Institute for Historical Review

Institute for Historical Review

Beirut Revisionist Conference

I N S T I T U T E   F O R   H I S T O R I C A L   R E V I E W
P.O. Box 2739 - Newport Beach, CA 92659 - USA E-mail: weber@ihr.org
Tel. 949 - 631 1490 Fax: 949 - 631 0981 Web site: www.ihr.org
Mark Weber, Director

Friday, 9 March 2001

FOR PUBLICATION

Letters to the Editor
USA Today
E-mail: editor@usatoday.com
Fax: 703 - 247 3108
1000 Wilson Blvd.
Arlington, VA 22229

Abraham Cooper and Harold Brackman of the Simon Wiesenthal Center dismiss Holocaust skeptics and the Institute for Historical Review as "haters" ("Holocaust Deniers Spread Their Lies in Middle East." March 8). But in the very Esquire article they cite, veteran journalist John Sack, who is Jewish, rejects that label, and instead describes the IHR and revisionists as "affable, open-minded, intelligent [and] intellectual." Sack also affirms that numerous revisionist arguments and findings are, indeed, true.

In recent weeks the Wiesenthal Center, along with other major Jewish organizations, have been pressuring Lebanon to ban the forthcoming "Revisionism and Zionism" conference in Beirut (March 31-April 3), which the IHR is helping to organize. These efforts to prohibit a peaceful, privately-organized meeting that, if held in the United States, would be perfectly legal, underscore the insincerity of the Wiesenthal Center's claim to promote "tolerance."

The seeming concern for "moderation and reconciliation in the Middle East" expressed by Cooper and Brackman is sheer hypocrisy, considering the Wiesenthal Center's record as an ardent apologist for Israel's oppressive policies -- policies that have justly earned the scorn and opprobrium of most of the civilized world.

Jürgen Graf, the Swiss educator cited by Cooper and Brackman who was forced into exile after being sentenced to 15 months imprisonment for "denying the Holocaust," is just one of many victims of the "thought crime" laws that several European countries have enacted at the urging of various Zionist groups. These bizarre laws, which have received little attention in the United States, punish those who express dissident views on the Holocaust -- even when these views are demonstrably true.

The Wiesenthal Center and similar groups support such laws because everywhere skepticism of specific Holocaust claims, and awareness of what Jewish scholar Norman Finkelstein calls "the Holocaust industry," are growing. Ever more people recognize how Zionist groups exploit the Holocaust to extort billions from a seemingly endless list of countries and corporations, and to excuse otherwise inexcusable Israeli policies.

Sincerely,

Mark Weber
Director


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