Arutz Sheva, Israel
April 18 2004
The Holocaust is Unique
by Steven Plaut
Tomorrow is Yom Hashoah, Holocaust Commemoration Day. As usual, the
Jewish Left will strive to commemorate the Holocaust by trying to
promote a second one….
It has become fashionable in certain quarters, including among some
self-hating Jews, to challenge the uniqueness of the Holocaust, to
argue that it was just another in a long list of human savagery and
mass barbarism, no different from the deaths of Armenians in WWI or
of Cambodians or of Rwandans or of Gypsies. (It is worth noting that
the Cambodian genocide was made possible in part by Noam Chomsky,
serving as promoter and apologist for the Khmer Rouge and denying
throughout that the Khmer Rouse was annihilating millions of
Cambodians. Talk about “Holocaust Denial”!) According to this
“approach”, there was nothing unique about the Holocaust, no reason
why it should be regarded as sui generis, and hence, Jews should stop
all their “yapping” about it.
What is one to make of such people? It is certainly true that there
have been other cases of large-scale mass murder. But the comparisons
with the Holocaust are absurd.
There are many reasons why this is so. But I was struck by the fact
that in today’s Haaretz, one of the worst Oslo Leftists managed to
put his finger smack accurately on what may be the most important of
these reasons. The most important difference is very simple.
When Noam Chomsky’s friends were murdering millions of Cambodians,
the world (other than the doctrinaire Stalinists) was horrified,
demanded that something be done, and denounced the atrocities. When
the Rwandans were butchering one another, the civilized world was
horrified, tried to stop the murders, tried to intervene, and
denounced the atrocities.
When the Jews of Europe were being annihilated, the “civilized world”
was indifferent, and much of it was downright supportive of the
annihilation. Large segments of the “civilized world” collaborated
with the genocide. Very few in the “civilized world” demanded serious
military efforts to end it. The “civilized world” sat in silence in
the decade leading up to the Shoah, while Hitler expounded his plans
openly. Many in the anti-Semitic West sympathized with his program.
I mention all this, because I think that one of the best litmus tests
of the extent of re-Nazification of the planet is to observe the
reactions of the world to the assassination of the Gaza Nazi, Abd
Al-Aziz Rantisi. All those denouncing Israel’s hit on Rantisi as
“state terrorism”, as a crime, as a violation of “international law”,
as violating Palestinian “rights”, as aggression, as itself “Nazism”
– all such people are today’s most visible illustration of global
re-Nazification. All of these people are, in fact, in favor of the
random mass murder of Jewish children. All of these people oppose
every form of Jewish self-defense except capitulation to Nazism and
passive Jewish marching into the gas chambers. All of these people
would cheer if the Islamofascists ever succeeded in building
concentration camps for Jews.
Thus, the Leftist Jews who will no doubt now denounce the
assassination of Rantisi, with all the usual lame “reasons” (bad
timing, it will just bring forth worse extremists, it’s a violation
of Palestinian “sovereignty”, it creates more motivation for
terrorists, etc. etc.), should be formally dubbed the Jews for a
Second Holocaust.
Right on schedule, the British government and the British
Israel-bashing press, especially the BBC, denounced Israel’s
verminating Rantisi as a “crime”. Now let me see if I have this
correct. It has been only days since the British, as part of the
Allied anti-Islamofascist coalition in Iraq, participated in the
killing of over a thousand Iraqis in Fallujah and elsewhere, many of
them innocent civilians. Now, the British declare that when Israel
recycles a Nazi mass-murdering Islamofascist – who has murdered
hundreds of Israeli civilians, many of then children – this
constitutes a crime and a violation of “international law”.
As of now, it appears that it is only a matter of days before the
chief Shi’ite terrorist in Najaf, Iraq, will be terminated by the
good guys, including the Brits. Will the BBC also regard that as a
crime? Probably, it will.
Don’t get me wrong, by the way. I endorse the Allied actions in Iraq.
But did you notice that the mowing down of a thousand Iraqis was the
Allied response to the murder of four Americans and the hanging of
their corpses on a bridge? And the greatest hush-hush secret the
media are refusing to report this week is that the killing of the
thousand resulted in near tranquility this week in most of Iraq.
Perhaps there are military solutions to the problems of terrorism,
after all?