Touchy Tarek's Hissy Fit #2

The first one, you may or may not recall, was at a Wiesenthal-sponsored event at a Toronto synagogue during which Wafa Sultan had the temerity to mention a certain prophet's child bride--and, adding insult to injury, in front of a bunch of Jews, yet. Mr. Fatah's latest tantrum occurred at another Wiesenthal-sponsored event, and this time you won't believe what set him off. Joanne Hill of the Jewish Tribune saw it all and wrote it up here:

TORONTO – Media personality Tarek Fatah stormed out of a panel discussion about media perceptions of the Middle East last week after accusing three prominent journalists of being white racists.

Fatah was on a panel with Michael Coren (Sun TV), Carole MacNeil (CBC) and Jonathan Kay (National Post) last Thursday at the University of Toronto.

Avi Benlolo, president and CEO, Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Centre for Holocaust Studies (FSWC), moderated the FSWC event.

Fatah became enraged after panelists used the term “fixer” to describe people who are hired to help journalists working in foreign countries.

Fixers can arrange security, facilitate border crossings, set up meetings, or act as interpreters.

Fatah dubbed the term racist and said Western journalists in foreign countries sit in expensive hotels while local journalists do their work for little money and no credit. He said he had been a fixer in Pakistan.

“The term used to be the ‘stringer,’” he said. “The stringer today is...disgustingly called a fixer, almost as if he is the pimp over there, getting the cab and the drinks and arranging everything.”

When the other panelists disagreed, Fatah became infuriated.

As Kay spoke positively about using a fixer in Ramallah and added that he had spent $500 on gifts at the woman’s store, Fatah interjected, “I’m shocked by your racist view!”

The three journalists and Benlolo laughed in seeming confusion, as did the audience.  

Fatah stood up and shouted that he was leaving because of racism.

“She’s a fixer?” Fatah demanded. “She’s a hooker? What do you mean? You four white people telling me that a racist term of a fixer, you’re laughing at it?...I thought that white people had gone beyond that. You have not moved an inch.”

Kay responded, “This woman in Ramallah was white.... Why is this a bad thing? And fixer is not like the n-word, it’s not like the f-word.”

“White?” hollered Fatah. “She was white? How was she white in Ramallah?”...

Er, she was not white at all? At least I think that was the correct answer. Maybe.

I don't know what's going on with Mr. Fatah; the unbearable pressure of being one of the few vocal anti-Sharia Muslims in Canada, perhaps? Whatever it is, Wiesenthal may want to think twice before extending him another invitation. (That said, his blow-ups do tend to liven things up.)