Holocaust Amnesia

 

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Holocaust denial is a disgusting industry and its only purpose is to delegitimize Jewish suffering.

But the astonishing rise in anti-Semitism in the past ten years, which masquerades as anti-Zionism, is indicative of a new phenomenon: Holocaust amnesia.

The truth is we may as well live in a world where the Holocaust never happened. What is so awful about the fact that anti-Semitism is at its highest since WW2 is that the decimation of European Jewry seems to matter so little.

Furthermore, the Palestinians have effectively repackaged themselves as the ‘new Jews.’ Gaza is the new Warsaw ghetto and the Israelis are the new Nazis. Israel is so evil that it is also the new South Africa.

Accusing Israelis of committing genocide or comparing the Jewish state to South Africa is not only deliberately offensive, it is indicative of a depressing decline in moral and intellectual standards. Words like ‘apartheid’ and ‘genocide’ are fast becoming empty signifiers, cut loose from the horrors they are supposed to define. Predictably, some Palestinians now refer to their plight as a ‘holocaust.’

This is testament to the Palestinian disinformation machine, which has managed to outwit Israel’s public relations department at every turn.

The Palestinians are well-versed in historical revisionism, media manipulation and downright lying, and it is proving rather successful in the West, which is looking for any excuse to exonerate themselves of Holocaust guilt.

But I wonder if ‘guilt’ is the right word. Perhaps Westerners are trying to rid themselves of Holocaust resentment. By blaming the Israelis for the ongoing crisis in the Middle East, Westerners are able to offload  that resentment by turning the victim into the oppressor.

This resentment is not new. It was identified in a survey conducted in 1989. The study found that nearly half of all West Germans believed reparations paid to Israel and/or Jews were too high or should stop altogether.

The compilers of the survey concluded in their report that present-day anti-Semitism “is essentially tied to memories of Nazism, feelings of guilt, and the desire to end discussion of the past and return to normalcy."  

This may explain why in the past few years, anti-Zionism has become a socially acceptable way of expressing anti-Semitism in Germany and beyond.

The manic obsession with the Palestinians and the hateful demonization of Israel, while ignoring the Tibetans or the Burmese or the millions of oppressed Muslims from Iran to Saudi Arabia, seems to hint at something dark in the Western psyche.

The fact that the Palestinian crisis is largely self-inflicted and/or the fault of neighbouring Arab states and UNWRA is of no interest to the West.

The obsession with blaming Israel taps into an age-old bigotry. Once upon a time the Jews were accused of killing babies and poisoning wells.  Now the Jewish state is accused of killing babies and poisoning wells. Israel truly is the Jew among nations.

 

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The power of the Holocaust to genuinely shock people is fading, which may also help explain why Judeophobia is increasingly acceptable on the Left and in the liberal media. Europe, it seems, is reverting to type.

The Jewish historian, Tony Judt, who is no friend of Israel, said: “The Holocaust may lose its universal resonance. We must hope that this will not be the case and we need to find a way to preserve the core lesson that the Shoah really can teach: the ease with which people—a whole people—can be defamed, dehumanized, and destroyed.”

Muslim colonisation of European political discourse is largely to blame for the upswing in irrational Israel bashing. It has got so bad that some UK schools are afraid to teach pupils about the Holocaust because Muslim pupils might be offended or express anti-Semitic sentiments.

Islamic anti-Semitism has taken its toll on Jewish communities for centuries. But these days, Judeophobia is justified as political criticism of Israel. But take a look at the editorial cartoons in the Arab, Turkish and Iranian press and you will see undiluted Nazi-influenced Jew-hatred.

This nasty streak of anti-Semitism, combined with the refusal to recognise Israel, is wreaking havoc in the Middle East and in the West, and is prolonging the jihad against the Jewish state and Jews everywhere.

Europe, which is wallowing in post-colonial guilt and cultural relativism, has failed to address the problem of resurgent anti-Semitism, probably because it so captivated by the absurd narrative of the Palestinian underdog and the Israeli oppressor.

The internet, too, is partly to blame.  The web is a hotbed of neo-Nazi conspiracy theories,  bizarre YouTube videos, weird allegations, slurs and lies, that are all too reminiscent of the anti-Semitism in the decades preceding the Shoah.

What is also reminiscent of the pre-war situation is the growing boycott movement. Apart  from the fact that it is hysterical and entirely unnecessary, it is eerily reminiscent of the boycott of Jewish shops Nazi Germany in the 1930s, which was also supported by the Arab world.

Israel advocates continue to work hard to challenge public misconceptions. We know that the Palestinian leadership has repeatedly rejected the opportunity to establish a state of their own in the hope of acquiring the entire land of Israel. But the rest of the world is either ignorant of the Palestinians’ true intentions or is deliberately choosing to ignore it. I think it is the latter. And this is more worrying because it is indicative of humanity’s recurring rebellion against progress, conscience and free will– all of which are gifts from the Torah. In short, the hatred of Israel is synonymous with animosity towards the Jewish God. Or to put it another way, it is metaphysical anti-Semitism. 

I’m firmly convinced that the vast majority of global anti-Israel activity is anti-Semitic.  If I’m right, how on earth do you reason these people, who are at best in need of some education and at worse completely unhinged? Somewhere in the middle are the people who are intellectually dishonest and this includes newspapers like the Guardian and the Independent.

The answer is, you can’t reason with these people. Because the culture war being waged against Israel is inherently unreasonable. And that it why Israel must remain strong, defiant and independent. It must not be disheartened by the boycott movement, nor must it make concessions that would endanger its security.

Moreover, Israel does have many friends it can count on for moral support. The US, Canada, the Czech Republic and Australia are among the handful of nation states that Israel can count on. And there are hundreds, perhaps thousands, of organisations, activists and freelance websites around the world which advocate on behalf of Israel.

We may be outnumbered by a billion Muslims, the EU, the liberal media and socialist agitators, but we have right on our side. As Churchill said: “The truth is incontrovertible. Malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it, but in the end, there it is.”

 

 

Coincidentally, Honest Reporting has published an article which also focuses on German resentment of the Holocaust. See…

https://honestreporting.com/the-conflict-as-seen-by-german-media/