Raisman Medals Raise Old Fears Concerning Jewish Power And Influence
OPINION
Published August 8, 2012
By Michel Brunner
What to make of this Aly Raisman. An American Jewess who returns triumphantly to Europe and takes the staid gymnastics world by storm. A “positive” story, one might think. An American “hero,” one might suggest. But let us look more closely at the facts.
Ms. Raisman won her bronze medal on August 7 on the balance beam. She did so through what anti-Semites might call a typical “Jew maneuver” – in other words, a legal tactic. The great Catalina Ponor of Romania could only stand by and watch her medal taken from her by this petite Jewish woman. The very legalistic appeal of Raisman’s score came at the behest of Béla Károlyi, a man well-known to be a champion of the Jewish cause. Surely, Raisman’s father – a man known to have ties to persons in the financial markets – already had paid handsomely the proper persons through the proper channels to assist his daughter’s “appeal.”
What should sadden all Americans is that Raisman’s methods so closely mirror those that awakened the ire of Europe against the Jewish nation last century. Raisman confirms the worst assumptions of anti-Semites of all races that Jews cling to the levers of power and manipulate the system for their own benefit. We know that this is untrue of the vast majority of Jews.
The great Catalina Ponor of Romania could only stand by and watch her medal taken from her by this petite Jewish woman.
Raisman’s gold medal over Ponor later in the evening -- to the tune of Jewish folk anthem Hava Nagila no less -- only placed an exclamation point on something that needed no emphasis. Ponor, a daughter of proud Central Europe, walked away gracefully despite the jeers of the crowd. No power brokers exist to appeal on her behalf. No one exists to change her scores. No one exists to keep the likes of Raisman from seizing Europe’s gold. The world watched in collective embarrassment as Raisman confused her gold medal for gelt and began to take a bite into it.
Let the Raismans rejoice alone so that the anti-Semites of the world will have a little less fodder for their hatred.
Mr. Brunner is an Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of Paris and the author of Imperialism: Then and Now and The Aristocracies of Hegemonic Empires.
