Kesher Talk

Nixon and the Jews. Again. - If his tirades against Jews weren't anti-Semitism, what were they? By David Greenberg

Nixon and Graham's anti-semitism is no surprise: "As in the past, the recent reports of Nixon's Jew-bashing were followed by professions of shock. (The Anti-Defamation League's press release is here.) Such shows of indignation are probably on balance a good thing, reaffirming as they do that the president shouldn't be seeking revenge against a particular ethnic group. Yet they also betray either an incredibly short memory or a measure of disingenuousness. Have journalists forgotten the identical slurs heard on earlier tapes? Or the stories in 1994 reporting that, according to Haldeman's then-just-published diaries, Graham spoke to Nixon of "Satanic" Jews? Nixon's loyalists are no less opportunistic. For them the periodic disclosures serve as occasions to pen op-eds explaining why their benefactor, despite the slurs, really wasn't a Jew-hater. (The late Herb Stein, Nixon's [Jewish] chief economist, wrote one of these apologias in Slate.) Defending Nixon from charges of anti-Semitism has occupied his supporters for a half-century." ("Nixon and the Jews. Again." David Greenberg, Slate)

posted by Howard @ 3/13/2002 11:25:49 AM