What Next? Will Klein Campaign To Rename The WHITE House?

Naomi Klein's latest charge against the Zionists: They're standing in the way of reparations for African slavery Posted: August 24, 2009, 11:50 AM by Jonathan Kay Is there no end to the sins committed by Zionists? In a lengthy essay for the September issue of Harper's magazine — "Minority Death Match: Jews, Blacks, and the 'Post-Racial' Presidency" — Canada's own Naomi Klein establishes herself as the uncontested world leader in thinking up imaginative new sins to lay at the feet of Israel. Her new theory: Supporters of the Jewish state are not only responsible for imposing Apartheid on Palestinians, deliberately provoking terrorism in a bid to secure profits for Israeli defence industries, and destabilizing the Middle East, they are also undermining the African quest for slave-trade reparations. The logic of her article runs like this: The 2001 and 2009 Durban Conferences were principally aimed at delivering social justice for the African ancestors of slaves shipped off to America and other racist white nations. But Israel, the U.S. government and the world's right-wing media instead focused on the shrill anti-Israeli and anti-Semitic rhetoric and intimidation that characterized the lead-up to the conference and the parallel NGO sessions. As a result, the Bush (and then Obama) administrations got the excuse they secretly coveted to distance themselves from the Durban process, and much of the rest of the world followed suit. The result has been a sullying of the Durban brand and its virtuous pro-African agenda. Chalk up another crime to lay at the feet of Israel & Co.! The last half of the article contains a lot of creepy fulminations against Jewish groups for not being adequately supportive of Third World calls for reparations — ignoring the fact that these developing nations often line up behind the Arab and Muslim nations when it is time to bash Israel at the UN and elsewhere. Klein also goes deeper into her ridiculous Et tu, Barack? routine, expressing exasperation at the fact that a black president cannot be relied upon to line up behind African campaigns to demonize the West (and the United States in particular) for wrongs committed centuries ago. In other words, Klein would prefer that Obama acted in solidarity with his race, not his country. Doesn't sound very "post-racial," now, does it? jkay@nationalpost.com

Naomi Klein's latest charge against the Zionists: They're standing in the way of reparations for African slavery

Posted: August 24, 2009, 11:50 AM by Jonathan Kay

Is there no end to the sins committed by Zionists? In a lengthy essay for the September issue of Harper's magazine — "Minority Death Match: Jews, Blacks, and the 'Post-Racial' Presidency" — Canada's own Naomi Klein establishes herself as the uncontested world leader in thinking up imaginative new sins to lay at the feet of Israel. Her new theory: Supporters of the Jewish state are not only responsible for imposing Apartheid on Palestinians, deliberately provoking terrorism in a bid to secure profits for Israeli defence industries, and destabilizing the Middle East, they are also undermining the African quest for slave-trade reparations.

The logic of her article runs like this: The 2001 and 2009 Durban Conferences were principally aimed at delivering social justice for the African ancestors of slaves shipped off to America and other racist white nations. But Israel, the U.S. government and the world's right-wing media instead focused on the shrill anti-Israeli and anti-Semitic rhetoric and intimidation that characterized the lead-up to the conference and the parallel NGO sessions. As a result, the Bush (and then Obama) administrations got the excuse they secretly coveted to distance themselves from the Durban process, and much of the rest of the world followed suit. The result has been a sullying of the Durban brand and its virtuous pro-African agenda. Chalk up another crime to lay at the feet of Israel & Co.!

The last half of the article contains a lot of creepy fulminations against Jewish groups for not being adequately supportive of Third World calls for reparations — ignoring the fact that these developing nations often line up behind the Arab and Muslim nations when it is time to bash Israel at the UN and elsewhere. Klein also goes deeper into her ridiculous Et tu, Barack? routine, expressing exasperation at the fact that a black president cannot be relied upon to line up behind African campaigns to demonize the West (and the United States in particular) for wrongs committed centuries ago.

In other words, Klein would prefer that Obama acted in solidarity with his race, not his country. Doesn't sound very "post-racial," now, does it?

jkay@nationalpost.com