# Elie Wiesel attacked in San Francisco **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [February 10, 2007, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/elie-wiesel-attacked-in-san-francisco/391587 "2007-02-10T02:13:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2007, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/elie-wiesel-attacked-in-san-francisco/391587/41 "2007-02-11T01:10:17Z")
[QUOTE=Alessan] I have to say, I’m an Israeli and I rarely encounter that “meme” (hate the word, incidentally). It’s just not the way we think. We have a name here for people who won’t shut up about the Holocaust: Americans. [/QUOTE] You don’t even **remember** Begin in the '70s?! What kind of historical memory have you guys got over there?! ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2007, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/elie-wiesel-attacked-in-san-francisco/391587/42 "2007-02-11T01:11:39Z")
[QUOTE=EJsGirl] Upon further reflection- What the fuck?!? Does Wiesel not travel with a security detail? [/QUOTE] Has he ever been assaulted before, since 1945? Perhaps the possibility never occurred to him. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2007, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/elie-wiesel-attacked-in-san-francisco/391587/43 "2007-02-11T01:12:55Z")
[QUOTE=Guinastasia] Wow, you really are a shithead, aren’t you? [/QUOTE] No, actually. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2007, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/elie-wiesel-attacked-in-san-francisco/391587/44 "2007-02-11T01:31:32Z")
Here’s an amusing bit from the nutjob’s Ziopedia article: > [@](#): > > After ensuring no women would be traumatized by what I had to do (I had been trailing Wiesel for weeks), I stopped the elevator at the sixth floor. I pulled Wiesel out of the elevator. I said I wanted to interview him. He protested, grabbed at his chest as if he was having a heart attack. He then screamed HELP! HELP! at the top of his lungs. This is someone who in his public appearances, speaks so softly, that when he appeared on Oprah, they had to use subtitles throughout. Wiesel had dropped this phony persona and assumed his actual personality, of an insane lunatic. So this guy admits to stalking a 78 year old holocaust survivor for weeks, then assaulting him in an elevator, and when the victims yells for help, HE’S the lunatic? I’m just glad Wiesel wasn’t hurt. If they catch “Eric Hunter,” I wouldn’t be surprised if he had some mental health issues. Sometimes an insanity defense is valid. This guy really doesn’t seem to be operating in the same reality as everybody else. ---
**Author:** ![Moirai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/96bed5/32.png) [@Moirai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moirai)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2007, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/elie-wiesel-attacked-in-san-francisco/391587/45 "2007-02-11T01:45:35Z")
[QUOTE=BrainGlutton] Has he ever been assaulted before, since 1945? Perhaps the possibility never occurred to him. [/QUOTE] Hasn’t he received many death threats over the years? I could have sworn… ---
**Author:** ![Frostillicus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Frostillicus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frostillicus)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2007, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/elie-wiesel-attacked-in-san-francisco/391587/46 "2007-02-11T03:47:52Z")
[QUOTE=lisacurl] Yeah, but… Elie is 78 years old now. It’s lucky that he’s a strong, healthy 78. Older folks can die from the shock of being the victims of muggings and such. [/QUOTE] Beating up a frail 78 year old man. Way to prove your manhood, scumball. :mad: ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2007, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/elie-wiesel-attacked-in-san-francisco/391587/47 "2007-02-11T04:06:24Z")
[QUOTE=lisacurl] Yeah, but… Elie is 78 years old now. It’s lucky that he’s a strong, healthy 78. Older folks can die from the shock of being the victims of muggings and such. [/QUOTE] _Never_ underestimate the power of someone who’s been through WW II. A few years ago, a couple of young punks thought that it’d be a real hoot to mug a WW II vet. He proceeded to beat the shit out of them and when the police showed up, the punks were practically _begging_ to be hauled off to jail. When a reporter asked the vet if he was scared, his response was, “Nah. If I wasn’t scared of the Nazi’s, why should I be scared of a couple of dumbasses?” (Paraphrased from memory, but the gist is right.) I’ve got an uncle who was an aide to MacArthur in WW II. My uncle had a stroke a few years back and doesn’t get around very well. I had to help him get down some steps and even though he’s 88 years old, he had a grip like iron. I don’t doubt that if he were attacked, he’d go down like a lion. Young guys just try to pummel their opponents into submission, old guys don’t have time for that and try to bring their opponent down as quickly as possible. Elie’s a man with a mission, and that is a _powerful_ incentive to want to stay alive. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2007, 4:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/elie-wiesel-attacked-in-san-francisco/391587/48 "2007-02-11T04:52:07Z")
[QUOTE=BrainGlutton] You don’t even **remember** Begin in the '70s?! What kind of historical memory have you guys got over there?! [/QUOTE] The 70’s were a long time ago, and Begin wasn’t a native-born Israeli. ---
**Author:** ![hawthorne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c89c15/32.png) [@hawthorne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hawthorne)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2007, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/elie-wiesel-attacked-in-san-francisco/391587/49 "2007-02-11T14:58:01Z")
I had more or less the same response to this as **Diogenes the Cynic**. So, you pull an old guy out of a lift and he reacts like he’s being …well, assaulted by a crazy person. You think that this makes **him** a nutter and publicly say so? I have to feel a little bit sorry for him, because he’s so, so crazy. It hurts to be this near him. ---
**Author:** ![Lizard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/dfb087/32.png) [@Lizard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lizard)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2007, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/elie-wiesel-attacked-in-san-francisco/391587/50 "2007-02-11T22:35:58Z")
[QUOTE=Alessan] Strange as it may seem, anti-semitism is a completely alien concept to most native-born Israelis. [/QUOTE] Wow, so anti-Semitism isn’t that common in Israel? Whouda’ thunk it? :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2007, 5:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/elie-wiesel-attacked-in-san-francisco/391587/51 "2007-02-12T05:58:59Z")
[QUOTE=Lizard] Wow, so anti-Semitism isn’t that common in Israel? Whouda’ thunk it? :rolleyes: [/QUOTE] Uh, yeah? My point being, since most Israeli Jews have little to no personal experience with anti-semitism, their perception of it is profoundly different from that of their foreign brethren. ---
**Author:** ![Randy\_Seltzer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ee7513/32.png) [@Randy\_Seltzer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Randy_Seltzer)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2007, 6:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/elie-wiesel-attacked-in-san-francisco/391587/52 "2007-02-12T06:21:47Z")
[QUOTE=Alessan] Uh, yeah? My point being, since most Israeli Jews have little to no personal experience with anti-semitism, their perception of it is profoundly different from that of their foreign brethren. [/QUOTE] I just returned from a (Taglit 😃 ) trip to Israel, and, I’d have to agree with \*\*Alessan \*\* (this is an American’s perspective on Israelis here). The Israelis I met were interested in stories of modern anti-semitism, since they had trouble imagining it themselves. OTOH, when one of them (an IDF guy working in intelligence, of all people) heard that my GF is Muslim, he refused to believe it. In another, more on-topic vein, in this story is a Holocaust-denying strategy of which I’ve never heard. Weisel’s “Night” is \*\*\*not \*\*\* non-fiction. It’s mostly from his personal experiences, but partly from his interviews of other survivors. Libraries often categorize the book with “Fiction.” But, I’ve never heard this categorization used to deny the Holocaust. That’s just retarded. And even that is unfair to retarded people. ---
**Author:** ![newcrasher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b3f665/32.png) [@newcrasher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/newcrasher)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2007, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/elie-wiesel-attacked-in-san-francisco/391587/53 "2007-02-12T23:21:25Z")
Aren’t suicide bombers in Israel generally anti-semites? ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2007, 5:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/elie-wiesel-attacked-in-san-francisco/391587/54 "2007-02-13T05:03:18Z")
No, they just hate us. The thing about anti-semitism is that it’s inexplicable - it has no logical basis. What Palestinians feel towards us is perfectly normal hatered of the kind you usually see between nations that have been at war for a very long time (which is (often much stronger in the side that sees itself as losing). We certainly don’t condone it, but we see where it’s coming from. Anti-semitism, OTOH, makes no fucking sense. ---
**Author:** ![Moirai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/96bed5/32.png) [@Moirai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moirai)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2007, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/elie-wiesel-attacked-in-san-francisco/391587/55 "2007-02-13T21:16:37Z")
Okay, help me. Anti-semitism is hatred of Jews with no logical basis? I thought it was based on perceived evil thoughts and deeds by Jews, going way back. Are we talking about the same thing, **Alessan**? I really do want to figure this out. Is it like the differences between bigotry and racism? ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2007, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/elie-wiesel-attacked-in-san-francisco/391587/56 "2007-02-13T22:33:04Z")
[QUOTE=EJsGirl] Okay, help me. Anti-semitism is hatred of Jews with no logical basis? I thought it was based on perceived evil thoughts and deeds by Jews, going way back. Are we talking about the same thing, **Alessan**? I really do want to figure this out. Is it like the differences between bigotry and racism? [/QUOTE] How should I put this? Unlike every other group of people who’ve hated Jews over the past two thousand years, the Palestinians are the first to have actual grievences. No one is going to deny that Arabs have been hurt by Jews. That doesn’t make their hatred justified, but it certainly makes it understandable. It’s not the difference between bigotry and racism, it’s the difference between bigotry and tribal warfare. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/elie-wiesel-attacked-in-san-francisco/391587.md?page=2)