Israel Matzav

Netanyahu compares Iranian nuclear program to Holocaust

Tony Blinken wasn't the only one interviewed by Candy Crowley on Sunday. So was Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyhu. Here's what Netanyahu had to say about Iran.

Let's go to the videotape.



At a Holcaust Memorial Day Ceremony at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem on Sunday evening, Netanyahu made pointed comparisons between Iran's nuclear program and the Holocaust.

"We need to identify existential threats on time, and to act against them on time," he said. "I ask, why in the years preceding the Holocaust did the vast majority of the world's leaders, and the vast majority of the leaders of our people, not see the threats before hand."

In retrospect, Netanyahu said, all the signs were apparent: the arming of the Nazi regime from year to year, the anti-Semitic propaganda that got worse month by month, and the attacks on the Jews.

Netanyahu said that a few world leaders, like Winston Churchill, saw the nature of the threat Nazism posed, and a few Jewish leaders – Like Ze'ev Jabotinsky – warned against the oncoming destruction.

Then, in what seemed like a direct response to critics who accuse him of exaggerating the Iranian threat, Netanyahu said those who warned about the Nazis were roundly criticized, and dismissed them and their warnings as "prophets of doom" and "warmongers."

"I ask how it could be that so many did not understand the reality?" he asked. "The bitter tragic truth is that it is not as if they did not see, they did not want to see. And the reason they chose not to see the truth is because they did not want to deal with the ramifications of that truth."

In an effort to avoid a repeat of the horrors of World War I, the west's leaders wanted to avoid a confrontation at any price. "And by doing so they prepared the ground for the worst war in the history of humanity."

When he talks about Iran, Netanyahu is spot-on. Unfortunately, too many treat him like Chicken Little. 

Labels: 1930's, Binyamin Netanyahu, Holocaust, Iranian nuclear threat

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 2:50 AM