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organ of the national party of the same name. More interesting
to
me,
rather, is the pro-Western and pro-democratic press. Here one some–
rimes finds unbelievable slips, complicity, and cliches, shocking echoes
of a not always admirable tradition. As the political scientist Vladimir
Tismancanu correctly observed, "From fully unexpecred quarters some–
rimes come nationalistic back-stabs with unambiguous anti-Semitic con–
notations, insolently revisionist acts." Indeed, one cannot overlook the
dubious insensitivity, cliches, ambiguities, and even insults from other–
wise esteemed publications.
Let's take for example, the Romanian context of the "Garaudy
debate." What are we talking about?
In
his book
Les mythes fOlldateurs
de la poliliqlle israelienne
(very l1luch praised in the Muslim press) the
French journalist Roger Garaudy questions the purpose and the extent of
rhe Holocaust and "unmasks" its manipulation through the policies of
Israel and other countries. With the adroitness of a party propagandist,
he basically manipulates quotations from the Western and Israeli press,
which, as is common in democracies, pick apart the ruling powers, but
which only make sense in the context of the prevailing discourses.
Garaudy's book was banned in France, Switzerland, and other Euro–
pean countries. The Swiss tribunal's decision said the book questions or
denies that the National Socialist leadership ever gave the order for
extermination and said it contains deliberately violent expressions with
the purpose of hurting the Jewish community.
In
his expert testimony in
the appeal, Alain Finkielkraut places Garaudy's book and the known–
to-be-fake
Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion
on the same level, as
signs of anti-Semitic ideology.
"If
it is claimed that the 'Final Solution'
may not be interpreted as a planned project," he said, "then it's being
suggested that the Jews are liars, and that they possess the power
to
con–
vince the entire world of their lies. Roger Garaudy does not counter
facts with facts. He propagates the latest rendition of every argument in
whose name the Jews were murdered .... Nothing is more damaging
than to deny the survivors their tragedy and the dead their death."
In
the ed itoria I "The Holoca ust a nd the Gulag," the Bucha rest Iiter–
ary weekly
R"ol71ania Literara
stated, "Someone is afraid of losing the
monopoly on the uncovering of crimes agai nst humanity. One piece of
evidence for such suspicion is the case against Garaudy in France. He
didn't claim that there wasn't a Holocaust, rather that an extraordinary
lobby has been constructed around this historical event. Now it is
exactly the loss of this monopoly that appears to unsettle many people."
Although Garaudy's book was banned in most of Europe, it was mar–
keted with success in the Arab world and in Romania-in sovereign and
