David Horowitz: Caught in a Lie

Posted by Justin Raimondo on October 15, 2007

Poor David Horowitz. The long slide downward has been traumatic for him. Once an author of middlebrow biographies that sold fairly well, today he has become a neoconservative nutball whose descent into megalomania has taken on increasingly bizarre forms: e.g., he recently rebaptized his longstanding vehicle, the Center for the Study of Popular Culture, with the new moniker being the “David Horowitz Freedom Center.” Now he’s gone really bonkers, with his campaign for “Islamo-fascism Awareness Week” on college campuses, which is ironic given that he’s the biggest fascist around. Yet, this morning, he’s topped even himself with an announcement in “Frontpage” that, well, just read this:

“The campaign mounted by campus leftists against Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week, which is scheduled to take place on more than 100 campuses during the week of October 22-26 has taken a new turn with the announcement of a counter-protest at the Washington Monument.
The protest, which will be called “American Fascism Awareness Day” is being organized by Adam Kokesh of Iraq Veterans Against the War, the Revolutionary Communist Party, Students for Justice In Palestine, and the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee among others and will feature speakers such as congressman Dennis Kucinich and presidential candidate Ron Paul, anti-war activists Cindy Sheehan and Harry Karry and actor Sean Penn. According to a spokesperson for the Revolutionary Communist Party, one of the sponsors of the event, “This is an answer to the Jew Horowitz and the neo-conservative Zionists who dragged us into an imperialist war in Iraq and are spreading hatred against Muslims to support their war plans against the Republic of Iran.”

Wow! Ron Paul, Cindy Sheehan, and the Revolutionary Communist Party—that about confirms Horowitz’s longstanding attempt to smear Rep. Paul by linking him to the “anti-American” far left. There’s just one problem: no such event is scheduled to take place. Not only is there no indication on any of the web sites of the supposedly “sponsoring” organizations, but also the date given for this historic happening—November 31—does not exist. There is no November 31: November only has thirty days.

An alternative explanation: Horowitz and his “Islamo-fascism week” were mocked by this poster which appeared at George Washington University, and this may be his way of striking back: however, as you can see, the satiric poster was pretty obviously meant to needle and not meant to be taken seriously, whereas the Horowitizian production is less obviously made-up: it’s the difference between satire and an outright hoax.

Is Horowitz just a hopeless nut-case who doesn’t care if he’s caught in a brazen lie? We report—you decide.

UPDATE: I just found this article in the Washington Times, which cites the campus Horowitzians demanding the expulsion of the students who dared mock “Islamo-fascism Week.” So, what punishment do they propose for Horowitz, who has posted a completely made-up “rally” linking Ron Paul, the Revolutionary Communist Party and anti-Semitism? How about an apology from The Horowitz—an unprecedented act that would probably cause him to dissolve in a puff of acrid smoke?