Ali Kazak cries wolf on racism

Then there is the prominent English writer, novelist and journalist David Pryce-Jones, who is such an extremist and racist figure that the Australian Financial Review published a book review by him last Friday (March 8). In 1989, Mr. Pryce-Jones wrote The Closed Circle, a still much-cited book on certain structural constraints in many Arab societies that, he argued, are making it difficult for those societies to achieve democracy, human rights and development. Apparently, in Mr. Kazak's world, to do that is to become a racist.

And then there is the other terrible crime of Mr. Pryce-Jones. On the night Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated, he expressed - in words that probably could have been better chosen - concern that Israeli society might be catching the unfortunate disease of political assassination that has afflicted numerous neighbouring authoritarian states. Examples include the deaths of Egyptian President Sadat, Algerian head of state Mohamed Boudiaf, Iraqi King Faisal II and later Prime Minister Nuri Pasha as-Said, Iranian Prime Ministers Ali Razmara, Hassan Ali Mansur, Mohammad Beheshti, Mohammad Javad Bahonar and President of Iran Mohammad Ali Rajai, Jordan's King Abdullah I, Lebanese leaders Bachir Gemayel, Rashid Karami and René Moawad, Saudi Arabia's King Faisal, North Yemen's Presidents Ibrahim al-Hamadi and Ahmad al-Ghashmi and many others. But apparently it is racist to express concern that Israel might be following in this unfortunate and undemocratic political path.

As noted, Mr. Kazak is entitled to disagree with either of these people or any of AIJAC's other guests. The fact that he is unable to make a coherent case against them other than to baselessly shout racism - and that he is unable to distinguish the blatantly anti-Islam stance of Wilders from people who have negative things to say about the ideology behind al-Qaeda - says far more about Mr. Kazak, his extremism, his conspiratorial mindset and his addiction to angry and counterproductive rhetoric, than it does about AIJAC.

AIJAC has worked for years to promote tolerance and actively promotes a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Ali Kazak in contrast has advocated for extremist positions calling for the destruction of Israel and denying any Jewish connection to the Land of Israel, while spreading bizarre conspiracies about supposed Jewish financial power, the 9/11 attacks, and terrorism. It is almost a mark of honour to be called a racist by such an individual.