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When Jews become Nazis
Related to country: Israel

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Two books - The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich by William L. Shirer (1960) and The Source by James A. Michener (1965) will provide the reader with what in essence, is the equivalent of a degree in the history and land of the people of what is known today as Israel.

The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich by Shirer is the first, and perhaps the most successful large scale history of Nazi Germany. The book is based mostly on the captured documents of the Third Reich, including the diaries of propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels and General Franz Halder. Additional major sources include testimony and evidence from the Nuremberg trials and British Foreign Office reports, among others.

Though the book received severe criticisms from many quarters, especially those who thought the author worked outside the academic mainstream, it nevertheless, for the layman, gives an insight into Nazi Germany and is widely acclaimed as the definitive record of the 20th century’s century's darkest hours. The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich offers an unparalleled and detailed examination of the fate of Jews in Nazi Germany.

On the other hand, The Source is a historical novel by James A. Michener and was first published in 1965. It is a survey of the history of the Jewish people and the land of Israel from pre-monotheistic days to the birth of the modern State of Israel. The major events of Judaism are explored by using a fictitious city as a microcosm.

The stories of King David, the Babylonian exile, the Hellenistic influence, Roman rule, the Diaspora, Christian encroachment and eventual domination, Islamic development, the Crusades, and finally the founding of Israel as a sovereign state are all lived and experienced through the characters. Though almost encyclopedic in scope, as with Shirer’s work, Michener’s book is also subject to some criticisms, but again, provides a guide to the land and people of Israel on an epic scale.

Very few people will fail to be touched by the centuries of persecution of the Jews in almost as many lands as they fled to before and after the Exodus. The culmination of the fear and hatred for Jews was manifested in what the Nazis termed the ‘final solution’ – the total elimination of Jews from the face of the Earth. Jews were herded into concentration camps and systematically slaughtered. Their possessions were taken or destroyed. They were regarded as sub human. Indeed, the life of a Jew was, in every sense, worthless.

Most people hate Nazis for the way they treated Jews. So when Jews, with the creation and ascension of the state of Israel begin to treat others exactly the same way, perhaps, even worse than they were treated by Nazis, it is difficult not to compare the circumstances. Within a generation, the cruelty of Nazism was replaced by the cruelty of Zionism. The concentration camps in Germany and Poland have been replaced by the concentration camps of Gaza and the West Bank.

There are many similarities between how Nazi Germany treated conquered peoples and how Jews today are treating the Palestinians. Gaza today is the largest concentration camp in the world. The lives of people living there are regarded as worthless by Israeli soldiers, and even citizens. Missiles, air strikes and unmanned drones routinely kill people in Gaza, sometimes eliminating entire families.

The Israeli propaganda machinery is so ruthless and effective that no one dare criticize their actions. If world leaders like President Carter can be so shabbily treated by Israel for writing a book calling for an end to Apartheid in Palestine (despite making peace between Israel and Egypt in 1979), nobody will be spared by the propaganda apparatus which in truth, is reminiscent of Goebbels.

It is the norm to misrepresent any statement critical of the conduct of the state of Israel as anti-Semitic. I have nothing against Jews as a people. In fact, I admire what Israel has been able to achieve in the 60 years or so of its existence. I admire its advancement in science and technology. I admire how a mostly desert country manages to export food. I like many things about Israel. But if I hate Nazism for the way it treated Jews, then I must hate the way Israel is treating the people of Palestine. It is even worse when, like Nazism, is predicated on the supposed superiority of one race over another.

Israel’s propaganda machine is so well-oiled that the victims of its belligerence have been painted as the villains, and worse, of deserving of whatever is meted out to them. Israeli soldiers have confessed to deliberately aiming rubber bullets at the eyes of stone-throwing Palestinian children, thereby blinding many. While Israel has the right to defend itself, what justifies the massacre of over 1400 men, women and children in Gaza, which few dare condemn? What justifies the sea, air and land blockade of Gaza by Israel? Is that not a throw back to the Nazi era? Why have the survivors of the Holocaust not spoken out against this re-creation of hell on earth?

Israel as a country has come to stay. But its survival and prosperity are not dependent on its military capabilities alone. The 2006 misadventure in Lebanon is pointer. Israel needs to make peace - genuine peace that can only come from painful sacrifice. When that is done, the opportunities and prosperity that will follow will more than make up for lands and territories given up. I, for one will like to do business, and make friends with Israelis, and there are hundreds of millions more from all over the world. What Japan failed to do by military might, it more than did through economic prosperity. That is the view Israel must take. What stops Israel from, in the future becoming a crucial partner in a Middle-East Economic bloc?

If any Israeli anywhere wonders why so many people seem to hate Israel and the actions of the IDF, the answer is simple: we do not hate you. What we hate is the occupation, the settlements, the injustice, the oppression and the indiscriminate killing of innocent men, women and children in the concentration camps of Gaza and the West Bank. We hate these things because they remind us of the darkest days of the Nazism.





June 19, 2009 | 7:16 AM Comments  0 comments

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Potentials for the Middle-East

Who knows how much Isreal spends on defense? Who can guess how much other states in the Middle East spendson defense?

Who can imagine how far that money will go in eliminating the poverty, disease and deprivation in the region?

At a time when countries all over the world - Europe, the Americas, Asia, and even to some extent, Africa are coming together to from regional groupings to enhance thier political and economic potentials, the Middle East is the only region in the world where there are no such attempts to harmonize.

And yet, who can deny that the financial resources of Arab states, combined with the technology and skills, married to abundant human resources of all countries in the region has the potential to create one of the strongest regional groupings in the world?

And yet, these countries cannot even play a game of soccer.
What waste!

I hope that the younger generation in this region will look beyond the artificial enmity and look instead at the potentials of coming together.

Economic prosperity will obliterate the current levels of bittterness and relentless violence.

Prosperity will entrench mutuals security that no bullet, rocket or missile will deliver.

Are we all blind?

November 23, 2006 | 4:55 AM Comments  0 comments

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