Guardian travel writer says Zionists colluded with Hitler

CiFWatch uncovers a tweet from Guardian travel writer Gail Simmons that explains a lot about the world view - and journalistic standards - of the anti-Israel Left.

The link takes you to the Neturei Karta "Jews Against Zionism" website. It seems curious that a writer for a major British publication would uncritically link to a heavily-footnoted article by a set of seemingly ultra-religious Jews who have generally never stepped foot in a library in their lives.

In fact, the article is clearly filled with bogus quotes that were liberally taken from neo-Nazi websites, quotes we have seen before (one example here where the source is badly misspelled so we can trace its origins back to a book by a notorious Holocaust-denier.)

Now, why would a journalist - even a travel writer - uncritically believe an article on a fringe website? Is she so bereft of critical thinking skills that she cannot distinguish between scholarship and hate propaganda? Does she really think that the existence of footnotes automatically proves the worthiness of an article written by a madman? Is she that stupid?

No, the answer is that Gail Simmons already had made up her mind that Zionism and Nazism are equivalent. Her seething hate precedes her interest in the truth. So since she already "knew" the truth, all she has to do is do a quick web search for "Nazi Zionism" and choose the very first hit that confirms her preconceived bigotry!

The Israel-haters have no real facts to back themselves up, but there are plenty of similarly heavily-footnoted  pieces they can find at anti-semitic, ultra-right and ultra-left websites written by crazed haters.

Why use critical thought when someone else already seems to have done the job for you?

(h/t jzaik)