Internet Roundup 1998

The Founding Myths of Israeli Politics … will examine one of the untruths which continues to wreak the most havoc after over half a century in today’s world, and not only in Israel: the myth of the 6 million Jews exterminated that has become a dogma justifying, sacralizing (as the very term “Holocaust” implies) all the extortion of the State of Israel in Palestine, in the entire Middle East, in the United States and, through the United States, in world politics, placing it above all international law.

So writes the octogenarian French philosopher Roger Garaudy. It was this sentiment and his analysis on the alleged gas chambers of the Third Reich which resulted in Garaudy being dragged before a French court for having violated their anti-free speech legislation known as the Fabius-Gayssot law. Garaudy had commented: “According to the accusers, the crime-weapon was the ‘gas chambers.’ Yet the judges found no ‘traces’ of them!” Like Faurisson and others before him, Garaudy was brought before the new French Inquisition.

Recognizing the importance of Garaudy’s work, The Founding Myths of Israeli Politics (FMIP), CODOHWeb was the first to post the entire work in both French and English to the World Wide Web. By the summer of 1996, Garaudy had a home on CODOHWeb. (See SR 32, “French communist intellectual prosecuted because of revisionist writings.”) As 1997 was coming to a close, the initial furor raised by Garaudy’s work had largely subsided.

In recent days, however, the actual trial of Garaudy has stirred up a whirlwind of support for Garaudy himself and the ideas that he set forth in FMIP. The trial in France has stirred the wrath of Muslims around the world—Mr. Garaudy is a convert to Islam. As Arab individuals and organizations have flocked to Garaudy’s support, much to the embarrassment of the French thought police, the news has been speeding through cyberspace.

Throughout the month of January articles from the Agence France Presse (AFP) have been posted across the Internet. These stories have of course found a home in CODOHWeb’s NewsDesk as well. In addition, mainstream Arab websites, like Arabia-On-line (www.arabia.com) have voiced support for Garaudy. These articles go further than simply demanding Garaudy’s right to free speech; they actually call into question the Holocaust story itself. One article on www.Arabia.com was entitled, “Garaudy refutes Zionist claims on Holocaust.”

An organization calling itself “Support Garaudy” has sprung up on the web (www.garaudy.net.) Besides nice photos of Garaudy and most of the latebreaking news of his trial, this website has numerous links to CODOHWeb.

January has seen a massive rise in the number of contacts being made to CODOHWeb from the Arab world. We have seen a tremendous rise in the total number of hits each day as result of what can only be called the Garaudy phenomenon. CODOHWeb is now being accessed about once every 45 seconds!

While the Internet is all abuzz with the events of the Garaudy trial and the support coming from just about every Arab country, the mainstream news sources are silent. Hardly any direct mention of the new-found Arab revisionism due to the French thought crime trial of Garaudy makes its way into any medium.

I do understand from a friend of CODOH that Benjamin Netanyahu was seen on CNN’s Larry King Live recently muttering angrily about the proliferation of Holocaust revisionism in the Arab states around Israel. To think it all started in cyberspace—on CODOHWeb! There is no doubt about it, the information war is under way. It’s good to know we have so many allies.