Some human rights watchers seem to have poor visibility. Groups such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch (HRW) are the guardians of society's universal

HRW's "battlefield analyst", was shown by pro-Israel lobby groups to be an avid collector of Nazi memorabilia.

human rights, their mission anchored upon the horrors of Nazism. So you would expect them to have zero tolerance for anything associated with Nazism. Not so, it seems.

When Marc Garlasco, HRW's "battlefield analyst", was shown by pro-Israel lobby groups to be an avid collector of Nazi memorabilia; a wearer of Iron Cross sweatshirts; the author of a book sold by www. ironcross1939.com; and to use "flak88" as his Internet pseudonym and car number plate, HRW's first reaction was to shoot the messenger and refuse even to question Garlasco's behaviour.

Their response was: "This accusation is demonstrably false and fits into a campaign" - the alleged campaign being one to protect Israel from HRW scrutiny. "To imply that Garlasco's collection is evidence of Nazi sympathies", the HRW added, "is not only absurd but an attempt to deflect attention from his deeply felt efforts to uphold the laws of war".

HRW belatedly suspended Garlasco. The announcement is on their

website, atop the earlier denunciation of his critics.

It says HRW is "looking into the matter... and an inquiry is under

way. Garlasco has been temporarily suspended... with full pay pending

the inquiry. This is not a disciplinary measure..."

Meanwhile, on the Amnesty website, an Amnesty press officer blogged,

A slippery slope leads from anti-Israel antipathy to an instinctive suspicion and rejection of Jewish sensibilities.



"After HRW, is Amnesty International next? Are we set to be outed as

a hotbed of Holocaust-deniers? Will key Amnesty researchers be

unmasked, shown to be furtive collectors of [Holocaust denier] David

 Irving DVDs?"

"Rather than sinking to such scurrility," the press officer railed

"Israel ought to confront serious criticisms head-on". If

Israel and Hamas ever faced the International Criminal Court, its

chief prosecutor would be accused of "a fetishistic interest in the

leather boots worn by members of Himmler's Waffen-SS units."

Blogs are less formal than the sober, official statements made by actual organisations but I fear these playground-level jibes are meant to diminish the right of Jews (especially those deemed to be pro-Israeli Jews) publicly to express their fears about anti-Semitism.

This is part of a wider trend, visible across the spectrum of the

political left and its media; the slippery slope that leads from

anti-Israel antipathy to an instinctive suspicion and rejection of

Jewish sensibilities. As Jews, we may call this anti-Semitism, but

it is perhaps better identified as an anti-Jewish impact of anti-Israel

hostility.

(The London Jewish Chronicle)