"Human Rights Watch"


Not-so-secret motives

Israelis often wonder if the vilification of their country has anything to do with the fact that they are the world's only Jewish state.

Jews historically have played the role of scapegoat in many societies, and Israelis wonder if the effort to delegitimize their country is a modern gloss on an age-old tradition.

Israel-haters usually deny any suggestion they are motivated by hostility toward things Jewish, and they complain that the accusation of anti-Semitism is tossed about recklessly in order to silence them. The best way to approach this subject is case-by-case, which inevitably reveals that some attacks on Israel are motivated by anti-Semitism and some are not.

Yet there does seem to be a surge in cases where anti-Zionism is a vehicle for some deeper animosity.

The most sinister example was the hallucinatory anti-Israel documents which found their way onto the United Church of Canada website this summer. The documents circulated the libel that Canadians affiliated with Israel -- i.e., Jews -- have dual loyalties and can't be trusted in sensitive government jobs. In the ensuing uproar, the larger church membership wisely disassociated itself from those sentiments.

Also this summer, protests against a Dead Sea Scrolls exhibition in Toronto were carried out in the name of anti-Israel activism, but protesters were essentially arguing that the Jews of today are impostors and thieves who have no ancestral connection to the Holy Land -- another standard anti-Semitic trope.

Now there is the case of Marc Garlasco, a senior official with Human Rights Watch. In his capacity as an influential "human rights" activist, Garlasco has made a career of painting Israel as a criminal state. Scholars and other researchers have exposed Garlasco's reports as inaccurate and malicious, but no matter -- among anti-Israel activists, Garlasco is a hero.

This week, Human Rights Watch suspended Garlasco after learning that he has a, um, thing for Naziism. Among other things, he collects Nazi paraphernalia. Using fake names on the Internet, he has talked about how "cool" the leather SS jackets are. One pseudonym he reportedly used was "Flak88" -- "88" being code for the neo-Nazi salute, "Heil, Hitler" ("H" is the eighth letter of the alphabet).

Those Human Rights Watch reports attacking Israel always were a bit puzzling, being so one-sided and hostile. Sadly, they're perhaps not so puzzling anymore.
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