Holocaust Revisionism, Swine Flu, Invasions and the Rise of Anti-Immigrant Con Men
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Over the last six years it has become apparent that the anti-immigrant movements new motto has become “all’s fair in the name of bigotry and intolerance!” There is no moral line they’re not willing to cross and the results have run the gambit of outright manipulation of data, by organizations like the Center for Immigration Studies, to recent attempts by anti-immigrant leaders to spread xenophobia by playing on public fears of Swine Flu.
One month ago an organization calling itself the Council of Seniors sent out a slick solicitation letter attempting to frighten senior citizens into sending $19.00. By simply filling the coffers of the Council of Seniors, elderly on fixed income (social security) can protect themselves from attack by Mexican President Felipe Calderon and his “gangs of Illegal Aliens . . .” says Council executive director, Carl Hagan.
While disgusting, it’s not surprising to see anti-immigrant bigots become the snake oil salesmen of the new millennium. In short, selling remedies based on pseudo-scientific facts, hype, and sometimes outright lies. Lately the anti-immigrant movement has made it an art form. In attempting to manipulate our elderly, I thought anti-immigrant leadership had reached new lows. I was wrong.
The Center for New Community reports in the latest issue of FAIR Exposed that Peter Gadiel, president of 9/11 Families for a Secure America, is dabbling in his own version of Holocaust Revisionism. In an essay published April 29, 2009 on the white nationalist website VDare, Gadiel callously argues that the victims and survivors of Hitler’s Nazi Germany are responsible for their own deaths. Referring to the millions of victims as “collaborators” Gadiel uses the story of his Jewish aunt to elaborate in his attempt at historical revisionism:
“Aunt Lotte was a collaborator in her own death. Not actively of course, but—like millions of others—her refusal to wake up and resist allowed Hitler to commit the mass murder of which she became a victim.”
Gadiel then uses this pseudo-analogy to argue that by supporting realistic immigration reform that the Jewish community is no different than those who collaborated with Nazi Germany. Gadiel cynically chooses to ignore that the anti-immigrant National Origins Act of 1929 was passed partly to keep Jews fleeing increased anti-Semitism in Europe from reaching the shores of United States. The Act was finally overturned as part of the 1965 Civil Rights Movement by African Americans.
Gadiel’s essay is simply the latest in a series of published attacks on Jewish institutions by anti-immigrant leaders with ties to the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR). Gadiel is a former board member of FAIR and his organization 9/11 Families for a Secure America shares two advisors with FAIR.
Founded in 1979 by John Tanton, FAIR is a controversial organization with ties to political extremist. In 1995, Tanton himself supported Holocaust Denial. While writing about hate crimes Tanton said “These have generally been pushed by Jewish interests who are offended by those who have challenged the received version of the Holocaust.”
Three years later Tanton was recommending the writings of another Vdare contributor, Kevin McDonald, writing to a funder that McDonald’s writings “. . . will give you a new understanding of the Jewish outlook on life, which explains a large part of the Jewish opposition to immigration reform.” McDonald, a professor at Cal-State Long Beach University, is an anti-Semite who, in a popular YouTube video, accuses the Jewish community of destroying America through immigration. MacDonald also writes for the anti-Semitic publication The Occidental Quarterly.
Whether exploiting vulnerable seniors, playing on flu fears or dabbling in anti-Semitism the anti-immigrant movement is signaling that they have no realistic solutions to propose to the complex issue of migration. More disturbing is that it has become clear that the anti-immigrant movement would refuse a realistic solution anyway.
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