December 18, 2008, - 3:59 pm
Slovenly Vanity Fair Anti-Semite Attacks Schlussel, Uses Madoff to Attack Jews
By Debbie Schlussel
I keep getting e-mails from people–some of them clearly anti-Semitic–asking why I haven’t written about investment Ponzi scheme king Bernard Madoff and his scandal. Well, for one thing, it’s been covered and over-covered to death, and I don’t have anything to add. For another, a greedy left-wing liberal rips off mostly other greedy left-wing liberals. Sorry, but that’s got nothin’ to do with me.
That said, I’m really surprised at the level of anti-Semitism leveled at me and other Jews because of this charlatan who was more left-wing than he was Jewish (he wasn’t a religious, practicing Jew by most accounts, even if he funded some, mostly left-wing and a few worthy Jewish charities).
The worst of it appears on Vanity Fair and it invokes my name. Anti-Semite, pan-Islamist, calorically-gifted (or is that, Differently Digestive?) Vanity Fair writer James Wolcott wrote this typeface version of rat-a-tat-tat:
Working from the deep, respectable, cushioned inside, Bernard Madoff inflicted more damage and misery on Jewish families, charities, and institutions than all of the homegrown cells of jihadists running wild in the imaginations of Pamela Geller, Debbie Schlussel, Francis Porretto, Michelle Malkin, David Horowitz, and the flat sodas at Pajamas Media. These great bloggers have been scanning the horizon for pirates, oblivious to the bomb about to go off below deck.
Not to dignify his anti-Semitism, but . . . .
Um, Mr. Wolcott, let’s be clear: While what he did was reprehensible and criminal (and he should have the book thrown at him), Madoff didn’t murder a single individual, Jewish or otherwise. He didn’t fly planes into buildings and tell people to call their families and say good-bye. 19 Muslims murdered nearly 3,000–not 3,000 Jews, but 3,000 Americans. It’s not relevant who did what to Jews, when we speak of terrorism. 9/11 should have made clear–if not, many attacks on Americans beforehand–that terrorism is everyone’s issue, not just the Jews. Likewise, why should I care whether his victims were Jewish-Americans or random Americans? That you would indicate I’d only care about the former tells me what you think of the Jews, even aside from your screed.
Bottom Line: To compare Madoff to Islamic terrorism is like comparing an ant urinating to a continental tsunami or Hurricane Katrina.
Wolcott has attacked me before (in between his repeat traipsing to Dairy Queen) because he was upset that I called Sharon Stone, “Crotchwoman,” telling his warped audience about his “Stone-on-Schlussel” fantasy (which, I assure you (and him), is all that will ever be–his fantasy). Because, after all, it wasn’t Ms. Stone who is known mostly for–and became famous because of–a crotch-bearing shot on the big screen. No, I must be mistaken because that Sharon Stone is all talent. Must’ve been some other harlot baring her bottom frontal in “Basic Instinct.”
Just like I’m “mistaken” that Mr. Wolcott is a flaming Jew-hater and flat-out (well, he’s actually not so flat, just roly-poly) moron.
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Reader There Is No Santa Claus, a moderate/centrist, writes:
I’ve been hearing news in “Jewish circles” on how the Madoff scandal is hurting Jewish charities. While I don’t rejoice in that, I couldn’t help but notice that most of these charities are either moderately left-leaning or very-left-leaning organizations.
Stephen Spielberg? I’ll bet your heart bleeds for that one. Eh? (He’s a “Jewish charity”???)
Hadassah? OK, there’s worse, but still rather leftwing; even for my tastes.
Mort Zuckerman? Isn’t he the clod who raised several millions of dollars to purchase Israeli businesses in Gaza to give to the Arabs? Oh yeah! That was a bright move; a brilliant investment in the future of the Mideast.
So… like I’m thinkin’… a lot of these Jewish organizations hurt by Madoff are leftwing or left-leaning organizations that haven’t always done right by Jews or Israel even if they meant well.
TINSC, you have a point.
There are obviously double standards at work. Look at a crook like Blagojavich, the crook governor of Illinois. Do these anti-semitic blogs draw these kinds of generalizations about Blagojavich? What about crooked Mr. Jefferson of La.? There is an obvious double standard. Apart from general anti-semitic prejudice, there is an element of stupidity in these comments. They are on a very low intellectual level, and, as is typical of self-educated people (i.e. self-educated in subjects like politics, history, etc. which they purport to utilize in their anti-semitic analyses), they make unwarranted generalizations that are so broad that it requires pages to untangle all the nitwit assumptions and oversimplications and falsehoods that they make. I guess the effort to untangle all of this is necessary, but it is a very unpleasant task, and of course, the anti-semites will just make another stupid generalization in place of it.
c f on December 18, 2008 at 4:33 pm