This is it - the senile (open to interpretation, I guess) former dictator of Chile died at 91. I will not join those strange people who are mourning his death. The man was positively mean, and I don't care if Chilean economy works. There are plenty of examples of dictators throughout history who fed their people with one hand while killing them with another. I will not cite those examples here because redundancy is a bore.
Pinochet is managing to divide his people even after his death. Unbelievably, many in Chile are truly sad he has died. Fortunately, many are not. I myself would have difficulty mourning a man who seized power illegally, killed so many and ostracized - politically, socially, economically - many more. And to think that his children are offended that President Bachelet has not agreed to a state funeral...
I read an excellent essay on Pinochet by Pamela Constable of the Washington Post, and also her ensuing Q&A session this afternoon. I recommend both.
December 12, 2006
GOODBYE, PINOCHET
THE HOLOCAUST DENIAL CONFERENCE IN TEHRAN
We all know this Iranian president is on the lunatic side. No doubt his perception of history is, well, unique. I used to laugh at him. Now I don't laugh anymore.
This man has made denial of the Holocaust his favorite hobby and this hobby is quickly turning into a mission. He certainly seems to devote an enormous amount of his own and public time refuting evidence it ever happened, and it is no secret he dislikes Israel and Jews with passion. In other words, he hates our guts.
The conference now taking place in Tehran would be ludicrous as a blatant distortion of historical truth if not for the fact that it is impossible to laugh at such things. As Slate very well put it, the conference "is sordid and cynical, but we must take it seriously." And here is why: the last time the world did not take hatred against the Jews seriously, we all know what happened. Yes, I hate to sound like a broken record, but there is no alternative: we must remember, we must never forget.
Especially if this insane man is also a dangerous one with nuclear weapons.
The USA, Israel and most European countries, along with the Vatican, were quick to condemn the conference. But unfortunately most of the 67 people in attendance are well-known in Holocaust denial circles, among them: David Duke (former KKK leader), Robert Faurisson (a French clown who managed to get convicted five times for denying crimes against humanity in France); and the German Fredrick Toeben, convicted for insulting the memory of the dead. Lovely men who seem to be in dire need of some light-hearted entertainment, maybe some cable tv...
Now really - it is baffling that such a conference is happening in this day and age. There have been several gatherings of Holocaust deniers in many places, but this is a state-sponsored one in a Muslim country. Chilling.
Ahmadinejad, as we all know by now, knows no boundaries. His latest gem, during the conference, was his prediction that Israel's days are numbered: "just as the USSR disappeared, soon the Zionist regime will disappear"; according to him, then "humanity will achieve freedom." Prediction might not be that accurate a term - threat is more like it. Also strangely reminiscent of what another clownish (and dangerous) little man, the one with the mustache and the lisp, used to tell his bunch of fanatics in the Third Reich not long ago...
On a parallel note: it is with sadness that I noted the participation of two rabbis and four other Jews in the conference. They are all members of Neturei Karta (Jews United Against Zionism), a religious group which claims that the creation of Israel violates Jewish Law.
This is orthodox Judaism at its worst. It is inexcusable. It is sick.
