Posted on 01/26/2009 12:14:21 PM PST by nickcarraway
The Austrian Jewish Community (IKG) honoured what would have been Nazi-hunter Simon Wiesenthal's 100th birthday in Vienna last week.
IKG President Ariel Muzicant said in his speech at the event - held in Vienna’s Lower Austria Palace - that he had always opposed calling Wiesenthal just a "Nazi-hunter."
Muzicant said: "I had a very complex relationship with Wiesenthal but soon discovered our goals were the same."
Muzicant added the establishment of the Simon-Wiesenthal Institute in Vienna had been one of the successes of their joint efforts. The Austrian government approved a site and financing the institute last year.
Wiesenthal’s actual 100th birthday was 31 December 2008. He died on 20 September 2005.
Muzicant has been in the news recently as he has deplored alleged lack of symmetry in perceptions of the Gaza Strip conflict.
Muzicant recently told Austrian newspaper "Die Presse" critics of the Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip lacked empathy for the Jewish state.
The IKG president claimed Israel had been trying to avoid civilian casualties whereas Palestinian movement Hamas in Gaza had been deliberately trying to kill Israelis.
"When one sees Arab television crews running around trying to find injured residents of Gaza, one has the impression the victims are being used as propaganda weapons against Israel," Muzicant said.
Muzicant added Israel had an obligation to protect the lives of its residents. He said: "After 3,000 years of persecution, we must constantly ask ourselves the question, where can we flee in the worst case?"
The IKG president may have had an Austrian organisation in mind in his comments about Israel’s critics.
The Association for Austrian-Arab Relations (GÖAB), for instance, has condemned Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip. GÖAB has called Israel’s "unimaginably-brutal military action barbaric" and deplored efforts to equate Israel’s attacks and the launching of rockets against Israeli settlements from the Gaza Strip.
Muzicant also talked about Israeli perceptions of Austria.
The IKG president said: "I accompanied the federal president on his recent state visit to Israel and tried to communicate how many positive accomplishments we have achieved in Austria. But Israelis replied by asking me if I was crazy since 28 per cent of Austrians had voted for Nazi parties.
"Then I came back and was confronted by the unpleasant (FPÖ Third President of Parliament Martin) Graf affair, which concerned the purchase of extreme-right literature by two of his staffers," Muzicant said.
If there was ever a man worth your respect....its this guy folks.
Heard ya, and ditto to that.
Living to 100 is good revenge.
...Except he didn’t...
“...Except he didn’t...”
He’s dead, Jim.
Living to 97 is good revenge!
The best gggg.
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