Eric Margolis

For the American sociologist, see Eric Margolis (sociologist).

Eric S. Margolis (born 1942 or 1943)[1] is an American-born journalist and writer. For 27 years, ending in 2010,[2] he was a contributing editor to the Toronto Sun[3] chain of newspapers, writing mainly about the Middle East, South Asia and Islam. He contributes to the Huffington Post and appears frequently on Canadian television broadcasts, as well as on CNN.[4] A multinational, he holds residences in New York, Paris, Toronto[5] and Banff, Canada.[6] Margolis is the owner of Canadian vitamin manufacturer Jamieson Laboratories.[7]

Biography

Background

Margolis was born in New York City in 1943 to Henry M. Margolis and Nexhmie Zaimi, an American-Albanian. His father was a New York businessman, restaurant owner, theatrical producer and investor, while his mother was a journalist and author.[5] Eric Margolis holds degrees from the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University, the University of Geneva, Switzerland, and New York University MBA Program.[8]

Journalism

Margolis writes a regular column for the Huffington Post and also writes for Dawn,[9] an English language Pakistani newspaper, the Gulf Times[10] in Qatar, the Khaleej Times[11] in Dubai, New York Times[12] and The American Conservative[13][14] . He appears regularly on such television outlets as CNN,[4] Fox, CBC,[4] British Sky Broadcasting News, NPR, and CTV.[15][16] He is a regular guest on the TV Ontario's The Agenda[17] after previously regularly appearing on its predecessor programme Studio 2.

He is affiliated with several organizations including International Institute of Strategic Studies[18] in London and the Institute of Regional Studies[4] based in Islamabad, Pakistan.

Animal rights

Margolis and his wife Dana have been animal rights activists for several decades. Together they created the charity The Eric S. Margolis Family Foundation which works to prevent animal cruelty and focuses on issues such as factory farming, puppy mills, and elephant poaching.[19]

Work

Political views on United States

Margolis identifies his politics as "Eisenhower Republican". Though his domestic political persuasion is moderately conservative (he is a staunch anti-communist and a supporter of capitalism), Margolis' views on the Middle East are sharply at odds with those of the neoconservatives.[20]

Margolis wrote this about Barack Obama's election:

Americans did not "liberate" Iraq, but they certainly liberated their own nation last week by sweeping the Republican Party from power. One prays America's long nightmare of foreign aggressions, fear, religious extremism, and flirting with neo-fascism is finally at an end.[21]

In a 2009 column, Margolis stated that an American politician he very much admires is Ron Paul.[22] Margolis wrote about Paul:

I came to deeply respect and admire Paul's courage, honesty, and his refusal to accept special interest money ... In fact, Rep. Paul has been a model of the type of legislators envisaged by America's founding fathers: men of high moral standards and intellect dedicated to the nation's wellbeing. He reminds me in many ways of the fiercely upright senators of the early Roman Republic.[22]

Margolis has said he rejects the Republican Party of 2010 because of the growing influence of the Tea Party movement, which he says now appeals to the fears and prejudices of its followers.[23]

9/11

Margolis has argued that the American government may have been behind the 9/11 attacks. On September 10, 2010, in a column on his website,[24] Margolis declares that "we still do not know the real story about 9/11." Margolis' argumes that the Osama Bin Laden tapes are fakes, questions why the Air Force didn't shoot down the planes, asserts that there is a lack of plane wreckage at the Pentagon, and repeats the theory that 9/11 was "staged by Israel's Mossad and a cabal of right-wing US Air Force generals" without criticizing the theory. While saying there is no "hard evidence" that Americans were behind 9/11, he adds "What, in the end, can we conclude? ... The attacks plunged America into wars against the Muslim world and enriched the US arms industry[,] boosted pro-Israel neo-conservatives [and] destroyed one of Israel's two main enemies."[25]

Middle East

Margolis is best known from his coverage of Palestine and Kashmir. Margolis' mother, Nexhmie Zaimi, was also a journalist who spent a long time in the Middle East documenting the plight of the Palestinians during the 1950s.[26] Her influence, plus Margolis's role as a foreign correspondent in the Mideast and travelling with the mujahideen during the Soviet-Afghan War, invested Margolis with a strong interest in the Muslim World. In a January 2009 column entitled "Eradicating Hamas", Margolis called the Gaza War a "final solution campaign" on the part of Israel, and called Hamas a popular revolutionary movement that had stood up for the rights of Palestinians "ethnically cleansed" in 1948.[27]

World history

In a November 2008 book review entitled "Deflating the Churchill Myth", Margolis in the Toronto Sun endorsed Pat Buchanan's book Churchill, Hitler and the Unnecessary War as a "powerful new book".[28] Margolis stated:

Buchanan’s heretical view, and mine, is that the Western democracies should have let Hitler expand his Reich eastward until it inevitably went to war with the even more dangerous Soviet Union. Once these despotisms had exhausted themselves, the Western democracies would have been left dominating Europe. The lives of millions of Western civilians and soldiers would have been spared.[28]

In a 2009 essay entitled "Don't Blame Hitler Alone for World War II", Margolis endorsed the claims of Viktor Suvorov that Operation Barbarossa was a "preventive war" forced on Hitler by an alleged impending Soviet attack, and that it is wrong to give Hitler "total blame" for World War II.[29]

Publications

References

  1. ↑ "Al Qaeda contemplated giving Canadian journalists ‘special media material’ for 10th anniversary". Toronto Star. May 4, 2012. Retrieved May 5, 2012.
  2. ↑ Garris, Eric, Sun Newspapers Fire Eric Margolis After Receiving Canadian Govt Grants, antiwar.com, 24 July 2010, retrieved 24 July 2010
  3. ↑ "Toronto Sun page". Retrieved 2009-07-14.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Margolis, Eric. "Brief bio at huffingtonpost.com". Huffington Post. Retrieved 2009-07-14.
  5. 1 2 Rita Zekas (Feb 3, 2012). "Couple live in the dog house". Toronto: Toronto Star. Retrieved Feb 18, 2013.
  6. ↑ http://www.ericmargolis.com/biography.aspx
  7. ↑ http://www.prnewswire.co.uk/cgi/news/release?id=106854
  8. ↑ news release. "Interview opportunity - Britain's Sky News heralds Eric Margolis as 'The Man Who Got it Right About Iraq'". PRNewswire. Retrieved Feb 18, 2013.
  9. ↑ "Article written for Dawn Aug 5 2002". Retrieved 2009-07-14.
  10. ↑ "A Margolis acticle in Gulf Times". Retrieved 2009-07-15.
  11. ↑ "Khaleej Times article by Margolis". Retrieved 2009-09-02.
  12. ↑ "Margolis article in New York Times". The New York Times. 2007-09-04. Retrieved 2009-08-02.
  13. ↑ "Article by Margolis in American Conservative". Retrieved 2009-08-02.
  14. ↑ "PDF of American Conservative listing Margolis as Contributing Editor" (PDF). Retrieved 2009-08-02.
  15. ↑ "recent reference to CTV interview". Retrieved 2009-08-02.
  16. ↑ "recent CTV interview". Retrieved 2009-08-02.
  17. ↑ "Agenda interview with Margolis". Retrieved 2009-08-02.
  18. ↑ "PDF of IISS membership list". Retrieved 2009-07-15.
  19. ↑ http://www.margolisfoundation.org/aboutus
  20. ↑ "Margolis declares his politics and admiration for Eisenhower". Retrieved 2009-07-14.
  21. ↑ Margolis, Eric (November 10, 2008). "Obama's Very Long To-Do List". ericmargolis.com. Retrieved 2009-10-21.
  22. 1 2 Margolis, Eric (July 6, 2009). "Dr Ron Paul Has The Right Cure For America". ericmargolis.com. Retrieved 2009-10-21.
  23. ↑ http://vodpod.com/watch/3266004-eric-margolis-the-current-republican-party-appeals-to-fear-and-prejudice
  24. ↑ Margolis, Eric (September 10, 2010). "9/11. The Mother of All Coincidences". eric margolis.com. Retrieved September 25, 2010.
  25. ↑ Kay, Jonathan (September 14, 2010). "Jonathan Kay on the sad descent into 9/11 conspiracism of former Toronto Sun columnist Eric Margolis". National Post. Retrieved September 25, 2010.
  26. ↑ "Margolis writes of mother's coverage of Middle East June 2, 2003". Retrieved 2009-07-14.
  27. ↑ "Eradicating Hamas", ericmargolis.com, January 12, 2009
  28. 1 2 Margolis, Eric (November 17, 2008). "Deflating the Churchill Myth". ericmargolis.com. Retrieved 2009-10-21.
  29. ↑ Margolis, Eric (September 7, 2000). "Don't Blame Hitler Alone for World War II". ericmargolis.com. Retrieved 2009-10-21.

External links

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