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Tags: Alan Dershowitz, goldstone report, human-rights, Israel Defense Forces, israeli war crimes, knesset, Naomi Chazan, operation cast lead, shin-bet
“It would be as if the Czar when he wrote the Protocols of the Elders of Zion he asked a prominent to Jew to edit the report and sign the Protocols in order to show that it had credibility.”
Is Dershowitz an ignorant schnook himself or does he just expect his audience to be? The Czar didn’t write the Protocols! Neither did he “author” them in the sense that he ordered someone to write them – although monarchists in Russia certainly adopted the text as a propaganda tool. They were written (probably) by a Russian journalist in Paris who may or may not have had the backing of the local head of Russian intelligence.
Impossible not to note that that rhino horn isn’t just a generic dehumanisation of Prof Hazan, but an allusion to the ancient Christian myth that Jews have actually horns. Despite being based on Michelangelo’s probably honest misunderstanding of biblical Hebrew, it popularly turned into “proof” that Jews are in cahoots with that other prominent horn-bearer, Satan himself.
As far as I know, it is only ever Moses who is depicted with horns in Christian iconography, not Jews in general. (And, by the way, it is with ram-like horns, and not with the goat-like horns that are associated with the devil, which are in turn derived from the classical depiction of the god Pan.) This has to do with the fact that the Latin Vulgate mistranslated Exodus 34:29 as “Moses had horns” instead of “Moses’ face shone.”
Although I do not deny Christian anti-Semitism, in case of the Moses horns, I think they have more to do with bad knowledge of Hebrew, than hatred of Jews, because Moses is a figure highly respected in Christianity as well as Judaism as he brought humanity the Ten Commandments (which are almost as central in Christianity as in Judaism).
In Latin countries having horns nowadays means your wife is cheating on you, in Japan it means you are a jealous person. The single rhino-like horn with which Prof. Hazan is depicted (which Richard rightly compares to Der Sturmer-style tactics) may have its origin in some modern Hebrew proverb or saying? Does anyone have a clue as to Modern Hebrew?
What I had in mind were illustrations in medieval bibles (of which I have a book), in which Moses’ horns are broad, at the side of the head, and curved in semi-circles. But I noticed that if you type in “Moses with horns” on your computer, 99% of results are of Michelangelo’s statue, where Moses has goat’s horns. The style must have changed over time (perhaps even because of Michelangelo).
I found it: “The various statements in the ads, banners and on the Im Tirtzu website include an ugly caricature of former MK Naomi Chazan (currently NIF chairperson) with a large demonic horn with “NIF” written on it is growing out of her forehead (In Hebrew, “keren” is both “fund” and “horn.”).”
Possibly, but more likely a reference to a horned ox goring Israel.
It’s a pity that Dershowitz’s comments will never make the American news. It is very illuminating to see him without the masks on with regards to his position on Israel, totally sans of any of the sanitizing justifications he uses in the books and articles he writes for an American audience.