The bitter Israeli Left
Writing in Haaretz (where else?), Gideon Levy has a lot of bitterness over Binyamin Netanyahu's Churchillian speech at the United Nations on Thursday. While Levy raises a lot of objections to points made by Netanyahu, I'm only going to deal with two of them in this post: Levy's accusation that Netanyahu 'cheapened' the Holocaust and his rejection of Netanyahu's comparison between Hamas and the Nazis.Here's what Levy has to say about the Holocaust:
If Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad denies the Holocaust, Netanyahu cheapens it. Is there a need of proof, 60 years later? Or, the world might think, is the denier right?The fact that Ahmadinejad's rejection of the Holocaust, and his claims that a much smaller number of people than six million were killed, have found acceptance in the Arab world and elsewhere means that yes, we do need to prove again and again that the Holocaust happened. Would Levy propose shutting down Yad Vashem because no one needs to see pictures and documentation of death camp victims when we all know that the Holocaust happened? The idea is absurd - except probably to Levy.
You see, Barack Obama and the Arab world aren't the only ones who believe that theHolocaust is the only justification for the State of Israel's existence: So does Israel's religion rejecting Left. In the minds of Levy and his colleagues on the Left, if only Israel would forget about the Holocaust, it would be able to give the entire country away to the 'Palestinians,' peace would magically break out and the wolves and the sheep would lay down together.
That's why Levy is horrified that Binyamin Netanyahu reminded the world again that six million Jews were murdered by the Nazis between 1939-45. That reminder may produce international sympathy for an Israeli position that is less generous than committing national suicide. And that's the last thing Levy wants to see happen.
Here's what Levy has to say about Hamas.
And it is doubtful that any historian of stature would buy the comparison the prime minister made between Hamas and the Nazis, or between the London Blitz and the Qassam rockets on Sderot. In the Blitz, 400 German bombers and 600 fighter planes killed 43,000 people and destroyed more than one million homes. Hamas' Qassams, perhaps the most primitive weapon in the world, have killed 18 people in eight years. Yes, they sowed great terror - but a Blitz?Netanyahu was not looking to compare the results of the Nazi Blitzkreig with those of Hamas' attacks from Gaza. He was looking to compare the intentions. The Nazis wanted to kill as many British civilians as possible and Hamas wants to kill as many Israeli civilians as possible. And if we may go a step further, the Nazis wished to wipe out European Jewry and Hamas wishes to wipe out Israeli Jewry. The only differences between them are the means at their disposal and the religion that they purport to represent.
Gideon Levy is a bitter man because his vision for a secular, 'humanitarian' state of all its citizens is losing out to a vision of a Jewish state that is much closer to what Israel's founders originally envisioned. Levy's friends the 'Palestinians' bear much of the blame for his vision's rejection. But like much of the world, for Levy and the bitter Israeli Left, the 'Palestinians' can do no wrong.
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 1:20 PM
4 Comments:
Shalom Carl from NYC. I cant stand Haaretz news I hope they just vanish as a news organization. I stopped visiting their hateful site. All they know what to do is how to smear Israel. Bibi did an awesome job at UN, why low life scums have stage to spread hate and self righteous people dont have same right.
Shamil Benyaminov
(home country Baki, AZ)
Does anyone take notice of Gideon Levy these days? I thought he'd shrunk into obscurity and was totally irrelevant in today's world.
My late father (may his memory be for a blessing) too survived the Holocaust. Does that make him a liar? Or his brother who perished and his parents? Does that also make them liars? I think Netanyahu was right to bring up his family history - it affects the way Jews see the world's attitude toward them - which hasn't changed. Carl - yesterday, you brought up that Hamas TV clip of a child being taught to slaughter the Jews. The difference between the Nazis and Hamas is one of means. Their objective regarding the fate of the Jewish people is the same.
Do you know who wants the world to talk to Hamas? None other than Gideon Levy! An eloquent fool is still a fool and that is all Levy will ever be,
The truth will always be on the side of the Jewish people. Am Yisrael Chai!
Carl,
I am an Indian in America and closely started following your blog after the 26/11/2008 Bombay attacks on Indians and Israelis alike. I think the UN speech was Bibi's attempt to resurrect the power of words, in a situation where many Israelis, I think, have been desensitized to words and ideas like 'existential threat' and, most importantly, 'the holocaust'. I don't think Bibi cheapened it. I think the Israeli media has cheapened these ideas by overusing them and abusing them in unrelated situations - How much sympathy can a person generate when every horror is a holocaust and every bad person is a nazi? I think Bibi, and most politicians should attempt to constantly refresh public memory of the atrocity, so that people absorb the magnitude of what is currently going on.
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