Has the comparison of Israelis to Nazis ever informed a debate, or has it always be an emotive derailment of all the arguments to that point ? I’m thinking in the context of real life engagements, not internet based ones.
I’m genuinely interested if anyone has seen it used and seen it be effective.
Comparisons bdetween Israel and the Nazis is as resonant as Enoch Powell's forecast in 1968 that wtihin 20 years "the back man will have the whip hand over the white man".
Invoking memories of the Holocaust by Gentile opponents of the existence of the Israelis state (as opposed to Israeli policies) is as repellent as Powell's invocation of the practices of the African slave trade by whites because in both cases racists seek to cause the maximum pain and insult to their because of their traducing of both sacred historical memories.
By the way, I am not seeking to invalidate what Hajo Meyer as given the correct circumstances ANY nation or ethnicity can down the path of apartheid or ethnic cleansing. Auschwitz was not meant to be an anti=-racist learning experience for its Jewish victims according to the sociologist David Hirsch in his analysis of the contemporary left antisemitism that has so disfigured and made the Labour Party so electorally under the soon-to-be-not -so dear departed Corbyn.
They are not resonant with any such thing. Where the Israelis carry out Nazi like atrocities the comparisons are justified. Israel should have no privileged immunity form that type of criticism any more than any state that carries out Nazi war crimes. That it hurts Israel perhaps more is that it is self aware of its origins and of how it behaved like those who so badly treated Jewish people.
Former IRA volunteer and ex-prisoner, spent 18 years in Long Kesh, 4 years on the blanket and no-wash/no work protests which led to the hunger strikes of the 80s. Completed PhD at Queens upon release from prison. Left the Republican Movement at the endorsement of the Good Friday Agreement, and went on to become a journalist. Co-founder of The Blanket, an online magazine that critically analyzed the Irish peace process. Lead researcher for the Belfast Project, an oral history of the Troubles.
Has the comparison of Israelis to Nazis ever informed a debate, or has it always be an emotive derailment of all the arguments to that point ? I’m thinking in the context of real life engagements, not internet based ones.
ReplyDeleteI’m genuinely interested if anyone has seen it used and seen it be effective.
Ahem, Hajo Meyer is clearly just another "Jew-hating-Jew".
ReplyDeleteLike so many:
Yeshayahu Leibowitz
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yeshayahu_Leibowitz
Gideon Levy
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gideon_Levy
The Gatekeepers (film)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Gatekeepers_(film)
Norman Finklestein
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_Finkelstein
Daithi,
ReplyDeleteCheck out Latvian polymath Yeshayahu Leibowitz, M.D., Ph.D., in the film The Gatekeepers.
It’s about six (6) different Israeli Shin Bet Directors who more or less agreed with Dr. Leibowitz:
That the Israeli government & society would turn into a right-wing racist state like South Africa…
If they didn’t end their colonial occupation of Palestine.
It was Dr. Leibowitz who coined the phrase “Judeo Nazis” to describe Israeli invaders & occupiers.
And he would know better than most current Israeli liars and apologists.
Since he himself escaped from Nazi Germany in 1935 coming to Palestine to teach at Hebrew University.
So yes, to answer your question as Dr. Leibowitz would and did:
Comparing dishonest racist governors anywhere can and does inform debate.
Proof: it was Dr. Leibowitz who posthumously persuaded these six (6) Israeli Shin Bet Directors.
To paraphrase someone we used to know: “Rightwing is rightwing is rightwing is rightwing.”
So, if you haven’t already, check out that film.
Comparisons bdetween Israel and the Nazis is as resonant as Enoch Powell's forecast in 1968 that wtihin 20 years "the back man will have the whip hand over the white man".
ReplyDeleteInvoking memories of the Holocaust by Gentile opponents of the existence of the Israelis state (as opposed to Israeli policies) is as repellent as Powell's invocation of the practices of the African slave trade by whites because in both cases racists seek to cause the maximum pain and insult to their because of their traducing of both sacred historical memories.
By the way, I am not seeking to invalidate what Hajo Meyer as given the correct circumstances ANY nation or ethnicity can down the path of apartheid or ethnic cleansing. Auschwitz was not meant to be an anti=-racist learning experience for its Jewish victims according to the sociologist David Hirsch in his analysis of the contemporary left antisemitism that has so disfigured and made the Labour Party so electorally under the soon-to-be-not -so dear departed Corbyn.
They are not resonant with any such thing. Where the Israelis carry out Nazi like atrocities the comparisons are justified. Israel should have no privileged immunity form that type of criticism any more than any state that carries out Nazi war crimes. That it hurts Israel perhaps more is that it is self aware of its origins and of how it behaved like those who so badly treated Jewish people.
Delete