew, and Vittorio. They say that if you walk a few steps with the Palestinians you will have Palestinian experiences, all these men did that in their way. And this too is part of that experience: disgusting venom. Pollak is director of the Emergency Committee for Israel.
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How disgusting.
This is much more than a “Macaca moment.”
This is an Israeli government official and representative (he appears on the US, speaking for Israel) expressing glee and sarcasm at the brutal hanging of a young man.
It should be much more than a Macaca moment. Let’s see if it gets any attention in the MSM.
This will not get any attention. Pollak is not an Israeli Government Official as when re-reading my post above might be implied. If he were, it might get some coverage in some corners of the MSN.
For now, though he might have a tougher time getting himself invited onto National Networks as the house pundit for Israel.
It has been speculated, however, by some in the media that he is a proxy for the IDF and is on their payroll.
“According to David Frum, Pollak (who understands that “modern warfare is PR by other means”) was instrumental in convincing the IDF to step up its media efforts. Yet the exact nature of the Pollak’s relationship with the IDF is a bit unclear. Given that Pollak is the head of an American advocacy group that was formed to intervene in the 2010 U.S. congressional elections, it would be helpful to know exactly what his relationship to the Israeli military is. Answers to the following questions would be a useful start:”
link to lobelog.com
This tragedy struck in the same devastating way as the shocking death of WSJ’s Daniel Pearl, a similarly large-hearted and charity-minded man of the world. Imagine if someone tweeted something as dark and hateful about Pearl as Pollak just tweeted about Arrogoni. Sickening.
The difference is that Pearl was investigating Muslim extremists, which the media are on board with exposing and fighting against. Arrigoni was in Palestine fighting Jewish/Zionist extremists, and the media in the US is not only not interested in exposing the evil that those extremists do, they are fully on board with protecting, excusing and covering it up.
As a result, this piece of feces, Noah Pollak, will get a pass from the media.
disgusting
If it weren’t for people like Noah Pollak and their repugnant attitudes (which enable even more repugnant behaviour) an “Emergency Committee for Israel” wouldn’t be even be necessary.
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Don’t be too dispirited Phil ~ that’s exactly what the perpetrators of this series of unusual and suspicious* murders want the Palestinian solidarity community to feel. Don’t give them the satisfaction.
*directly after Egyptians demonstrate the power of non-violent struggle and garner massive support around the globe, Palestinians embark on a series of high profile killings of their allies? I don’t think so.
“*directly after Egyptians demonstrate the power of non-violent struggle and garner massive support around the globe, Palestinians embark on a series of high profile killings of their allies? I don’t think so.”
Thank you, Sumud, I have been thinking the same thing.
RE: “Palestinians embark on a series of high profile killings of their allies” – Sumud/Kris
MY COMMENT: As if Bernie Madoff, Marc Rich, and Efraim E. Diveroli stand for the proposition that Jews have embarked on a series of high profile thefts!
Shame on you!
Efraim E. Diveroli – link to topics.nytimes.com
P.S. FROM FRANKLIN LAMB, 04/15/11:
SOURCE – link to counterpunch.org
Ditto. Just doesn’t quite pass the smell test. Though of course you can’t say this kind of thing in ‘polite’ company.
Not offending ‘polite’ company isn’t one of my priorities Pamela :-) These are the people who often stand by and do nothing as atrocities are committed – or even worse (I’m thinking of pro-Nakba/ethnic cleansing Richard Witty, who has previously lectured me on being impolite) actually approve of the atrocities being committed.
One of the local papers in Australia picked up a NYT story on Vittorio Arrigoni’s murder. This section piqued my interest [my emphasis]:
Hamas had earlier tried to crack down on the group Tawhid and Jihad, which appeared to be behind the abduction, and had imprisoned its leader, Hisham Saidani, in March. In a video released on Thursday, the kidnappers said they had captured the Italian in an attempt to free Saidani, and that they would execute him in 30 hours – at 5pm on Friday – if its demands were not met. The video showed Mr Arrigoni alive but beaten and bloodied.
The doctor who performed the autopsy said it appeared Mr Arrigoni had been killed at least 24 hours before the deadline.
Tawhid and Jihad denied responsibility for the killing.
Soooo… the parties deemed responsible for Vik’s murder denies responsibility, and Vik is killed 24 hours before the deadline – which suggests the goals of Vik’s murderer(s) was not having Tawhid/Jihad prisoners freed after all.
The whole things stinks.
The Guardian was very poor
link to guardian.co.uk
RE: “It’s Noah Pollak’s response to the murder of Vittorio Arrigoni. Blumenthal said it’s a macaca moment.” – Weiss
MY COMMENT: Perhaps it’s just me*, but I see this kind of thoroughly obnoxious stuff from right-wingers all the time. Take the “Coultergeist” for instance….P-L-E-A-S-E!!!
They are very sick, disturbed people.
* It isn’t just me, is it? Please tell me that it isn’t. Please.
Pretty please! [dead silence] OMG! OMG! OMG! Woe is me.
STREAMING AVAILABLE UNTIL 04/21/11: I Was Nineteen (Ich war neunzehn), 1968, NR, 115 minutes
Based on director Konrad Wolf’s diary entries, this film set in the waning days of World War II tells the story of a young German-born man (Jaecki Schwarz) transplanted to Russia who returns to his homeland as a soldier in the Soviet army. As he struggles to come to grips with his identity and heritage, he also discovers a burgeoning optimism for the fate of postwar Germany in this landmark drama.
Director: Konrad Wolf
Language: German [English subtitles]
Availability: Streaming and DVD (Streaming until 4/21/11)
NETFLIX LISTING – link to movies.netflix.com
This must be part of that romanticizing the victim tendency.
Sometimes I wish we were in a country with the over-reaching curbs on free speech we see in France or Germany. There, the likes of Noah Pollak or Pamela Geller could be prosecuted for hate crimes.
On the level of writers, such unadulterated glee is perhaps less frequent, although from the more fascist commentators, say Caroline Glick, I would expect no less.
On the level of reader comments, the level of hate I found in ynetnews and Jerusalem Post is almost amazing. Among reactions to the murder of Juliano Mer-Khamis there were “There is justice!” etc.
I hope that Gaza police conducts a thorough investigation. Three recent murders are so damn convenient for a “certain government” that definitely has, and uses, professional assassins. In that context, I would observe that what we hear about IDF investigation of Fogel murder seems curiously INEFFECTIVE. Harrassing hundreds of people with barely trained soldiers is NOT an effective way to collect forensic evidence. (I mean, these soldiers may be well trained in tossing stun grenades and such, but collecting evidence requires a different skill and approach than trashing one home after another.)
I remember seeing (on the Pelican Parts auto forum) Noah express a fawning, gushing, libidinal adoration of the welding on the German-engineered gas chambers of his Porsches, complete with slobbering photographs. What can we say about a man who adores technology — especially technology with such a lineage — more than human beings? Such objektsexualität seems a common feature of Nazism and Zionist ideology of the Jabotinsky school.
It boggles the mind and the heart to think an overprivileged Porsche-driving Yalie (connections, connections) feels he has an inherent right to take the lives and land of children who have nothing.
Having read Jabotinsky, I have been left with the impression that even he would not react in such a disgusting fashion as this lowlife Pollack has done. What is psychologically wrong with Zios like Pollack that makes them think that others might find it acceptable to have to listen to them cackling in such a fashion?
I rarely hear Anti-Zios and Anti-racists voice opinions such as these – yet this appears to a frequent occurrence amongst the Zios and their fellow-travelers
Don’t expect humane sensibilities in a Zionist crazy. And wasn’t Arrigoni a goy-guy, not even a member of the tribe? To quote a character in a Coen Bros movie, “Who cares?”