ISRAEL’S PECULIAR POSITION by Eric Hoffer (LA Times 5/26/68)
The Jews are a peculiar people: things permitted to other nations are forbidden to the Jews.
Other nations drive out thousands, even millions of people and there is no refugee problem. Russia did it, Poland and Czechoslovakia did it. Turkey threw out a million Greeks, and Algeria a million Frenchman.Indonesia threw out heaven knows how many Chinese and no one says a word about refugees. But in the case of Israel, the displaced Arabs have become eternal refugees. Everyone insists that Israel must take back every single one.
Arnold Toynbee calls the displacement of the Arabs an atrocity greater than any committed by the Nazis. Other nations when victorious on the battlefield dictate peace terms. But when Israel is victorious, it must sue for peace.
Everyone expects the Jews to be the only real Christians in this world. Other nations, when they are defeated, survive and recover but should Israel be defeated it would be destroyed. Had Nasser triumphed last June [1967], he would have wiped Israel off the map, and no one would have lifted a finger to save the Jews.
No commitment to the Jews by any government, including our own, is worth the paper it is written on. There is a cry of outrage all over the world when people die in Vietnam or when two Blacks are executed in Rhodesia. But, when Hitler slaughtered Jews no one remonstrated with him.
The Swedes, who are ready to break off diplomatic relations with America because of what we do in Vietnam, did not let out a peep when Hitler was slaughtering Jews. They sent Hitler choice iron ore, and ball bearings, and serviced his troop trains to Norway.
The Jews are alone in the world. If Israel survives, it will be solely because of Jewish efforts. And Jewish resources. Yet at this moment, Israel is our only reliable and unconditional ally. We can rely more on Israel than Israel can rely on us. And one has only to imagine what would have happened last summer [1967] had the Arabs their Russian backers won the war, to realize how vital the survival of Israel is to America and the West in general.
I have a premonition that will not leave me; as it goes with Israel so will it go with all of us. Should Israel perish, the Holocaust will be upon us all.
Missing The Game
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Whenever we stand up to those who deny or minimize the Holocaust, or to those who support genocide we send a critical message to the world. We know from captured German war records that millions of innocent Jews were systematically exterminated by Nazi Germany - most in gas chambers. Despite this knowledge, Holocaust deniers ply their mendacious poison everywhere, especially with young people on the Internet.
After three years of daily Holocaust research in preparation for my book, I realize that anyone with slight intelligence must agree with 98% of historians that millions of innocent Jews were murdered. Holocaust books and films help to tell the true story of the Shoah, combating anti-Semitic historical revision. And, they protect vulnerable future generations from making the same mistakes. That is why I wrote Jacob's Courage.
Israel and the Jews will never be measured by the same standards as the rest of the world community. There is still too much hatred and animostiy towards Jews. In the past, Jews have been able to "turn the other cheek," as Christians would say. In every generation, Jews have been degraded, persecuted, expelled and murdered. But, in a nuclear world, Israel and the Jews no longer can turn the other cheek.
Because of the Holocaust, virtually all Jews now agree that there must be one safe place in the world. Israel must continue to exist. And, while Jews continue to tell the world that religious, racial and ethnic and persecution is wrong; and that tolerance is our progeny's only hope, the words do not seem to have any effect.
Israel reveals the triumphant spirit of humankind and demonstrates how ordinary people can perform extraordinary acts of courage when the lives of loved ones are in danger. Yet, despite this triumph, Israel is denigrated and Jews are victimized.
In the end, sadly, Israel must prepare for the worst. Surrounded by 1.5 billion enemies, who deny the veracity of the Holocaust and vow to "wipe Israel off the map," the nascent Jewish state lives again on the knife's edge. One cannot help the nagging doubt that the suffering of the Jews is not nearly over.
Charles Weinblatt
Author, "Jacob's Courage"
http://jacobscourage.wordpress.com/
Frighteningly too many American Jews simply will not acknowledge the threat.
A lot of Israelis are actually just as complacent. They feel that Israel has always survived threats and they will survive this one. I try to say "past performance is no indicator of future results" but I just get a blank stare. I even got a "I've lived in Israel during wars, it's not a big deal".
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