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Interview With Author Phyllis Chesler

Aired August 06, 2003 - 15:22   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


JUDY WOODRUFF, CNN ANCHOR: In today's "Page Turners" segment, our focus is on Phyllis Chesler's new book. It is "The New Anti- Semitism: The Current Crisis and What We Must Do About It." The author is with me here now to talk about her latest work.
Thank you, Phyllis Chesler. We appreciate your coming in.

PHYLLIS CHESLER, AUTHOR: My pleasure to be here.

WOODRUFF: You know, I think ever since 9/11, Americans have been told to be on guard about anti-Muslim behavior, anti-Arab behavior. There have been protests from Arabs and Muslims. You, on the other hand, are arguing that there is an anti-Semitism out there. How do you explain?

CHESLER: Absolutely. Well, 9/11 is what's been happening to Israelis every week. And sometimes when they're lucky every month for the last three years. So there's an enormous propaganda hate campaign in the Islamic world against Israelis and against Judaism. And, for that matter, against Christianity.

Then we have Western intellectuals and disenfranchised Muslim mobs in Europe who are torching synagogues and vandalizing cemeteries and beating up Jews. And we have, by the way, genocidal bombing of civilians in Israel because they're Jews.

WOODRUFF: And you're saying this is all going on under the radar in a way that Americans haven't sufficiently noticed?

CHESLER: Well, I think that now America gets what 9/11 is about. It's about defending ourselves from terrorism. And Israel has been under siege trying to do just that, and getting very bad press about it. Whatever Israel does to defend itself is immediately demonized. And Israel has markedly become the Jew of the world. It's not fair and it's not true.

Also in America, on the American campuses, many of my colleagues who I agree with on many other issues are wrong on Israel and wrong on prejudice towards Jews. And so you've got campus nastiness, riots instead of civil debates.

WOODRUFF: Let me quote to you from something that the reviewer in "The w--Washington Post" wrote about your book. And he's written about the struggle within American Jewry.

He says you make the completely, he says, unsupported assertion that "not a Friday goes by when hatred of Jews, Israelis, America and the West is preached in Arab in every mosque on earth." Now how do you...

CHESLER: I disagree with him, but I would say that perhaps I should have written "in most," most of the time. And if you...

WOODRUFF: Because we know there is a moderate element of Islam.

CHESLER: One deeply hopes so. And we need to have militant moderates. We need to have people, certainly Muslims, who will stand up to Muslim terrorists and who will stand up to the Muslim silencing of descent, of intellectual freedom of speech, of religious rights. And in terms of women, the subordination and mistreatment of women in the Arab and Islamic world waiting for moderate Muslims to help make it stop.

WOODRUFF: Do you think that the complaints of Muslims and of Arab -- pro-Arab groups that they are the ones who have been discriminated against since 9/11 are legitimate?

CHESLER: No, I think there is something to it, and we have to beware of prejudice wherever we can. But, on the other hand, most of the bombers of 9/11, World Trade Center and Pentagon, were from Saudi Arabia. That's Arab and that tends to be Muslim.

And we are facing a clear and present danger, and it perhaps is a clash of civilizations. And we need to be very, very clear and we have to stand up to evil. But, yes, we also need to preserve civil liberties. We need to do both.

WOODRUFF: Phyllis Chesler, the book is "The New Anti-Semitism: The Current Crisis and What We Must Do About It." Thank you very much for coming in.

CHESLER: Thank you.

WOODRUFF: It's good to talk to you. We appreciate it.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com







Aired August 6, 2003 - 15:22   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JUDY WOODRUFF, CNN ANCHOR: In today's "Page Turners" segment, our focus is on Phyllis Chesler's new book. It is "The New Anti- Semitism: The Current Crisis and What We Must Do About It." The author is with me here now to talk about her latest work.
Thank you, Phyllis Chesler. We appreciate your coming in.

PHYLLIS CHESLER, AUTHOR: My pleasure to be here.

WOODRUFF: You know, I think ever since 9/11, Americans have been told to be on guard about anti-Muslim behavior, anti-Arab behavior. There have been protests from Arabs and Muslims. You, on the other hand, are arguing that there is an anti-Semitism out there. How do you explain?

CHESLER: Absolutely. Well, 9/11 is what's been happening to Israelis every week. And sometimes when they're lucky every month for the last three years. So there's an enormous propaganda hate campaign in the Islamic world against Israelis and against Judaism. And, for that matter, against Christianity.

Then we have Western intellectuals and disenfranchised Muslim mobs in Europe who are torching synagogues and vandalizing cemeteries and beating up Jews. And we have, by the way, genocidal bombing of civilians in Israel because they're Jews.

WOODRUFF: And you're saying this is all going on under the radar in a way that Americans haven't sufficiently noticed?

CHESLER: Well, I think that now America gets what 9/11 is about. It's about defending ourselves from terrorism. And Israel has been under siege trying to do just that, and getting very bad press about it. Whatever Israel does to defend itself is immediately demonized. And Israel has markedly become the Jew of the world. It's not fair and it's not true.

Also in America, on the American campuses, many of my colleagues who I agree with on many other issues are wrong on Israel and wrong on prejudice towards Jews. And so you've got campus nastiness, riots instead of civil debates.

WOODRUFF: Let me quote to you from something that the reviewer in "The w--Washington Post" wrote about your book. And he's written about the struggle within American Jewry.

He says you make the completely, he says, unsupported assertion that "not a Friday goes by when hatred of Jews, Israelis, America and the West is preached in Arab in every mosque on earth." Now how do you...

CHESLER: I disagree with him, but I would say that perhaps I should have written "in most," most of the time. And if you...

WOODRUFF: Because we know there is a moderate element of Islam.

CHESLER: One deeply hopes so. And we need to have militant moderates. We need to have people, certainly Muslims, who will stand up to Muslim terrorists and who will stand up to the Muslim silencing of descent, of intellectual freedom of speech, of religious rights. And in terms of women, the subordination and mistreatment of women in the Arab and Islamic world waiting for moderate Muslims to help make it stop.

WOODRUFF: Do you think that the complaints of Muslims and of Arab -- pro-Arab groups that they are the ones who have been discriminated against since 9/11 are legitimate?

CHESLER: No, I think there is something to it, and we have to beware of prejudice wherever we can. But, on the other hand, most of the bombers of 9/11, World Trade Center and Pentagon, were from Saudi Arabia. That's Arab and that tends to be Muslim.

And we are facing a clear and present danger, and it perhaps is a clash of civilizations. And we need to be very, very clear and we have to stand up to evil. But, yes, we also need to preserve civil liberties. We need to do both.

WOODRUFF: Phyllis Chesler, the book is "The New Anti-Semitism: The Current Crisis and What We Must Do About It." Thank you very much for coming in.

CHESLER: Thank you.

WOODRUFF: It's good to talk to you. We appreciate it.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com