Coming
in September
From AK Press
Featuring Essays by:
Edward Said, Robert Fisk, Michael Neumann, Shahid Alam, Alexander
Cockburn, Uri Avnery, Bill and Kathy Christison and More
Today's
Stories
August 13, 2003
Joanne Mariner
A Wall of Separation Through the
Heart
Donald Worster
The Heavy Cost of Empire
Standard Schaefer
Experimental Casinos: DARPA and the War Economy
Elaine Cassel
Murderous Errors: Executing the Innocent
Ralph Nader
Make the Recall Count
Alexander Cockburn
Ted Honderich Hit with "Anti-Semitism" Slur
Website of the Day
Defending Yourself Against DirectTV Lawsuits: 9000 and Counting
August 12, 2003
William Blum
Myth
and Denial in the War on Terrorism
Ron Jacobs
Revisionist History: the Bush Administration, Civil Rights and
Iraq
Josh Frank
Dean's Constitutional Hang-Up
Wayne Madsen
What's a Fifth Columnist? Well, Someone Like Hitchens
Ray McGovern
Relax,
It Was All a Pack of Lies
Wendy Brinker
Hubris in the White House
Website of the Day
Black
Mustache
Recent
Stories
August
11, 2003
Douglas
Valentine
Homeland Security for Whom?
Mickey
Z.
Bush's Progress
Bill
Glahn
RIAA Watch: Meet the New Bitch, Same
as the Old
Elaine
Cassel
Indicting DNA
Dr. Mohammad
Omar Farooq
Civil Liberties and Uncivil Super-Patriotism
Uri
Avnery
Who Will Save Abu Mazen?
Website
of the Day
RIAA Subpoena Clearinghouse
August
9 / 10, 2003
Alexander
Cockburn
California's Glorious Recall!
Saul
Landau
Bush and King Henry
Gary
Leupp
On Terrorism, Methodism, "Wahhabism"
and the Censored 9/11 Report
Paul de
Rooij
The Parade of the Body Bags
Michael
Egan
History and the Tragedy of American Diplomacy
Rob Eshelman
A Home of Our Own
Daoud
Kuttab
Life as an ID Card
Philip
Agee
Terror and Civil Society: Instruments of US Policy in Cuba
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Marc Racicot: Bush's Main Man
Walt Brasch
Schwarzenegger, "Hollyweird"
and the Rigtheous Right
Christopher
Brauchli
Bush, Bribery and Berlusconi
Josh Frank
Mean, Mean Howard Dean
Elaine
Cassel
Will the Death Penalty Ever Die?
Sean Carter
Total Recall
Poets'
Basement
Hamod, Engel, Albert
August
8, 2003
John
Chuckman
What the US Says Goes
Roberto
Barreto
Defend the Vieques 12!
Bruce Gagnon
Iraq War Emboldens Bush Space Plans
Elaine
Cassel
The Reign of John Ashcroft
Dave
Lindorff
Snoops Night Out
Website
of the Day
Zero Boy
August
7, 2003
M.
Shahid Alam
It the US a "Terrorist Magnet?"
Toni
Solo
Neo-liberal Nicaragua: a New Banana
Republic
Adam Lebowitz
Hiroshima Commemorated: the View from Japan
Hanan
Ashrawi
When the Bully Whines
Niranjan
Ramakrishnan
Conscience Takes a Holiday
Jason
Leopold
Wolfowitz Lets Slip: Iraq Not Behind 9/11; No Ties to Al-Qaeda
Mike Kimaid
What's the Score?
Elaine
Cassel
The Smell of VICTORY: Ashcroft's Latest Stinkbomb
Dardagan,
Slobodo and Williams
CounterPunch Exclusive:
20,000 Wounded Iraqi Civilians
August 6, 2003
Steve
Higgs
Going to Jail for the Cause: It's Not
Easy Confronting King Coal
David
Krieger
Remembering Hiroshima and Nagasaki
Robert
Fisk
The Ghosts of Uday and Qusay
Christopher
Brauchli
Bush's War on the National Forests
Elaine
Cassel
No Fly Lists
Stan
Goff
Military Equipment and Pneumonia
Hugh Sansom
An Open Letter to Nicholas Kristof on the Nuking of Japan
August
5, 2003
Uri
Avnery
The Prisoner of Ramallah: Arafat at
74
Forrest
Hylton
Terrorism and Political Trials: the
View from Bolivia
Ray
McGovern
"We Cook Estimates to Go"
David
Morse
Poindexter's Gambit
Edward
Said
Orientallism: 25 Years Later
George
W. Bush
My Darn Good Resumé
Hammond
Guthrie
It's Incremental, Watson!
Website
of the Day
National Prayer Day
August 4, 2003
Bruce
K. Gagnon
Another Peace Activist Detained by
Airport Cops: My Story
David
Lindorff
Fear-Mongering About Social Security
Mark
Zepezauer
George F. Will: Descent into Self-Parody
James
Plummer
Tracking You Through the Mail
Mickey
Z.
Marriage Insecurity from Sharon to Bush
Bruce
Jackson
News that Isn't News: How the NYT's
Pimps for the White House
August
2 / 3, 2003
Tamara
R. Piety
Nike's Full Court Press Breaks Down
Francis
Boyle
My Alma Mater, the University of Chicago, is a Moral Cesspool
David
Vest
Sons of Paleface: Pictures from Death's Other Side
Neve Gordon
Nightlife in Jerusalem
Uri
Avnery
Their Master's Voice:
Bush, Blair and Intelligence Snafus
Robert
Fisk
Paternalistic Democracy for Iraq
Jerry
Kroth
Israel, Yellowcake and the Media
Noah Leavitt
What's Driving the Liberian Bloodbath: Is the US Obligated to
Intervene?
Saul
Landau
The Film Industry: Business and Ideology
Ron Jacobs
One Big Prison Yard: the Meaning of George Jackson
Thomas
Croft
In the Deep, Deep Rough: Reflections on Augusta
Amadi Ajamu
Def Sham: Russell Simmons New Black Leader?
Poets'
Basement
Vega, Witherup, Albert and Fleming
August
1, 2003
Joanne
Mariner
Stopping Prison Rape
Alex Coolman
Who Moved My Soap: Trivializing
Prison Rape
Steve
J.B.
Prison Bitch
Stan Goff
Injury and Decorum: The Missing Wounded in Iraq
Wayne
Madsen
Europe Unplugs from the Matrix
Robert
Fisk
Wolfowitz the Censor
Elaine
Cassel
Ashcroft Loses Big in Puerto Rico
Website
of the Day
Stop Prisoner Rape
July
31, 2003
Ray
McGovern
The Prostitution of Intelligence
Brian
Cloughley
Wolfowitz's Operative Statement
Sheldon
Hull
The RIAA's Jihad:
The Devil's Music (Industry)
Elaine
Cassel
The Next Time You Crack a Lawyer Joke, Think of These Attorneys
Sheldon
Rampton
and John Stauber
True Lies: Propaganda and Bush's
Wars
Hammond
Guthrie
Speculation Blues
Website
of the Day
Army of One?
Congratulations
to CounterPuncher Gilad Atzmon! BBC Names EXILE Top Jazz CD
July
30, 2003
David
Lindorff
Poindexter the Terror Bookie
Marjorie
Cohn
Why Iraq and Afghanistan? It's About
the Oil
Elaine
Cassel
How Ashcroft Coerces Guilty Pleas
in Terror Cases
Zvi
Bar'el
The Hidden Costs of the Iraq War
Lisa Walsh
Thomas
Killing Mustafa Hussein: Death of a Child, Birth of a Legend?
Sean
Carter
Pat Robertson's Prayer Jihad: God, Sodomy and the Supremes
ND Jayaprakash
India and Ariel Sharon
Steve
Perry
Bush's Top 40 Lies
Standard
Schaefer
Correction about Bloomberg and Outscourcing
Website
of the Day
Bring Them Home Now!
Hot Stories
Dardagan,
Slobodo and Williams
CounterPunch Exclusive:
20,000 Wounded Iraqi Civilians
Steve
J.B.
Prison Bitch
Sheldon
Rampton and John Stauber
True Lies: the Use of Propaganda
in the Iraq War
Wendell
Berry
Small Destructions Add Up
CounterPunch
Wire
WMD: Who Said What When
Cindy
Corrie
A Mother's Day Talk: the Daughter
I Can't Hear From
Elaine
Cassel
Civil Liberties
Watch
Michel
Guerrin
Embedded Photographer Says: "I
Saw Marines Kill Civilians"
Uzma
Aslam Khan
The Unbearably Grim Aftermath of War:
What America Says Does Not Go
Paul de Rooij
Arrogant
Propaganda
Gore Vidal
The
Erosion of the American Dream
Francis Boyle
Impeach
Bush: A Draft Resolution
Click Here
for More Stories.
|
August
13, 2003
CounterPunch Diary
World-Famous
Philosopher Honderich Hit with "Anti-Semite" Slur in
Germany; Habermas and Suhrkamp Cut and Run
By ALEXANDER COCKBURN
The distinguished British philosopher Ted Honderich,
is threatening to sue the head of the Holocaust museum in Frankfort
for calling him an anti-Semite. The director, Micha Brumlik ,
levelled the charge last week after Honderich's book "After
The Terror" was published in Germany in July.
Suhrkamp, the jelly-kneed publisher,
has said it is taking the book off the market, though in practice
this appears to mean Surhkamp won't order a reprinting when the
first printing of 3,000 is sold out.
Germany's most eminent philosopher, Jurgen
Habermas, has said he was the one who recommended the book to
Suhrkamp, can find nothing anti-Semitic in it, though, in a kindred
display of pusillanimity, simultaneously says he regrets having
been involved in anything that may have caused offense.
Honderich is a resolute supporter of
the Palestinian struggle for nationhood. But, as he emphasizes,
he is in no way an  anti-Semite, has a Jewish
wife and step children and has always refused to lecture in Germany
because of the Holocaust.
The book was published in a German translation
as Nach dem Terror: Ein Traktat, in July 2003, by Suhrkamp in
Frankfurt on Main, as one of their 40th anniversary books. Micha
Brumlik is director of a centre for the history and effects of
the Holocaust in Frankfurt, and a professor of science-education,
at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University, Frankfurt on Main.
On August 5, in the liberal paper Frankfurter
Rundschau, Brumlik
published an open letter to the publisher Suhrkamp denouncing
the book and Honderich as anti-Semitic, and demanding that it
be taken off the market.
On August 6 the paper carried an embarrassed
dispatch from Prof. Dr. Jurgen Habermas, Germany's best known
philosopher. This man of the mind vouchsafed that himself had
recommended After the Terror to Suhrkamp for publication. Having
been surprised by his friend Brumlik's letter, he had now read
the book again and found in it no evidence of anti-Semitism.
But he was sorry to have been involved in something that caused
hurt.
Suhrkamp then announced in a press release
it was taking the book off the market. Subsequently it became
clear that what this comes to is that they are not reprinting
a book that has sold out, or more or less sold out its run of
3,000 copies. It remains the case that they have 'banned' a book.
In a letter to Honderich they remark in passing that they have
a Jewish imprint within their house.
On August 8, after it had already appeared
on my website, the Frankfurter Rundschau published most of an
open letter from Honderich to Johann Wolfgang Goethe University.
Honderich denied as absurd the charge of anti-Semitism, saying
that it was made only because he assrted the moral right of the
Palestinians to their terrorism or resistance, as the Israeli
state asserts its moral right to killing. He demanded the removal
of Brumlik from his professorship.
The affair has become theprime cultural-political
controversy in Germany. eliciting at least 50 articles, some
virulent.
Honderich says, " I have come to
realize fully, mainly from German journalists, German emotions
about the Holocaust and anti-Semitism, 60 years after the event,
remain very strong indeed, [involving] guilt, resolution, and
probably other things.
"My strong line has been the one
in my open letter: I am being attacked as anti-Semitic because
I assert the moral right of the Palestinians to their terrorism,
as the neo-Zionist state in Israel asserts a moral right overtly
and covertly to kill Palestinians. (My claim of a moral right
to violence is far from unique.)
"That I am anti-Semitic is certainly
a falsehood, probably a lie. The neo-Zionist use of the libel
and slander of anti-Semitism is very well-known, at any rate
outside of Germany, and recorded in the Englishliberal press.
It is dirty politics and dirty morals. In Germany, it isoperating
in a circumstance that does honour to the Germans: their guilt
etc. 60 years after the Holocaust. The banning of this book is
sad for Germany.
Honderich emphasizes that the charge
of anti-Semitism has strong personal overtones for him:
"I have had a Jewish wife, now have
a Jewish step son-in-law and, so to speak, Jewish grandchildren.
I refused to lecture in Germany because of the Holocaust. Even
if philosophically advanced, as you might say, I am a British
Lefty, a member of the Labour Party still, My autobiography Philosopher:
A Kind of Life, provides evidence on the Holocaust point and
also strong evidence of a general kind as to my attitudes to
Jews.
"I am taking advice on the possibility
of sueing Brumlik for libel. There is the personal consideration
of course. ('Honderich monster' finds you some files on Google.)
There is also the moral and political aspect of the case, including
that of the Palestinians, to which I am committed."
In the forthcoming The
Politics of Anti-Semitism, edited by Jeffrey St Clair and
myself, there is a very interesting essay by Norman Finkelstein,
recounting similar charges of anti-Semitism levelled at him when
he visited Germqany. In it Finkelstein writes:
In fact, the Holocaust has proven to
be a valuable commodity for politically correct Germans. By "defending"
Holocaust memory and Jewish elites against any and all criticism,
they get to play-act at moral courage. What price do they actually
pay, what sacrifice do they actually make, for this "defense"?
Given Germany's prevailing cultural ambience and the overarching
power of American Jewry, such courage in fact reaps rich rewards.
Pillorying a Jewish dissident costs nothing--and provides a "legitimate"
outlet for latent prejudice.
It happens that I agree with Daniel Goldhagen's
claim in Hitler's Willing Executioners that philo-Semites are
typically anti-Semites in "sheep's clothing." The philo-Semite
both assumes that Jews are somehow "different" and
almost always secretly harbors a mixture of envy of and loathing
for this alleged difference. Philo-Semitism thus presupposes,
but also engenders a frustrated version of, its opposite. A public,
preferably defenseless, scapegoat is then needed to let all this
pent-up ugliness ooze out.
To account for Germany's obsession with
the Nazi holocaust, a German friend explained that Germans "like
to carry a load." To which I would add: especially if it's
light as a feather. No doubt some Germans of the post-war generation
genuinely accepted the burden of guilt together with its paralyzing
taboos on independent, critical thought. But today German "political
correctness" is all a charade of pretending to accept the
burden of being German while actually rejecting it. For, what
is the point of these interminable public breast-beatings except
to keep reminding the world: "We are not like them."
Weekend
Edition Features for August 9 / 10, 2003
Alexander
Cockburn
California's Glorious Recall!
Saul
Landau
Bush and King Henry
Gary
Leupp
On Terrorism, Methodism, "Wahhabism"
and the Censored 9/11 Report
Paul de
Rooij
The Parade of the Body Bags
Michael
Egan
History and the Tragedy of American Diplomacy
Rob Eshelman
A Home of Our Own
Daoud
Kuttab
Life as an ID Card
Philip
Agee
Terror and Civil Society: Instruments of US Policy in Cuba
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Marc Racicot: Bush's Main Man
Walt Brasch
Schwarzenegger, "Hollyweird"
and the Rigtheous Right
Christopher
Brauchli
Bush, Bribery and Berlusconi
Josh Frank
Mean, Mean Howard Dean
Elaine
Cassel
Will the Death Penalty Ever Die?
Sean Carter
Total Recall
Poets'
Basement
Hamod, Engel, Albert
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