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Last update - 17:10 01/09/2006
Is that an Islamo-Nazi under the bed, or is it a Zio-Nazi?
By Bradley Burston


I used to think that the Nazi Holocaust was a unique event in the annals of human horror.

And then I began reading the Internet.
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I used to think that thinking people would honor, if not the memory of the victims of the Nazi annihilation machine, then the feelings of its survivors, by refraining from using the Holocaust as a club to attack their current enemies.

Fat chance.

Since the start of the war in Lebanon and the Galilee, commentators on both sides of the Arab-Jewish divide have been unusually vigorous in linking the other side to Hitler and his mass murderers.

Al Jazeera online West Bank correspondent Khalid Amayreh, writing analysis pieces for the Website of the U.K.-based Palestinian Information Center, turned again and again and yet again to the image of the Israeli soldier as Nazi.

In a July 30 article, Almayreh wrote:

"I know it is a taboo, especially in the West, to compare Israel, let alone Jews, to the Third Reich. However, if truth is to be upheld as an intrinsic, paramount value, it is inescapable to call things by their real name.

"Today, in light of what Israel's criminal aggressions in Lebanon and Gaza, there is no doubt that Israel is thinking, behaving and acting like the Third Reich. And when Jews, or some Jews, think, behave and act like the Nazis, they become Nazis themselves."

Almayreh continues: "There is no doubt Jews suffered a lot during WWII. Nobody can deny this fact. But Jewish suffering in Europe six decades ago by no means entitles Jews to commit another holocaust against the peoples of the Middle East. Indeed, a Jewish holocaust against the peoples of the Middle East is no less evil (and no less-Nazi) than the German holocaust against Jews.

"Evil crimes don't become lesser when perpetrated by Jewish hands. There is no such thing as kosher genocide, or kosher holocaust or Kosher massacres."

The war was not the only impetus for the comparison. A full month before the war started, Amayreh wrote, in a June 11 article called the Jewish Gestapo,

"In short, we are dealing with real Nazis, and the truth, however bitter and unpalatable, must be told."

Referring to the June Gaza beach deaths, which Israel has categorically denied were caused by IDF artillery fire, Amayreh wrote: "Unfortunately, such concocted lies still deceive many ordinary people in the West, who breathe, drink and eat Jewish propaganda via their local and national Zionist-controlled media outlets."

As an example, "Just take a look at Jewish internet sites in Israel and abroad and see how Jewish youngsters are congratulating each other on the killings of these helpless toddlers in Gaza."

"Luckily, there are more people who are getting to know the truth about the Nazi nature of Israel and the Nazi-like treatment Palestinians are being subjected to by the children and grandchildren of the holocaust survivors."

For supporters of Israel, meanwhile, the temptation to enlist the Holocaust in pursuing the public relations effort is too strong to resist.

Witness an article this week by Alan Dershowitz in frontpage.com, entitled Hezbollah's Final Solution.

According to Dershowitz, those who "support Hezbollah, and even those who refuse to fight against this evil, are on the wrong side of history. They are collaborators with Islamofascists -- today's version of Nazism."

Dershowitz says of Hezbollah's leader, "Nasrallah is a modern day Hitler, who currently lacks the capacity to carry out his genocide. But he is an ally of Iran, which will soon have the capacity to kill Israel's five million Jews."

"Hezbollah's aim is not to 'end the occupation of Palestine,' or even to 'liberate all of Palestine.' Its goal is to kill the world's Jews. Listen to the words of its leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah:

"'If Jews all gather in Israel, it will save us the trouble of going after them worldwide.'" (NY Times, May 23, 2004, p. 15, section 2, column 1.) Nasrallah is one of the most admired men in the Muslim and Arab world today. Hitler made similar threats in Mein Kampf but they were largely ignored. Nasrallah has a reputation for keeping his promises."

I am certain that Dershowitz sincerely believes that his words may help forestall a second Holocaust, this one perpetuated by Iran.

I am just as certain that Amayreh believes that Israel's real goal is genocide and mass murder.

Both might contend that the Holocaust meant nothing, if not to warn us of what human evil is capable.

But I, for one, submit that it does extreme dishonor to hundreds of thousands of survivors, to effectively speak in their name, while comparing the actions of Israel, and of Hezbollah, to those of Hitler and his Nazi monsters.

_______________________

For the purpose of discussion, the Talkback forum for this article will suspend the guidelines regarding comparisons between the Holocaust, Nazi Germany, and current affairs.

Readers are advised that the content of the responses is likely to be stark and, in many cases, objectionable.

________________________


Previous blogs:

Hezbollah is not a terrorist organization
Death to Yuppiestan, or, Nasrallah was right
Postwar self-test: Are you an anti-Semite?
Israel is losing World War III

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  1.   Since when is it not? 10:56  |  Gina 23/08/06
  2.   Genocide prequel to Holocaust...Part One 10:59  |  Maral 23/08/06
  3.   Hear, hear! 11:00  |  Rod from Oz 23/08/06
  4.   Anything but Dershowitz 11:01  |  Natallie Durson 23/08/06
  5.   Well done Bradley 11:04  |  FOX 23/08/06
  6.   Evolution of Nazi policy and scope compared to Israel (1) 11:04  |  Michael 23/08/06
  7.   The Holocaust in Germany is a fact and nothing else 11:05  |  fritz 23/08/06
  8.   Genocide prequel to Holocaust...Part Two 11:05  |  Maral 23/08/06
  9.   Evolution of Nazi policy and scope compared to Israel (2)/(3) 11:08  |  Michael 23/08/06
  10.   Evolution of Nazi policy and scope compared to Israel (3)/(3) 11:12  |  Michael 23/08/06
  11.   Both sides have a point 11:15  |  John 23/08/06
  12.   Lastly the Islamic Fundamentalists 11:16  |  Michael 23/08/06
  13.   Holocaust 11:21  |  Vartan 23/08/06
  14.   Dershowitz-Amayreh monologues 11:25  |  sh 23/08/06
  15.   Attitudinal Warfare 11:33  |  Rowan Berkeley 23/08/06
  16.   Once it was... 11:33  |  Kin-Luu 23/08/06
  17.   To Maral - Nice to hear from you! 11:35  |  Michael 23/08/06
  18.   TO MARAL - ARMENIAN GENOCIDE - 11:36  |  Vartan 23/08/06
  19.   Nazi-Israel 11:37  |  Salam 23/08/06
  20.   Photo of Hezbullah Islamofascist Hitler Salute 11:37  |  Ovadiah ben Avraham 23/08/06
  21.   SA - Apartheid state and the RAF are the real Nazis under the bed 11:38  |  Dino 23/08/06
  22.   Arab Holocausts 11:44  |  Monstruo 23/08/06
  23.   The refering to Hitler... 11:47  |  Edith 23/08/06
  24.   This war u will lose... 11:47  |  Sinalco 23/08/06
  25.   To # 2 Moral 11:48  |  Ilia 23/08/06
  26.   Did Nazi behave like Jew ? 11:48  |  Mendel the Mean 23/08/06
  27.   Israel-Nazi comparisons are legitimate 11:51  |  Observer 23/08/06
  28.   Maral, 11:55  |  AF11 23/08/06
  29.   The goal is not to vilify Jews..but to prompt them to behave 11:58  |  hater of Nazism 23/08/06
  30.   To # 23 Monstruo 11:58  |  Salam 23/08/06
  31.   All armies are nazi 12:02  |  Ralph 23/08/06
  32.   to Vartan and Maral. Jewish People fully support Armenians... 12:05  |  Vittorio 23/08/06
  33.   Jew Watch 12:07  |  Salam 23/08/06
  34.   emotional bind 12:14  |  freedom 23/08/06
  35.   Well if two Nazi soldiers would have been abducted 12:17  |  Roger Bannister 23/08/06
  36.   What a load of rubbish you ignoramouses 12:19  |  Nicole 23/08/06
  37.   To Bradley On Moral Equivalency 12:21  |  Yonatan Netser 23/08/06
  38.   To Vartan and Micheal 12:25  |  Maral 23/08/06
  39.   To Vartan and Micheal 12:26  |  Maral 23/08/06
  40.   To Vittorio 12:30  |  Maral 23/08/06
  41.   PRE-EVENGELICAL CHRISTIANS 12:32  |  indrajaya 23/08/06
  42.   TO VARTAN # 19 12:32  |  Sam 23/08/06
  43.   To AF11 :) 12:34  |  Maral 23/08/06
  44.   Race laws, Lebensraum, pure blood, choosen... 12:37  |  Osborne Reed 23/08/06
  45.   To AF11 - JUSTICE - 12:40  |  Vartan 23/08/06
  46.   To Vittorio #28 - BIG THANK YOU - 12:43  |  Vartan 23/08/06
  47.   Mass Murder to Prevent Mass Murder 12:43  |  Microraptor 23/08/06
  48.   To Ilia 12:44  |  Maral 23/08/06
  49.   To Ilia 12:45  |  Maral 23/08/06
  50.   Jew Watch = National Alliance = Nazi 12:48  |  Ovadiah ben Avraham 23/08/06
  51.   Israel-Lebanon: Nazi Comparisons 12:50  |  Colm Lyons 23/08/06
  52.   Salam from Istanbul, Turkey 12:55  |  Monstruo 23/08/06
  53.   critical difference 12:57  |  Saul 23/08/06
  54.   How dare you make any moral equivalence? 12:58  |  Nannette 23/08/06
  55.   To ILIA #26 13:07  |  Vartan 23/08/06
  56.   41. To Vartan and Micheal by Maral 13:07  |  Monstruo 23/08/06
  57.   Hitler was a pig 13:09  |  Sergei 23/08/06
  58.   Ralph # 33 13:16  |  nadeem 23/08/06
  59.   Nicole: be honest, if what Israel has been doing to the 13:16  |  Adam 23/08/06
  60.   Facism 13:17  |  Prophet 23/08/06
  61.   Israel besmirches the image of Jews and judaism 13:28  |  Khalid 23/08/06
  62.   Israel-nazi comparisons is anti-Semitism, I always thought. 13:35  |  Mark B. 23/08/06
  63.   Jew watch 13:36  |  Salam 23/08/06
  64.   Osborne Reed 13:36  |  sh 23/08/06
  65.   Jewish Islamophobia 13:40  |  Muslim 23/08/06
  66.   #2 Armenian Genocide 13:40  |  D Hirod 23/08/06
  67.   To MONSTRUO #56 13:46  |  Vartan 23/08/06
  68.   Prophet: Only One Who Has Never Lived Under Communism . . . 13:46  |  Ovadiah ben Avraham 23/08/06
  69.   Read About Islamo-Nazis & Their Alliance with Hitler 13:49  |  Nannette 23/08/06
  70.   To Montruo.. in Turkey 13:53  |  Maral 23/08/06