Ran HaCohen

Saturday we had the pleasure of watching Anti-Defamation League national
director Abraham Foxman give an especially repulsive horror show on Israeli public television (Channel 1).

Foxman was invited to the studio to comment on Kofi Annan’s announcement
that four UN observers had been apparently killed by Israel
deliberately. Moderator Yaakov Achimeir stated time and again as a
matter of fact that the observers had been killed “by accident,” so that
the only realm left to investigate was Annan’s personal psychopathology
for suggesting otherwise.

Foxman cooperated enthusiastically. Annan had gained a lot of respect
for his successful efforts to globally commemorate the Holocaust. In a
dirty trick of demagoguery, Foxman explained these efforts away by
saying the UN secretary-general (or “the secretary of state,” as Foxman
repeatedly misnamed him) liked only dead Jews, not living ones. Foxman
also accused Annan of having “guilty feelings because of the Holocaust”;
one could actually gain the impression that Hitler’s extermination units
had consisted predominantly of black Ghanaian children like Annan was at
the time.

“Can anyone imagine that the Jewish people would intentionally kill UN
observers?!” Yes: Foxman actually used the term “the Jewish people” as
the agent of the killing, following the footsteps of traditional
anti-Semitism and its notorious blood libels, in which the entire
“Jewish people” was blamed for whatever individual Jews had or had not
done.

At this stage, the moderator tried, not once but twice, to add even more
fuel to the fire by “suggesting” that the UN wanted to see Israel wiped
off the map. Alas, Foxman wasn’t ready to go that far, and just reminded
viewers that the UN had given Israel its “birth certificate,” but had
been in a “love-hate relationship” with the Jewish state ever since –
again, because the Gentiles love us only when we are dead and buried,
not when strong and “defending ourselves.”

Prior to the interview, moderator Achimeir described Foxman as a friend
of Annan’s, and wondered whether the two would ever speak to each other
again after the interview.

The four UN observers killed by Israel last week had called the Israeli
liaison officer 10 times urging him to stop bombing them. The Israeli
army promised it would stop. It did stop, but only after the observers
were killed.

See the full details at Lebanon – UNIFIL – UN Documents – http://www.un.org/Depts/dpko/missions/unifil/unifilDrp.htm