Nearly half of all Israelis fear that it could happen again
I know - we're all just 'paranoid.' But with Thursday being Holocaust Memorial Day, this is as good a day as any to discuss why an event that took place about 70 years ago still weighs so heavily on our collective psyche.Haaretz reports that nearly 50% of all Israelis believe that a Holocaust could happen again.
Seventeen percent of respondents said the chance of a second Holocaust was very high; 23 percent said there was a moderate risk it could occur; while nearly 59 percent reportedly thought the risk was low.Given our past history and current events, I would say that those fears are entirely rational. As we said during the Passover seder just two weeks ago, "in every generation, they rise up against us to destroy us." I would not dismiss that as 'fears instilled in us from childhood.'
The findings reflect the deep impact of the Holocaust on succeeding generations in Israel, including those born in Israel after World War II, according to Prof. Shaul Kimhi, the chair of Tel-Hai's psychology department and one of the faculty members involved in the study.
"It turns out that more than a third of Israelis believe that the Holocaust was not a one-time occurrence and could happen again," Kimhi said.
"This substantial proportion [of the population] is an indication of Holocaust fears instilled in us from childhood, which are not necessarily rational, but they're part of Jewish-Israeli culture," Kimhi noted. According to Kimhi, these fears are a reflection of deep emotional and cultural sentiment that is not necessarily altered by changes in Israel's security situation or diplomatic circumstances.
Labels: Holocaust
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 6:38 PM
3 Comments:
I wonder what changes to the security situation have eased his mind about the possibility of a second Holocaust?
Nice Post.
"Haaretz reports that nearly 50% of all Israelis believe that a Holocaust could happen again."
Since the end of World War Two, there have been several Holocausts, though none on the scale of the Nazi Holocaust. The Pol Pot/Khymer Rouge Holocaust in Cambodia is believed to have taken between approx. 1 million and 3 million Cambodian lives.
The 1994 Rwanda Genocide resulting in the murder of between approx. 500,000 and 1,000,000 Tutsis.
In Sudan, the Muslim government in northern Sudan has sponsored the Muslim Janjaweed militias, who are believed in the first 5 years of this century to have murdered between 200,000 to 400,000 southern Sudanese-non Arab non Muslims.
In none of these cases did the UN do anything to stop the genocide. This notwithstanding the UN Charter, which claims a core right and responsibility to act in all cases of genocide. (At the behest of Sudan and a number of other Arab Muslim states, the UN went through all sorts of contortions to avoid labeling the south Sudan genocide a genocide. If the UN had not done this, it would have been forced by the UN Charter to act against the Sudanese arab Muslim government to stop the Sudan genocide. Allah forbid!)
Yes, a Holocaust of the Jews could happen again. Unlikely but not impossible. A Holocaust against any ethnic minority in the world could happen. The veneer of civilization is much thinner than we like to think. Fortunately for the Jews, and with thanks to God, Israel is reborn, has become strong and has a very formidable military, the strongest in the Middle East. Other ethnic minorities in Africa and southeast Asia are not so blessed and are far more vulnerable.
I'd better end my comment here, as I'm tempted to start making theological comments, for which I'm wholly unqualified. Personally, I count it a profound blessing to me that I was born to a very decent husband and wife, God-fearing people to whom wickedness was alien.
You're quite the hypocrite aren't you CaptH?
The US army has comitted the biggest genocides since WW2. Particulary in the last 10 years. Rwanda, and
Payback is a bitch.
15 Trillion and counting.....even the oil contracts in Iraq are going to Lukoil..a Russian Muslim oil company..
By the way, if a 'second holocaust' were to happen, it would most probably be in your country. The USA.
The coutnries of the world should expel their Zionist radicals to Israel.
They should all be in one place.
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