Now That Was A Real 'Culture War'
Overshadowed, perhaps, by reports of the Vice President turning up at the Auschwitz ceremonies dressed as if he were shoveling his driveway, this report on one of our delegates to the Ukraine's presidential inauguration went largely unremarked.
An official U.S. delegation sent to Ukraine's presidential inauguration last weekend included a Ukrainian-American [Kurapos] who has accused Jews of manipulating the Holocaust for their gain and playing an inordinate role in the rise of Soviet communism.
Perhaps this column, in which Mr. Kuropas writes, "Big money drives the Holocaust industry. To survive, the Holocaust industry is always searching for its next mark. Ukraines turn is just around the corner.", is what garnered him his place on the delegation.
An official U.S. delegation sent to Ukraine's presidential inauguration last weekend included a Ukrainian-American [Kurapos] who has accused Jews of manipulating the Holocaust for their gain and playing an inordinate role in the rise of Soviet communism.
Perhaps this column, in which Mr. Kuropas writes, "Big money drives the Holocaust industry. To survive, the Holocaust industry is always searching for its next mark. Ukraines turn is just around the corner.", is what garnered him his place on the delegation.
posted by Management at 7:47 AM
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Dick Cheney, Dressing Down
Parka, Ski Cap at Odds With Solemnity of Auschwitz Ceremony
By Robin Givhan
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, January 28, 2005; Page C01
At yesterday's gathering of world leaders in southern Poland to mark the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, the United States was represented by Vice President Cheney. The ceremony at the Nazi death camp was outdoors, so those in attendance, such as French President Jacques Chirac and Russian President Vladimir Putin, were wearing dark, formal overcoats and dress shoes or boots. Because it was cold and snowing, they were also wearing gentlemen's hats. In short, they were dressed for the inclement weather as well as the sobriety and dignity of the event.
The vice president, however, was dressed in the kind of attire one typically wears to operate a snow blower.
Cheney stood out in a sea of black-coated world leaders because he was wearing an olive drab parka with a fur-trimmed hood. It is embroidered with his name. It reminded one of the way in which children's clothes are inscribed with their names before they are sent away to camp. And indeed, the vice president looked like an awkward boy amid the well-dressed adults.
Like other attendees, the vice president was wearing a hat. But it was not a fedora or a Stetson or a fur hat or any kind of hat that one might wear to a memorial service as the representative of one's country. Instead, it was a knit ski cap, embroidered with the words "Staff 2001." It was the kind of hat a conventioneer might find in a goodie bag.
It is also worth mentioning that Cheney was wearing hiking boots -- thick, brown, lace-up ones. Did he think he was going to have to hike the 44 miles from Krakow -- where he had made remarks earlier in the day -- to Auschwitz?
His wife, Lynne, was seated next to him. Her coat has a hood, too, and it is essentially a parka. But it is black and did not appear to be functioning as either a name tag or a billboard. One wonders if at some point the vice president turned to his wife, took in her attire and asked himself why they seemed to be dressed for two entirely different events.
Some might argue that Cheney was the only attendee with the smarts to dress for the cold and snowy weather. But sometimes, out of respect for the occasion, one must endure a little discomfort.
Just last week, in a frigid, snow-dusted Washington, Cheney sat outside through the entire inauguration without so much as a hat and without suffering frostbite. And clearly, Cheney owns a proper overcoat. The world saw it during his swearing-in as vice president. Cheney treated that ceremony with the dignity it deserved -- not simply through his demeanor, but also through his attire. Would he have dared to take the oath of office with a ski cap on? People would have justifiably considered that an insult to the office, the day, the country.
There is little doubt that intellectually Cheney approached the Auschwitz ceremony with thoughtfulness and respect. But symbolism is powerful. That's why the piercing cry of a train whistle marked the beginning of the ceremony and the glare of searchlights signaled its end. The vice president might have been warm in his parka, ski cap and hiking boots. But they had the unfortunate effect of suggesting that he was more concerned with his own comfort than the reason for braving the cold at all.
Activist critical of Jews was part of U.S. delegation to Ukraine
By Warren P. Strobel and Jonathan S. Landay
Knight Ridder Newspapers
WASHINGTON - A delegation sent by President Bush to Ukraine's presidential inauguration last weekend included a Ukrainian-American activist who has accused Jews of manipulating the Holocaust for their gain and blamed them for Soviet-era atrocities in Ukraine.
"Big money drives the Holocaust industry," Myron B. Kuropas wrote in August 2000.
The inclusion of Kuropas in the U.S. delegation to Sunday's inauguration of Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko, which was led by Secretary of State Colin Powell, appeared to be an embarrassment for the Bush administration.
A White House official, who refused to be identified by name, said Tuesday, "We were not aware of his previous statements. Had we been aware of such comments beforehand, we would not have invited Dr. Kuropas to be a member of the delegation."
Kuropas, in a telephone interview late Tuesday, said he was ``dismayed'' at the controversy. Kuropas said he worked for 12 years in a dialogue with Jewish community leaders and received an award from the American Jewish Committee.
But he said he broke with them over the U.S. government's prosecution of John Demjanjuk, a Ukrainian-born retired auto worker who was wrongly accused of being the Nazi death-camp guard known as Ivan the Terrible. Demjanjuk is facing new charges from the U.S. government.
``I haven't always agreed with Jews,'' Kuropas said. ``The Jewish community has resisted dialogue and they have continued to beat the drum of anti-Semitism.''
It couldn't be learned who suggested Kuropas be part of the delegation. But three State Department officials said the delegation was assembled by the White House. Such delegations normally are vetted carefully, but this one was pulled together very quickly because Yushchenko's inauguration date was set only last week after a challenge from the loser, Viktor Yanukovych, was rebuffed in court. Powell went only because the confirmation of his replacement, Condoleezza Rice, was delayed by Senate Democrats.
The disclosure comes at a particularly awkward time.
Vice President Dick Cheney is to attend ceremonies on Thursday at the former Nazi death camp in Auschwitz, Poland, to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the concentration camps.
Kuropas, an adjunct professor at Northern Illinois University, didn't respond to requests for comment at his home, via e-mail and through the Ukrainian Weekly newspaper, where he writes a column.
His presence in the delegation was greeted with dismay by several U.S. officials and Jewish-American leaders, who learned about it after the fact.
"It's disturbing to give him credibility and to put him on the delegation," said Malcolm Hoenlein, executive vice chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations.
Kuropas' argument that Jews played a driving role behind Soviet leader Josef Stalin's murderous policies in Ukraine "is the one great anti-Semitic canard in Ukraine today," Hoenlein said.
Embarrassed White House and State Department officials said Tuesday that they were trying to determine how Kuropas got on the delegation. As part of the delegation, Kuropas traveled on Powell's plane.
Kuropas, who worked as a White House special assistant for ethnic affairs in President Gerald Ford's administration, doesn't deny the Holocaust occurred.
But a sampling of his writings available on the Internet shows that he's frequently accused Jews of using the tragedy to shield themselves from criticism.
He's been a critic of the Office of Special Investigations, a Justice Department unit that hunts Nazi war criminals who entered the United States.
The Ukrainian News, based in Edmonton, Canada, quoted Kuropas as saying in a March 1998 speech that Ukrainian "good cops" should engage Jews in a dialogue on their common history, while Ukrainian "bad cops" should "go on the offensive reminding Jews of ... Jewish Bolsheviks without whom the murderous Soviet regime would have collapsed in its infancy."
"Let the Jews go on the defensive for a change. The crimes of their people cannot be explained away easily," he was quoted as saying.
Marco Levytsky, the author of the report and the editor of the Ukrainian News, said Kuropas never objected to the accuracy of the report.
In the August 2000 column, Kuropas wrote that Israel, and Jews generally, use the memory of the Holocaust, in which 6 million Jews and millions of others died, to fend off criticism.
"Today the Holocaust is the shield that deflects criticism of Israeli policy; even to question Israel's behavior is to risk being branded an `anti-Semite'," he wrote.
Kuropas quoted extensively from "The Holocaust Industry: Reflections on the Exploitation of Jewish Suffering," by Norman G. Finkelstein. Kuropas said that former Secretary of State Lawrence Eagleburger earned $300,000 per year as chairman of a Holocaust claims organization and that Nazi-hunter Simon Wiesenthal commands $25,000 per appearance.
"To survive, the Holocaust industry is always searching for its next mark. Ukraine's turn is just around the corner," he wrote.
He's also written that Jews played a major role in the rise of the Bolsheviks in the Soviet Union and, by extension, Stalin's brutal subjugation of Ukraine in the 1920s and 1930s. Millions died in an artificially induced famine, including 3 million to 7 million alone in 1932-33, according to the State Department.
In a 1996 column, similar to others he's written, Kuropas called for greater attention to communist atrocities in Ukraine and suggested that the role of Jews should be looked at. "Let the chips fall where they may. The inordinate role played by Jews in bringing Bolshevism to power is certainly a topic worthy of further exploration," he wrote.
FACES AND PLACES
by Myron B. Kuropas
Holocaust exploitation
Some weeks ago I reviewed "The Holocaust in American Life," a scholarly study by a University of Chicago professor, Peter Novick. Among other things, Prof. Novick declared how Jewish spokespersons have consistently manipulated and exploited Holocaust perception to suit the Jewish agenda of the moment. During World War II the Jewish leadership was anxious to convince Americans that Hitler wasn't just persecuting Jews. Christians also were vulnerable, especially Polish Catholics. At the end of the war Jewish leaders thanked Pope Pius XII for his efforts to rescue Jews.
Today the political winds blow in a different direction. The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) has all but said that the Holocaust was Catholic-inspired. Pope Pius XII ("Hitler's Pope") is condemned for his "silence" during the war. Apologies to the Jews by the Pope John Paul II are not enough because, in the words of World Jewish Congress (WJC) President Edgar Bronfman, the pope failed to apologize for all of Catholicism's sins against the Jews, "especially the Holocaust."
The Holocaust was all but ignored by Jews (some were even ashamed to discuss it) until the 1967 Six-Day War in Israel. Today the Holocaust is the shield that deflects criticism of Israeli policy; even to question Israel's behavior is to risk being branded an "anti-Semite."
Now comes a book titled "The Holocaust Industry: Reflections on the Exploitation of Jewish Suffering" by Norman G. Finkelstein, the son of Holocaust survivors, which picks up where Dr. Novick left off. A professor at Hunter College in New York, Dr. Finkelstein believes the Jewish elite is exploiting the Holocaust for personal, political and economic reasons which have little to do with their professed goal of enhancing "Holocaust awareness." Respected Israeli writer Boas Evron describes "Holocaust awareness" as "an official, propagandistic indoctrination, a churning of slogans and a false view of the world, the real aim of which is not an understanding of the past, but a manipulation of the present."
According to Dr. Finkelstein, Holocaust revisionism has made it possible for "one of the world's most formidable military powers, with a horrendous human rights record," to "cast itself as a 'victim state,' and the most successful ethnic group in the United States has likewise acquired victim status. Considerable dividends accrue from this specious victimhood - in particular, immunity to criticism, however justified."
Today, Prof. Finkelstein argues, more Americans know about the Holocaust than about Pearl Harbor. "All 50 states sponsor commemorations, often in state legislatures. The Association of Holocaust Organizations lists over 100 Holocaust institutions in the United States. Seven major Holocaust museums dot the American landscape." The Holocaust has become such a unique event that to compare it to genocides against other groups is viewed by the Holocaust industry as a form of Holocaust denial.
Prof. Finkelstein exposes those Jewish leaders who use the Holocaust to blackmail American politicians into unconditional support for Israel. Lawmakers who have adopted a balanced approach to the Arab-Israeli conflict can suddenly find their careers destroyed. Jews in Illinois have been especially effective in this regard, helping to defeat Rep. Paul Finley and Sen. Charles Percy, two Republicans who mistakenly counseled a more even-handed U.S. foreign policy towards the Middle East.
"Two central dogmas underpin the Holocaust framework," writes Prof. Finkelstein: "1) The Holocaust marks a categorically unique historical event; 2) The Holocaust marks the climax of an irrational, eternal Gentile hatred of Jews." The "most practiced purveyor" of the uniqueness of the Holocaust, according to Prof. Finkelstein, is Elie Weisel (who once said "all of Ukraine is Babi [Babyn] Yar"), who has declared on various occasions that the Holocaust is "never to be comprehend or transmitted" because it "lies outside, if not beyond, all history." The unique evil of the Holocaust, according to Jacob Neusner, not only sets Jews apart from others, but also gives Jew a "claim upon those other."
Much of the literature on Hitler's Final Solution "is worthless as scholarship," writes Dr. Finkelstein. "Indeed, the fold of Holocaust studies is replete with nonsense, if not sheer fraud."
The first major Holocaust hoax was "The Painted Bird," purported to be an autobiographical account by Polish émigré Jerzy Kosinski who "recalled" the sadistic torture of Jews by Polish peasants. Almost all of it was a lie. In reality, Polish peasants harbored Mr. Kosinski and his family from the Nazis at great risk to their own safety.
Another hoax was Binjamin Wilkomirski's book "Fragments," which the author represented as "recovered memory" of the sadism of German guards. Hailed as a classic of Holocaust literature, it was exposed by the renowned Holocaust historian Raul Hilberg. "Half-fruitcake, half-mountebank," writes Dr. Finkelstein, "Wilkomirski, it turns out, spent the entire war in Switzerland. He is not even Jewish." Following current academic trends, Yad Vashem Director Israel Gutman, a former inmate of Auschwitz, argued that "it is not important if 'Fragments' is a fraud. Wilkomirski has written a story which he has experienced deeply ... his pain is authentic." A similar "authenticity" argument was made for Nobel Peace Prize laureate Rigoberta Menchu, when it was discovered that her heart-wrenching autobiography of racist oppression in Guatemala was pure fabrication.
Dr. Finkelstein reserves his most explosive rhetoric for the "outright extortion racket" that demands billions of compensatory dollars from Germany and Swiss banks because little of the money goes to actual Holocaust survivors. The cash left after the lawyers take their share is earmarked for various pet projects of Jewish leaders, such as Holocaust museums, Holocaust publications and university chairs of Holocaust studies.
Big money drives the Holocaust industry. Former Secretary of State Lawrence Eagleburger earns $300,000 per year as chairman of a Holocaust claims organization. Rabbi Marvin Hier, dean of the Simon Weisenthal Center, has his wife and son on the center payroll; their combined family income five years ago was $520,000. Simon Wiesenthal himself commands $25,000 per appearance plus expenses. WJC President Bronfman claims that his organization has amassed "roughly $7 billion" in compensation monies.
To survive, the Holocaust industry is always searching for its next mark. Ukraine's turn is just around the corner.
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