Sean Spicer’s Historical Revisionism: Nazis ‘Didn’t Use Chemical Weapons’

“That’s another fine kettle of fish you’ve gotten us into this time, Ollie”

–Stan Laurel

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Poor Sean Spicer. No sooner has the brouhaha died down over his previous major gaffe than a new one breaks wind.

Today, Spicer made the inevitable error of confirming Godwin’s Law in a big way:  seeking to paint Bashar al-Assad as the worst dictator in the history of…well, everything–he likened him to Hitler (of course).  Not content to leave it at that, Spicer had to prove Assad was worse than Hitler.  How to do that?  After all, it’s hard to top murdering 20-million, including 6-million Jews.  So Spicer first tried the lame-brained claim that Hitler never used chemical weapons.  Oops…I can hear the curators at Had VaShem groaning with despair.  What is Zyklon B? Air freshener?

Here’s what Spicer said:

“We didn’t use chemical weapons in WWII. We had someone as despicable as Hitler who didn’t even sink to using chemical weapons,” Spicer said. Later when given the chance to elaborate he only made it worse: “I think when you come to sarin gas, there was no – he was not using the gas on his own people the same way that Assad is doing,” Spicer said. When reporters interrupted to note the millions of deaths in concentration camps, the response made even less sense: “there was not in the – he brought them into the Holocaust centers and I understand that,” he said.

By the time the reporters in the briefing room picked their jaws up off the floor, he sought to clarify–at least Hitler never used chemical weapons against his own people.  As if murdering 20-million Russians, Jews, Poles, gays and Communists wasn’t enough!  Not to mention that with the Gestapo rooting out internal dissent and enforcing slavish obedience to der Führer, there was little need for poison gas.

Further, Spicer made the dubious claim that the Allies never used chemical weapons in World War II.  Which is true…except that we used WMD of far greater lethality: two atom bombs on Japan which killed nearly one-million human beings.

That Spicer said this nonsense on the first day of Passover, a holiday celebrated furtively in concentration camp barracks by Jewish inmates during the Holocaust, only adds to the insult.

There seems implicit in Spicer’s daft history lesson the implication that there is a kosher way to murder people in war that civilization will accept; and treif methods it won’t:  Chemical weapons=bad; Bullets, bombs or nukes=OK.  There’s another dubious historical analogy at work here: Nazi dictators=Arab dictators; Western leaders (including Trump)=Good guys.

The Morty and Sean Show: Birds of a Feather

While we’re on the subject of unpardonable gaffes, let’s doff the hat to the inimitable Mort Klein, ZOA’s immensely overpaid boss $400K+ per annum).  Politico quoted him a few days ago comparing favorably the Hasidic (also known as “black hats”) custom of dancing boisterously at Orthodox weddings to the supposed dance skills of Blacks:

“They were dancing up a storm, these guys,” Klein said of a group of Chabad rabbis he saw dancing at a wedding, according to Politico. “I thought they were black. Instead they’re just black-hat.”

Afterward, he rubbed salt in the sound by praising his own “wit”:

“I thought it was a clever little line.”

Though Morty said this in an interview, and not in a press conference watched by millions, there was almost an audible gasp that arose from those reading the article.  “I can’t believe he said that,” arose from the lips of tens of thousands of readers.  Today, he doubled down on his previous statement, attacking the reporter who questioned his judgement (and perhaps sanity).

Mort Klein…berated a Forward reporter who called to ask about a joke Klein had made about black people being good dancers in a national magazine story.

“What are you, stupid? What are you, stupid?” Klein said. “Each different peoples have different talents that everyone knows. And everyone knows that blacks are, on average, are better dancers than other people.”

Klein [said] it is “simply a fact” that “blacks are much better dancers.” He added that “most people know” that Asians “are smarter on average than other people in America.”

…Klein said that his joke was not racist because it invoked a positive stereotype. “That I attribute a talent that one people have over another? That’s racist? That’s a positive thing,” Klein said. “If people say that Asians are smarter on average than other people in America, that is not racist. That is simply something that most people know happens to be the case. People like you, Josh, you should really be ashamed of even calling me about this.”

Klein said that he did not consider positive stereotypes about Jews offensive. “If people say Jews are better businessmen or are very good financially, I consider that a positive thing to say,” he said.

I recognize that whites cannot compete with blacks in basketball… and on average, blacks are much better dancers. That’s simply a fact. That’s a positive trait.”

Need I add, this shlimazel was the first national Jewish leader to endorse Donald Trump?

If American Jews wish to bitch and moan about the deteriorating level of affiliation with the mainstream community, and declining support for Israel among American Jewish youth, they have to look no farther than troglodytes like Mort Klein. With leaders and friends like him, we don’t need enemies.