Political Quotes

“The PCUSA's deeply misguided decision comes against a backdrop of rising anti-Semitism in Europe and even here in the United States. I submit for the Record a June 20 Washington Post piece highlighting the problem, which noted that ``Jewish leaders here are now warning of a recent and fundamental shift tied to a spurt of homegrown anti- Semitism.'' [From the Washington Post, June 20, 2014] A ``New Anti-Semitism'' Rising in France (By Anthony Faiola) Paris--``I am not an anti-Semite,'' French comedian Dieudonnee M'bala M'bala says with a devilish grin near the start of his hit show at this city's Theeaatre de la Main d'Or. Then come the Jew jokes. In front of a packed house, he apes Alain Jakubowicz, a French Jewish leader who calls the humor of Dieudonnee tantamount to hate speech. While the comedian skewers Jakubowicz, Stars of David glow on screen and, as the audience guffaws, a soundtrack plays evoking the trains to Nazi death camps. In various other skits, he belittles the Holocaust, then mocks it as a gross exaggeration. In a country where Jewish leaders are decrying the worst climate of anti-Semitism in decades, Dieudonnee, a longtime comedian and erstwhile politician whose attacks on Jews have grown progressively worse, is a sign of the times. French authorities issued an effective ban on his latest show in January for inciting hate. So he reworked the material to get back on stage--cutting, for instance, one joke lamenting the lack of modern-day gas chambers.…”