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Global Anti-Jewry

Today on Tablet

by
Marc Tracy
May 17, 2011

When in February I noted on a U.S. diplomatic cable, released by WikiLeaks, reporting that anti-Semitism in Russia was on the wane, I may have unwittingly been doing the bidding of Israel Shamir (though that is only one of his names). Shamir is Julian Assange’s alleged point man for all things Russia. Which is why the fact that he is also an avowed anti-Semite and Holocaust doubter is important, and why Will Yakowicz’s two-part profile of him yesterday and today in Tablet Magazine—part 1 here, part 2 here—is essential, and not merely fascinating, reading. As you find yourself at a Moscow café where Shamir lays out his invented morality, which is centered on Jews as the source of the world’s evil (presumably including Jews such as his mother, who apparently lives in an Israeli settlement), recall that the power of WikiLeaks and the open world has made him an important, and dangerous, figure.

Marc Tracy is a staff writer at The New Republic, and was previously a staff writer at Tablet. He tweets @marcatracy.