Hey Joe
What's an antisemite to think?

By Jeremy Jones

Pierce has some notoriety amongst the racist fringe in the US and also in Australia, as Pierce’s ravings have been promoted in this country in the past by the Holocaust-denying Adelaide Institute, Queensland’s far-right self-publicist Scott Balson, the extra-terrestrial worshippers of Annwn and, of course, the columns of Victoria’s The Strategy.

Hani Habib, a columnist for the Palestinian Authority’s daily, Al-Ayam, wrote of Gore and Lieberman: "Both are Israelis" and the only difference is that "one of them is also a Jew". An editorialist in Al-Quds Al-Arabi opined that Lieberman could "operate the media, which is controlled by the Jews, in Gore’s favour".

In the Egyptian government’s newspaper Al-Akhbar, editor Jalal Duweidar wrote "the United States is now passing from the stage of indirect Judaisation to the stage of direct and open Judaisation".

The Egyptian Opposition, however, made their own government’s mouthpiece appear tame, with op-ed writer for Al-Wafd, Abbas al-Tarabili describing the selection as part of "the Zionist scenario to take control of the World: A Jew in the White House". Al-Tarabili implored his readers to understand "that Zionism’s goal is to rule the world. "By having one of them enter the White House and rule America, he will become the master of the whole world", suggesting that Gore, once elected, would receive a visit from the "Angel of Death" and be succeeded by "pure Zionist Jew" Lieberman.

While this conspiracy theory was also promoted by the Syrian Government, through the pages of Al-Baath newspaper, Tariq Masarwah, in Jordan’s semi-official Al-Ra’i, plumped for a theory which has Lieberman’s selection part of a plan to "provoke antisemitic feelings not only among the traditional Anglo-Saxon rulers of the United States but also among all the minorities in that country" so that American Jews emigrate en masse to Israel.

Louis Farrakhan, leader of the racist US "Nation of Islam" movement, straddled all these themes by suggesting, at a news conference in Los Angeles, that Lieberman’s "Jewish religion would make him more faithful to Israel" than the "Constitution of the United States", in the process falsely alleging Lieberman holds dual citizenship.

A more significant voice in the US political arena, James Zogby, the president of the Arab-American Institute, expressed a view which had few echoes in the Arab world. "Joe Lieberman fought for us on occasions when other people wouldn’t", Zogby said, adding: "He’s thoughtful, he’s open, and when we needed somebody to fight for us when people were excluding us ... Joe Lieberman was the guy who picked up the torch and fought and opened the door for us."

Of the commentators who did more than simply assume readers would mistrust Jews and be totally receptive to crude antisemitism, Abd Al-Fatah Al-Kalily in the PNA’s semi-official Al-Hayat Al-Jadida was the most patronising. He wrote "This nomination will raise anti-Jewish sentiment among the American public and provoke distrust of the Jews. This will cause American Jews to suffer greatly. American Jews have become arrogant. They completely control the American perspective on the Middle East because the Secretary of State is Jewish, her envoy and deputy, Martin Indyk and Dennis Ross as well as Monica are all Jewish. They [the Jews] think that it is time to rule America directly and not be content with direct influence on American decision-making."

But none of this commentary impressed the pseudonymous "Abu Ziad", writing in Sydney’s Al Sharq. Abu Ziad used his column to attack the Arab world for bothering with a discussion concerning Lieberman as, in his view, all American leaders are Zionists, all Zionists are the enemies of the Arab world and the correct attitude is one of opposition rather than of analysis.