Holocaust survivor versus holocaust industry

Here's an email I got from an angry person I know to be a Jewish holocaust survivor and a supporter of the Palestinian cause. It came after I posted something on the Finkelstein at Oxford (or not) business. I'm posting it as I found it except for personal bits which I've deleted.

This hysteria about Finkelstein's "anti Zionism" ist totally misplaced and a con, because what originally infuriated the powers that be was Finkelstein's taking on the Zionists' updated raison d'etre, it's biggest political asset, the Holocaust, by attacking the huge industry that their existence has created, but from which other benefit.

Even as recently as a few weeks ago, Gideon Taylor of the Claims Conference admonished Holocaust survivors testifying before a US committee on poverty among survivors for "washing dirty linen in public". And I heard that when that didn't deter them, he got really nasty. So one can imagine the rage - and panic - when the son of Holocaust survivors wrote a book accusing them of misappropriation of funds that were meant for the very people whom they use as a moral shield.

He not only wrote the book with support from respected Holocaust historian Raul Hilberg, but he dared, had the chutzpah, the audacity, the Un- Americanism, to have the book translated into German, where it flew off the shelves and opened many an eye.

Not that it stopped them from continuing to milk that cash cow, and recent events - in Israel - would have totally vindicated Norman Finkelstein in public, were it not for the hysteria of media starved Martha's Vineyard Zionist zealots like Dershowitz and Foxman.

Even ignoring Israel Singer`s forced resignation from both World Jewish Congress and the Claims Conference under a cloud of money in a Swiss bank account, there has been news of major mismanagement of Holocaust survivors's funds - or of outright theft. Such news is mostly buried or treaded on softly by the Jewish media, ignored by blogs, and taboo for those, who, like Pavlovian dogs, know by now what to expect if they touch this topic with anything but kid gloves.

Just a few weeks - when, and only because, Holocaust survivors were protesting against their poverty in the streets of Jerusalem wearing yellow stars, Israeli Knesset Speaker Dalia Itzik made this statement: "The State of Israel demanded the reparation money that was transferred from Germany , but wasn't wise enough to channel the funds correctly for the benefit of those who needed and deserved it," Itzik said at the discussion. The subject of refunding this money never came up. Gone is gone. The Israeli government promised to rectify the situation, and.... it went right back to the source. On Sept. 19th, HaAretz published an article entitled "Israel asks Germany to fund Holocaust survivors' stipends"

In April, Abraham Hirchson, Israel's finance minister, who created the March of the Living, which had received many millions of dollars from the Claims Conference, was caught up in a scandal when a friend of his and Singer's was discovered to have earned $700,000 from this project, and he couldn't remember what it was for. Hirschson was in deeper trouble in Israel, he" resigned in disgrace after a series of scandals that included allegations that he took funds from the Claims Conference and March of the Living. Some of this money was allegedly used to fund the Likud Party." Last week the Jerusalem Post reported that Hirchson and 10 others are being indicted for embezzling millions.

And this was one of the headlines on the front page of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency's web news today, October 25, 2007: " An Israeli lawyer was convicted of bilking Holocaust survivors out of hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of reparations."

All this is just the tip of the iceberg, which we now know can melt very rapidly. Those persons who launched and continue the witch hunt of Norman Finkelsein - which began in the year 2000 and continues - use lies, fear and intimidation, in order to suppress the truth, some out of a totally perverted sense of loyalty. To whom? To what? To the Holocaust survivors who live under the poverty line everywhere in the world? Hardly. To the Israeli right wing that is on a campaign to free Yitzchak Rabin's murderer? To those who oppress the Palestinians and steal the land and their dignity?

Not in MY name.

Not in your name? But you're a holocaust survivor and a Jew. Everything zionists do is in our name and for our benefit.