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Last update - 13:24 08/11/2007
Battling abortion by hijacking the Holocaust
By Bradley Burston
Tags: politics, abortion, Holocaust 

We're supposed to look the other way when these things happen. We're supposed to cut Christian friends of Israel a modicum of slack when they do these things.

After all, it was just a passing remark, a turn of phrase. It was an expression of passionate belief on an issue of social conscience.

But it should have been left unsaid.
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It was late last month that former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, a Republican presidential hopeful and a Baptist minister, addressed the Values Voter Summit organized by the conservative Family Research Council.

At one point, Huckabee noted that "Sometimes we talk about why we're importing so many people in our work force."

"It might be for the last 35 years, we have aborted more than a million people who would have been in our work force had we not had the holocaust of liberalized abortion under a flawed Supreme Court ruling in 1973."

Responding to the use of the word holocaust and its linkage to the abortion issue, Anti Defamation League National Director wrote a letter to Huckabee, noting that "The Holocaust was a unique tragedy in human history - an attempt by the Nazis to exterminate the Jewish people that led to the deliberate murder of six million Jews. We find the use of analogies to the Holocaust in other contexts deeply painful, disturbing and offensive.

"Such analogies can only trivialize and diminish the horror," Foxman wrote, "and cause further pain to Holocaust survivors and to those alive today who lost friends and loved ones."

The story doesn't end there, however. In a review of the incident in the current edition of the Forward newspaper, a spokeswoman for evangelical leader Gary Bauer's Campaign for Working Families takes a different view of Huckabee's statement.

Following the logic of spokeswoman Kristi Hamrick, there is, in fact, a significant difference between the two holocausts: the holocaust of abortion is worse.

"Among pro-lifers, both events are seen as tragic, but the death toll now from abortion is between 40 and 50 million in the United States since 1973. Now that's a huge number of people who are dead and gone."

So there it is. How could we be so insensitive to have taken offense. Only six million. Only one of every three Jews in the world.

From time to time, criticism is leveled to the effect that "the Jews think they own the Holocaust."

We don't own the Holocaust. But we do own our history. It belongs, in particular, to the the hundreds of thousands of Jews who survived the Holocaust and are still alive today. The only people, it's fair to say, who know the depth of the catastrophe. The only people, it's fair to say, who know the true meaning of the word Holocaust.

Allow me to suggest the following to Christian friends of Israel who care about the Jewish people: you are fully smart enough and creative enough and passionate enough and sensitive enough to prosecute the battle against abortion without using the imagery of the World war II slaughter of the Jews.

It should be enough to know that the misappropriation of the term does injury to the feelings of thousands and thousands of people.

You can do better. You don't have to do this.


______________


Previous blogs:

It's Judeo-fascism month in Israel
Jewish Republicans as an oppressed minority
Ann Coulter's dream of a Jew-free America
Yes, Sen. McCain, America is a Christian nation

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  1.   holocaust 18:10  |  realism 05/11/07
  2.   Ther fans chanted "YIGAL, YIGAL, YIGAL" 18:30  |  Roger Bannister 05/11/07
  3.   A METAPHOR IS A METAPHOR, IS A METAPHOR! 19:11  |  BILL HANDEL 05/11/07
  4.   Bradley, this is really boring 22:29  |  Yoram 05/11/07
  5.   The Holocaust excludes others who were murdered 01:15  |  Don Camillo 06/11/07
  6.   holocaust 01:32  |  realism 06/11/07
  7.   Time to downgrade the Holocaust 01:40  |  Tosefta 06/11/07
  8.   Use "Holocaust" I don`t mind 03:47  |  ABE THE JEW 06/11/07
  9.   Agreed But A Couple Of Things 03:58  |  Yosemite 06/11/07
  10.   Holocaust vs holocaust 04:08  |  lost family in shoah 06/11/07
  11.   They`re not our friends 04:17  |  Michael Steiner 06/11/07
  12.   Re: They`re not our friends 05:16  |  Richard 06/11/07
  13.   Abortion is an holocaust 07:28  |  paulo2005 06/11/07
  14.   Hijacking the Holocaust for the abortion issue? 07:33  |  Ed Roy 06/11/07
  15.   You got any friends left in the world? 07:53  |  Ed Roy 06/11/07
  16.   some objections to the article 08:50  |  John 06/11/07
  17.   Seriously though 09:00  |  5th generation 06/11/07
  18.   Get Dershowitz on it 09:17  |  Natallie Durson 06/11/07
  19.   Hijacking of terms 09:22  |  Semite 06/11/07
  20.   5th generation`s got a point 09:32  |  Efox 06/11/07
  21.   re: Don Camillo 09:38  |  Efox 06/11/07
  22.   There is "Holocaust" and then there is "holocaust" 09:50  |  CS 06/11/07
  23.   To Efox 10:05  |  CityZen 06/11/07
  24.   pointless 10:21  |  Eitan 06/11/07
  25.   #24 to the City Zen 10:39  |  Hastaroth 06/11/07
  26.   Huckabee is an idiot to use the term "Holocaust"...... 10:49  |  Swiss (Dino) 06/11/07
  27.   Question 11:12  |  Choni Davidowitz 06/11/07
  28.   #28 Question for the fake Jew Choni Dawidowitz 11:27  |  Hastaroth 06/11/07
  29.   Unborn children are trivial issue 11:40  |  Shoshana Thomasson 06/11/07
  30.   Webster`s defenition 11:55  |  Heintze 06/11/07
  31.   Abortion is wrong, period! 12:04  |  JewishHeart 06/11/07
  32.   #5 Don Camillo / Another 5 million 12:14  |  Boycott 06/11/07
  33.   The use of Abortions is not a Holocaust 12:30  |  Chris Linthwaite 06/11/07
  34.   #21 Efox 12:39  |  Chris Linthwaite 06/11/07
  35.   Holocaust symbol of genocide denying 12:48  |  Madeleine 06/11/07
  36.   semite 19 you are right 12:53  |  Shoshana Thomasson 06/11/07
  37.   The Arabs aren`t aborting their babies 13:10  |  Kin 06/11/07
  38.   #13 80% OF ALL ABORTIONS ARE NATURAL 14:03  |  Petra 06/11/07
  39.   Latin Americas "Anti abortion" ruse 14:12  |  Petra 06/11/07
  40.   #35 Madeline Once a German Jew killer, always a german Jew killer 14:16  |  Petra 06/11/07
  41.   #37 The Arabs aren`t aborting their babies NO THEY JUST USE THEM 14:18  |  Petra 06/11/07
  42.   #37 Kin 14:20  |  Chris Linthwaite 06/11/07
  43.   #11 your response says it all. 14:41  |  wondering mind 06/11/07
  44.   Old Almanacs never lie 14:57  |  Dav 06/11/07
  45.   The Missing Holocaust? 15:07  |  Dave 06/11/07
  46.   Not your friends?! 15:41  |  Col. Peel 06/11/07
  47.   you need a vacation... 15:54  |  Joseph B. 06/11/07
  48.   The "Holocaust" Should Not Be Used Period.Also.. 16:22  |  I 06/11/07
  49.   # 41 Petra.The Arabs aren`t aborting their babies.NO... 16:29  |  l 06/11/07
  50.   the religious right.... 16:33  |  Tess 06/11/07
  51.   # 17 5th generation.Seriously though.. 17:10  |  l 06/11/07
  52.   To Hastaroth #28 17:21  |  Choni Davidowitz 06/11/07
  53.   To CitzZen re: researching historical events 17:22  |  Fred 06/11/07
  54.   52 Davidowitz And the source of your claim is?? 17:33  |  Ari ben Yisrael 06/11/07
  55.   NATALIE DURSON 17:51  |  notblackorwhite 06/11/07
  56.   # 54 Ari ben Yisrael re: Amir.. The Baby is an Innocent,BUT! 18:16  |  I 06/11/07
  57.   #5 Don Camillo best post! 18:17  |  asdfasf 06/11/07
  58.   Holocaust 18:35  |  P. J. Casey 06/11/07
  59.   Neither do you own the word Ed Roy 19:56  |  Jay 06/11/07
  60.   neither do you Ed Roy 20:02  |  Jay 06/11/07
  61.   neither do you Ed Roy 3 20:11  |  Jay 06/11/07
  62.   neither do you Ed Roy 20:20  |  Jay 06/11/07
  63.   Got some great friends , thanks Ed Roy 4 20:28  |  Jay 06/11/07
  64.   #58 P.J Casey. Holocaust 20:33  |  l 06/11/07
  65.   final Ed Roy comments 5 20:34  |  Jay 06/11/07
  66.   Convoluted.... 20:35  |  BLogowitz 06/11/07
  67.   Stupid Comparison 20:51  |  John 06/11/07
  68.   Holocaust is a Greek word and............. 21:36  |  Deborah 06/11/07
  69.   mangling language and ideas 22:03  |  peter 06/11/07
  70.   consider the following 22:16  |  Col. Peel 06/11/07
  71.   #65 Jay 22:18  |  Labhras 06/11/07