Alfred Dreyfus was a Jewish army captain that was accused of spying for Germany. There never really was a case against Dreyfus, save for evidence concocted and then presented at his trial- an event held in secret. That he was exonerated more than a decade later is of little import compared to what the effects his case had on French republic.

At the time, it was the French political right that manipulated L'Affaire Dreyfus as persuasive evidence of the Republic's failures. The newspapers of the right openly attacked the Jews and spoke of 'secret' Jewish influence and treachery. The Catholic Church of the time, fanned the flames of anti Semitism and exerted mighty weight and influence on the government and army to prosecute Dreyfus, and to discredit the Jews.

After a dozen years, Dreyfus was exonerated by the French government. One hundred later, the French Army acknowledged that Dreyfus was innocent. It is imperative to underscore the lasting importance of the L'Affaire Dreyfus had on France. Because of that legal and moral debacle, moderate republicans, Radicals and socialists worked together and in 1905, succeeded in passing legislation separating church and state.

L'Affaire Dreyfus is being replayed, with different costumes and different actors. The story is the same, however and the victim in this case is Oriana Fallaci. Ms Fallaci is being sued in Italy for 'allegedly insulting the Muslim faith.'

And what exactly did she say? Well, Ms Fallaci argues that Europe is turning into an Islamic province or an Islamic colony. In her opinion, there are not two Islam's- a good one and a bad one. That she says, goes against all reason. There is only one Islam she says- what you see is what you get. SHe bases her findings and conclusions on what is publicly stated and in print.

Never mind that Ms Fallaci is entitled to her own opinions. Let's examine her accusers and their credibility- and most importantly, what drives them.

We contend that the accusers of Ms Fallaci are of the same duplicitous character as those of Dreyfus, but in truth, even that is not really the issue. What lies at the heart of the matter is that like the French government at the time of Dreyfus, the Italian government has capitulated to what they know is patently false.

As with Dreyfus, what is at the center of L'Affaire Fallaci, is anti Semitism. This time, it is not the Catholic Church left that is the driving force behind the obscene vilification of Jews. This time, it is the Muslim community, cheered on by much of the frenzied left, that have the Jews in their sights. The rest of the left is silent. For them, 'Solidarity', it seems, trumps substance. The same deceit that characterized L'Affaire Dreyfus, is the foundation of L'Affaire Fallaci.

Muslim religious authorities spew anti Semitic hatred to the cheers of believers. Government sponsored and controlled news media offer readers and listeners a never ending parade of 'experts,' each testifying to fantastic conspiracies and offering 'real' insight into the perfidious religion of the Jews. Arab entertainment media produces hundreds of hours of anti Semitic programming, designed to enthrall and influence viewers (make no mistake about it. If companies pay millions of dollars for 30 second spots during the Super Bowl broadcasts, so as to influence your buying behavior, imagine how much influence hundreds, if not thousands of hours of anti Semitic broadcasts, must have). Saudi imams speak of religiously mandated rape and pillage of non believers. All of this, of course, is broadcast into 'Eurabia' on a daily basis.

Muslim civic groups, in search of credibility, repeat the mantra that it really is about Israel and not the Jews. The moment the realities of Islamic religious and political dogma is repeated, these Muslim civic groups scream 'racism!' and bigotry, and the truth be damned. It is into this environment that Oriana Fallaci finds herself.

While the Catholic Church has offered it's own mea culpa's and has come a long way in Catholic Jewish relations, the Muslim community has made no such effort- and from the looks of it, will not make any such effort, soon.

Deceit has long been the preferred house organ of the European Islamic community. Even the most cursory of research illustrates the reality of the Islamic obsession with Jews. There is no attempt to separate Zionism from Judaism- just the opposite, really. No effort is spared in portraying Judaism as the center of all evil- even as they deny in European languages that very truth. Translations of Arabic language news and television programming offered into evidence are of no import to the European left. 'The Jews bring it on themselves' is being replaced with 'Women bring assault on themselves, by dressing provocatively.' Besides the sheer stupidity of a 'blame the victim' mentality, Muslim men, it seems, cannot be trusted to control themselves. By extension it seems, Muslims cannot be held accountable for attacks on Jews and others. That idea is not farfetched. Australia has had had it's share of young Muslim men raping non Muslim women. In court, they contended 'it was our right' to do so.

It is interesting to note that the deceit in itself is not the least problematic for the much of the Muslim community. That deceit has been going on for decades and shows no sign of abatement. It is well embedded, and ingrained and there is no end in sight. Once could argue that the Muslim penchant for self-deceit has been the rot that has degraded the once proud Arab society, but that is another avenue left best explored at another time.

What remains a puzzle however, is how and why the left has embraced this choreographed deceit, so willingly and so openly. What are evident truths, are denied in toto by the left, and the clear deceit is accepted with the same fervor as a UFO believer accepts each episode of the 'X Files' as gospel evidence of the existence of aliens and proof of a government conspiracy.

Dreyfus had Emile Zola, the famous French author come to his defense with the scathing 'J'Accuse!,' published in L'Aurore, a French literary newspaper. That article was to reverberations throughout France and Europe. Oriana Fallaci is still waiting for her Zola, to defend her basic rights. No one on the left seems to be too bothered by that.

Part two of L'Affaire Fallaci, will examine why that is so and why it is so important that there must be a confrontation, rather than a polite acquiescence to what is happening.