General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Is blatant anti-Semitism rampant here at DU? [View all]oberliner
(58,724 posts)Let me just ask you to take a step back and consider what you've written here.
Because the Jewish people were exterminated throughout Europe while much of the world sat by and watched - six million systemically rounded up and killed over a period of just a few years - that Jews have a special responsibility to treat others well.
Can't you see how that might come across?
Putting aside for a moment that what is going on now with respect to Gaza is not even remotely comparable to what Nazi Germany did to the Jews, can you not see a Jewish response that might go along these lines:
The Jews, for hundreds of years, lived in countries where they were treated as, at best, aliens and outsiders, were subjected to persecution ranging from run of the mill discrimination to out-and-out slaughter in countries where they felt safe - Jews in Germany, for example, saw themselves as German, and why wouldn't they - now for the first time in modern history have a state where they are no longer the aliens/outsiders - are consistently told their state is illegitimate - are subjected to decades of intermittent terrorist attacks - might take on the attitude of "we will do whatever it takes to defend ourselves and the rest of the world can go fuck themselves".
I mean it seems like if you want to talk about lessons the Jewish people might want to take away from being subjected to the holocaust - a potential one might be - we, as Jews, are on our own in this world. When the chips are down - in the diaspora, we are not thought of as countrymen to our fellow citizens.
Even today you read things about Jewish "control" of Hollywood or of Congress or what have you. Complaints that AIPAC is controlling foreign policy in a way that deliberately harms America at the expense of Israel (AIPAC consists entirely of American citizens by the way). The other-ness of being Jewish is still very much a daily reality of Jews who live outside of Israel.
So a comparison like that might come across as: Jeez, didn't you people learn anything from us trying to kill all of you?
More to the point though, there is nothing more vile than Nazi Germany. It's the ultimate embodiment of pure evil. So when you say that Israel (the only Jewish state, where nearly half the world's Jews live) is acting just like the regime that embodies pure evil (when, as you confess above, the comparison is not an apt one), it seems like there is a desire to create linkage between Jewish and Evil.
To simply say what Israel is doing in Gaza is wrong, is criminal, is offensive gets the point across. I am not sure what additional benefit is gained in support of that point by bringing Nazi Germany into it.