Y'know, before I met Brigitte I kind of didn't care one way or the other about the Israelis and their Arab tormentors; of course it was extremely easy to despise the Arabs because they were such vicious, senseless clods that reminded me of Nazis -- a LOT. My friend Charles and I (he's the official voice of Mario of video-game fame and in his milieu, he's like a rock star) used to make disparaging jokes about the Arabs -- no, he isn't Jewish -- during that horrific period in the mid 80s when it seemed some atrocity against Jews was being perpetrated, whether it being suicide bombers in airport terminals or the day-in, day-out hijacking of public transport, be they planes, ships Hell, I was expecting the Space Shuttle to be hijacked, it was so bad.
Iran was just coming to the forefront of the Baddest of the Bad, and this wasn't just a ragtag bunch of Jew-haters, this was an entire nation swept up in hate; hate for the West, hate for Israel, hate for EVERYONE except themselves.
Does that not remind you of Germany, circa 1937? Anyway, Charlie and I would sing Christmas songs and put our own lyrics into them -- one of our party favorites was "The Ayatollah's Coming to Town."
But it was easy to hate the Arabs -- hell, it's STILL easy to hate the Arabs. And yeah, the usual disclaimer, not as INDIVIDUALS but as an ideology.
Still to me at the time, the Jews were annoying in that, in my primitive thoughts, they were ALWAYS fighting with the Arabs. Call it Middle East fatigue. I didn't pay too much attention, even to that wave of bus bombings and the the various intifadas, because it was so mind-numbing. The same old shit, day in, day out. You become incredibly desensitized to it -- it's like,"New rebel attacks in the Democratic of the Congo." It's like, WHO CARES any more? Who the fuck gives a shit about a bunch of crazy assed stoner tribesmen recruiting children and cutting each other's hands off? Tell me something NEW.
But after meeting Brigitte and seeing the day-to day contempt that is heaped on Jews and Israel by EVERYBODY, not just Arabs, it reminds me ever so much of 1935 and another era and I recall, through all my recent (well, five years now, at least) studies of Nazi Germany and the cult of Jew-hating, that yes, there are STILL PEOPLE TODAY who consider Jews "vermin" and that they should all be "Gassed" . . . it's a sick cliché until you realise what actually happened during World War II.
In fact, what happened is so truly horrific that I don't think most people's brains have the capacity to understand the mindless bestiality that extinguished so many lives so brutally . . . and that a lot of them WEREN'T EVEN JEWS. "Never again?" Don't you dare make me laugh.
But one needs to be reminded from time to time the cold horror that lurks within some people's minds even today -- and how easy it would be for some cultish orator to somehow bring a modern, civilised country under its thrall, and command it to go out and kill, kill, kill . . . the Jews.
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Jacques "Petain" Fabi |
If you are under the mistaken impression that it can't ever happen again in our "modern" society, then I urge you to listen to this. It's all in that patois that I still can't stand to listen to --"Country-fried" Quebec French -- but it doesn't take a translator to tell you what's being said. By a revered Quebec talk-show personality, no less, live on air. I always like to say, "If this exact conversation were about the blacks, there would be an uproar the size of which you can not imagine across the entire continent of North America.
Yet this little slice of obscenity will go unnoticed everywhere except in Quebec. It didn't even make the inside pages of this weekend's Gazette. But the words spoken and given tacit approval by a man who is using public airwaves as his personal soapbox -- well, people, think about "Never again" again. It's happening RIGHT NOW, never mind "again."
For the benefit of non-French speakers, I paste the story from the National Post:
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MONTREAL – A veteran Quebec radio host nicknamed “the king of the night” is facing disciplinary action after he encouraged an anti-Semitic caller who declared the Holocaust to be “the most beautiful thing to happen in history.”
During his midnight to 5:30 a.m. broadcast on Cogeco’s 98.5 FM Thursday, Jacques Fabi, took a call from a woman identifying herself as Maria. She said she was of Arab origin and was distraught that her “brothers and sisters” were dying in Gaza.
She then invited Mr. Fabi to participate in a quiz, trying to guess what animal she was thinking of. When he guessed dog, she replied, “Exactly, it’s an Israeli” and laughed.
She then asked him whether he knew about Hitler and the Holocaust. “For me, it was the most beautiful thing to happen in history,” she said.
Instead of cutting the line or confronting her, Mr. Fabi affirmed that she had the right to say what she had said but she should be careful.
“You know that here, in this democratic country, one can never say anything offensive against the Israelis, because it can be costly, you know,” he said. She said she did not care, and he said he finds it “annoying” that some topics are off limits. “You know, Madame, in this beautiful country we have freedom of expression, but one can never make negative comments, whatever their nature, against the Jewish people,” he said. “Otherwise there will be consequences.”
LISTEN TO THE AUDIO IN FRENCH. CALL STARTS AT ABOUT 2:30.(Source: Marto Napoli, 4h11 Radio Show on Radiopirate.com)
He said she was fortunate to benefit from anonymity as a caller to an open-line show. “I find it a real pain not be able to comment sometimes,” he said, noting that Montreal has a “pretty sizeable Jewish population” and that he sometimes finds their behavior “annoying.” He concluded by thanking her for her call.
The Quebec branch of the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs sent a letter Thursday demanding that disciplinary action be taken against Mr. Fabi, who began his radio career in 1972 in Sherbrooke. The letter said Mr. Fabi was an accomplice to the caller in spreading comments that promoted hatred and violence against Jews.
David Crête, a spokesman for 98.5 FM called the comments unacceptable. “Sanctions will be taken against Jacques Fabi,” he said, but as of Friday morning the exact nature of the punishment had not been determined.
Mr. Fabi’s show, Fabi la nuit, draws about 40,000 listeners and is heard on Cogeco stations across the province.
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