Irresponsibly Calling Argentina's President Kirchner Anti-Semitic

Irresponsibly Calling Argentina's President Kirchner Anti-Semitic

by Stephen Lendman

Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner is no Western favorite. Her forthright outspokenness is irresponsibly criticized.

Last October, her Security Council remarks denounced US-led Western foreign policies, questioning illegitimate reasons for waging war.

"Where do ISIS and Al Qaeda (get) their guns from," she asked? "Yesterday's freedom fighters are today's terrorists."

They're US allies - trained to fight America's enemies. Kirchner called financial predators "economic terroris(ts)." She urged multi-lateral cooperation to regulate sovereign debt.

"The vulture funds threaten and attack with actions against our country's economy, causing rumors, mistruths and outright lies," she said.

"It is almost a type of economic and financial terrorism. We have also claimed the need to reform the UN security organisms and the International Monetary Fund based on what has happened in Argentina."

She explained financial predators strip-mine countries of material wealth and resources - illegitimately shifting them from public to private hands.

Democratic values are comprised. Weak nations are raped for profit - entrapped by debt bondage, transformed in dystopian backwaters.

Middle class societies are destroyed, workers exploited. Fundamental freedoms are eroded. A race to the bottom benefits monied interests alone.

Kirchner refreshingly spoke truth to power. She criticized America's war on terror - proliferating, not curtailing it. She denounced Israeli massacres of Palestinians - its wars largely harming civilians. She stressed the importance of respecting fundamental human rights.

Imperial powers don't like hearing these comments from anyone - especially forthright heads of state. Kirchner is irresponsibly criticized for saying what everyone needs to hear.

Reports now suggest Argentina's Jewish community is angry over her twitter remarks days earlier comparing Shakespeare's Shylock to vulture capital firms buying Argentine bonds at distress prices - wanting big returns.

She said read Shakespeare's "The Merchant of Venice" about a predatory money lender (who happens to be Jewish) to understand how vulture investors operate.

"(D)on't laugh. Usury and bloodsuckers have been immortalized in the greatest literature for centuries," she explained.

Predatory investors sued for full payment on their Argentine bond holdings even though the nation's debt was restructured. Anti-Kirchner US courts ruled for them - forcing Argentina into technical default.

At around 250,000, it has Latin America's largest Jewish population. Invoking Shakespeare's Shylock to describe vulture and other type predatory investors has nothing to do with anti-Semitism. It's one way of accurately describing them.

Is the "Bard of Avon" called anti-Semitic for writing The Merchant of Venice? Kirchner is wrongfully vilified for invoking a universally recognized symbol of rapaciousness.

She didn't retract her remarks nor should she. In follow-up tweets, she justifiably criticized her critics.

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at lendmanstephen [at] sbcglobal.net.

His new book as editor and contributor is titled "Flashpoint in Ukraine: US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III."

http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html

Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com.

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