NEW YORK (JTA) — Media mogul Rupert Murdoch said Europe was “poisoned by an anti-Semitism we thought had been dispatched to history’s dustbin.”
Murdoch made his remarks March 4 in New York upon receiving the National Human Relations Award from the American Jewish Committee.
Murdoch also said of Israel, “In the end, the Israeli people are fighting the same enemy we are: cold-blooded killers who reject peace … who reject freedom … and who rule by the suicide vest, the car bomb and the human shield.”
“These are men who can’t abide by the idea of freedom, tolerance and democracy, they hate Israel, they hate us," said the 77-year-old media baron, who owns News Corp. "No sovereign nation can sit by while a civilian population is attacked."
Joking that some of his enemies think he is Jewish and that some of his friends wish he was Jewish, Murdoch said, “Let me set the record straight: I live in New York. I have a wife who craves Chinese food. And people I trust tell me I practically invented the word ‘chutzpah.’ ”
The AJC award recognizes Murdoch’s professional and philanthropic work.
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