Comparisons. Wohl
Who’s the real fascist?
Arab Israeli leaders obsessed with Third Reich, but fail to condemn Nazi-like Arab acts
Arab leaders, but also anti-Israeli Jews, really like to compare the Jewish State to Nazi Germany. In light of the conclusions of the commission of inquiry that looked into the October 2000 riots, we heard claims that “Israel is a racist-fascist country.” The same happened this past Saturday during protests held by the Hadash and Balad parties. This demonstration featured organizations such a Gush Shalom, Women Coalition for Peace, Adalah and all sorts of other various Jew-loving groups.
During this protest, talk of “peace” quickly turned to Auschwitz. I read in the newspaper that “60 years after Auschwitz, the Jewish State places people in ghettos and kills them through hunger and disease” – at least according to Nurit Peled-Elhanan, a member of the Israeli-Palestinian bereaved families forum. Meanwhile, Knesset Member Zahalka informed us that the government adopts “fascist methods” while preventing food and fuel from an entire community. “We shall continue to demonstrate and expose the war crimes against one and a half million Palestinians in the Strip,” he said.
It is hard to ignore the Arab obsession with Nazism. There was good reason why in 1941, the leader of the Arabs in Palestine, Mufti al-Husseini, went to meet Hitler. You may be surprised to hear this, but the visit’s objective was not to discuss the opening of a new hummus chain in Berlin. The Mufti wanted Hitler to pledge that Germany’s only objective was to exterminate the Jews residing in “Arab space under British patronage.”
In addition, the caricatures appearing in many Arab media outlets are too similar to the ones that appeared in Nazi newspaper Der Sturmer, and one of the most popular books among young Arabs is Hitler Mein Kampf. I view this as a sort of “projection,” that is, many of our neighbors in the Arab world admire the Nazi regime but “project” the fascism on the State of Israel. By examining the events of the last few days we can easily discern that part of this trend permeated our country as well.
Clinging to ‘racist oppressor’
The firing of missiles at the heart of civilian communities (sounds familiar?) is a Nazi invention. Lynching Jews and burning synagogues is indeed not an invention which the Nazis can claim as a patent, but there is no doubt they were greatly involved in upgrading these pursuits. Yet still, these issues never prompted the radical, nutcase leftist groups and Arab Knesset members to compare the Arab perpetrators of such acts to the Nazis.And I wondered about something else: Why are so many Palestinians so eager to acquire residency and citizenship rights in our fascist country? Why do they insist that family reunification take place within the cruel Israel and not among their loving brothers in the Palestinian Authority? And why does Knesset Member Zahalka agree to receive a salary from the fascist Israeli government? Have we ever heard of a separatist minority seeking self-determination, yet in practice doing everything in its power to eagerly cling to its racist “oppressors?”
Israeli Arabs must decide whether they are truly interested in being taken seriously. They must understand that they live in the Jewish State and that it would be good to stop undermining it at every given opportunity. The comparison to Nazi Germany may assist Arab Knesset members as well as some screaming Jews to remind us of their existence, yet it creates untold damage to the entire Arab community.
What benefit will the Arab community draw from its leaders’ insistence to attend the funerals of arch-murders of Israeli citizens? Why do they not admit to at least a small part of their responsibility for the incitement that led to the October 2000 riots? One does not need to be a genius to predict that similarly to numerous historical precedents, Arab leaders are again leading their people to a dead end.
