Malvina Schwartz survived Auschwitz as a young girl. She managed to make her way to America and eventually came to Los Angeles where I published her oral history in 1977 in the Los Angeles Times. I am certain that Malvina is no longer alive. But if she had managed to survive to today, I’d like to think she would have something to say about George Bush’s misuse of the Holocaust for political gain in today’s speech to the Israeli Knesset.
Mark Klempner, in his book The Heart Has Reasons, profiles five Dutch Righteous Gentiles who saved Jews. Here is how one of them, Mieke Vermeer, speaks of historical analogies between the Holocaust and contemporary society and how the errors of one era can be repeated in another:
People say “Never Again,” but just because they say that doesn’t mean that they’re any more aware than the Germans were when Hitler was making his debut. How many people who read the newspaper can tell the difference between propaganda and fact? How many can see through bad politicians? There’s such a lot of dirty politics.
[Klempner] So you’re saying we mustn’t underestimate our capacity to be misled…
Yes, or to do the wrong thing when we think we’re doing the right thing…
Some Dutch…will call [blacks] racist names. They fall silent when I say, “I have a black son-in-law.” I tell them, “There’s no us and them–we’re all part of the same human family.
My husband suffered terribly at the hands of the Germans, but he didn’t hate all of them–he hated the people who had caused the suffering.
When we educate our children about the Holocaust, it’s not enough to tell them about the horrors–we have to tell them that it should not happen that way again. That hate doesn’t bring peace, and that you need to be strong in mind and think things over before you get a weapon to use against the one you call your enemy.
George Bush would surely benefit from reading this book. Well maybe not, but it couldn’t hurt.
I can’t pretend to know how my friend, Malvina, would react to Bush’s speech. But as a Jew who studied this era and did historical research, and prepared oral histories of survivors, I am offended that George Bush has likened the Arab states which have engaged with Israel in a territorial dispute since 1948 as Nazis. I am angry that Bush made a moral equivalence between Hitler Germany and the Palestinian national movement. On Malvina’s behalf, I am hurt that George Bush seems to believe that America and Israel are the two most righteous nations in the world while the Arab world represents little short of barbarism.
I am not arguing that it is impermissible to use the Holocaust as a historical analogy to discuss contemporary political and moral issues. I AM arguing that to do so one must be extremely careful and nuanced. It is a rhetorically easy and cheap shot to invoke the Holocaust to bolster a narrow political argument. Bibi Netanyahu and his fellow Likudniks do it regularly. In fact, Bush in his speech virtually channeled Netanyahu’s “it’s 1938 and Ahmedinejad is Hitler” rap.
The other day I wrote a tongue in cheek blog post declaring that Bush’s days as a president might not be numbered. If Bibi wins the next elections and becomes prime minister, Bush would be better than even money to win the next Israeli presidential race should he be interested. One thing’s for sure: Israelis, 66% of whom rate him favorably for his inability to find an Israeli policy he didn’t like, are a helluva lot happier with him than we are here in the U.S. (his current approval ratings are among the lowest of his presidency).
Bush’s speech lauded Israeli democracy and even went so far as to claim that our Puritan ancestors were incipient Zionists (Bush’s speechwriters lifted this from Netanyahu’s favorite pundit, Michael Oren, and his latest book about the roots of Zionism in American political thought).
Bush’s version of Israel in this speech was air-brushed to remove the moles, scars and other imperfections. Gone was the second-class Israeli Arab minority and gone too those Palestinians who seek to realize their own national vision in their own country. In their place Bush posited Israel as a model western democracy. What the president does not understand is that true democracies are states of ALL their citizens, not just a privileged majority as Israel is.
Sure, Bush acknowledged a Palestinian state as an afterthought in the speech. But clearly he saw such a state in an obedient, subservient, secondary regional role.
Of course, there is not the slightest reference to any blemish on Israel’s record. The nation is a pure miracle from its founding in 1948 till today. There is no Occupation (even Ariel Sharon could acknowledge the Occupation and call it by its proper name, kibush or “conquest”), there are no settlements, there is no expropriation of Palestinian land, and there certainly is no Nakba. I wouldn’t expect him to excoriate Israel in the well of its Knesset. But a deft politician could’ve easily included a reference to a job left undone. Anwar Sadat managed to do just that in his 1977 speech. Bush would have none of this.
One of the most offensive elements of the speech was its repeated invocation of God to justify Israel’s existence. Here Bush perfectly mirrored the settler movement, which conceived of Israel’s 1967 conquest of the Territories and subsequent return to the lands that Abraham trod, as confirmation of God’s will that Jews realize a Greater Israel.
Just as mixing religion and science in dealing with issues like abortion or stem cell research makes for bad science (cf. Terry Schiavo); so mixing religion and politics makes for bad politics. The Arab-Israeli conflict is fundamentally political in nature, not religious. It will be resolved by political compromises and not by resorting to God’s law. Those on both sides who invoke their own God to support them wreak havoc not only on their enemy but on themselves and those they hold dear.
American presidents, when they travel abroad, rarely take partisan political potshots at their domestic opponents. But this president, as in everything else to do with partisanship, breaks the mold. So he engaged in an unprecedented and distorted attack on Barack Obama’s attempt at renewing a U.S. foreign policy which adheres to a more traditional American sense of prudence and moderation:
Some seem to believe we should negotiate with terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along. We have heard this foolish delusion before. As Nazi tanks crossed into Poland in 1939, an American senator declared: “Lord, if only I could have talked to Hitler, all of this might have been avoided.” We have an obligation to call this what it is – the false comfort of appeasement, which has been repeatedly discredited by history.
For 200 years, the U.S. has talked to its enemies and attempted to negotiate resolution of the major conflicts facing us. In this, Obama is simply returning to a traditional, more pragmatic foreign policy. It is Bush who is the radical breaking from American diplomatic convention. He should be in the dock and called to account for wreaking havoc with our international relations. Instead, he attempts to tar his Democratic opponent with the brush of weakness and defeatism.
Bush proves in this speech that he understands nothing about the Middle East. He certainly doesn’t understand Islam. He sees it all through the narrow prism of terrorism. It is the struggle of good vs. evil; God and the devil. There is no subtlety, no nuance. His views are utterly hopeless.
It is outrageous for an American president to use the term “appeasement” in describing the policy of an opponent when speaking before the parliament of a foreign nation. Democrats have rightly reacted with deep anger to this affront. It seems that when it comes to American traditions, George Bush is content to play Samson and topple the pillars of the temple in order to smash precedents he dislikes. What he forgets is that Samson not only killed his enemy, the Philistines, but himself as well.
Bush’s interminable and self-destructive presidency will continue to be so till the bitter end. And if he can topple the campaign of his political enemy, he’s prepared to bring the walls down on himself as well. So ends one of the most shameful of American presidencies.
Good post. I thought it was so funny to hear Bush criticize Obama’s foreign policy. If Bush thinks it’s dumb, then you know it’s gotta be a great idea.
Don’t miss David Brooks’ article on this topic. He’s not an Obama fan, but this time he actually phoned the guy and guess what? Obama’s not so naive after all.
It is astonishing that Palestinians agree that USA leads the peace process. USA’s situation is as an impartial a the twin sister of the wife would be the the referee in a family crisis. After Bush’s speech and frequent visits to his favourite country, it is strange that the Palestinians even want to speak with Bush’s regime. Maybe Palestinians should adapt the modern US foreign policy methods and not waste time in speaking with USA’s present regime.
By demanding United Nations not to use the word Nakba and erase it from UN’s lexicon is amusing and a world record in intellectual dishonesty. Especially for a country which has made from its own terrible catastrophe (Holocaust) a lucrative business and demanding a total monopoly to these kind of events in history. When many European countries have made Holocaust denial a crime, for fairness sake they should make also the denial of Nakba a crime. It would be interesting to see how Livni and others would react if Germany, Austria etc would make a crime of the denial of Nakba. Maybe some European parliamentarians should suggest this Nakba denial law.
SimoHurtta, as a German I completely supported that Holocaust denial is considered a crime. The approach in the US made me aware, that it is much better to be able to watch it, than to push it underground. (Much more could be said about that …) It gives you the chance to debate it.
Apart from a very specific set of laws related to our Nazi past, the laws against instigation are not for a specified group: they can be used by any group or religion that feels something crosses a certain red line, just as libel isn’t allowed in some cases but not in others.
But still you can’t compare a perfectly organized death machine all over Europe with a fight over a small piece of land. I also have quite good idea of what it must have felt like for the people to consider the return to the places were they came from. As you have to always remember the time frame and its Zeitgeist in which the people in Israel fought over the land. As the space into which European Jews could flee was further and further away. Not all had the money to get legally into Israel. And everywhere else you could go, the numbers were restricted as in Palestine itself. Walter Benjamin killed himself in France since he got no ticket for the ship to the US. To select one of many, many examples.
If I hadn’t a huge sympathy for the Palestinians and their plight, I wouldn’t be here. And yes, I think Germans are partly responsible for the catastrophe of the Palestinans too. Simply watch the numbers of immgrants over the decades, especially after the Nazi’s seized power.
That said: Yes the whole story should be discussed from both sides, but one should be careful of doing the same thing the neocons and their friends do: Resort to the easy Nazi analogy.
Sorry; I need a proof reader
Not all had the money to immigrate into countries like Switzerland (a certain amoung of money needed), Sweden, Britan, the US.
Or I should keep my fingers off the keyboard, when I have no time to waste. Britain.
As our 51st state, as so seems a fait accompli in part achieved by our putative President, the Burning Bush, Israel will hopefully not assume that fiery role South Carolina played prior to our Civil War and lead us on to an even more destructive conflagration, although, like many in our administration and their philosophical enablers, the Neo-cons, Israel doesn’t seem especially reluctant about “taking out” Iran. And a secondary thought while I’m at it – TO HELL WITH IMPEACHMENT! Imprisonment for all these war-loving sonsofbitches whose death drives perforce might very well involve us all. Iprisonment, I say, in very deep dungeons where they can effect no further harm.
You know Rich try to step back from the naqba worship that Phil Weiss engages in for just a moment. The fact is that Hamas is to the south, Hezbollah is to the north and Iran is going to have the bomb. It’s inevitable. Jordan is always shaky and Syria might has well be Iran. Oil is $127 and the situation is no joke. The Democrats do advocate appeasement and if they didn’t Bush’s speech wouldn’t have struck such a nerve.
So Norm, if Iran hits Israel with the bomb, which they’ve threatened to do on more than a few occasions what would your response be?
Pearlman, Iran will not hit Israel with a bomb. Also: How can it have threatened to do so, when it claims, it is only working on atomic energy for peaceful reasons?
No one would dare to attack Israel with anything different than with the Kassam missiles, for the simple reason they would be reduced to dust, Not only by Israel itself, but America and the whole Western world.
And you know it, Pearlman.
Mirrors: Do you know by the way, why the Nazis did not print the fake Protocols after 1940 (?)? They were aware that intelligent people would recognize them as their own plans.
@Bill Pearlman: Ah, yes. The old “enemies surround us on all sides, woe is us, the Arabs are out to get us” meme. Not very persuasive I’m afraid. There are legitimate grievances among all the parties you listed including Israel. As with all conflicts those grievances can be resolved through negotiation rather than circling the wagons as you advocate.
Iran is not nearly the threat you make it out to be. It has never said it would use a nuclear weapon, IF it got one, against Israel.
The only “appeasement” I see is your betrayal of the values of intelligence & good sense in writing about this conflict.
Nakba has a capital “N” Bill though I know it hurts you to admit this since it forces you to admit its not just a run of the mill event, but a singular one just like Israeli Independence Day is.
@Bill Pearlman: They have not. Prove it. Either you’re ignorant or a liar or both.
Of course it is right to have a holocaust denial law. But it is as “stupid” to pretend that Holocaust never happened as pretending that Palestine was “empty” when Jews came and only little “bad things if any” happened. What happened in Germany doesn’t in any way justify what happened / happens in Palestine. Palestinians did not run Auschwitz of Dachau. If we use Holocaust as the “legal and moral” framework for establishing Israel, Israel should have been established in Bavaria (or some other Bundesland).
LeaNder it is not the question about the amount of dead in a “nations” catastrophe. Also Israel has created a very agressive and brutal military machine which holds a whole region in fear and brink of atomic war. Not to mention those millions under its occupation and exploitation. If we forget some absurd features in Nazi Germany’s ideology and behaviour, modern days Israel resembles in many ways Adolf’s Germany. Widespread unhealthy feeling of own superiority over the untermenschen, an extremely agressive and brutal “foreign policy” and no desire of solving problems using compromises. I do not claim that Israelis are Nazis. Far from that.But I claim in some many aspects of the Germany in the 30’s and Israel now have certain similarities. It is difficult to see any truth in the Israeli and US claims how Iran resembles Nazi Germany. Iran is as prepared militarily to a major war as Poland was in 1939. Israel on the other hand is as prepared and mentally ready as Germany was in 1939.
This Nabka denial by Israeli politician is natural because the are the ones “behind” the crime. But at least Israelis should be wise enough not to demand that the world is not allowed to use the word Nabka. Well in the way it good that those politicians in agressive tone demand UN not to use the “word”. In that way Nabka gets more publicity and understanding.
OK, admittedly I may be a bit oversensitive concerning the excessive comparisons with Nazi/Hitler/Goebbels as rhetorical weapons. It’s a standard over here for whomever is considered the political enemy.
I completely agree with you, that the Palestinians weren’t guilty but somehow had to pay. I agree that it can’t be a question of numbers, And I have to admit that I resent much of the rationalizations. But still I think, it makes a difference when bureaucrats sit on their desks over calculations and decide that one bullet for each of the “Untermenschen” means that too much money is necessary to get rid of “the problem”. I spare you more precise desciptions, e.g. from my Cologne surroundings.
“Also Israel has created a very aggressive and brutal military machine which holds a whole region in fear and brink of atomic war.”
Before I heard about the Samson Option, I would have wiped this away, but I think the problem goes deeper. It is essentially a “Western” problem. Is there anything wrong with the US having atom bomb? France? Well, that is only for detention.
But can we trust Iran? But we see also that Iran could have a legitimate desire to keep the US armies at a distance since it is designated part of the Axis of Evil. Is this a creation for the US military complex after all, with Israel providing propagandistic aid? ( I don’t know, I ask you?)
Isn’t the core of the problem the dilemma Israel finds itself in NOW. With its special set of unsolved problems, and do we get to the core of these problems if we use a much an over used comparison, or does this comparison in fact buries the real problem beneath itself, due to its rhetorical power? Doesn’t it only serve to vent our anger and frustration? And isn’t the obvious reply to that: Why do you care so much about what the Israelis do, when it happens in fact all over the world?
Thus the use of these rhetorics only perpetrates a stale mate were we all are bored about the endless circle of affront and defense. We should get out of this vicious circle and it start with being more careful with words.
Wouldn’t you like to see a different discussion of the problem? Then start with yourself, don’t repeat the same standards all over again. The only way dissent will be heard is when it develops a language that can’t be easily discarded. I want to see a legitimate critique and not rhetorics that always have the taste of a simple reversal. Yes Israel does bad things, but it sits in a seemingly unsolvable dilemma. The only way to stop a catastrophe is to give them a chance to give up the strategy of the “Iron Wall”. (Power and Deterrence; at its peak the atom bomb) To move beyond an eternal confrontation with the “Arab Mind”. (see Fratricide in the Holy land, A psychoanalytic View of the Arab-Israeli Conflict, Avner Falk, 2004)
Let me pick the racist accusation. That’s both wrong and right. You could equally argue, that its a melting pot as far as Jews are concerned. True the problem is the sidelining of the law for Arab citizen, but is that racist or anti-Arabic. Can’t be anti-Arabic since there are “Oriental Jews” vs “Arab Israelis”.
Do me a favor and simply read over the passages I have changed but not carefully looked at after. 😉
Obama and his supporter do not make sense.
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Mr. Obama has got a mini genocide on his hand already with his tacit support of Odinga.
Did Mr. Obama apologize to Kenya? I have not heard.
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He must be out of his mind to be even running for President.
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Mr. Obama is Peter’s proof. Even unqualified people can reach high offices.
[comment deleted for violation of comment rules]
@Protesting Obama:
Steven, you’ve outdone yrself for preposterous comments. Because Kenya is in the middle of fratricidal tribal conflict that’s Obama’s fault how? I’d say you must be out of yr own mind thinking this is a comment that makes any sense whatsoever. If you want to peddle Obamaphobia I wish you’d do so elsewhere.
But can we trust Iran? But we see also that Iran could have a legitimate desire to keep the US armies at a distance since it is designated part of the Axis of Evil. Is this a creation for the US military complex after all, with Israel providing propagandistic aid? ( I don’t know, I ask you?)
LeaNder try to find from internet some facts about the Iranian military and military spending. You find that Iran’s army is purely defensive and poorly equipped. It has no means or equipment to attack neighbours or Israel. It only can retaliate with some few missile and guerilla strategy. The military realities are that for example Saudi Arabia used for its military $31.255 billion (2006), Iran $6.3 billion (2005) and Israel $18.7 billion (FY99). Iran uses to its military 3.5% (2005) of its GDP and Israel 9.4% (FY99). Iran is in population eight and in land area 78 times bigger than Israel.
Should we afraid of Iran and can we trust it? Well as much as we “wait from” Israel and Saudi Arabia. All three are religiously run countries, which do not fit “good” in the modern world.. The Iranian president and some priests make often stupid and agressive remarks, but so do Israeli politicians and priests. In the news Israeli and US politicians and military men are threatening Iran militarily tens of times more often than Iranians them. Israel and US speak even more or less directly of the possible usage of nuclear weapons, by them not Iran. The difference in rhetoric is that Iran is bulling without no real dangerous means, Israel and USA are bulling with a superior military power. I would be much more worried of Lieberman next year as a potential defence minister armed with hundreds of nukes, than of a future president of Iran who might after ten years have nuclear weapons. Naturally it would be best that the more or less religious “nuts” in Israel, Iran, USA, Saudi Arabia etc would not have nukes. But so long Israel has nukes so long the neighbours need nukes to balance the military and power imbalance. Sad but so it works.
“LeaNder try to find from internet some facts about the Iranian military and military spending. ”
This is exactly what I mean. The threat is partly created (to be more precise: exaggerated), since this region is of utter geopolitical importance (there may be real fears, what exactly happened in Cheney’s energy task force?). But if you pick out Lieberman or Bush and the Neocons you have to realize that already Clinton was busy with an embargo, and partial bombing of Iraq. So Iraq had been a main target before. What changed after 911 is strategy. The world was presented with the Axis of Evil, for easy memorization, post 9/11. Strictly Israel and the most vicious Arabophobes would have preferred Iran from the very start. It may not be up to US military capacities, but it has an enormously young population and is bigger than Iraq. … As Iraq due to the long time efforts (UN inspection rumors of cia infiltration: embargo) was considered a: cake walk (and yes unfinished business).
During the Kosovo war, I was asked to translate an US Peace Now activist, a women, for a German audience. The war drums up to the Kosova war, the utterly strange “horse-shoe-encirclement” propaganda and “extensive Holocaust symbolism” finally forced itself into my consciousness. Some Social Democrats and Green’s had troubles to control their faces, presenting the tale. Before I simply didn’t want to know which groups were the most evil in the larger post communist Balkan conflict, As a complete nitwit in these activist circles, my preparation was mainly to read US newspapers. A standard argument, as I remember it, was that Europe had to “grow up”. To deal with its problems on its own. And to be able to do so, it had to enormously raise its defense spendings. It had to start to “clean up” on its own front doors.
What do you think was below this argument? The cold war was over and the US was re-orientating its “central spheres” of influence. But if I remember from that event, which is pretty long ago by now. In spite of this fact, the US defense budget raised constantly. For what, for whom? Has the US been ever attacked by anyone?
I am admittedly deeply puzzled, since I realize the military complex seems also a main motor of innovation. We somehow owe him the web. But strictly don’t the produced weapons sometimes need to be used, so new orders to fill the storehouses can arrive? Who exactly is in charge of US longtime strategical planning. Is this an open book? Always? Was the “democratization” perspective only a new strategy to solve old problems?
How about a chart of the military production plants in the US? Dependency of the economy on the diverse state levels on these companies. Dependencies with other companies. Work! Voting habits and representatives in both senate and congress concerning military spendings. And yes why not entanglements of the Israeli lobby and the US in this field with special attention on a new development in this field: Security, private companies. How does perception change if one looks at matter via this informations?
I think these are the forces the new left lobby, J-Street, confronts. And they may be partially “Jewish” but as far as they are enamored with power, they are very American. The close alliance with Israel offers a refreshing of the glory of WWII and yes that’s the point were Hitler and the Nazis enter the stage. And that may be the reason they surface again and again in the propoganda.
Sorry, Richard, that I leave one of my typical “associative meanderings” on your list. One of my central points of orientation is still the interview Condi Rice gave to DER SPIEGEL: After the cold war, everybody wondered who would be the next enemy now. Then 911 happened and everybody knew. And yes, I somehow added something in my mind, that the paper couldn’t convey: Pleasure.
But it was a pleasure to meet you SimoHurrta! Now I shut up again!
Almost gone: looks funny: propoganda. 😉
Actually Richard would make much more money in the field that is in charge of the tales for the public. Will netizens be able in the long run to push Public Relations slightly towards its utopia: dialogue? Beyond the tales for the sheeple?
“It is the struggle of good vs. evil; God and the devil.”
So many have commented (justly) on Bush’s lack of understanding between dialogue and appeasement in his recent Knesset speech. I am surprised that that dog even hunts anything anymore it’s been so mis-used. Who swallows this? See the great letters to the editor in today’s NYT http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/17/opinion/l17bush.html?ref=opinion
Richard, re this quote above I lifted from yours- I was specifically looking for someone to comment on that one too- this business about being in a fight of good against evil which came across the airwaves in the same speech. You caught it too and it too deserves outrage of it’s own.
Don’t you get the sense that GWB has not learned a thing in all these years?
Thanks again for a good post, peacefully and thoughtfully laid out considering my own impetus to scream and pull my hair out. We are in a countdown…
“Axis of Evil” – a fight of “Good [God] vs. Evil” = a license for endless war and killing. How much translation or spelling out of consequences do people need?
Actually, there was some Palestinian participation in the Holocaust. Hajj Amin el Husseini recruited three brigades of Bosnian Muslims for the Waffen SS. These were known as the Hanjar (Scimitar) brigades and participated in the extermination of Yugoslav Jews. Husseini provided a fatwa allowing this because Bosnian Imams did not want to produce the desired fatwa. Husseini fled from Palestine to prevent capture by the British. Even before the occupation, the Palestinian leadership supported the wrong side. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d51poygEXYU
In general, you are not a particular well wisher to Israel. Your love for Israel is conditional. If Israel follows your prescriptions, then it is fine, if she doesnt, she is worse than Iran, Myanmar, or Zimbabwe
You know Leander it’s quite fascinating to be lectured by a German on the evils of Israel. Perhaps you should wait until 2933, the end of the thousand year Reich before you go into the classic aryan mode.
Palestinians were active participants in the Holocaust. Hajj Amin el Husseini, the mufti of Jerusalem, recruited 3 brigades of Bosnian Muslims for the Waffen SS, the Hanjar (Scimitar) brigades. He did this because the Bosnian Imams would not issue a fatwa to kill Yugoslav Jews, so a Palestinian Imam obliged. Take into account this occurred decades before the so-called occupation.
Richard, your columns demonstrate that you are a conditional friend of Israel. As long as Israel follows the commandments of Richard Silverstein, handed down at Mt Sinai (Seattle), it is ok. If Israel doesnt follow your commandments, it is worse than Myanmar, Iran, and Zimbabwe. If you had to choose between the people of Israel or the readership of the Guardian, who would you choose?
I lived in Israel as a teen-ager during the Yom Kipur war. I was a kid, and knew nothing about politics and history, and I am just now beginning to learn both, but I know what it felt like to be attacked while the entire nation was vulnerable- fasting and praying.
Yet I can’t condone Israel’s mistreatment of Palestinians. Loving someone sometimes means letting them know when they are in the wrong rather than granting them absolute immunity. Since we are supposedly the chosen people, isn’t it up to us to set honorable humanistic examples? Is it possible to meet Israel’s security needs, while granting Palestinians the human rights that all people deserve? A perpetual war Bush/McCain style only benefits the military industrial complex, not the people of Israel, Palestine, Iraq, Iran or USA.
@Suzanne: The diff. bet. a good president and a dullard like Bush is the good president learns fr. his or her mistakes. The dullard keeps making the same mistakes over & over expecting that doing it the same way the 2nd time will somehow cause things to come out right. I think that’s also the definition of insanity.
@Bill Pearlman: Thanks for another tasteless & insulting comment violating my comment rules, Bill. Calling a German an “Aryan” is grounds for banning. I’ve done it at least 20 times & I’ll be only too happy to do it again. The next peep out of you & you’re toast.
@A.N.: This is pathetic. Jews and Arabs both offered to collaborate with the Nazis. You seem to conveniently forget that there were Jews so full of hate towards the British that they were willing to ally themselves with the Germans in the hope that they would help do away with the Mandate. Some Irish nationalists did the same. So what does this prove?
Not at all. I am unconditional supporter of Israel, but not an unconditional supporter of its policies. That seems to be a nuance that is beyond your understanding. If you knew a bit more about the history of Zionism you’d realize that this is a time-honored tradition going all the way back to Ahad HaAm (& even farther back to the Prophets if you want to trace it that far back).
Richard, don’t ban Bill Pearlman. He can’t insult me. Basically nobody can insult with my “Germanness”. I am immune to being called a Nazi by now. But concerning this special case: His rhetorical weapons aren’t very sharp. This may in fact have been only part of a “meta-exchange” between me and our dear misogynist Billy Boy.
Richard yes – I am still pretty bewildered that the 04 election was so close. that the first mistake of electing Bush, a man who never had the goods to be president was compounded using just this kind of fear/ demagoguery/dishonesty and thievery. It never should have been so close. (What chutzpah to say that Obama isn’t qualified in the light of GWB who had little experience to begin with 8 years ago and has learned NOTHING since.)
And here we are again with more demagoguery ( see Youtube Chris Matthews make a fool out of right-wing radio screamer Kevin James who did not know the meaning of appeasement or what happened in ’38 as he kept shouting). The screamer knew NOTHING and how many who listen to him nod??
So we as a country have allowed a “dullard” ( you are too kind) to go on like this for 8 years- no impeachment for the unforgivable crime of taking us to a war that was not necessary and all that has come in it’s wake here and abroad.
And now let’s watch as “swift-boat” mavens and fearmongers take aim (encouraged by our dullard in chief in the Knesset).
Check this Suzanne, concerning the “swift-boat”. I am sure Obama’s people are busy and prepared for another hoax along these lines. Besides time are changing.
http://undercoverblackman.blogspot.com/2008/05/anti-obama-rumor-of-day.html
There were 50,000 Palestinian Jews in the British army. ( and yes at that time when you said Palestinian you were referring to Jews) There was a Moslem SS division. The Arabs threw in with the Germans, without question. Are you that caught up in moral ambiguity that you can’t make that distinction?
I am aware of what you write Bill, but – I assume you are addressing me – not quite why you think you have to point it out to m
I am aware of what you write Bill, but – I assume you are addressing me – not quite why you think you have to point it out to me.
LeaNder- it has to be more than rumor if it’s going anywhere. So let’s hear it. Maybe this is what Hillary is wishing for. But “to Swiftboat” is a verb, used a lot lately, so those with some political awareness will be more wary. But it’s a good question how much of the general public will fall again for unsubstantiated rumors with unexamined origins.
@Bill Pearlman:
A “Moslem SS division?” You don’t know shit from shinola. There may’ve been Arabs fighting for the Nazis but I’d dare you to prove they constituted an “SS division” as you claim.
So you’re saying it doesn’t bother you that Jews supported the German cause in order to overthrow the Brits??
Jim Lobe, Nazi-Iran Analogy:
http://www.ips.org/blog/jimlobe/?p=140
It was the 13th waffen SS division, The Scimitar Division Waffen SS. They had a great time hunting Jews in Yugoslavia. Meanwhile you had the Jewish Brigade, attached to the Briitish army. Among the other 50,000 Palestinian Jews in the British army. Hannah Senesh, SOE, droped into Europe and tortured to death by the same Germans who were entertaining the mufti in Jerusalem. You can bow down to the altar of the nakba all you want but don’t try to white wash Moslem backing of the Nazi’s.
As usual, you can’t trust the truth or accuracy of anything Bill says. I had to look up this stupid issue in Wikipedia to get to the bottom of it. Yes, there was an SS division composed of Bosnian Muslims (not Palestinian Muslims) and Catholics. There were approx. 10,000 Muslims serving. They fought for the Germans for reasons having nothing whatsoever to do w. Jews or Palestinian Muslims. They fought because Serbian Chetniks had murdered 100,000 Bosnian Muslims earlier in WWII & there was a desire to fight back.
Meanwhile:
I still find it unbelievable that any Jew could support the German side no matter how much hatred they might have for the British. A Jew supporting Germany is FAR MORE TROUBLING than a Bosnian Muslim serving in the German army to fight Serbian fascists. It musn’t bother Bill because we still haven’t heard a peep out of him on this.
Not to mention that Ben Gurion made his famous statement that he’d prefer to witness the destruction of all of European Jewry if the alternative was that all escaped to countries other than Israel (then Palestine).
@LeaNder: I ban him not just because of the insults directed at you. Pearlman is just an insult to the human race & damn tiresome.
Don’t worry, he seems to have access to unlimited IP addresses & manages to weasel his way back into the threads.
It’s embarrassing how little you all know about the depth of Arab and Moslem cooperationwith the Germans.And for intelligent people to use wikipedia as a source. http://www.nyjtimes.com/cover/03-22-05/Arabs&Nazis-CanItBeTrue.htm
“But it’s a good question how much of the general public will fall again for unsubstantiated rumors with unexamined origins.”
Suzanne, I sure hope the Obama camp has a brilliant risk assessment. So far they did a good job.
Richard, Billy Boy is pretty predictable. Obviously for you, that must feel quite a bit different. For me he is some kind of counterpoint. He doesn’t hit really deeply. Mostly it feels like a rather light-hearted insult and fast insult, andyou won’t believe occasionally he even dives beyond these surfaces. Rarely only, but nevertheless.
I am not really deeply familiar with the Zionist or Palestinian/Arab/Muslim Nazi connections. The Husseini (however you like to spell it) clan had a man in Berlin. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohammad_Amin_al-Husayni, and I am sure he had his fingers in Muslim recruitment. I doubt if the Zionist were that close ….. So on this issue I still lean slightly towards Pearlman.
At the moment Francis R Nicosia seems to be losing the fight against many other author’s books. But he sure is still on my reading list. http://tinyurl.com/4aexvd
Too many play to fat with evidence, for my taste.
Richard, I have decided to consider Pearlman as a counterpoint. Maybe in the state of “countercheck quarrelsome”. (search Romeo and Juliet) Besides, I am leaning towards his position on this.If I were a friend of reading history backwards or confusing it with fiction, I might find the Zionist – Nazi connection more interesting too. But while lately Francis R. NIcosia has lost the fight against a whole pile of other authors, I will read him in the near future: http://tinyurl.com/4aexvd
There definitively is a connection between the Husseini clan and the Nazis: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohammad_Amin_al-Husayni. … I doubt the Zionist were that close.
Suzanne, Obama will win! Especially since Richard told us, it never happened before that someone he supported became president. And yes, I trust in the risk assessment of the Obamaites. And I will be really offended, if some”kind of swiftboaters” will again fish for bias. What is Rove doing?
Richard, I have decided to consider Pearlman as a counterpoint. Maybe in the state of “countercheck quarrelsome”. (…) Besides, I am leaning towards his position on this issue. We can’t read the thirties from our contemporary perspectives,. And yes, I have absolutely no doubt the Zionists were children of their times, how could they have been anything but? It’s an absolutely interesting topic no doubt. One of these day I’ll dive into these times, with a little help from Francis R. Nicosia. At the moment he has lost the fight against a whole pile of other authors. But I will read him in the near future: http://tinyurl.com/4aexvd.
There definitively is a close connection between the Husseini clan and the Nazis; even if the Wiki’s cry bias at the moment. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohammad_Amin_al-Husayni. … I still doubt the Zionist were that close.
Suzanne, Obama will win! Especially since Richard told us, it never happened before that someone he supported became president. And yes, I trust in the risk assessment of the Obamaites. And I will be really offended, if some”kind of swiftboaters” will again fish for bias. What is Rove doing?
@Mark: It is ironic beyond measure that someone relying on a “source” called the “New York Jewish Times” would impugn the reliability of Wikipedia as a source; especially w/o providing a shred of evidence (“evidence,” what’s evidence?) to question it. I carefully vet Wikipedia articles before I link to them. Yr standards apparently aren’t as high.
I didn’t say Arabs didn’t collaborate. I said that Jews sought to as well which, once again is a claim that none of you apologists are willing to touch w. a 10 foot pole.
@Mark
Quote:
You should always exercise criticism of your sources. Avoid media or writers you know or suspect of having a bias. I prefer to use regimes opposition or critics. Like Richard here. On Iran I prefer to read arab newspapers, and vice versa.
In Uncharted Waters Wikipedia is an excellent starting point, use the footnotes for a check, and if you are the least uncertain, spend 5 minutes “googling” on important issues.
Back to you Mark. Your link to “New York Jewish Times” as a proof of arab cooperation with the nazi regime fails the most benign litmus test as a reliable source. You will always find people cooperating with the enemy. Hitler had Quisling and jewish “kapos”, US have Maliki and Kharzai, Israel have Abbas. Why some people chose to side with the enemy is hard to tell. Sometimes greed, ideology, pressure or just stupidity.
Your embarrassment should not be our ignorance of ” Arab and Moslem cooperation with the Germans” but of your own opinionated assertion that we lack the very quality your comment is a valid proof of short supply.