Israel/Palestine
Related: About this forumNetanyahu Reduced to Defending Hitler. Really ...
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/netanyahu-reduced-to-defending-hitler-reallyJews of all people can usually be expected to accept that Hitler didn't need any convincing or nudging or encouragement to order the Final Solution. There have been some fringe scholars who've tried to portray al-Husseini as somehow one of the architects of the Final Solution. But these claims have never been accepted by mainstream or legitimate Holocaust scholars. It's just not true. The origins of the alleged exchange Netanyahu quotes is even more obscure. It doesn't even have a documented history as propaganda or conspiracy theory. Regardless, no legitimate scholars believe any of this.
But this is about more than mere historical error. And it's worth considering what this was all about. Despite cases like that of al-Husseini, the Palestinians were essentially uninvolved bystanders to the Holocaust, though one can argue that they were also its indirect victims. Nonetheless, here Netanyahu is trying to reframe them as actual instigators of the Holocaust. The Palestinians thus become a sort of moral one-stop-shopping for the entire drama of 20th century Jewry.
Now, propagandists are capable of almost anything. But here, it is simply amazing that the need to do this brings Netanyahu so far as to actually advance a limited exoneration of Adolf Hitler. Adolf Hitler. And make no mistake: that is what it is. Hitler only wanted to deport Jews, says Netanyahu - an outrage and a crime, but hardly unprecedented in history. He had to be convinced to order extermination rather than expulsion.
When you, as a Jew, get to the point of making excuses for Adolf Hitler, partly exculpating him to make some political point, you really need to step back and ask how you got there.
There's really nothing more to say.
No one from the center-right in Israel has criticized Netanyahu for this.
oberliner
(58,724 posts)Even Netanyahu's loyal defense minister, Moshe Yaalon, distanced himself from the comments, saying that "history is actually very, very clear."
"Hitler initiated it, Haj Amin al-Husseini joined him and unfortunately the jihadist movements promote anti-Semitism to this day, including incitement in the Palestinian Authority that is based on the legacy of the Nazis," he told Israel's Army Radio.
http://news.yahoo.com/netanyahu-causes-uproar-linking-palestinians-holocaust-101756502.html
geek tragedy
(68,868 posts)"Any attempt to deflect the burden from Hitler to others is a form of Holocaust denial," he told The Associated Press. "It cheapens the Holocaust."
Israel's head of state is engaging in a form of Holocaust denial/Holocaust revisionism.
This is what Herzl had in mind?
oberliner
(58,724 posts)Which is why he is being criticized from everyone who knows anything about the subject.
He should admit that he had his facts wrong and apologize for the statement post haste.
geek tragedy
(68,868 posts)the rightwingers all have his back.
Palestinians are worse than Nazis in their estimation.
oberliner
(58,724 posts)And he's actually backed away from the comment, not doubling down.
Netanyahu denies absolving Hitler for Holocaust, says mufti 'wanted Jews dead'
Hitler is responsible for killing six million Jews in the Holocaust, and the Palestinian Arab leader at the time, Haj Amin al-Husseini, encouraged him and also wanted to see the Jews dead, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said as he boarded a plane for Berlin on Wednesday.
Netanyahu's clarification came as an uproar ensued as a result of comments he made a day earlier that some interpreted as taking the blame for the Holocaust off of Hitler's shoulders, and placing it on Husseini.
http://www.jpost.com/Breaking-News/Netanyahu-denies-absolving-Hitler-for-Holocaust-says-mufti-wanted-Jews-dead-428618
geek tragedy
(68,868 posts)are distorting the plain meaning of his words, while doubling down on his claim that the Palestinians caused the Holocaust.
Added Netanyahu, The Mufti was instrumental in the decision to exterminate the Jews of Europe. The importance of his role must not be ignored. The Mufti repeatedly proposed to the authorities, primarily Hitler, Ribbentropp and Himmler, to exterminate the Jews of Europe. He considered it a suitable solution for the Palestinian question. Netanyahu quoted Eichmanns deputy, saying at the Nuremberg trials, The Mufti was one of the instigators of the systematic extermination of European Jewry and was a partner and adviser to Eichmann and Hitler for carrying out this plan.
He's explicitly doubling-down on the Holocaust revisionism. The Nazis had already decided to exterminate Europe's Jews. He's basing everything on the testimony of one Nazi, to the detriment of the historical record.
When one sees Putinyahoo (and those who get his back on this) getting all worked up over the Holocaust, we should remember that this is an actor reciting lines for a propaganda film, not something that comes from the heart.
If you want to see the difference between Zionism and Judaism, Benjamin Netanyahu is a very good place to start.
oberliner
(58,724 posts)Look again at what you decided not to bold:
Hitler was responsible for the Final Solution to exterminate six million Jews
I had no intention to absolve Hitler of responsibility for his diabolical destruction of European Jewry.
That is pretty clear.
That said, he is clearly overplaying the role of the Mufti to make his rhetorical point that Palestinian leaders have been trying to kill Jews since before Israel existed.
He should be ashamed of himself for doing so. It is simply not true.
What is true is that the Mufti was a strong supporter of Hitler's endeavors with respect to killing Jews.
He should have just left it at that (and would have still been able to make the same rhetorical point).
However, he is a pompous windbag who never admits mistakes and comically exaggerates and/or lies in order to try to prove his point (as is evidenced by his various appearances at the UN).
He is like Donald Rumsfled, Ted Cruz, and Donald Trump rolled into one.
But even they know better than to spew BS about the Holocaust.
geek tragedy
(68,868 posts)in genocide needs no dressing up.
He didn't need to go there.
But, yet he did.
And not by accident.
oberliner
(58,724 posts)He should clearly and unequivocally apologize and admit he was wrong.
R. Daneel Olivaw
(12,606 posts)I find that most curious.
oberliner
(58,724 posts)There is no defense for his remark - he should apologize immediately and admit that he was wrong.
Scootaloo
(25,699 posts)Does he know that holocaust revisionism is a crime in Germany?
oberliner
(58,724 posts)He's going to have to limit his international travel to Asia and Africa.
Scootaloo
(25,699 posts)I know that there were petitions in the UK and... Spain, I think? to that effect.
oberliner
(58,724 posts)But anything is possible.
Scootaloo
(25,699 posts)Here's the direct quote, from netanyahu himself.
This is absolutely Netanyahu exonerating Hitler of the Holocaust, and trying to pin the blame on Palestinians through al-Hussaini.
There is NOT another way to read such a blunt statement, and no, there is no walking it back.
oberliner
(58,724 posts)He should apologize and admit he was wrong.
PJMcK
(21,916 posts)PJMcK
(21,916 posts)Because of the awesome military might of Israel, Prime Minister Netanyahu has an over-whelming power. With his hawkish positions, there is no chance for peace between the Palestinians and Israel. He wants war and his exaggerations and unwillingness to negotiate make him the greatest threat to the Mideast region.
R. Daneel Olivaw
(12,606 posts)to vilify, WRT the Holocuast, that fits right in with modern Israeli hatred, and justification thusly, against the Palestinian people.
Perhaps Bibi the lying asshole, and his supporters on DU, will go even further and pin the Inqusition, Roman expulsion of Jews and destruction of the second temple on the Palestinians as well.
If Netanbooboo, and his fawning supporters, is going to drink from the river of stupid he/they probably will use a bucket instead of a tea spoon.