Dead Man Leaping
Jewish extremist slits own throat
On November 4th, 2002, Irv Rubin, the 57-year-old leader of the militant Jewish Defense League, was only hours away from a court appearance on charges of plotting to bomb the King Fahd Mosque in Southern California and the office of Arab-American congressman Darrell E. Issa. He never stood trial. According to federal officials, Rubin sliced open his throat with a prison-issue razorblade, then toppled over a railing at the Federal Metropolitan Detention Center in downtown Los Angeles and dropped 18 feet to the ground below. He died in hospital ten days later.
The JDL, an organization devoted to armed retaliation against anti-Semitic acts, was founded by the late Rabbi Meir Kahane in 1968. Rubin joined the JDL in the early 1970’s and became its chairman in 1985. Since then the group has been accused of numerous violent and disruptive activities, ranging from the murder of an Arab anti-discrimination activist to letting loose mice at a Soviet orchestra performance as a protest against the plight of Soviet Jewry. By his own count, Rubin was arrested over 40 times. Had he been convicted on the latest charges, he could have served up to 40 years in prison. \t\t\t
Relatives have called for an investigation into the circumstances of Rubin’s death, alleging foul play. “We believe it was an attempt on his life,” Brett Stone, a JDL member who acted as a spokesman for the Rubin family, told United Press International. “I don’t know how a person could slit his own throat and then climb over a railing and jump; Irv was not in that great shape.”
Like A Prayer:
Madonna’s music video for the title song to the James Bond film, “Die Another Day,” has offended some Orthodox Jews. In the video, Madonna is strapped into an electric chair with Tefilin, the leather straps and boxes containing verses from Deuteronomy traditionally worn by Jewish men during the morning prayer service. As she is electrocuted the Hebrew letters lamed, alef, and vav—considered in kabbalistic interpretation to be part of the 72 names for God—appear as tattoos on her arm.
Anti-Semitic Hobby Horse Trots Again
Egyptian TV drama promotes debunked Jewish plot for world domination
Apparently, Egyptian screenwriter Mohammed Subhi thinks tired conspiracy theories make for cutting-edge drama. His television series, “Horseman without a Horse” used the “Protocols of the Elders of Zion,” a forged document that outlines a supposed Jewish conspiracy for world domination, to explain Israel’s role in the history of the modern Middle East.
The show aired during the month of Ramadan, Egypt’s “sweeps season,” when ratings are highest. But it’s not just the Egyptian public that kept a watchful eye on the Horseman. The United States Government, the American Lawyers Committee for Human Rights, and the Israeli Government, among others, accused the Egyptian government of rehashing the long-debunked “Protocols.”
The past impact of the “Protocols” is extensive. Since a Russian police agent wrote the “Protocols” in France in the late 1890s, the document has traveled throughout Europe, the United States, the Middle East, and even Japan. In numerous instances, anti-Semitic regimes, most notably in Tsarist Russia and Nazi Germany, have effectively used the “Protocols” to stir public sentiment against Jews.
Subhi thinks that the international outcry over the “Protocols” missed the point. “We have not tried to determine if the book is authentic or fabricated,” Subhi, who also stars in the series, told the British Broadcasting Corporation. “Israel’s practices in Palestine are more dangerous than this book.” The Egyptian government denied that the series contained anti-Semitic material. Regardless, they argued that Egyptian media is not state-controlled and thus the content of “Horseman without a Horse” was beyond their control.
But, according to the Washington Times, “Outside analysts maintain that Egypt’s government tightly controls all publications and broadcasting, as do governments throughout the Arab world.” U.S. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said in a statement condemning the show, “We don’t think government TV stations should be broadcasting programs that we consider racist and untrue.”
