Turns out that Joerg Haider has paid a surprise visit to Montreal. He's planning to come to Toronto. From what I hear, he was in Montreal attending a wedding.

He claims that his visit is for private and personal purposes only. Fine, keep it that way..... just keep your yap shut, mister.

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"Nobody knows this, but I'm scared all the time... of what I might do, if I ever let go." -- Michael Garibaldi

Analysis. Hypocrisy Over Haider: The Brouhaha Over Austria

February 7, 2000

�The cries of outrage fill the air.
From European dispatches, we read about the possibility of sanctions and the breaking of diplomatic relations. Warnings have been sent regarding the suspension of European Union membership. What threat to civilization, as we know it, has caused talk of such drastic action?
The new government in Austria will contain members of Joerg Haider's Freedom Party, which won 27 percent of the vote in a democratic election, the fairness and integrity of which no one has challenged�.�

�Before we join the merry mob in hurling broken beer bottles at the Austrians, perhaps we should ask some questions.
First, do we respect the results of free elections? After all, in Israel both Communists and semi-seditious Arabs have been seated in the Knesset because the vote totals entitled them to their seats.
Second, how many Brown Shirt goons has Herr Haider enlisted to prance down the streets and terrorize the populace? From all the evidence available, none. Similarly, he has not threatened Jewish people, nor has he described Jews in pejorative terms��

��It is equally true Herr Haider signed a declaration in front of the President of Austria renouncing Austria's Nazi past. Part of the statement signed by Herr Haider reads:
�Austria accepts her responsibility arising out of the tragic history of the 20th century and the horrendous crimes of the national socialist regime. . . .�
We cannot read Herr Haider's mind, but this hardly sounds like the action of an individual eager to resurrect the Third Reich.
Herr Haider�s program is for free markets, a strong national defense, and an immigration and cultural policy to keep Austria Austrian��

��Austria is today a democratic country.
The sensitive nations so upset with Austria seem unable to offer any response to, say, Communist China in which students are slaughtered for seeking democracy and people are imprisoned for attempting to offer prayers and religious service to God.
These same sensitive nations have little to say about other states such as Cuba. Of course, Castro has only imported nuclear weapons into his communist isle, executed dissidents, summarily arrested journalists, abetted the narcotics trade and spread revolution throughout Latin America. Herr Haider is far more dangerous, the sensitive nations say, while Castro is someone we need to make nicey nice with.
Indeed, truth to tell, these are the same sensitive nations that did nothing � absolutely nothing � when the real Nazis of history prepared to overrun Europe and totally destroy Jews everywhere.
Even the valiant British preferred Neville Chamberlain, the appeaser, to the "war-monger" Winston Churchill � until circumstances gave them no choice��

"...As for the nations of the European Union, who were such cowards in the face of the real Nazis, who are tongue-tied in addressing Communist dictatorships today and who have tolerated Communist members in the various parliaments of their countries, and to all of their liberal friends in the media and elsewhere, let me offer a friendly word of caution: You are in grave danger of giving hypocrisy a bad name. �

Rabbi Dr. Morton H. Pomerantz is member of the Reform Movement of Judaism, chaplain for the State of New York and former national chaplain of the Jewish War Veterans of the United States.

On the other hand, why in the world does he want to visit the Jewish Museum and stuff? Does he really think they'll accept him, or is he trying to raise a fuss (spiting the Jewish population)? (I find a hard time finding other alternatives, unfortunately.)

But as I said, he strikes me as just another populist demagogue. His isolationist policies are probably more damaging for Austria than any Nazi sympathies.

If publicly pandering to the Nazi-fans will get him power, he'll pander to them.

If publicly renouncing Austria's Nazi past will keep his people in power, he'll do that.

It's what he privately believes and does that really matters, and is what we should be trying to get a hint of before doing anything.

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"Nobody knows this, but I'm scared all the time... of what I might do, if I ever let go." -- Michael Garibaldi

- While the Canadian Government is quick to denounce Haider's Visit, they do not appear to give the same treatment to people worse than him. A newspaper quoted several examples, namely President Suharto from Indonesia, Laurent Kabila from Congo, and Hun Sen from (I think) Cambodia.

- About the ONLY policy that I have against him is his Anti-Immigrant Policy, which is indeed similar to the goal of the Nazis to make a German only Germany. This is how Racism takes root. If he actively promotes this policy in government, that is when voices will need to be heard to prevent this from happening. I am undecided if external influence is necessary.

- The only reason why people are against him is that he may turn out to be like Milosevic. This is rampant paranoia which may not be justified. He should be left to do what he wanted to do with the Austrian Government. But of course under very high scrutiny. Time may pass and we may never know that he was there in the first place.

- Xentrick's Article does have a very good point, not to mention it was written by a Jewish person.