Ron Paul, Ben Stein, & Israeli Minister who said the anti-semitic label ‘always used’ as a trick (Full Video)
December 30, 2:22 AM
LA County Libertarian ExaminerMartin Hill
In a Larry King segment yesterday with guests Congressman Ron Paul, Democratic Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee and former Nixon speechwriter Ben Stein, the four were discussing airline security with Jackson Lee promoting protecting of the so-called “homeland”. The topic of terrorism and it’s root causes came up, and Neoconservative Ben Stein called Ron Paul’s arguements ‘anti-semitic’. This prompted Paul to demand an apology and the segment deteriorated into a near shouting match, with King pulling down the audio saying that the three will be back again tomorrow.
It’s worthwhile to note that Stein, who is Jewish, was Richard Nixon’s speechwriter. Nixon, who made such remarks as “The Jews are irreligious, atheistic, immoral bunch of bastards”, “As long as I’m sitting in the chair, there’s not going to be any Jew appointed to that court. [No Jew] can be right on the criminal-law”, and “every one of the bastards that are out for legalizing marijuana are Jewish”, also employed Ben Stein’s father. Herbert Stein was the ‘chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers’. Slate’s 2002 article Nixon and the Jews. Again. If his tirades against Jews weren’t anti-Semitism, what were they?, outlines the Nixon tapes released by the National Archives, and describes Herb Stein as an “opportunistic” Nixon “loyalist”. Herbert Stein himself, who died in 1999, wrote one such article defending Nixon in Slate Jan. 2, 1998 entitled The Nixon I Knew. Henry Kissinger defended Nixon in 2005 to Chris Matthews, saying “Nixon‘s comments about Jews were sort of—there was a huge disparity between the comments he made about Jews and the large number of Jews he had in his administration. And it is hard to believe in one sense. I don‘t really think Nixon was anti-Semitic. He had sort of standard phrases.” The ADL, however, decried Nixon’s conversations about the Jews.
This recent Larry King clip with Stein smearing Ron Paul as an “anti-semite” has prompted recirculation of an old youtube video entitled “It’s a Trick, We Always Use It.” (calling people “anti-Semitic”). A new variation including the Paul-Stein exchange has been added.
It might be helpful though, to view the clip in it’s entirety and in it’s proper context. The youtube excerpts are actually from a 2002 interview with an Israeli Minister who spoke out against Israeli’s occupation and human rights abuses of the Palestinian people.
Former Israeli minister Shulamit Aloni was born November 29, 1928 and is currently 81 years old. She was interviewed 7 years ago by Amy Goodman of “Democracy Now!” on August 14, 2002. Video can be seen below. Archive of the entire program, audio or video, can be watched and/or dowloaded here. [also here & here ].
The Aloni segment begins at around minute 48:49 into the hour long program, so it is less than twelve minutes in its entirety. Here is a partial transcript of the exchange.
Goodman: “Yours is a voice of criticism we dont often hear in the United States. Often when there is dissent expressed in the United States against policies of the Israeli government, people here are called anti-semitic. what is your response to that as an israeli jew ?
Aloni: “Well its a trick, we always use it. When from Europe someobody is criticizing Israel then we bring up the holocaust . When in this country people are criticizing Israel then they are anti-semitic. And the organization is strong and has a lot of money. And the ties between Israel and the American estab- Jewish establishment are very strong and- they are stong in this country, as you know. And they have power, which is ok. They are talented people and they have power and money, and the media and other things, and their attitude is ‘Israel my country right or wrong’ , identification. And they are not ready to hear criticism. And it’s very easy to blame people who criticize certain acts of the Israeli govt as anti-semitic and to bring up the holocaust and the suffering of the Jewish people and that- that is justify everything we do to the Palestinians.”
Goodman: “How powerful are groups like AIPAC, the presdient of major jewish organizations. In the United States that’s another major establishment Jewish organization. How powerful are they in determining policy in Israel? [52:47]
Aloni: “They are powerful because they serve the right wing of Israeli policy and because they are backed strongly by the government of the United States. If your administration and, not only the administration but the Congress as well, wouldn’t back those two organizations, then they wouldnt be as strong as they are because they don’t represent the majority of the Jewish people in this country. There are many who say “not in my name, not in my name”. What you are doing, what you are saying, is not in my name. But they are not organized, they don’t have the money, they dont have the power, they don’t- they were not accepted by the American establishment; political establishment. And that’s why you hear mainly their voice. Their voice is very strong.”
Goodman: “Again were speaking with Shulamit Aloni, who has often been referred to in Israel as the first lady of human rights. She was the head of the the Meretz party until her retirement from the Knesset. She received the Israel prize for human rights; Um, You have been quoted as saying “the occupation is killing us all”.
Aloni: “Yeah thats right. It’s killing the Palestinians and it’s a disaster to the Israelis because , first of all morally speaking, you know when we established the state of Israel and I was one of those …fighting for establishment of the state during the war of independence , we were sure that we wre building a model state. [54:28] a moral state. So when we were weak we used to speak so highly of the Jewish values. And your people here also speak so highly of the Jewish values . and the Jewish values don’t include discrimination against the Arab. And the kind of oppressing the Arab. And to take away their rights. And that’s what we have, we deal with the Israeli Arabs as second-rate human beings.
“We deal with the Palestinians under our oppression; its oppression, that you could use every word, because we change every town and every village into a camp of.. kind of a…a camp, I don’t want to use the word because it might remind.. you know, different other camps. But people can not go out. And you have curfews and they can not go to work, they can not get to a hospital, they can not go to schools, they can not- they are hungry. they have to stay at home, they don’t have air condition , sometimes they dont have electricity, they are short of drinking water. Not of water. Of drinking water. While they see the settlers next to them having the swimming pools, having the lawns in their land. On their land. [55:51] So we have a real problem. It’s killing us morally and it’s killing us economically as well. Because in Israel we have tremendous big number of unemployment of poverty of (?) people education low education in the developing places. The town in the north and in the south and the money goes to the settlers. Because they get free (?) the govt gives them a tremendous amount of money.”
Near the end of the broadcast, Aloni goes on to discuss Ariel Sharon: [article continues here]
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