As someone accustomed to hate mail, death threats, and assorted negative responses
to my efforts to help facilitate the prosecution of Nazi war criminals,
perhaps I should not have been surprised by what happened to me recently,
but I have to say that the immediacy of the attack in question, and
its abhorrent content, gave me pause for reflection about my chosen
mission in life and the person who inspired me to undertake it.
On September 3, an unknown person went into my biography on the English-language
Wikipedia and edited some details about my education and graduate
degrees, which he or she replaced with the suggestion that I moved
to Israel in 1970 "to join Mossad. He [EZ] was directly involved in the assassination of numerous
people - not only Palestinians."
Those wondering about the timing of this nefarious
accusation probably missed last week's major scoop, that famed
Nazi-hunter Simon Wiesenthal worked for the Israeli secret service
(Mossad) for about a decade, and it was Mossad which financed his
Vienna office and even paid him a very modest monthly wage of $300.
Even though I knew Simon Wiesenthal for almost
three decades, was in contact with him on various cases, and considered
myself to be very well acquainted with his life and career, which
frankly were among the factors which inspired me to follow in his
footsteps, the news that he worked for the Mossad came as a shock.
Not that it in any way changed my image of him.
Whether he had help or not, his perseverance and dedication remain
legendary, but it felt good to know that he was not entirely the
lone crusader that he was often described to be, and that he was
able to sustain a mutually beneficial working relationship with
the Mossad, which no doubt enhanced their work and his.
The question now remains why Wiesenthal never
mentioned his Mossad link, even though he was usually quite open
about so many other aspects of his career. Of course, in theory,
such clandestine ties should remain under wraps, but I believe
there was more to it in this case, which brings me to the Wikipedia
rewrite by some anonymous antisemite.
I think Wiesenthal feared that such a revelation
would inevitably link the efforts to bring Nazis to justice to
the Middle East conflict, a link that would negatively affect his
life's mission.
And that is apparently also why I found myself
accused of assassinating "numerous people - not only Palestinians," which is unfortunately the price one pays for trying to bring Holocaust perpetrators
to justice.
thejc.com
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