But it was unique-- as are most great human tragedies. Yes, some Jews use the uniqueness of the Holocaust to argue that other tragedies are less important, but others use that uniquesness to understand the specificity and horror of other forms of suffering, that may be different but are important unto themselves.
>It is precisely the horrors and lessons of the
>Holocaust, like the suffering of other groups, that should make people
>sympathetic to the plight of the Palestinians.
-Unless they're Israeli Zionists...you see, because the sufferings of their -ancestors were so unique.
I don't even buy that-- since the Peace Now and other pro-peace Israelis have recognized the need to deal with Palestinian suffering to achieve real peace. A poll just came out of Israelis, showing their mixed feelings, that despite supporting Sharon's military actions, a majority believe that if all the settlements were dismantled and Israel withdrew from all the occupied territories, that would improve the prospects for peace.
Having been in Israel, the last thing I would ever try to argue for is a "typical" Israeli political position. There is no normal political spectrum there-- politics have a four-dimensional space of economic, peace, nationalistic, and religious politics.
>In fact, it is the memory of the Holocaust that makes the destruction of
>land records and other markers of identity in Jenin and other camps so
>scary, because it has the markers of the early stages of that past
genocide.
-Just the markers? Where have you been? -48 resulted in the eviction/dispossession of 75% of the population of -Palestine. More in 67 and many more/all shortly if Sharon has his way.
I do not think what happens in the full-scale heat of mass war, as happened in 48 and 67, is the same as a dominant power committing full-scale cultural genocide or mass transfers. That is what is threatened now by Sharon.
It is still startling to me that many on this list defended Milosevic's autonomy to suppress the Kosovars and downplayed the deaths involved in Kosovo-- which are notably MORE than suffered by the Palestinians in this intifada. Yet most of those same people jump to the opposite extreme on Israel.
I had the same position on both-- the US and Europe should force the oppressing regime out of occupited lands and recognize independence for the rebelling nationalist people.
-- Nathan Newman