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Contents:
Netanyahu Says West is ‘Comatose, Delusional’ in Face of Today’s Nazis: Iran: Times of Israel, Apr. 15, 2015 — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday compared Iran’s violent and expansionist aspirations in the Middle East to the Nazi campaign to conquer Europe during World War II.
On Holocaust Remembrance Day, Assessing ‘Never Again’: Abraham H. Foxman, Times of Israel, Apr. 15, 2015— As we observe the 70th Anniversary of the end of the Holocaust, it is an appropriate moment to assess how the message of “Never Again,” the major theme that emerged from this tragedy, is faring.
Israel as a Nazi State: Major Holocaust Inversion in Europe: Manfred Gerstenfeld, CIJR, Apr. 16, 2015— The widespread anti-Semitism in Europe is coming increasingly in the open.
Turkey’s Century of Denial About an Armenian Genocide: Tim Arango, New York Times, Apr. 16, 2015 — The crumbling stone monastery, built into the hillside, stands as a forlorn monument to an awful past.
Holocaust Remembrance: Jerusalem Post, Apr. 15, 2015
Yom Hashoah: Canadians to Testify at Trial of Nazi Guard: Ron Csillag, Canadian Jewish News, Apr. 15, 2015
New Campaign Calls on Europeans to Don Kippot to Fight Anti-Semitism: Sam Sokol, Jerusalem Post, Apr. 8, 2015
Pope Francis Enrages Turkey by Declaring That Slaughter of Armenians Was a Genocide: Joseph Brean, National Post, Apr . 12, 2015
NETANYAHU SAYS WEST IS ‘COMATOSE, DELUSIONAL’
IN FACE OF TODAY’S NAZIS: IRAN
Times of Israel, Apr. 15, 2015
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday compared Iran’s violent and expansionist aspirations in the Middle East to the Nazi campaign to conquer Europe during World War II. He excoriated the US-led world powers for capitulating to Iran, and allowing it to maintain key elements of its nuclear program in the deal currently being negotiated, even as Tehran seeks to acquire weapons of mass destruction and destroy the Jewish state.
World powers are “comatose” and “delusional” in the face of today’s Nazis, Iran, he charged. “The main lesson of the Second World War, for democracies, is that they cannot turn a blind eye to tyrannical regimes,” Netanyahu said during a ceremony at the Yad Vashem museum to mark Holocaust Remembrance Day. “Appeasement towards these regimes increases their aggressiveness,” the Israeli leader continued. “If this aggressiveness is not curbed in time, humanity may find itself in far greater wars in the future.”
Netanyahu noted that “ahead of World War II, the world attempted to appease the Nazis. They wanted quiet at any price, and the terrible price did come.” Six million Jews were murdered, as were millions of others. The lesson was clear, he said: Only standing firm in the face of violent, tyrannical regimes could ensure the future of humanity. But that lesson, he said, had evidently been forgotten. Just as the Nazis sought to destroy Europe, Netanyahu said, so does Iran seek to wreak havoc in the Middle East and beyond, and to annihilate Israel.
World leaders utter the words “Never again” but don’t mean them, he charged. He said he wished he could believe that the world had learned the lesson of the incomprehensible horrors wrought by the Nazis, but that “the threats to humanity are multiplying.” He cited the slaughters of innocents by Islamic extremists, and then focused heavily on Iran.
The prime minister asserted that the framework nuclear deal which was reached earlier this month between Iran and the P5+1 world powers proves that the international community has failed to learn the lessons of the Holocaust. “The Iranian regime represses its people,” Netanyahu said, “and plunges the Middle East into a tide of blood and suffering.” Just as the Nazis sought to destroy civilization, install the Aryan race and wipe out the Jewish people, he said, so too do the Iranians intend to take over this region and destroy the Jewish state. Iran was following two paths, he said, seeking nuclear weapons and the missiles to deliver them, and “exporting the Khomeini revolution to many lands via the massive use of terrorism and widespread conquest in the Middle East.”
“The danger is there for all to see… and yet the blindness is vast,” he asserted. “The West is capitulating in the face of Iran’s aggressive actions… “Iranian leaders are exporting death and destruction. The world is not listening to the calls in Iran urging Death to Israel, Death to America,” Netanyahu said. Instead of demanding the significant rolling back of Iran’s facilities, and instead of conditioning the lifting of sanctions on the end of its aggression, “the world powers are withdrawing.”
The new deal leaves nuclear capabilities in the hands of a nation that says openly that it wants to kill Israel’s six million Jews, Netanyahu complained. The civilized world is “comatose, gripped by delusion,” he charged. “The democratic states made a terrible mistake” when failing to confront the rise of Nazism, “and they’re making a terrible mistake now.” The prime minister vowed to protect the Jewish state at all costs, even if no other nation stands by Israel’s side. “We will continue to insist on the truth, and to try to open the closed eyes,” he promised, predicting “testing times ahead.”
“Even if we are forced to stand alone, we will not falter,” he said. Israel’s leaders would “ensure our right and capacity and determination to defend ourselves.” While the Jews had no power 70 years ago, “today we can make ourselves heard and we are determined to ensure our existence and our future.” Vowed Netanyahu: “We will not allow the State of Israel to become a passing phase in the history of our people.”
ON HOLOCAUST REMEMBRANCE DAY, ASSESSING ‘NEVER AGAIN’
Abraham H. Foxman
Times of Israel, Apr. 15, 2015
As we observe the 70th Anniversary of the end of the Holocaust, it is an appropriate moment to assess how the message of “Never Again,” the major theme that emerged from this tragedy, is faring. “Never Again” conveyed several themes. First and most obviously, it said that the Jewish people should never be subjected to such murderous behavior. Second, a broader conclusion stated that not only assaults against the Jewish people but all manifestations of genocide must be prevented.Third, the ultimate lesson for the Jewish people from the horrors of the Shoah was that Jews could never again allow themselves to be powerless.
So how are we doing? Not so well, when it comes to the very idea of a goal of slaughtering the Jews. The chief proponent of this today is Iran and its leadership. At the very moment when a nuclear deal is being worked out and, with it, the removal of sanctions and inevitably new legitimacy for the Islamic regime, its verbal attacks on the Jewish State have heated up. Only weeks ago, the head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard said that, “The destruction of Israel is non-negotiable.” Months before, while the nuclear talks were reaching a critical state, the supreme leader of Iran, Ali Khamenei, announced a nine-point plan for the elimination of the Jewish State. Neither statement provoked a major outcry in the international community nor did they raise questions about treating Iran as a normal state.
What is suggested by all this is that as much as the Shoah is commemorated — through a day, through education, through observance — the world does not take seriously enough the modern-day threat to revisit those terrible days. There are many reasons for this – realpolitik, tiredness, not taking Iran seriously, seeing Israel as strong. None of that excuses the apathy in the face of open Iranian intentions.
As to the concept of genocide, here too there is erosion. The term genocide is often misused to justify criticism of policies that people do not like, for example with regard to the Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians. In fact, if we define genocide as it should be, as a deliberate effort to destroy a particular group through violence, we unfortunately see too much of it around the world. In the Middle East alone, ISIS is taking this to new levels with its murderous assaults on Christians, other minorities and even Shiites. Their intent is clear. And in Kenya, we saw a return to the methodology of the Shoah, with the singling out and separating out of Christians for murder by the Somali terrorist group, Al-Shabaab, at Garissa University College. Where is the outcry of the world? Why are Christians themselves not leading a movement to denounce and prevent such atrocities? Must we wait for another Bosnia, Cambodia or Rwanda before we act?
And then there is the issue of Jewish power. The powerlessness of the Jews, both military and political, during the worst period in their history, taught the Jewish people that they could never again be in such a situation. That is what the Israel Defense Forces are all about. That is what the American Jewish community’s activity on behalf Israel, in coordination with coalition partners, is all about. And that is what working with different US administrations to combat global anti-Semitism is all about.
So what is the status of these elements of power to ensure “Never Again”? The IDF is stronger than ever. Its ability to protect the Israeli people is being greatly enhanced with the assistance of the US, by the continuing upgrading of its anti-missile technology, which undoubtedly will become an even more important component of its future security than we witnessed last summer in the Gaza conflict. Indeed, whatever the contentions between the White House and Jerusalem, the security relationship remains as strong as ever.
Meanwhile, the strong history in recent decades of US governments standing up for Jews in danger continues. Today, the State Department monitors anti-Semitism in countries around the world as it does human rights. And US officials work with the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe to combat the upsurge in anti-Semitism in Europe. SoUS power, an important ingredient in the security of Jews since World War II, is still relevant.
Yet, questions arise about the future of this theme of using power on behalf of Jews after the Holocaust. In Israel, there are those who dismiss even American assistance as unreliable. They often talk of Israel and Jews once again being alone in the world and having to depend on just themselves. These attitudes create new realities. In the US there are questions about future US leadership in the world and the impact any retreat will have on the well-being of Israel and the Jewish people. Finally, issues arise about the ability in the future of American Jews to have the same kind of impact on the condition of Israel and Jews worldwide. These issues reflect a changing Jewish community and a changing America.
As we commemorate Yom Hashoah, we must recommit ourselves to the theme of “Never Again.” It has brought much that is good to the Jewish people and the world-at-large. Its continued relevance will depend on many factors, but it all starts with our own Jewish community’s belief and recommitment.
ISRAEL AS A NAZI STATE: MAJOR HOLOCAUST INVERSION IN EUROPE
Manfred Gerstenfeld
CIJR, Apr. 16, 2015
The widespread anti-Semitism in Europe is coming increasingly in the open. The more it develops, the more Israel is accused by hatemongers or by using double standards against it. For many, Europeans this is a necessity in order to whitewash both the continent’s past and present. For some it serves to specifically cover their ancestors’ crimes.
The classic core theme of anti-Semitism is that Jews embody absolute evil. This extremely false accusation has been propagated intensely for many centuries and has lead to major discrimination, murders, pogroms, and the Holocaust. The notion of what absolute evil is has mutated over the centuries as cultures evolved. In contemporary Western societies, the main perception of absolute evil is behaving like the Nazis, or committing genocide. The massive presence of anti-Semites in the world leads regularly to accusations that Israel acts toward the Palestinians like the German Nazis and their allies behaved toward the Jews. I have coined for this severely dangerous hate motif the expression Holocaust inversion. Far-reaching anti-Israel hate mongering is strongest in many parts of the Arab and Muslim world. However surprising, Holocaust inversion there is often combined with Holocaust denial.
A number of studies concerning several European countries show that Holocaust inversion is a mainstream phenomenon in the European Union. This has been the case already for many years. Germany is the country where there are most studies available concerning this topic. All these studies demonstrate the presence of large numbers of Holocaust inverters. A study by the German Social Democratic Friedrich Ebert Foundation published in 2015 found that in September 2014, 27% of Germans agreed with the statement that “What Israel does today toward the Palestinians is no different than what the Nazis did toward the Jews.” A second similar question was also asked – “Do you agree with the statement that Israel conducts a war of extermination against the Palestinians?” About 40% of Germans polled agreed with this statement.
This year the Bertelsmann foundation published a study which showed that 41% of the Germans polled agreed with the statement that “How the state of Israel behaves today toward the Palestinians is in principle not different from what the Nazis in the Third Reich did with the Jews.” The underlying poll was carried out by TNS in 2013. Other earlier studies show that there may be a declining trend of Holocaust inversion, yet the figures remain extremely high. A study published in 2011 by the University of Bielefeld was carried out as well on behalf of the Ebert Foundation. It was undertaken in seven European countries. Researchers polled one thousand people per country over the age of sixteen in fall 2008.
One of the questions asked was whether they agreed with the assertion that Israel is carrying out a war of extermination against the Palestinians. The lowest percentages of those who agreed were in Italy and the Netherlands, with 38% and 39% respectively. Other percentages were: Hungary 41%, United Kingdom 42%, Germany 48%, and Portugal 49%. In Poland the figure was 63%. If one extrapolates these figures to the entire European Union one can conclude that out of its 400 million citizens of sixteen years and older 150 million embrace a demonic view of Israel. Those who answered in the affirmative expressed deeply anti-Semitic views.
In the first years of this century the University of Bielefeld undertook a similar study, this one relating to Germany only. More than 2,500 people there were asked whether they agreed with the statement: “What the state of Israel does today to the Palestinians is in principle no different from what the Nazis did to the Jews in the Third Reich.” Fifty-one percent answered in the affirmative. Sixty-eight percent agreed that: “Israel undertakes a war of destruction against the Palestinians.” A few leading European politicians have compared Israelis to Nazis. One finds senior social democratic politicians among them, such as French President Francois Mitterrand, Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme and Greek Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou.
There are many other extreme cases of demonization of Israel in Germany. For example the German Holocaust foundation “Remembrance, Responsibility, Future” (EVZ) is meant to educate about the Holocaust. It has however also used public funds to finance extreme hatred of Israel. It provided more than 20,000 euros for a 2010-2011 student-exchange program. Participants included an East German high school and an Israeli Arab school. Project organizers published a brochure that demonized Israel and compared it to the former communist East German state.
The same agency financed a program for the Anne Frank School in Gutersloh that hosted a Dutch Jewish Holocaust survivor and known anti-Israel hatemonger, Hajo Meyer. There, Meyer equated the suffering of the Palestinians with the persecution and mass murder of Jews in the Holocaust. He also termed Israel a “criminal state.” Leon de Winter, a best-selling Jewish Dutch novelist, said that Meyer suffers from extreme “survival guilt.” He added that all Israel-bashing groups love Meyer because of the combination of his being a Jew and a Holocaust survivor.
There is an additional vile dimension to the European Holocaust inversion, because behavior and ideology similar to that of the Nazis is widespread nowadays. Important movements with ideological genocidal programs similar to those of the Nazis can be found in the Muslim world. They are based on their interpretations of the Koran. Among these Islamo-Nazi movements are Hamas, Al Qaeda, ISIS, Hezbollah, the Taliban, Boko Haram, al-Shabaab as well as others. The word Islamo-Nazism is however rarely used by European politicians and media. There remains a final question. The Israeli government almost entirely ignores the Holocaust inversion in Europe. I have pointed this it out over the past few years to various high ranking officials. They listen politely but these conversation are never followed up by actions.
[To Read the Full Article With Footnotes Click the Following Link—Ed.]
TURKEY’S CENTURY OF DENIAL ABOUT AN ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
Tim Arango
New York Times, Apr. 16, 2015
The crumbling stone monastery, built into the hillside, stands as a forlorn monument to an awful past. So, too, does the decaying church on the other side of this mountain village. Farther out, a crevice is sliced into the earth, so deep that peering into it, one sees only blackness. Haunting for its history, it was there that a century ago, an untold number of Armenians were tossed to their deaths.
“They threw them in that hole, all the men,” said Vahit Sahin, 78, sitting at a cafe in the center of the village, reciting the stories that have passed through generations. Mr. Sahin turned in his chair and pointed toward the monastery. “That side was Armenian.” He turned back. “This side was Muslim. At first, they were really friendly with each other.”
A hundred years ago, amid the upheaval of World War I, this village and countless others across eastern Anatolia became killing fields as the desperate leadership of the Ottoman Empire, having lost the Balkans and facing the prospect of losing its Arab territories as well, saw a threat closer to home. Worried that the Christian Armenian population was planning to align with Russia, a primary enemy of the Ottoman Turks, officials embarked on what historians have called the first genocide of the 20th century: Nearly 1.5 million Armenians were killed, some in massacres like the one here, others in forced marches to the Syrian desert that left them starved to death.
The genocide was the greatest atrocity of the Great War. It also remains that conflict’s most bitterly contested legacy, having been met by the Turkish authorities with 100 years of silence and denial. For surviving Armenians and their descendants, the genocide became a central marker of their identity, the psychic wounds passed through generations. “Armenians have passed one whole century, screaming to the world that this happened,” said Gaffur Turkay, whose grandfather, as a young boy, survived the genocide and was taken in by a Muslim family. Mr. Turkay, in recent years, after discovering his heritage, began identifying as an Armenian and converted to Christianity. “We want to be part of this country with our original identities, just as we were a century ago,” he said.
The 100th anniversary will be commemorated on April 24, the date the Ottomans rounded up a group of Armenian notables in Istanbul in 1915 as the first step in what historians now agree was a wider plan of annihilation. Armenians from Turkey and the diaspora are preparing to gather in Istanbul’s central Taksim Square to honor the dead. They will also hold a concert featuring Armenian and Turkish musicians. Similar ceremonies will be held in capitals around the world, including in Yerevan, the capital of Armenia, where Kim Kardashian, who is of Armenian descent, recently visited with her husband, the rapper Kanye West, to highlight the genocide. That the European Parliament and Pope Francis recently described the massacres as a genocide adds to the pressure on Ankara.
The Turkish government acknowledges that atrocities were committed, but says they happened in wartime, when plenty of other people were dying. Officials stoutly deny there was ever any plan to systematically wipe out the Armenian population — the commonly accepted definition of genocide. Ankara is not participating in any of the memorials, nor does it appear ready to meet Armenian demands for an apology. Instead, on the same day of the genocide anniversary, the Turkish authorities scheduled a centennial commemoration of the Battle of Gallipoli, an event that helped lay the foundation of modern Turkish identity.
The anniversary comes after several years in which the Turkish government seemed to be softening its position. With the flourishing of new civic society organizations, the government became more tolerant of views of history that differed from the official one. Last year, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in offering condolences to the Armenians, went further than any Turkish leader ever had in acknowledging the painful history. Yet as the anniversary has drawn near, the situation has fallen back into well-established patterns: Turkish denial, Armenian anger and little sign of reconciliation. Mr. Erdogan has turned combative, embracing the traditional narrative. “The Armenian diaspora is trying to instill hatred against Turkey through a worldwide campaign on genocide claims ahead of the centennial anniversary of 1915,” Mr. Erdogan said recently. “If we examine what our nation had to go through over the past 100 to 150 years, we would find far more suffering than what the Armenians went through.”
In a country defined by its divisions, between the secular and the religious, rich and poor, liberal and conservative, the legacy of the Armenian genocide is a unifying issue for Turks. A recent poll conducted by the Center for Economics and Foreign Policy Studies, an Istanbul research organization, found that only 9 percent of Turks thought the government should label the atrocities a genocide and apologize for them. Turkey’s ossified position, so at odds with the historical scholarship, is a legacy of how the Turkish republic was established after World War I. Under its founder, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, society here underwent a process of Turkification: a feat of social engineering based on an erasure of the past and the denial of a multi-ethnic history. The Armenian massacres were wiped from the country’s history, only to emerge for ordinary Turks in the 1970s after an Armenian terrorist campaign against Turkish diplomats…
[To Read the Full Article Click the Following Link—Ed.]
Holocaust Remembrance: Jerusalem Post, Apr. 15, 2015 —Even those who were tiny babies then – hidden from the Nazi extermination apparatus that hunted diligently for every last Jew – are elderly today, 70 years after the Third Reich was vanquished.
Yom Hashoah: Canadians to Testify at Trial of Nazi Guard: Ron Csillag, Canadian Jewish News, Apr. 15, 2015— Hedy Bohm’s first reaction to being asked to testify in a German courtroom against a former guard at the Auschwitz death camp was “a definite no. I didn’t want to go.”
New Campaign Calls on Europeans to Don Kippot to Fight Anti-Semitism: Sam Sokol, Jerusalem Post, Apr. 8, 2015 —A European Jewish organization has issued a call for gentiles on the continent to don kippot and other Jewish apparel and film themselves walking down the street to show their opposition to rising anti-Semitism.
Pope Francis Enrages Turkey by Declaring That Slaughter of Armenians Was a Genocide: Joseph Brean, National Post, Apr . 12, 2015 —Turkey has accused Pope Francis of promoting hatred by declaring the slaughter of Armenians by Ottoman Turks a century ago was genocide on a scale with Nazism and Stalinism.
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