Man apologizes to Wiesel over alleged attack

[Scurrilous]

Source: Ynetnews

During court hearing, Eric Hunt turns to Holocaust survivor and apologizes for scaring him

<snip>

"A man charged with dragging Holocaust scholar Elie Wiesel from a hotel elevator apologized in court Monday to the Nobel laureate over the alleged anti-Semitic attack.

Eric Hunt, 22, has pleaded not guilty to charges of attempted kidnapping, false imprisonment, battery, stalking, elder abuse and hate crimes following the February incident at Argent Hotel in San Francisco.

The apology came in the midst of a hearing to determine whether Hunt, who originally pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity but later changed his plea, should stand trial. Hunt raised a shaking hand and spoke up suddenly from his seat next to his lawyer just as Wiesel had finished describing his ordeal in Nazi death camps, where his parents and sister died.

"Mr. Wiesel, I'm sorry for scaring you and I'm sorry you experienced the Holocaust," Hunt said. "My grandfather fought the Nazis and I'm sorry about what happened." Wiesel did not respond but went on to describe the Feb. 1 incident in which he said Hunt grabbed him from the elevator and demanded that the 78-year-old professor come to his room for an interview. Wiesel said he feared he was being kidnapped and began shouting for help in the empty hallway on the hotel's sixth floor."





Read more: http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3437252,00.html

[Sarah Ibarruri]

1. Here's a photo of that 22 yr old Nazi that attacked Eli Wiesel...

http://robertlindsay.blogspot.com/2007/02/eric-hunt-arrested-in-wiesel-incident.html

[Crap_in_a_Hat]

3. Ridiculous!

How could anyone look at that guy and see him as socially maladjusted? Lots of normal non-Nazis look like they're about to rip out their photographer's throat.

[msmcghee]

6. Which is also a link the website of a hate-spewing neo-Nazi.

Is that what you intended?

[Sarah Ibarruri]

14. My intention was for you to look at the Nazi's face.

He looks like he doesn't give a damn about what he did.

[rosesaylavee]

7. that is one very awful website...

[CreekDog]

9. Sarah, are you recommending that crap Robert Lindsay website?

[JudyM]

11. That website sucks - just gross antisemitic hatred, unbecoming of a DUer. n/t

[LeftishBrit]

12. Nasty-looking man; nasty article (did you read it?); nasty website.

[Hekate]

21. OMG. That essay is filthy -- I certainly hope the site didn't plant any cookies on my computer...

...because it's not the kind of place I would go to knowingly.

Ew.

Hekate

[LisaL]

2. I am not sure pleading "not guilty" and apologizing before the

trial make much sense to me.
If this guy truly remorseful, why not plead guilty?

[Crap_in_a_Hat]

4. There are two types of apologies:

Apology apology and Falwell apology.

[David Zephyr]

5. What a horrible thing to have happened to Elie Wiesel .

Elie Wiesel is an international treasure.

[Laughing Mirror]

8. Isn't he the one who met with George Bush in February 2003 ...

and said something about invading Iraq was the moral thing to do?

What a treasure.

[Crap_in_a_Hat]

13. Still

That doesn't invalidate the hell he had to live through. And it makes assclowns like Savage who compare everything they disagree with to Nazis that much more pathetic.

[Laughing Mirror]

15. The hell he or any of us has had to live through doesn't excuse ...

the hell Wiesel has supported unleashed on the people of Iraq.

[LeftishBrit]

16. Wiesel didn't cause the war in Iraq...

and IIRC, he supported invasion to destroy the WMD (which were then claimed to exist); not regime change as such. He was wrong. But let's not just remember his mistake here, but all the important and often neglected issues that he has campaigned about: apartheid in South Africa, Nicaragua's Miskito Indians; the 'disappeared' in Argentina; the Bosnians in former Yugoslavia - and now Darfur. And of course his work to make sure that the Holocaust is studied and remembered - and never repeated.

[Laughing Mirror]

18. He was one of the drummers for the invasion that led to the genocide in Iraq

Peace Isn't Possible In Evil's Face
Elie Wiesel
No endorsement implied.

March 17, 2003

Under normal circumstances, I might have joined those peace marchers who, here and abroad, staged public demonstrations against an invasion of Iraq. After all, I have seen enough of the brutality, the ugliness, of war to oppose it heart and soul. Isn't war forever cruel, the ultimate form of violence? It inevitably generates not only loss of innocence but endless sorrow and mourning. How could one not reject it as an option?

And yet, this time I support President Bush's policy of intervention to eradicate international terrorism, which, most civilized nations agree, is the greatest threat facing us today. Bush has placed the Iraqi war into that context; Saddam Hussein is the ruthless leader of a rogue state to be disarmed by whatever means is necessary if he does not comply fully with the United Nations' mandates to disarm. If we fail to do this, we expose ourselves to terrifying consequences.

In other words: Though I oppose war, I am in favor of intervention when, as in this case because of Saddam's equivocations and procrastinations, no other option remains...had the international community intervened in Rwanda, more than 800,000 men, women and children would not have perished there...Had Europe's great powers intervened against Adolf Hitler's aggressive ambitions in 1938 instead of appeasing him in Munich, humanity would have been spared the unprecedented horrors of World War II.

Does this apply to the present situation in Iraq? It does. Saddam must be stopped and disarmed. Even our European allies who oppose us now agree in principle, though they insist on waiting...But time always plays in dictators' favor. Having managed to hide his biological weapons, Saddam's goal is to be able to choose the time and the place for using them. Surely that is why he threw out the U.N. inspectors four years ago. If he now appears to offer episodic minor concessions, just as surely that is because American troops are massing at his borders.

http://www.orthodoxytoday.org/articles/WieselIraqWar.htm

[LeftishBrit]

20. Very many people believed the WMD lie and supported the war

I really don't think Bush paid attention to Wiesel when making his decisions.

[leftynyc]

17. Is that how you judge the sum of a person's life?

All the things that came before mean nothing but support for the Iraq war wipes all that out? Is that really your position?

[Laughing Mirror]

19. I'm not judging anybody's life

I'm simply drawing attention to one aspect of the man's life. A very important one, in my opinion.

[leftynyc]

10. I have to think that apologizing in open court

pretty much wraps up this case. I hope they throw the book at him.

[Hekate]

22. Eric Hunt seems to have been shaken by his encounter with the actual human being...

...as opposed to the theoretical/fantasy object of his warped hatred.

I hope that's the case, because it would mean there's hope for him yet.

Hekate