Who's Making These Nazi-like Statements?

Here is a multiple choice quiz:

1. Who made the following statement? "We have created a culture of violence (Israel and the Jews are the biggest players) and that culture of violence is eventually going to destroy humanity."

A) A person named "Hitler",

B) A person named "Stalin"

C) A person named "Gandhi"?

2. Who described the establishment of the state of Israel as a "historical, moral, political calamity," blames the existence of Israel for putting the entire world in "peril" and condemns "American Jews" for the "shame" of failing to denounce Israel?

A) Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

B) The Hamas Charter

C) Award-winning American playwright Tony Kushner.

3. Who has said that Israel may eventually cause the "end of the human race" by means of global warming?

A) American losing politician Ralph Nader

B) American losing politician Pat Buchanan

C) Former minister in the Blair government, Clare Short.

The answer to the first question is Arun Gandhi, grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, and himself the former head of the MK Gandhi Institute for NON VIOLENCE at the University of Rochester, who recently wrote those Nazi-like words in a widely circulated blog. He subsequently apologized for including "all Jewish people", implying that it is only Israel and most Jewish people who are "the biggest players" in the culture of violence that is eventually going to destroy humanity. Not Islamic terrorists, not nuclear sabre-rattling Iran - but "the Jews!" If you answered Hitler, that is understandable since Hitler made very similar accusations. Hitler, like Gandhi, accused the Jews of causing all the problems in the world.

The answer to the second question is Tony Kushner, who is thoroughly ignorant about the history, morality and politics of Israel's establishment as the result of the United Nations division of the contested area into two states: one for the Palestinians and one for the Jews. The Jews accepted the two-state solution and declared statehood. The Arab nations rejected the two-state solution and declared a genocidal war against the Jewish state. But you wouldn't know that by listening to Kushner. If you mistakenly believed that the correct answer was Iran or the Hamas Charter, that too is understandable, because both have made the same point.

The answer to the third question is Clare Short, former Secretary of State for International Development in the UK Labor government, who has said that Israel will cause the end of the human race because it diverts the world's attention from the problem of global warming. Not China, the United States or other large polluters, but tiny Israel, which is one of the most environmental-friendly nations of the world!

These are highly regarded individuals who have large followings around the world. Yet they mimic the most despised group in modern history -- the Nazi Party -- in blaming the world's ills on "the Jews", the Jewish state and "American Jews." If this were not so dangerous and tragic, its patent ignorance would almost be humorous. It reminds me of the old joke about Hitler making an harangue in Nuremberg, during which he shouted out his favorite rhetorical question: "Who is causing all the problems of the world?" A voice from the back of the crowd shouted out, "the bicycle riders." A shocked Hitler asked "Why the bicycle riders?" The voice responded, "why the Jews?"

It's easy to scapegoat "the Jews" or the Jewish state for all the world's problems. One would expect, however, that in light of the history of Nazism, people like Gandhi, Kushner, and Short would reflect more deeply before issuing this modern day version of the Blood Libel. Shame on them.

Comments

[jollyelle]

The most despised group in history were the Nazi's because they exterminated a group of people for no reason other than hatred and empire building........ the point is NOT that they were Jewish, yes of course they were, but can you not see the larger issue was the violation of HUMAN rights????? Jews are people and it is the PEOPLE who were senselessly murdered to which others relate. People truly suffered during the Nazi's occupation. The reason we despise the Nazi's is because of the acts of repression and aggression by PEOPLE who try to control and oppress other PEOPLE.
It was the Jews who were singled out but if history had taken a different path, perhaps it could have been a different group of people.........
OMG, perhaps history did take another path.

Fast forward and review the past 60 years. Now who's mimicking the most despised group in history???? The Israeli regime is tightening the apartheid system with the illegal wall, illegal settlements and illegal collective punishment of a group of people. Why not question???? Why not criticize???? We didn't do it then, but we MUST do it NOW. The USA has an obligation to express criticism and demand conditions. World opinion is changing and our collective eyes can SEE.

[HeevenSteven]

I wish there was some language, some technique, some way to permanently separate political discourse from religious or ethnic identity. Everyone separates them when convenient or mish-mashes them when convenient all the while pointing a finger at whoever is doing the opposite at any point in time.

I don't even have the language to say what I'm trying to say. Can someone help me here?

[mpkirby]

It would seem that Ghandi's statement: "That we have created a culture of violence" is accurate.

Israel, America, and most Middle-eastern nations are quick to violence.

The larger question is how do I question the policies, culture, or behaviors of our leaders in ways that don't insinuate that all people of a particular race, class, religion, or creed possess the same negative trait.

If I criticize Saudi Arabia's support for its hate-based education system, am I anti-Arab? Anti-Muslim?

If I note that America's techniques for treating prisoners captured in the war on terrorism in Guantanamo seem to violate the Geneva Convention, am I anti-American? Am I a terrorist sympathizer?

If I criticize this administration's invasion of Iraq, am I anti-American? If I support its invasion, am I anti-Arab?

Would it be reasonable to consider my objections to the British government's actions in Northern Ireland to be anti-Anglican?

If I object to the murder and torture of innocent Israeli's by Hamas, does that make me anti-Palestinian?

If I object to the murder and torture of innocent Palestinians by the Israeli army, does that make me anti-semitic?

America has many foreign policies for different regions of the world that don't seem to support its own interests.

I think of the thousands lost to 9/11 and the war in Iraq and Afghanistan. What did they die for?

For me, the died for the right to be an American. And that means they died so that others can have the freedom to criticize our government, its policies, and the consequences of our actions around the world and right here at home.

So, once we remove Ghandi's insensitive words. His fundamental question remains unanswered.

Have we, the world, created an environment of hate and violence. Where conflicts can only be settled at the end of a sword? Where those that negotiate are weak. And compromise and contrition are considered the first steps to domination?

Please tell me now. In that kind of world I've got to start teaching my children something different.

Mike

[Clinton]

Cool! I got them all right! It was pretty easy actually. Relatively obscure people often have a way of making the most terrible gaffes. Their low profile keep them from being called out.

As time goes on, the Holocaust fades in the collective memory and we get these stupid statements by supposedly intelligent people.

[Storm]

I don't see what's Nazi-like, or even un-Jewish, about at least one of those comments.

As a non-Orthodox Jew, I have trouble feeling too many warm feelings for Israel, since the Ultra-Orthodox there deny my Jewishness, but I agree that Israel as a nation is always held to a higher standard than any other--why does Israel have to justify its existence? It's there, move on.

The Torah does not encourage a continuing cycle of violence in order to secure eretz Israel. Indeed, the most potent message of the Torah may be its respect for human dignity--remember, the Torah commands that we treat strangers humanely, because we were strangers in Egypt?

There are even many Jews that would agree with the second comment.

As for the third, it sounds facially like nonsense.

Therefore, none of them appear particularly Nazi-ish to me. Silly? Maybe. Incorrect? Maybe. But, I'm not sure exactly what Jewish value you're espousing, Alan.

[BeerNotWar]

Well, unless these people are calling for the extermination of the Jews they don't materially compare to the Nazis in their rhetoric. They are guilty of mis-assigning blame for the violence in the Middle East to the Israelis or (even less accurately) "the Jews"...but in the first case it's at least an honest mistake. Even Israelis criticize policies of the Israeli government which hinder the cause of peace, such as permitting the continuing expansion of settlements and the building of the security wall.
After visiting Israel and Palestine and pondering the question for many years, I've come to the conclusion that the leaders of the Arab world are the driving factor in perpetuating the violence...both for leaping to defy the will of the UN and by using this conflict as a distraction while they abuse their power within their own countries. The Palestinians have been used by these cynical leaders for decades, making Israel and the US a convenient foil for all the frustrations of their impoverished and often desperate populations.
However, I still don't think the Nazi meme is helpful here. Usually it's the comments to a HP post that prove Godwin's Law, not the post itself.

[Dap]

Sounds like a personal problem to me. :)

[NoFactsJustTruth]

Shame also on ANYONE that likewise assumes that Israel, or the USA for that matter, NEVER causes or does ANY wrong.

The world's a lot more 'grey', Professor, than it is black and white.

[xenofile]

As a Jew, I celebrate much of my cultural history. But like any culture, this one has a dark side, and I can easily repudiate the bad while cherishing the good. If all we're talking about is culture and ethnography, so far, so good. But when you start talking about "the Jewish state", you've totally lost me. I am not a theocrat and I don't believe in the literal truth of the Bible. The UN and 20th Century history notwithstanding, the establishment of an explicitly religious state (or even a culturally pure one) is anathema to me, and many others. It IS the cause of much (although certainly not all, or perhaps even most) of the suffering we see today. Those who "scapegoat" Israel are merely the flip side of those, like Dershowitz, who blindly defend that monstrosity, simply because it calls itself "Jewish".

[mommadona]

Well, perhaps the word ZIONIST would have been more specific.

As we've found in the past several years, you do not need to be of Jewish persuasion to be a Zionist....

I'm sure the fundamentalist Christians understand that point.

They are Zionists.
They want the "End Times".

In that context - the statements listed in your post make perfect sense.

[sarge]

I agree, Alan. That was outrageous and antisemitic. He should have said "(The United States and the Bush Admistration are the biggest players)"

We execute, Torture, and destroy entire countries with pre-emptive, optional, elective, wholly unnecessary war causing the deaths of hundreds of thousands of innocent people.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/1/31/05415/7502/730/446760