Rudolf, Verbeke Charged with 'Holocaust Denial' in Germany
Associated Press

A publisher extradited from the United States and a Belgian - both accused of `denying the Holocaust’ - have been charged with incitement, German prosecutors have announced. Germar Rudolf and Siegfried Verbeke are accused of "systematically" denying or playing down the Nazi genocide of Europe 's Jews in documents and on the Internet and of stirring anti-Semitic hatred. Denying the Holocaust is a crime in Germany , where it carries a maximum sentence of five years. Rudolf, a 41-year-old German who published a study claiming to prove that Jews were not gassed at the Auschwitz concentration camp, was deported to Germany in November to serve a 14-month sentence for a 1995 conviction on similar charges.

A Lobby, Not a Conspiracy
Tony Judt – The New York Times

In its March 23rd issue the London Review of Books, a respected British journal, published an essay titled "The Israel Lobby." The authors are two distinguished American academics (Stephen Walt of Harvard and John Mearsheimer of the University of Chicago ) … This essay, by two "realist" political scientists with no interest whatsoever in the Palestinians, is a straw in the wind. Looking back, we shall see the Iraq war and its catastrophic consequences as not the beginning of a new democratic age in the Middle East but rather as the end of an era that began in the wake of the 1967 war...

Ingathering: The Israeli Election And The ‘Demographic Problem’
Ilan Pappe - The London Review of Books

From left to right, the manifestos of all the Zionist parties during the recent Israeli election campaign contained policies which they claimed would counter the ‘demographic problem’ posed by the Palestinian presence in Israel . . … None of this is new. The population problem was identified as the major obstacle in the way of Zionist fulfilment in the late 19th century, and David Ben-Gurion said in December 1947 that 'there can be no stable and strong Jewish state so long as it has a Jewish majority of only 60 per cent.'

Israel 's Institutionalized Discrimination Against Non-Jews: Parallels with Apartheid South Africa
Chris McGreal - The Guardian (Britain) 

Israelis have always been horrified at the idea of parallels between their country, a democracy risen from the ashes of genocide, and the racist system that ruled the old South Africa. Yet even within Israel itself, accusations persist that the web of controls affecting every aspect of Palestinian life bears a disturbing resemblance to apartheid. After four years reporting from Jerusalem and more than a decade from Johannesburg before that, the Guardian's award-winning Middle East correspondent Chris McGreal is exceptionally well placed to assess this explosive comparison. 

Irish Mark Anniversary of 1916 Easter Uprising
The Guardian ( Britain )

Ireland 's defence forces marched through the streets of Dublin to the sound of brass bands, the rumble of tanks and the roar of military aircraft to mark the 90th anniversary of the Easter Rising. Because of political sensitivities, it was the first military parade to commemorate the rebellion - long regarded as the springboard for Irish independence - in more than 30 years.

Neocons Turn Up Heat for Iran Attack
Jim Lobe – Inter Press Service

Led by a familiar clutch of neoconservative hawks, major right-wing publications are calling on the administration of President George W. Bush to urgently plan for military strikes – and possibly a wider war – against Iran in the wake of its announcement that it has successfully enriched uranium to a purity necessary to fuel nuclear reactors. In a veritable blitz of editorials and opinion pieces published Wednesday and Thursday, the Wall Street Journal, the Weekly Standard, and National Review warned that … the administration must now plan in earnest to destroy Iran 's known nuclear facilities, as well as possible military targets, to prevent it from retaliating.

A Look At The 'Powerful Jewish Lobby'
Mark Weber

To sum up: Jews wield immense power and influence in the United States . The "Jewish lobby" is a decisive factor in US support for Israel . Jewish-Zionist interests are not identical to American interests. In fact, they often conflict. As long as the "very powerful" Jewish lobby remains entrenched, there will be no end to the systematic Jewish distortion of current affairs and history, the Jewish-Zionist domination of the U.S. political system, Zionist oppression of Palestinians, the bloody conflict between Jews and non-Jews in the Middle East , and the Israeli threat to peace.

The Passionate Attachment
Albert Doyle

The Bush administration would have Americans believe that the problems in the Middle East are caused by Saddam Hussein, Muslim fundamentalism and mindless terrorism. … In fact, a principal if not the main cause of conflict in the Middle East is another “ism,” namely Zionism and the blind support given it by the United States… The result of this background of ignorance, religious fundamentalist dogma and lies is that successive U.S. administrations continue to support Israel with an almost hypnotic devotion.

Bergen-Belsen Camp: The Suppressed Story
Mark Weber

On April 15, 1945 -- 61 years ago -- British troops liberated the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. The anniversary was widely remembered in official ceremonies and in newspaper articles that, as the following essay shows, distort the camp's true history. Largely because of the circumstances of its liberation, the relatively unimportant German concentration camp of Bergen-Belsen has become -- along with Dachau and Buchenwald -- an international symbol of German barbarism.

'The Jewish Century'
Kevin MacDonald

It is Slezkine’s chief contention [in The Jewish Century] that the history of the twentieth century was a history of the rise of the Jews in the West, in the Middle East, and in Russia , and ultimately their decline in Russia . I think he is absolutely right about this. If there is any lesson to be learned, it is that Jews not only became an elite in all these areas, they became a hostile elite — hostile to traditional peoples and cultures of all three areas they came to dominate.

The Lobby and the Bulldozer
Norman Solomon – Truthout

For several decades, to the present moment, Israel 's treatment of Palestinian people has amounted to methodical and despicable violations of human rights. Yet criticism of those policies from anyone (including American Jews such as myself) routinely results in accusations of anti-Jewish bigotry.

Irish Prepare to Mark Nationalist 1916 Easter Uprising
The Guardian ( Britain )

More than three decades after the last commemoration of the 1916 Easter Uprising, the Republic of Ireland is again preparing to mark the pivotal moment in its history. … There will be fly-pasts by the air corps and the Proclamation, declaring the nation's independence from Britain , will be read outside the General Post Office on Dublin 's O'Connell Street … The decision to revive the parade is stirring up a national debate about the country's ambivalent relationship to the violent events that led to the foundation of the Irish state.

Support the Work of the IHR
Institute for Historical Review

A donation to the Institute for Historical Review is a cost-effective weapon in the struggle for truth, freedom and peace. In spite of its small size and modest budge, the IHR has a tremendous impact, reaching many hundreds of thousands around the world. To maintain the Institute’s effectiveness on the forefront of this great global struggle, support from friends is crucial. To make a secure online credit card donation, click on our website’s “Support Us” page, and then click on the “DONATE” icon. 

American Democracy Indicted
The Future of Freedom Foundation

James Bovard’s new book, Attention Deficit Democracy,  is an indictment of the modern American democratic state. It is an indictment of the American people, who have lost interest in the sweeping and dangerous powers their rulers have grabbed and abused in recent history, especially since 9/11 but also going back many years before that.  … The problem is nonpartisan and deeply seated in American culture and will not be likely to reverse simply when another man moves into the Oval Office.

Iran Showdown Tests Power of Israel Lobby
Jim Lobe

One month after the publication by two of the most influential international relations scholars in the United States of a highly controversial essay on the so-called "Israel Lobby," their thesis that the lobby exercises "unmatched power" in Washington is being tested by rapidly rising tensions with Iran . Far more visibly than any other domestic constituency, the Israel Lobby… has pushed the government - both Congress and the George W. Bush administration - toward confrontation with Tehran .

IHR News and Comment

The Institute’s “IHR News & Comment” e-mail service continues to grow, attract­ing ever more subscribers who appreciate these informative, timely roundups of news, analysis and commentary. To subscribe to this free service, send a note to news@ihr.org

Anniversary of a Zionist Massacre
Deir Yassin Remembered

Early in the morning of Friday, April 9, 1948, commandos of the Irgun, headed by Menachem Begin (later a prime minister of Israel), and the Stern Gang attacked Deir Yassin, a village with about 750 Palestinian residents.  … By noon over 100 people, half of them women and children, had been systematically murdered. … Twenty-five male villagers were loaded into trucks, paraded through the Zakhron Yosef quarter in Jerusalem , and then taken to a stone quarry along the road between Givat Shaul and Deir Yassin and shot to death. 

Peace Breaks Out
David Rosinger

One of the most powerful anti-war movies of recent years, Joyeux Noël (Merry Christmas) is now showing in selected U.S. theaters. Based on the historic Christmas truce that was observed by lower-ranking troops in the first year of World War I, this Oscar nominee for Best Foreign Language Film of 2005 provides not only a moving account of the event, but a searing indictment of the forces that brought mass destruction to Europe in 1914.

Of Course There Is an Israel Lobby
Edward Peck -- Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

The London Review of Books recently published an article, by Professors John Mearsheimer of the University of Chicago and Stephen Walt of Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, on the Israel lobby's negative impact on U.S. domestic and international interests. The expected tsunami of rabid responses condemned the report, vilified its authors, and denied there is such a lobby — validating both the lobby’s existence and aggressive, pervasive presence, and obliging Harvard to remove its name.

US Plans Strike To Topple Iran Regime, Says Report
The Guardian ( Britain )

The US is planning military action against Iran because George Bush is intent on regime change in Tehran - and not just as a contingency if diplomatic efforts fail to halt its suspected nuclear weapons program, it was reported yesterday. In the New Yorker magazine, Seymour Hersh, America's best known investigative journalist, concluded that the Bush administration is even considering the use of a tactical nuclear weapon against deep Iranian bunkers, but that top generals in the Pentagon are attempting to take that option off the table.

Rudolf Vrba Dies
The New York Times

Rudolf Vrba, who as a young man escaped from Auschwitz and provided the first eyewitness evidence not only of the magnitude of the tragedy unfolding at the death camp but also of the exact mechanics of Nazi mass extermination, died on March 27 at a hospital in Vancouver, British Columbia. He was 81.

Rudolf Vrba: A False Witness
Robert Faurisson

Witness Rudolf Vrba was internationally known. A Slovak Jew imprisoned at Auschwitz and at Birkenau, he said that he had escaped from the camp in April 1944 with Fred Wetzler. After getting back to Slovakia , he dictated a report about Auschwitz and Birkenau, and on their crematories and "gas chambers." …  Everything went well for him until the day at the Zündel trial in 1985 when he was cross-examined mercilessly. He was then shown to be an impostor. It was revealed that he had completely made up the number and location of the "gas chambers" and the crematories in his famous 1944 report.

Iran : The Next Neocon Target
Rep. Ron Paul

Common sense tells us the war in Iraq soon will spread to Iran .  Fear of imaginary nuclear weapons or an incident involving Iran -- whether planned or accidental-- will rally the support needed for us to move on Muslim country #3.. … Iran ’s history is being ignored, just as we ignored Iraq ’s history. This ignorance or deliberate misrepresentation of our recent relationship to Iraq and Iran is required to generate the fervor needed to attack once again a country that poses no threat to us.

More Debate Over Report on Israel ’s Influence in US
Christian Science Monitor

Coverage of the debate over the recent paper by professors Stephen Walt of Harvard and John Mearsheimer of the University of Chicago that examines the influence of Israel and its supporters in Washington over US foreign policy has been, mostly, absent from US media. But the paper generated vigorous debate in the British and international media and on the Internet. Since the working paper's release, there have been several more attacks on it, but also more support for the professors' position on the need to look hard at the US-Israel relationship.

Truth and Fiction in Elie Wiesel's 'Night'
Alexander Cockburn

When in trouble, head for Auschwitz , preferably in the company of Elie Wiesel. It's as foolproof a character reference as is available today, at least within the Judeo-Christian sphere of moral influence. One can easily see why Oprah Winfrey and her advisers saw an Auschwitz excursion in the company of Wiesel as a sure-fire antidote to salve the wounds sustained by Oprah's Book Club when it turned out that James Frey had faked significant slabs of his own supposedly autobiographical.

The Iran ' Crisis,' New ' Israel Lobby' Paper, Growing Global Awareness
Interview with Mark Weber, by Kevin Strom (Text and Audio)

The Bush administration’s push for war against Iran , Tehran ’s nuclear program, and more, are discussed by the IHR director in this interview, “Thin Ice: Jewish Power in a Changing World, Part 3,” conducted by Kevin Strom. Everywhere, says Weber, awareness is growing of the reality and dangerous impact of Jewish-Zionist power. One expression of this is the new “Israel Lobby” paper by professors Walt and Mearsheimer, which Weber quotes.

Zundel Lawyer Bodily Removed From Courtroom
Associated Press

A defense lawyer of  activist Ernst Zundel, charged with denying the Holocaust, was physically carried from the courtroom in Germany on Wednesday after defying a ruling banning her from the trial on grounds she tried to sabotage the proceedings. Two female police officers had to carry Sylvia Stolz from the Mannheim courtroom after she refused the judge's order to leave. "Resistance! The German people are rising up," Stolz shouted as she was taken from the room.

Anti-Semitism Is Positive Force for Jews, Says Rabbi in New Book
Western Mail ( Wales , Britain )

Anti-Semitism is a positive force for Jewish people, says a leading Jewish academic in Wales . Lampeter University 's Dan Cohn-Sherbok controversially argues that anti-Semitism provides a paradox for the Jewish community -- and its demise has left today's Jews in chaos. Rabbi Professor Cohn-Sherbok says that hatred of Jews has kept Judaism alive for thousands of years. But he argues that state of affairs is being threatened by the fact that anti-Semitism has gradually disappeared and in the last two centuries - with the exception of Nazi Germany - Jews have integrated into society.

Awareness of Israel ’s Nuclear Arsenal is Key to Understanding Iran Crisis
David Hirst - The Guardian ( Britain )

The Iranian crisis can only be understood as the inevitable result of Israel's US-backed WMD monopoly in the region … There is widespread international agreement that Iran's acquisition of nuclear weapons is an alarming prospect, but very little attention is paid to the most obvious, immediate reason why: that there is already a Middle Eastern nuclear power, Israel, insistent on preserving its monopoly. … On most counts except hostility to the US Israel has always behaved like a "rogue state". It came into being as a massive disrupter of the established Middle East order, through violence and ethnic cleansing.  

The Israel Lobby Brings Out the Big Guns
Justin Raimondo

The reaction to a pathbreaking – or, rather, taboo-busting – study of how and why Israel's interests came to be substituted for America's national interests in Washington policymaking circles, “The Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy,” by John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt, has confirmed, in part, its thesis. “The Lobby,” as the authors call it, effectively works to control the debate over our Israel-centric policy in the Middle East by ensuring that there is no debate.

Anglo-Saxon Impact in England Less Than Thought
BBC News

New scientific research adds to growing evidence that the Anglo-Saxons did not replace the native population in England as history books suggest. The data indicates at least some areas of eastern England absorbed very few Anglo-Saxon invaders, contrary to the view in many historical accounts.

New Documents Suggest Mozart Wasn't Poor
Associated Press

For centuries, historians have portrayed Mozart as poor, but new documents suggest the composer was not nearly as hard-up for cash as many have believed.

Scholars who combed through Austrian archives for an exhibition opening Tuesday on Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's later years in Vienna found evidence that he was solidly upper-crust and lived the good life.

Revealed: Photos from Secret British Cold War Torture Camp
The Guardian ( London )

Photographs of victims of a secret torture program operated by British authorities during the early days of the cold war are published for the first time today after being concealed for almost 60 years.The pictures show men who had suffered months of starvation, sleep deprivation, beatings and extreme cold at one of a number of interrogation centers run by the War Office in postwar Germany. A few were starved or beaten to death, while British soldiers are alleged to have tortured some victims with thumb screws and shin screws recovered from a gestapo prison.

Keeping It Quiet: The Israel Lobby’s Crushing of Dissent
Charley Reese

The first weapon of choice for the Israeli lobby when someone with prestige publishes a soundly researched paper or book critical of Israel or its powerful lobby is silence. If it's a book, it rarely gets reviewed; its author doesn't get interviewed. If it's a paper, there are no news stories in the big corporate press, no interviews with the authors, no television appearances. …  The second weapon is, of course, to launch vicious personal attacks. Both methods are being used against an astounding paper titled "The Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy." It was written by two renowned academics, John J. Mearsheimer of the University of Chicago and Stephen M. Walt of the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University .

Political Correctness: Alive and Well on College Campuses
Alan Levy – History News Network

The campuses of SSHE [Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education] have seen the steady erosion of academic quality and academic freedom because of the cowardly and apathetic indulgence of professionally inadequate, sometimes openly dishonest, politically-correct schemers. The prevalent pattern of administration on SSHE campuses has involved handling the problems they create mainly with an eye toward avoiding embarrassments and cynically placating political constituencies. 

Updated!

Iraq: A War for Israel
Mark Weber

So if the official reasons given for the war were untrue, why did the United States attack? Whatever the secondary reasons for the Iraq war, the crucial factor in President Bush’s decision to attack was to help Israel . With support from Israel and America’s Jewish-Zionist lobby, and prodded by Jewish "neo-conservatives" holding high-level positions in his administration, President Bush — who was already fervently committed to Israel — resolved to invade and subdue one of Israel’s chief regional enemies.

What We Have to Do: Learning From History
Charley Reese

History, because it's life, is never simplistic. … With those caveats, we should all follow Robert E. Lee's advice to his children and read history and biographies so that we will know the world, as best we can, as it is. History is nothing more than a record of what people have done and said. It is not a force or anything living. Such statements as "history is on our side" are foolish. .. Someone – one of the Romans, I believe – said that if you don't know history, you remain forever a child. It's good to know what happened before we got here.

'Israel Lobby' Critique Sets Off Furor in Academic World
Boston Globe

A paper by the academic dean of Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government, Stephen M. Walt, and University of Chicago political scientist John J. Mearsheimer is setting off a firestorm in academic and political circles because of its assertions that US foreign policy is dominated by an ''Israel lobby" that ignores US national interest and makes the United States a target of Muslim terrorists. … The significance of the paper … lies in the Harvard and University of Chicago credentials of the authors and in the fact that it has been presented in a high-level academic forum, in a heavily footnoted style associated with accurate, objective scholarship.

Zundel and Irving , The Push for War with Iran , 'Terrorism' in History
Interview with Mark Weber, by Kevin Strom (Text and Audio)

In this lively interview, “Thin Ice: Jewish Power in a Changing World, Part 2,” Weber explains how the recent sentencing of British historian David Irving to three years in prison for “Holocaust denial” is helping the cause of freedom, and how the Holocaust remembrance campaign is losing effectiveness. Weber also speaks about President Bush’s disastrously wrong-headed “war on terror,” the campaign of deceit in the neo-con push for war against Iran , and the shifting place of “terrorism” in history.

School's 'Holocaust' Experiment Upsets Parents
Local 6 News (Orlando)

Several parents in Apopka , Florida , are upset over a surprise school "Holocaust" project that some say tormented children. Eighth-graders with last names beginning with L through Z were given yellow five-pointed stars for Holocaust Remembrance Day. Other students were privileged. One parent said that his son was forced to stand in the back of the classroom and not allowed to sit because he was wearing the yellow star. "He was crying," the parent said. "I said, 'What are you crying about?' He said, 'Daddy, I was a Jew today’.” Other parents and children shared similar stories.

• Latvians Debate World War II Legacy
• Red Army Phrasebook Discovery Hints at Soviet Plan to Attack Germany
• Germany ’s 1941 'Barbarossa' Attack: Why Hitler Attacked Soviet Russia
• Jews Lash Out at ' Israel Lobby' Research Paper
• International Red Cross , Germany Deny Access to Holocaust Archive
• By Nuremberg Standards Bush Would Be Hanged, Says Chomsky
• The March of Folly That Has Led To a Bloodbath
• 2,500-Year-Old Coffin With Scenes From Homer's Epics Found
• Irving , Zundel and `Holocaust Denial': Update and Background
• The War Party in Disarray
• What’s Become of Americans?
• Children’s Television Fosters Violence, New Study Shows
• Bush’s Dangerous Delusions About Iraq
• Bush Warns Iran of US Military Support for Israel
• World’s Rivers Are Dying
• US Newspapers Clueless About Iraq War
• The Lobby: Why US Policy in the Middle East Is Skewered To Israel