For anyone who is somewhat educated and has a knowledge of historical documented fact, this incredulously insensitive, fraudulent and abusive use of the term "Holocaust", reveals the true depth of hatred these "Haters of Israel" possess. Just the thought of associating a term that has come to represent the systematically planned total extermination of the Jewish people to what is occurring to the "Palestinians" is beyond credible thought.
As for the "anti-Zionistic" Jews, who suffer from IDS, Israel Derangement Syndrome. They blindly wallow in contaminated pools of murky material from biased, non-factual unreliable and unsubstantiated sources. These mindless, blinkered and myopic followers wholeheartedly believe the lies and dis-information they have been fed evidently due to a form of acute mental dysfunction. They are allied with the "Falestinians" in the spreading of the grossest lies and untruths.
I truly believe that the reason why Israel is so hated by them is that our true acts of real humanitarian aid, as in Haiti and with the case of Dafur, reveal their shortcomings as totally naive human beings. These anarchists and bleeding hearts cannot bring themselves to admit their mistakes due to lack of intelligent thought and first hand knowledge.
They have consistently turned a blind eye to the most outrageous acts of terrorism and barbarity by Palestinian "Militants", yet they are ever ready to jump on every falsehood to ridicule and attack Israel. The very actions of these "Liberal Minds" reveal their true insensitivity to cherish real Jewish life time and time again. It is so hypocritical that one should hate ones own being so much that one should use this self hatred to besmirch others.
When I think of them I am reminded of the famous dialogue between Otto Kahn, [ A famous banker and convert to Christianity born and raised in the city of Mannheim, Germany 1867–1934] and a hunchback in front of the Episcopalian Church on Fifth Avenue;
Otto Khan: "I belong to that church.”
“I know,” said the hunchback.
Otto Kahn: “I’m very active in the church; I’m one of the vestrymen,”
the hunchback:“I know.”
Otto Kahn:“I used to be a Jew,”
“I know,” said the hunchback; “I used to be a hunchback.”
I would like to elaborate my feelings on this issue that I firmly believe has reached the point where we in Israel should shout out "Die" which in Hebrew means "Enough!" A fellow pro – Zionist Bloggist who goes by the title, "BlueTruth", has recently sent out a mailer concerning a series of events on US university campuses entitled "Never Again for Anyone".
The talk which is being hosted by; BAKA - Students United for Middle Eastern Justice is sponsored by the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network, with Sara Kershnar, as their representative. The American Muslims for Palestine and the Middle East Children's Alliance. The series of events wishes to brain wash innocent and naïve American university students into equating the Israeli "Military Occupation" in the West Bank with a fictiticious "Holocaust".
Dr. Hatem Bazian, a UC Berkeley lecturer and chairman of the American Muslims for Palestine. Bazian has instigated "The "Never Again for Anyone" lecture tour. Dr. Hatem Bazian is well known for his call for "intifada" in America. His organization, American Muslims for Palestine, recently circulated a libelous article accusing Israel of all things of creating; "unusually fierce and aggressive dogs that terrorize the West bank".
Also taking part on the panel of this "Tour" is an Auschwitz survivor Dr. Hajo Meyer the author of a book in Dutch entitled Het einde van het Jodendom (The end of Judaism) published in 2003, which accuses Israel of abusing the Holocaust to justify crimes against the Palestinians.
For hundreds of years, the word "holocaust" was used in English to denote massive sacrifices and great slaughters or massacres. After World War II, the word was used to describe Nazi atrocities regardless of whether the victims were Jews or non-Jews.
According to the Webster English dictionary the word Holocaust is defined simply as originating from the Greek word ὁλόκαυστος holókaustos: hólos, meaning both "whole" and kaustós, "burnt" – a sacrifice consumed by fire or a thorough destruction. There is absolutely no reference in the dictionary definition to its more recent sinister connotation the planned "final solution" or genocide of European Jewry.
To the Jewish people and particularly to the Jews of Israel the "Holocaust" is referred to as "The Shoah" from the Hebrew word- השואה, HaShoah, which simply means "calamity". In Yiddish the term is more meaningfully correct חורבן Hurban, since it is derived from the Hebrew for "destruction".
With the discoveries of the horrors of the Nazi factories of death at the end of World War II and the total extent of the actual genocide and very real "ethnic" cleansing by the Nazis. There was a very short lived world-wide empathy for the Jewish people until the rise of Communism. It was this wave of revulsion at the ghastly horrors inflicted on the Jewish people and the strident attempts make to exit Europe for Palestine that brought forth the eventual passing of the UN vote for the partition of Palestine.
It was not until much later in the middle 1960s after the trial of Adolph Eichman that the whole non-Hebrew speaking world began to use the word "Holocaust" to refer exclusively to the extermination of Jews in Nazi occupied Europe. It was also during the 1960s that the world had finally begun to admit their complicity of silence during the "Holocaust" and because of this we Jews have become sensitive to the use of the term.
So how does the Israeli "Occupation" compare to the very real and documented treatment of the Jews during the Holocaust? Allow me to take you back to the historical facts and truth of what real ethnic cleansing is Nazi style and just how the disease of anti-Semitic hatred stills continues to burn.
It is a historical fact that Adolph Hitler had planned out his policies to eradicate the Jews in his 694 page manifesto "Mein Kampf" or My Struggle (which was published in two volumes in 1925 and 1926). Hitler's hatred of the Jews had begun early in his life and became exacerbated with the downfall of his beloved adopted homeland Germany after its defeat and disgrace in the aftermath of World War I. In "Mein Kampf" Hitler refers to his master plan for the "final solution" of the Jews in the passage, "…that if 12,000–15,000 Jews were gassed, then "the sacrifice of millions of soldiers would not have been in vain".
With his ascension to power in 1933 as the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party (German: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, abbreviated NSDAP), commonly known as the Nazi Party. He had begun his policy to curtail Jewish life in Germany immediately and Nazism became an official ideology incorporating scientific racism and anti-Semitism that there was a rapid growth in German legislation directed at Jews.
In 1935 the Reichstag approved the Nuremberg Laws or Nürnberg Laws (German: Nürnberger Gesetze) which were anti-Semitic laws in Nazi Germany introduced at the annual Nuremberg Rally of the Nazi Party. The Nuremberg Laws were basically an incorporation of the 25 Point Platform of the Nazi Party (adopted in February 1920), which demands that only "Aryan" Germans be allowed to publish newspapers and own department stores, places a ban on Jewish immigration, expels all Ostjuden (Eastern Jews; i.e., Jews from Eastern Europe who had arrived in Germany since 1914) and strips all German Jews of their German citizenship. The lack of a clear legal method of defining who was Jewish had, however, allowed some Jews to escape some forms of discrimination aimed at them. The enactment of laws identifying who was Jewish made it easier for the Nazis to enforce legislation restricting the basic rights of German Jews.
During the period 1933 -1942 the youth of Germany were exposed to the writings and speeches of earlier volkisch leaders such as Wilhelm Marr, Georg Ritter von Schönerer, Houston Stewart Chamberlain and Karl Lueger, all of whom routinely called Jews a "disease" and "vermin." Nevertheless, Hitler cites all of them as an inspiration in Mein Kampf and he passed this vision into the propaganda films such as the infamous The Eternal Jew.
The Eternal Jew was a "movie produced in the style of a documentary, the central thesis being the immutable racial personality traits that, according to Nazi doctrine, characterize the Jew as a wandering cultural parasite. Throughout the film, these supposed traits are contrasted to the Nazi state ideal: while Aryan men are shown to find satisfaction in physical labor and the creation of value, Jews are depicted as finding pleasure in money and a hedonist lifestyle. While members of the Aryan race live healthily, rich Jews are shown as living in bug-infested and dirty homes, even though they could afford better. The footage to convey this was actually captured in ghettos, where living conditions were very poor and unsanitary surroundings were virtually inevitable. While Germanic/Nordic man has an appreciation for Northern culture and imagery, Jews are alleged only to find satisfaction in the grotesque and decadent." The Nazi Party monthly publication Unser Wille und Weg was also used to voice the party line of anti-Semitic hatred and defamation of the Jewish people.
On May 25, 1940 Heinrich Himmler sent a memorandum with proposals to Hitler regarding the "Final Solution to the Jewish Question". In the memorandum, Himmler rejects genocide under the grounds that one must reject "...the Bolshevik method of physical extermination of a people out of inner conviction as un-German and impossible." He goes on to argue that something similar to the "Madagascar Plan" be the preferred "territorial solution" to the "Jewish Question". The Madagascar Plan was a plan to ethnically cleanse Europe of all of it's Jewish population to this island that was a French colony. The island had come under Vichy French control in the aftermath of the surrender of France in the armistice of 25 June 1940. SS Leader Heinrich Himmler, in his "Reflections on the Treatment of Peoples of Alien Races in the East", declared: "I hope that the concept of Jews will be completely extinguished through the possibility of a large emigration of all Jews to Africa or some other colony."The failure of the Madagascar Plan, and the eventual logistical problems of deportation in general, ultimately lead to the conception of the "Final Solution of the Jewish Question." Meanwhile the Warsaw ghetto was completed and opened in October. Expulsions of Jews from German territory into occupied Poland continued again from late autumn 1940 to spring 1941.
Okay let us review, the Nazi's first enacted restrictive laws called the Nurmeberg Laws. Secondly Jews are stripped of citizenship and deprived of their, jobs, homes and wealth. Meanwhile the Nazi propaganda machine labeled the Jews as "Under Munchen" sub-humans, a quality that would supposedly make it easier for the Germans participating in the mass extermination campaign to feel that they were "cleansing" and not murdering. Now what happens next? What happened to the Balfour Declaration and its call for a Jewish Homeland? What was the reaction of the Arabs in the "Mandated Territories"?
Until the official beginning of World War II on September 1, 1939 Jews where encouraged to leave Greater Germany by Hitler, however no matter how hard they tried most of the doors of the countries of the world where closed. Even the Palestinian Mandated areas designated as the homeland for the Jewish people under British control was limited to a meager migration due to the enactment of the "White Paper of 1939."
"It was recommended in the Peel Commission Report of 1937, was abandoned in favour of creating an independent Palestine governed by Palestinian Arabs and Jews in proportion to their numbers in the population by 1949 (section I). A limit of 75,000 Jewish immigrants was set for the five-year period 1940-1944, consisting of a regular yearly quota of 10,000, and a supplementary quota of 25,000, spread out over the same period, to cover refugee emergencies. After this cut-off date, further immigration would depend on the permission of the Arab majority (section II). Restrictions were also placed on the rights of Jews to buy land from Arabs (section III)"
This "White Paper of 1939" was in direct violation of Article 15 of the Mandate for Palestine which states: "No person shall be excluded from Palestine on the sole ground of his religious belief."
According the British White Paper of 1922 to Sir Alec Kirkbride, the British representative in the area, Transjordan was:
... intended to serve as a reserve of land for use in the resettlement of Arabs once the National Home for the Jews in Palestine, which [Britain was] pledged to support, became an accomplished fact. There was no intention at that stage of forming the territory east of the River Jordan into an independent Arab state.So now the British and the Arabs have forced the doors of Palestine to be closed and the anti-Semites have closed all the other doors what do the Nazis do?
So now that the Jews had no where to go and Poland with it's massive Jewish population under their control what do the Nazis do? They begin by using the SS Einsatzgruppen (Task Forces) death squads who followed the Wehrmacht during the Operation Barbarossa invasion of the USSR in June 1941. The initial extermination method of shooting people in burial pits proved logistically and psychologically inefficient, so in late 1941, the Nazis established camps specifically for mass extermination via gas chambers
All of this changes at the Wannssee Conference of January 20,1942. At the conference Reinhard Heydrich of the Schutzstaffel (SS) chief executor of the "Final solution to the Jewish question" informed administrative leaders of Departments responsible for various policies relating to Jew sand the laid out the systematic state-sponsored extermination of the Jewish people. Concentration camps were built and then turned into extermination camps the most famous of which included Belzec, Majdanek, Sobibor, Treblinka, and Auschwitz-Birkenau.
The inmates of the concentration camps died through deliberate maltreatment, disease, starvation, and overwork, or were executed as unfit for labor. Now with the introduction of the Wannssee conference "Final Solution" construction of the extermination camps on the hubs of rail lines prisoners were transported in inhumane conditions by freight railcars, in which many died before reaching their destination. The prisoners were confined to the railcars for days or even weeks, with little or no food or water. Many died of dehydration in the intense heat of summer or froze to death in winter. Concentration camps also existed in Germany itself, and though they were not specifically designed for systematic extermination, many of their inmates perished because of harsh conditions or were executed.
Of approximately nine million European Jews who had resided in Europe before the Holocaust more than six million were exterminated. And why was this? Simply because we Jews had NO homeland with open gates that would have as I mentioned previously to go to. It is extremely important to remember here that the Nazis had opted to expel the Jews from Europe. But there was NOWHERE to go! Arab hatred inspired by British indifference and broken promises not only closed the gates to a promised Jewish Homeland in "Palestine" it gave the Nazis the green light to carry out the "Final Solution". It was the complicity of the British by making pledges to both sides and then reneging on them that turned the Jews and Arabs against one another and denied the millions of European Jews their lives.
Let me begin by saying here and now that I am no friend of all the "Settlers" nor do I readily approve of the "Occupation". The euphemism used to describe the settlement of Jews in the area termed the West Bank. I would like to point out that there is absolutely no such thing as a "Peaceful" or benign occupation. On this point I wish to clarify. I know that there will be many who read this from all sides who will find issue with my words but as the famous French philosopher of the Enlightenment Voltaire once said; "I may disagree with what you have to say, but I shall defend to the death your right to say it." Originated in "The Friends of Voltaire", 1906, by S. G. Tallentyre.
Now please allow me to quote the conveniently forgotten historical and documented FACTs as radically opposed to ARAB LIES AND MISINFORMATION.
HISTORICAL FACT: Ever since the truly outstanding Israeli triumph in the DEFENSIVE war known as the "Six Day War" in that fateful June of 1967, Israeli forces crossed the 1949 Rhodes agreement "Green" ARMISTICE lines and "liberated" the "West Bank".
HISTORICAL FACT: Few of these out spoken critics recall that the "West Bank", is in historical fact the biblical Jewish Kingdoms of Judea and Shomron of Eretz Yisrael.
HISTORICAL FACT : Most interestingly of all is the that this area was part of the Versailles agreement appointed British "Mandate for Palestine". An area designated for a Jewish Homeland in Palestine.
HISTORICAL FACT: Even fewer of them remember that the area of the "West Bank" was captured and "OCCUPIED" by the Arab Legion of Jordan in 1948.
HISTORICAL FACT:That the Palestinians did not utilize this period of an Arab "Occupation" from 1948 till 1967 to create a Palestinian state is a totally forgotten.
HISTORICAL FACT: The pre 1967 view of Israel as the "Little David" fighting for it's very existence, against a massive build up of Arab military forces from Egypt, Syria, Lebanon. Jordan and Iraq with the daily televised demonstrations that called for the annihilation of Israel have faded from the collective memory of the world. Few remember the overwhelming desire of Israel to achieve peace in the aftermath of the war and the resounding reply of the Khartoum Resolution of September 1, 1967 in what became known as the "Three 'No's": "no peace with Israel, no recognition of Israel, no negotiations with it."
Now as to the accusations of the "Haters of Israel" that accuse Israel of the "ethnic cleansing of Palestine" where were your voices in 1948?
Why did the world once again stand aside when the "Jordanian Legionnaires" conquered and "OCCUPIED" Jerusalem, with its ancient Jewish Quarter and the Kotel –the Western Wall. Where were these hypocrites when the entire Jewish population of the "Old City" and the Gush Etzion Block were ethnically cleansed and their homes were either destroyed or occupied? Why is this real true historical fact totally ignored?
How many remember the total destruction and desecration of the two Jewish Synagogues the Hurva and Tiferet Yisrael? The destruction and desecration of the Jewish graveyards on the Mount of Olives, whose tombstones where used to pave the trenches of the Jordanian Legionnaires?
The well minded totally naïve "liberal idealists" who are now so outspoken against Israel's "Occupation" fail to remember that Israel had attempted to end the "Occupation" BEFORE the establishment of the first "Jewish settlement" in Sebastia in 1978.
That for nearly 20 years prior to the Intifada in 1987 the Jews of Israel and the Palestinians had known a period of relative quiet and commerce.Thousands of Palestinians worked daily within the "Green Line" in Israel. Thousand of Israelis would cross over the "Green Line" into the West Bank to do shopping, visit historical religious sites and eat meals in restaurants. In the "Old City" life was pleasant Jews, Arabs –Moslem and Christian alike moved among each other in tranquility.
Let me add here that there were acts of Terror and murder but on the whole life went on in a much more open manner.
HISTORICAL FACT: Israel has attempted to make peace multiple times but they have always reverted to acts of violence and terrorism. As in the Oslo Accords of 1993 in which the PLO would acknowledge the state of Israel and pledge to reject violence, and Israel would recognize the (unelected) PLO as the official Palestinian authority, allowing Yasser Arafat to return to the West Bank. After the signing of the Accords, the attacks against Israel did not stop but instead they intensified. There are those Palestinian apologists who accused Palestinian rejectionist organizations as committing the acts of violence to thwart the peace process. In essence it was latter found in documents seized in the buildings of the Palestinian Authority had no interest in stopping these attacks and Arafat was instead endorsing them.
A point in case is the "Al-Aqsa Intifada." which began in late September 2000 Palestinian leader Marwan Barghouti admitted to Al-Hayat (29 September 2001) one of the leading daily pan-Arab newspapers:
I knew that the end of September was the last period (of time) before the explosion, but when Sharon reached the al-Aqsa Mosque, this was the most appropriate moment for the outbreak of the intifada....The night prior to Sharon's visit, I participated in a panel on a local television station and I seized the opportunity to call on the public to go to the al-Aqsa Mosque in the morning, for it was not possible that Sharon would reach al-Haram al-Sharif just so, and walk away peacefully. I finished and went to al-Aqsa in the morning....We tried to create clashes without success because of the differences of opinion that emerged with others in the al-Aqsa compound at the time....After Sharon left, I remained for two hours in the presence of other people, we discussed the manner of response and how it was possible to react in all the cities (bilad) and not just in Jerusalem. We contacted all (the Palestinian) factions.The Arafat inspired "Intifada" civil uprising led to the wave of incredibly terrible acts of suicide bombing and murders that caused Israel to reply by building the "Security Wall" which has deprived the Palestinian terrorists their free access to commit atrocities. The fact that the Israeli "Security Wall" was brought on as a reaction to Palestinian inspired violence is lost on the critics of Israel. The fact that the "Security Wall" has caused hardships on the Palestinians is the price that the Palestinians chose to bring upon themselves alone.
Over the past few years; the pro-Palestinian propaganda machine, and their Anti-Zionistic Jewish lobby of moronic, morally brainwashed and idiotic self-hating Jewish lobbyists, have not only defamed the sanctity of the cherished memory of the martyred millions of Jews. They have consistently ignored and denied historical fact that the Israeli Military "Occupation" measures have been brought on by violent acts of terrorism by the Palestinians against Israeli civilian targets.
After the Geneva Peace Conference with Arab countries (21 December 1973) Abba Eban, the father of Israeli statesmanship, former foreign minister and ambassador to the United States and United Nations, was quoted is stating that; "Palestinians never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity." The Jerusalem Post (18 November 2002). He is also quoted as stating; "Lest Arab governments be tempted out of sheer routine to rush into impulsive rejection, let me suggest that tragedy is not what men suffer but what they miss".To defame Israel by the use of the term "Holocaust" in its actions in the "West Bank" is ludicrous as is the claim of "Ethnic Cleansing". What in reality should be asked is why the Arabs themselves expelled more than 900,000 Jews of Arab lands from their homes?