Thursday, May 05, 2005
A Lesson Not Learned
Excerpts from Charley Reese
All too often, some of the Jews who most loudly and repeatedly cite the Holocaust have no sympathy at all for Palestinians, neither for those who were driven out of their homes in 1948 and 1967 in blatant examples of ethnic cleansing, nor for those who have been brutalized since by the Israelis. Apparently, for these hypocrites, the plea for tolerance excludes Palestinians.
When one looks objectively at how the Israelis have treated the Palestinians, one can only conclude that they learned the lessons of the Holocaust from the wrong side. When it became public some years ago that the Israeli army had once executed unarmed Egyptian prisoners of war, then-Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin said it had happened too long ago to bother with. Actually, it happened in 1956, which is a lot more recent than any Nazi war crimes, but no Israeli soldier has ever been charged. Furthermore, one of Israel's more prominent rabbis has boasted that Jewish lives are more valuable than gentile lives. Sounds racist to me.
There is a lesson to be learned from the Holocaust, but if it is to be genuine and not hypocritical, it has to apply across the board to Jews, Christians, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists and every other member of the human race. No group of people should ever again be singled out by propaganda so that people believe they are less than human.
All too often, some of the Jews who most loudly and repeatedly cite the Holocaust have no sympathy at all for Palestinians, neither for those who were driven out of their homes in 1948 and 1967 in blatant examples of ethnic cleansing, nor for those who have been brutalized since by the Israelis. Apparently, for these hypocrites, the plea for tolerance excludes Palestinians.
When one looks objectively at how the Israelis have treated the Palestinians, one can only conclude that they learned the lessons of the Holocaust from the wrong side. When it became public some years ago that the Israeli army had once executed unarmed Egyptian prisoners of war, then-Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin said it had happened too long ago to bother with. Actually, it happened in 1956, which is a lot more recent than any Nazi war crimes, but no Israeli soldier has ever been charged. Furthermore, one of Israel's more prominent rabbis has boasted that Jewish lives are more valuable than gentile lives. Sounds racist to me.
There is a lesson to be learned from the Holocaust, but if it is to be genuine and not hypocritical, it has to apply across the board to Jews, Christians, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists and every other member of the human race. No group of people should ever again be singled out by propaganda so that people believe they are less than human.
