Gerald A. Honigman is a Florida educator who has done extensive
doctoral studies in Middle Eastern Affairs. He has created and
conducted counter-Arab propaganda programs for college youth, has
lectured on numerous campuses and other platforms, and has publicly
debated many Arab spokesmen. His articles and op-eds have been
published in dozens of newspapers, magazines, academic journals and
websites all around the world.
Read more by the Author
April
25, 2012
My good friend, Charlie, alerted me to a recent
article in the American Thinker dealing with
President Obama's
Holocaust Day tribute
Rather than my reinventing the wheel, let's begin by
reviewing some excerpts from Leo Rennert's essay…
During the last three years, President Obama did not
visit the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. But today,
he did; and promptly gave a self-serving campaign
speech for Jewish votes.
The president had with him as escort and introducer
Elie Wiesel and lavishly praised the Nobel Laureate
and Holocaust survivor for his unrelenting campaign
to keep the memory of the Holocaust front and center…
But Wiesel did not reciprocate. Instead, determined
to tell truth to power, he admonished Obama for not
doing nearly enough to confront Assad's atrocities
in Syria and Iranian President Ahmadinejad's
development of nuclear weapons and threats to wipe
Israel off the map.
In introducing Obama, Wiesel asked why 'world
leaders,' presumably including Obama, have not
'learned anything' from the Holocaust.
Directly addressing Obama, Wiesel declared: 'Mr.
President, we are here in this place of memory.
Israel cannot not remember. And because it
remembers, it must be strong, just to defend its own
survival and its own destiny.'
Clearly, Wiesel was not exactly encouraged by
Obama's remarks.
Since the Holocaust Museum is a national
undertaking, it is fitting for a U.S. president to
pay an occasional visit and call its lessons to
public attention. But by waiting until 2012, an
election year, and in the substance of his speech,
Obama turned his visit into a political event, just
as the presidential-election campaigns move into
high gear. It leaves a stain on the museum and the
Holocaust to exploit it for political purposes."
Mr. Rennert stated what had to be said nicely. It
reminded me of one of the President's earlier staged
Passover Seders for his resident Jew Boys (conducted
soon after his public arm-twisting of Israel for not
prostrating itself to Arab and his own expectations
low enough) at which he could not even cover his
head with a kipa (yarmulke) or such to show respect
for G_d. He has no such problem taking his shoes off
when entering a mosque for similar reasons.
All of this brought back memories, however, from the
not-so-distant past which had been very disturbing.
Furthermore, after sharing what comes next with you,
there's no doubt that I'm going to "catch it"--from
at least some circles.
So, what else is new?
Here goes anyway…
Back in 2007, I was sent an article from the May
18th Jewish Daily Forward, Foxman, Wiesel Upbraid
Israel For Pace of Peace Effort.
Elie Wiesel had co-hosted the third annual Petra
Conference ("for improving the world") of Nobel
Laureates and others in Jordan. Around the same
time, the Anti-Defamation League's Abraham Foxman
participated in a panel discussion at Bar-Ilan
University in Israel. Besides Moses in the bulrushes
and Jesus on the cross, Wiesel has become the
Gentiles' favorite Jewish victim.
Wiesel's writings have no doubt served an important
purpose; and perhaps, in the Eternal Plan, he was
spared for this. Both he and Foxman have sired much
good in a post-Auschwitz world.
But, human both are.
Please bear with me for a moment as I sidetrack a
bit…
Oprah Winfrey has been listed as one of Time
Magazine's 100 Most Influential People in the World.
On both her April 25, 2005 widely-viewed television
show and in her almost three million readers a month
June 2005 edition of O Magazine, Oprah showcased
alleged Arab victimization at the hands of Israelis.
Both were blatantly one-sided depictions of reality.
In case you haven't heard yet from the Arabs and
their assorted derriere kissers, the Jews have
become the new Nazis and Arabs the new Jews. A
favorite theme--victims, now victimizers.
That someone as influential as Oprah lends support
to this nauseating lie is tragic. But it gets worse…
To preemptively shut the Jews up afterwards, she
soon dragged out guess who?
The world's third most famous Jew victim!
On her May 24th and 25th 2006 widely-watched
television shows, she strolled arm-in-arm with
Wiesel to Auschwitz.
So, the Jews were victimized too. Oprah says so…How
'bout that !
But , Wiesel's return to Auschwitz did nothing to
counter Oprah's anti-Israel endeavors.
Some things need to be spelled out very clearly. The
differences between what happened to stateless Jews
for millennia and what is happening to Arabs in
their attempt to create their 22nd state on the
ashes of--not alongside--the Jews' sole, resurrected
nation were definitely not.
As both Foxman and Wiesel know, time after time,
Arabs have shown that they seek to replace Israel
with yet another Arab state.
So-called Arab moderates themselves have repeatedly
stated that their moderation was/is simply a Trojan
Horse designed to extract additional one-sided,
suicidal concessions from the Jews in the court of
world opinion.
The State Department and the West's darling, Mahmoud
Abbas, is simply Arafat in a suit. He ran on a
platform for Israel's destruction--but by more
acceptable means. As I like to point out, blown
buses bring bad press. He still holds to this--no
matter what his assorted whitewashers say.
Despite the periodic infighting and struggle to
control the billions of dollars coming in, largely
courtesy of the dhimmi purse, the difference between
Fatah and Hamas, when it comes to a Jewish Israel,
is tactical, not strategic. Any real Arab moderates
on this issue go the way of Isam Sartawi--they're
dispatched from this world. Others,www.ekurd.net
like Wiesel's conference colleague, Yasser Abed
Rabbo, or Sari Nusseibeh--whether serious or
not--are temporarily tolerated for the assorted
mileage they achieve in Western eyes. For such
strategic sweet talk, the Jews are expected to bare
the necks of their kids and give away the store.
Withdraw, Jew, from the (disputed) territories and
the conflict will end. Agree to return to your
pre-'67 nine-mile wide armistice line (not border)
existence as a sub-rump state, and the Arabs will
grant you peace (of the grave).
Yeh...Like in Gaza.
And I'm Santa Claus--with Obama's above missing
yarmulkeh.
Keep in mind that Wiesel knowingly played right into
all of this.
At the Petra Conference, he even made Israeli Prime
Minister, Ehud Olmert (arguably one of the Arabs'
best buddies), the brunt of mockery and laughter.
The latter may have deserved this--but not for the
reasons Wiesel & Co. charge.
Think about it…
While placing blame for the lack of real progress
towards peace on the Jews themselves for not caving
in to all that Arabs demand, elsewhere both he and
Oprah speak of Darfur and the Sudan and never manage
to mention the word Arab. I guess Martians are
responsible.
Again, some things need to be spelled out very
clearly.
Had those allegedly oppressive Jews used Arab
techniques against black Africans in the Sudan,
against Kurds (and even fellow Arabs) in Iraq and
Syria, Copts in Egypt, Berbers in North Africa, and
so forth, their Arab headache could have largely
been resolved long ago. Millions of black Africans
have been killed, maimed, raped, enslaved, murdered,
and so forth on behalf of the Arabs' purely Arab
patrimony schemes. This is still going on as I write
this essay today.
Okay, before I wander too far astray, let's return
to Wiesel's virtual anti-Israel pandering and, to a
lesser extent, Foxman's more vague statements about
Israel's seriousness.
While there's always room for improvement, and
mistakes are surely made by both sides in any
conflict, surely both men--one of whom I know
personally, worked with for years, and so
forth--understand the real facts of life here.
Given real and not-so-real peace partners, Israel
has repeatedly bent over backwards, sideways, and
forwards to reach honorable compromise and
accommodation--certainly far more than Arabs have
ever done with their own ethno-nationalist
competitors. So, indulging in such things as
pointing the finger at Israel during a conference
like that in Petra (undoubtedly filled with
duplicitous Israel bashers) was/is nothing short of
self-serving and cowardly.
Both Foxman and Wiesel know that the root cause of
this conflict has always been an Arab refusal to
accept that anyone but themselves be granted
political rights in "their" region. Again, scores of
millions of non-Arab peoples have been murdered,
gassed, subjugated, enslaved, turned into refugees,
and so forth for daring to disagree.
The conflict Israel was criticized for at Petra and
many times since could have been solved long ago had
Arabs been willing to grant Jews a mere microscopic
slice of the very rights they demand for themselves.
And, again, both men knew and know this very well.
So, given such an enemy, it is hard to conceive of
what both were thinking when they willingly
participated in shifting the spotlight onto Israel.
Will either men take up residence in Israel's Sderot,
frequently blasted by Arab mortars, missiles, and
rockets and adjacent to Arab-controlled (and now
Judenrein) Gaza, or in Israel's narrow waist (where
most of its population is located) after it's forced
to return to its '49 Auschwitz/armistice lines and
next agrees to accept millions of allegedly
returning jihadi Arab refugees? The latter are the
main provisions of the alleged Saudi Peace
Plan--which Obama has repeatedly stated Israel would
be crazy to not accept.
Sure…
But if the answer to my question just happens--by
some small chance--to be in the negative, then
perhaps it's time to put the period of perpetual
Jewish victimization behind us…despite what these
two famous Holocaust survivors asserted.
Their approach would, no doubt, only perpetuate this
cult of victimization only further. At the time, I
cynically thought that afterwards perhaps at least
Wiesel believed that he could then get the world to
weep for yet millions of more dead Jews.
Disturbing…but, who knows?
And while this may be good for the Jewish
victimization business, it's certainly not good for
Jews.
I'll demand empathy over sympathy any time. And
Israel better do likewise.
It was thus a blessing, for many reasons, to hear of
Elie Wiesel's recent refusal to play along with the
President's re-election performance and that's
indeed what it was) at the Holocaust Memorial Museum
in Washington.
For me at least, he has at somewhat redeemed
himself. And I am glad.
Gerald A. Honigman is a Florida educator who has
done extensive doctoral studies in Middle Eastern
Affairs. He has created and conducted counter-Arab
propaganda programs for college youth, has lectured
on numerous campuses and other platforms, and has
publicly debated many Arab spokesmen. His articles
and op-eds have been published in dozens of
newspapers, magazines, academic journals and
websites all around the world. Visit his
website at
http://www.geraldahonigman.com/
Gerald A. Honigman, a longtime contributing writer
and columnist
for ekurd.net. Honigman has published a major book,
"The
Quest For Justice In The Middle East--The
Arab-Israeli Conflict In Greater Perspective."
By Gerald A. Honigman for eKurd.net, April 25, 2012. You may reach the
author via email at: honigman6 (at) msn.com.
Copyright © 2012 ekurd.net.
All rights reserved
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