Jenny Peto, who produced the anti-Jewish thesis titled “The Victimhood of the Powerful: White Jews, Zionism and the Racism of Hegemonic Holocaust Education.” as part of a post graduate degree program at the University of Toronto's Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE) proposed an unusual conspiracy theory. She alleges a Jewish/Zionist conspiracy in Holocaust education programs that teaches Jews " that their whiteness can only be maintained through racism, both in supporting Israel and also perpetuating or, at minimum, benefiting from racism and imperialism in their home countries" and of the Jewish community in general being racists who benefit from "white privilege."
And now, to rushing to her support, we see none other than 9-11 conspiracy theorists Joshua Blakeney and Michael Keefer!
Because, as we all know, opposition to Peto's bigoted conspiracy screed must be part of the evil government conspiracy to suppress the truth!
Two things that Keefer thinks you should not believe are: "the story that George W. Bush actually won the 2004 presidential election, and hence has some right to the office he continues to occupy. The other is the no less fraudulent story that the terrorist crimes of September 11, 2001 were perpetrated by a gang of Islamist fanatics led by a bearded Saudi in an Afghan cave—rather than being organized (and subsequently covered up) by civilian and military officials at the highest levels of the Bush regime. "
In a letter to Dalton McGuinty, the first two paragraphs of which are Michael Keefer trying to establish the credibility of Michael Keefer, or as he puts it, a "recitation of ‘street-creds,’ he launches into his own screed about how Israel really, really is an "apartheid" state.
If Premier McGuinty wants to get a real indication of Keefer's "street cred," all he need do is google "Michael Keefer 9-11"
"Street Cred" Keefer missed the point that the main objection to Peto's thesis had very little to her mendacious use of "apartheid" towards Israel and was an objection to her preposterous, bigoted conspiracy theory about Holocaust education. But an even greater objection was the bias exhibited in the Sociology and Equity Studies in Education program at OISE in accepting an error-riddled thesis absent of scholarship as the basis of a post-graduate degree simply because it conformed to their radical ideological outlook.
But Keefer is not the only 9-11 conspiracy oddball to support Peto. She also has the endorsement of the 9-11 conspiracy theorist Anthony Hall's apprentice Joshua Blakeney.
Talk about a bowl of mixed nuts!
For a bit of fun, watch Blakeney "confront" a CBC reporter about the "9-11 cover-up" and at one point say how filmmaker Michael Moore is complicit in the conspiracy. Wowza!
UPDATE: More weird support for Peto, in a manner of speaking, comes from Doctor Bonnie Burstow. Doctor Burstow is one of those PhDs who evidently likes to be called "doctor" and teaches at (surprise!) OISE. She wrote the following letter to The Toronto Star:
I would not deny that there are problems with this thesis. It is based on little research, minimizes/distorts anti-Semitism, is circular, holds Jews to a unique standard, and there is anti-Semitism in this.
Nonetheless, this young scholar is hardly a bigot and she asks compelling questions. Given that less scholarly theses pass, why was thesis singled out as unworthy? I can only answer because it critiques Israel. I make the following observations:
Currently there are two Jewish voices on Israel: a) dominating the scene, right-wing Jewish organizations that attempt to silence critiques of Israel by calling them anti-Semitic; b) Jews whose white guilt overwhelms their analysis.
We need another voice respecting that: anti-Semitism is pervasive; Israel is oppressive; academic freedom is precious; and the media are part of the problem.
You might be surprised at Doctor Burstow's contention that "there is anti-Semitism in this. Nonetheless, this young scholar is hardly a bigot." Well, that's OISE for you. Not a place to expect reason or logic.
Dr. Bonnie Burstow, Toronto
It might also come as a surprise to people who are actually familiar with the debate about Israeli policy and the Israel/Palestine/Arab conflict to learn there are only "two Jewish voices on Israel: a) dominating the scene, right-wing Jewish organizations that attempt to silence critiques of Israel by calling them anti-Semitic; b) Jews whose white guilt overwhelms their analysis."
The major part of the problem that Doctor Bustow fails to acknowledge is that idiocy is masquerading as scholarship in some OISE programs.
To put some of this in perspective, it might help to understand that Doctor Burstow is a member of OISE's anti-psychiatry movement : OISE/UT, COALITION AGAINST PSYCHIATRIC ASSAULT
Doctor Burstow was a keynote speaker at the notoriously silly OISE PsychOUT conference.
Perhaps Doctor Burstow should reconsider her stance on the benefits of psychiatry, a science practiced by real doctors.
Is the Good Doctor a Scientologist by chance?
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