Former FM says Israel a captive of Shoah memories

Shlomo Ben-Ami, speaking to Spanish Parliament in honor of Holocaust Memorial Day, says Israeli Jews must stop comparing current events to Shoah or current leaders to Hitler in order not to legitimize comparisons between Israel and the Nazis

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3358679,00.html

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"It's time for Israeli Jews to leave behind the mentality of the victim and the ghetto, and stop making comparisons between Hitler and Arafat, Saddam Hussein or even Ahmadinejad, said former Foreign Minister Shlomi Ben-Ami in a speech to the Spanish Parliament Sunday.

Such comparisons are an obstacle to Israel's relationship with the international community and, even worse, "Give legitimacy to some Palestinian comparisons between Israel and the Nazis," he said.

In his speech, the keynote event in a Spanish ceremony in honor of the International Holocaust Remembrance Day, Ben-Ami also censured Europe and Spain's left-wing, whom he claimed lead a campaign of anti-Semitism, disguised as anti-Zionism.

In particular, he condemned Nobel prizewinner Jose Saramago, who referred to Jenin as "Auschwitz".

Nonetheless, he concluded his speech with criticism of Israel and Jews in general, saying "if the strongest nation in the Middle East refers to every war and every threat as a threat of Holocaust, we ourselves are making the Holocaust banal."