Sunday 5 September 2010

Belgian newspaper: De Gucht broke taboos re the Jewish Lobby and Jewish irrationality

Is EU Commissioner Karel De Gucht only saying out loud what everybody at the EU is thinking in private  but keeping silent for fear of being called an antisemite ? 

Context:
- EU Commissioner derides 'Jewish Lobby' in the US
- EU Commissioner warns of 'Jewish lobby' grip on US politics

Belgian newspaper Le Soir ran an article about this subjet: "Karel De Gucht brave les tabous" (Karel De Gucht breaks the taboos - note the plural and the "the").  In the paper version the introduction to the article reads as follows (translated) :

Essential background :
- Former Foreign Affairs Minister speaks of the weight of the American Jewish lobby and of the conviction Jews have of being always right about the Middle East.
- Jewish organisations make grave accusations.
- Is it appropriate to say in public what everybody thinks in private ?

The journalist, Maroun Labaki who covers EU affairs for Le Soir, goes on to write that Karel De Gucht's words are unusual coming from a high-ranking European politician because it is not "politically correct" to say such things and because of the fear of being accused of antisemitism.  They therefore use less explicit formulations ...

He further hints that such could be the views of the Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs too.

Le Soir (like the other main francophone Belgian newspaper La Libre Belgique) is notoriously anti-Israel.  In the same issue, writing on Thilo Sarrazin who said that Jews share a common gene, the paper has four other pieces on how crazy Israelis are about Jewish genes (superior of course) and also reports on terrible racism in some quarters of Israel society.  The paper makes Israelis look bad for not making a big fuss about Dr. Sarrazin's "racist" "pamphlet" ... Needless to say that Le Soir is making a terrible fuss about this story.

And by the way, De Gucht has expressed regrets - he did neither offer an apology nor take back his accusations.

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