As ever Frosty, a beautifully eloquent argument and one I honesty cant refute. Yes you are right that the Nazi's achieved a level of wickedness that could not be imagined. And comparing that to what is happening is perhaps disproportionate and extreme.
But then again, I think that the world should have learnt from that incident. The people of Israel should have learnt from that incident. And though perhaps disproportionate, for a so called civilized nation to behave this away in these times ... well its as bad as I can imagine.
Utter helplessness, that's all I feel about this situation. It really troubles me. And I know, just like my Governments decision to enter into an illegal war in Iraq, the next generation when they debate these goings on in 15 years time, maybe on this very forum, will ask why when the unjustness and illegality of was so obvious, so clear cut, why did the world not step in? Why why why?
The timings of this latest crimes against the people of Palestine, coming just days before Bush and his cohorts are destined into the dustbins of history is what makes it all the more atrocious.
Yes, I'll concede that the comparison is not accurate, but in my mind that does not make this current generation of Israeli policy makers any different to the heinously wicked German policy makers of 70 years ago.
Sorry for the delay in replying. You could ask many of the same questions you do here about Rwanda in the 1990's (there is at least some evidence showing that France armed the Interhamwe) where the world stood by and debated what the word 'genocide' meant whilst over half a million were murdered.
Ditto Darfur, countless hundreds of thousands have been killed there.
North Korea? Now they
do have concentration camps, gas chambers, forced labour - three million died in a preventable famine.
Myanmar - the government brutally suppressed dissent, even killing foreign journalists.
Iraq - the world stood by as the Marsh Arabs and the Kurds were 'ethnically cleansed', a seemingly benevolent term which hides a malevolent meaning.
I suppose the point here is the unfortunately the Palestinians are not 'unique'. Many ethnic groups have suffered over the past decade whilst world governments did nothing. At least the Palestinians have the advantage of having their suffering broadcast - the Kurds do not get the same privilege in Turkey, Iran and Iraq.
This is why the characterisation of the Israeli leaders as similar to Nazi's in the 30's just doesn't hold up for me. They could quite rightly point out that many other nations have committed worse atrocities, yet who makes the comparison? If people argue that the history of the land is disputed, then yes, but so is Tibet where China have killed thousands and repressed a population, so is Kurdistan which is owned by four separate nations, the list could go on and on to be honest.
It does seem that this discussion is a little fruitless, as it appears as though we will not find common ground, but I suppose am just curious as to why the comparison is made, and not by you alone.
EDIT: I'll add a bit more in....
I think that to compare Israel to Nazi Germany will be counter-productive, simply because it pushes a final settlement that much further away and means that Palestinians and their supporters can, in effect, all be tarreed with the same brush and deemed wholly unreasonable and unopen to debate. This is not how we will solve the ongoing conflict in my opinion.
Hilarious isnt it,
