QUESTION: What dimension does the Holocaust play in this equation? Is it manipulated by the Israeli state to promote its own interests?

CHOMSKY: It's very consciously manipulated. I mean, it's quite certainly real, there's no question about that, but it is also undoubted that they manipulate it. In fact, they say so. For example, in the Jerusalem Post, in English so you can read it, their Washington correspondent Wolf Blitzer, I don't recall the exact date, but after one of the big Holocaust memorial meetings in Washington he wrote an article in the Jerusalem Post in which he said it was a great success. He said, "Nobody mentioned arms sales to the Arabs but all the Congressmen understood that that was the hidden message. So we got it across." In fact, one very conservative and very honest Zionist leader, Nachem Goldman, who was the President of the World Zionist Organization and who was detested towards the end because he was much too honest -- they even refused to send a delegation to his burial, I believe, or a message. He's one of the founders of the Jewish state and the Zionist movement and one of the elder statesmen, a very honest man, he -- just before his death in 1982 or so -- made a rather eloquent and unusual statement in which he said that it's -- he used the Hebrew word for "sacrilege" -- he said it's sacrilege to use the Holocaust as a justification for oppressing others. He was referring to something very real: exploitation of probably the world's most horrifying atrocity in order to justify oppression of others. That kind of manipulation is really sick.

QUESTION: That disturbs you and...

CHOMSKY: Really sick. Many people find it deeply immoral but most people are afraid to say anything about it. Nachem Goldman is one of the few who was able to say anything about it and it was one of the reasons he was hated. Anyone who tries to say anything about it is going to be subjected to a very efficient defamation campaign of the sort that would have made the old Communist Party open-mouthed in awe, people don't talk about it.

Two opposing views on the Holocausts uniqueness.

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/What_makes_the_Holocaust_unique.html

http://www.codoh.com/reference/dangofcall.html

Ask people what our american civil war was about and most will reply ' To free the slaves.' And while slavery was a pivotal issue, the war was fought over secession and preserving the union. Read Lincoln, and some of his comments are racist themselves. His suspension of habeus corpus and other federal intrusions are what his party today still claims to oppose.
Ask people what started WW2 and few  discuss the aftermath of WW1, the treaties with POLAND that obligated the UK and France; obligations that vanished when Stalin held Poland in even greater slavery.
The horrors of the Holacoast became the focus of WW2 WHEN MADE KNOWN. And most people will respond with 'Hitler was evil, wanted to conquer the world.' To teach, to remind us of that evil, a exhibition of german occupation of the english channel islands wont carry. Most people will not read Mein Kampf ( I have, a dreary missive at best.)
Hitler and his brownshirts were a object of ridicule in the Cabarets and appeased once in power, much like Amadinijad. How many reoccupations of the Rhineland and Sudetenlands have we watched, including Rwanda and done nothing?
If we reduce this 'footnote' to WW2 because of modern political issues it is only for convenience of conscious over atraocities far removed from Israel and it's nieghbors.

Travelling back down on  AMTRAK, enjoying the ocean scenary. It's no Orient Express but still train travel.

Last edited by Kingstonian (2010-06-28 13:31:34)

Good bye.  Let me know when this horseshit thread returns to normal.

Last edited by Sammy Ambrose (2010-06-28 14:27:59)