Portuguese writer Jose Saramago is praised in the New York Times Arts section today, for preaching that more adults should read children's literature to "teach values which we consider indispensable, like solidarity, respect for others and goodness. But after, we as adults forget these lessons." The Times gushes that his work combines "magical realism with magical comment."
 
Well, here are widely publicized reports of his anti—Semitism:
 
The Anti—Defamation League (ADL) today expressed outrage at Portuguese Nobel Laureate Jose Saramago's offensive comments that the Jewish people no longer deserve "sympathy for the suffering they went through during the Holocaust."  Saramago said Monday in Brazil that "living under the shadows of the Holocaust and expecting to be forgiven for anything they do on behalf of what they have suffered seems abusive to me. They didn't learn anything from the suffering of their parents and grandparents." 

"Jose Saramago's comments are incendiary, deeply offensive, and show an ignorance of the issues that suggest a bias against the Jews," said Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director.  "Mr. Saramago's lack of empathy for the Jewish people, at a time when Jews in Israel are being massacred in their streets, cafes and buses, is an utter disgrace.  It is shocking that 60 years after the Holocaust, there are people who not only dismiss the brutal murder of 6,000,000 Jews at the hands of the Nazis, but also ignore the murder of Jews at the hands of Palestinian terrorists today."

Mr. Saramago was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1998.  In March 2002, while visiting Ramallah with a delegation of writers, he stated that the Israeli blockade of Ramallah is "in the spirit of Auschwitz," and "this place is being turned into a concentration camp."  ADL condemned those remarks as "incendiary and the height of ignorance," adding that "Such comparisons between the Nazis' deliberate policy to murder the Jews of Europe are outrageous and diminish the nature of the complex Israeli—Palestinian conflict. Mr. Saramago might have served a more constructive role had he urged Palestinians to reject their ongoing campaign of terrorism and recommit to peaceful negotiations with Israel."
 
Jews no longer "deserve sympathy for the suffering they went through during the Holocaust." And in an incendiary analogy, Saramago compared Yasser Arafat's Palestinian Authority headquarters in Ramallah to Auschwitz, the Nazi death camp where more than 1.5 million Jews were systematically murdered during World War II. While all analogies are odious, Saramago's wildly inaccurate historical comparison reeks of anti—Semitism.

Perhaps tomorrow's New York Times Arts section will praise the Bayreuth festival productions with absolutely no mention of the anti—Semitism that has marred the hsitory of the festival (Hitler and the Nazi's favorite) and still continue to cause controversy.

Oops. The Times didn't wait until tomorrow. Here is their praise for Bayreuth today.

And indifference to Jew—hating is nothing new. A few days ago they called Arafat a former "romantic revolutionary".So their apathy towards anti—Semitism follows a pattern.