Did Benyamin Netanyahu play the Holocaust card when he pointed out Elie Wiesel in the audience during his address to Congress? Jeremy Bowen of the BBC thinks so. He as much as said so in this tweet:
#NetanyahuSpeech He acknowledges Elie Wiesel in audience. Once again Netanyahu plays the holocaust card. don’t repeat mistakes of the past
— Jeremy Bowen (@BowenBBC) March 3, 2015
And after he was accused of anti-Semitism for tweeting that thought, he defended himself with this tweet:
Have been reading some recent tweets sent my way. Suggestions I’m an anti semite, or a denier of the Holocaust, are untrue and offensive.
— Jeremy Bowen (@BowenBBC) March 4, 2015
So here’s what I think. Damn STRAIGHT Bibi played the Holocaust card. And he damned well has a RIGHT to do exactly that, as does every Jew everywhere FOREVER.
It happened, the Holocaust. It happened to US. Europe did it to us, while no one gave a damn.
No one bombed the train tracks to Auschwitz. The Brits didn’t ease Jewish immigration into Palestine, the Jews’ INDIGENOUS HOMELAND; and the New York Times did the best it could to relegate news of the slaughter to the back pages of the paper sandwiched between the flotsam and jetsam of inconsequential news pieces no one ever read or cared about.
And so get used to it, Mr. Bowen: every time a despot threatens to annihilate the Jewish people we are going to play the Holocaust card. We’re going to play it with everything we’ve got and we’re NEVER going to shy away from playing that card.
That card is our BIRTHRIGHT. It’s our heritage. And when once again Europe doesn’t give a fig about the Jews, we are damned well going to remind you what evils you are capable of perpetrating against our people if we sit back and let you.
But this time, NO. We’re NOT going to let you. Not you. Not your country, and not the whole of the entire European Union.
Now last time around, Hitler got in real cozy with Mussolini and also with El Husseini. If this time Europe gets in cozy with its Muslim masses and closes its eyes to the particularity of the particular slaughter going on in Paris and the anti-Semitism that is now widespread in Germany, Belgium, France, Denmark, and yes, Britain, we are damned well going to play the Holocaust card.
Yes. We will. Forever.
We have earned that right.
But just to offer you some variety, we may decide to alternate that card with various other cards, for instance the blood libel card, the Spanish Inquisition card, or perhaps even the Chmielnicki card, though the latter may be a bit more difficult for you, Jeremy, to pronounce.
But the Holocaust card? We OWN that card. Forever.
And we get to use it whenever we wish. Which is whenever we need it. Which is like NOW.
Which is somewhat your fault, Jeremy, being as you are YES, someone who lives in EUROPE.
So I hope we’ve cleared that up for you, Jeremy: the card thing. The Holocaust. Who owns it. Who gets to use it when.
That would be us. Forever.
Capisce?
This blog is dedicated to the memory of my dear friend Ira Kurtz, z”l who never shied away from speaking the truth about those who would annihilate the Jews. Ira would have called Bowen out on his very obvious antisemitism, had he not passed away on the eve of Purim, of a sudden heart attack. Rest in peace, dear Ira.
Bravo Varda.
Thanks, JB.
The haters and dummies hate History…never bring it up, and never learn from it. “I guess I’ll think about it tomorrow.”
They are all about history when they think they can use it to silence Jews or beat Jews up (even if they have to distort history to do so), but they dismiss any history that acutally does support Jews as either too old, too recent, or irrelevant.
Kol hakavod, Varda. Every Jew alive today is a descendent of survivors of the Holocaust. And of the Inquisition, the Crusades, the Roman Conquests, the Babylonian Exile, and the Exodus from Egyptian slavery..
and of the british blood libels (which mr bowens ancestors surely had a part in) and of the russian pogroms
Yup.
Not to mention the British expulsion and the York massacre. One British captain left his passengers on a sandbar, telling them to split the sea – but actually leaving the Jewish men, women, and children to die a horrible death.
(In Thy Brothers’ Blood, by Malcolm Hay, who is otherwise a defender of the Church. h/t Shy Guy for the book)
Damned straight, Wise Man.
Yes, shove that card in his face until he can’t breathe.
Almost was I was thinking, but this is a family blog.
excellent post and so true
Thanks, Jerry.
am yisroel chai!
Od Avinu chai!
am yisroel chai!!
“Which is somewhat your fault, Jeremy, being as you are YES, someone who lives in EUROPE.”
I will now use my contrarian logic powers. Are we saying that
a) a child born in the last thirty seconds has Jewish blood on its hands, and
b) that child might also be Jewish?
And if the Holocaust is my fault, and always will be as a result of living in a certain geographical area, is there any point whatsoever to opposing Jew-hatred? Apparently I’m just as guilty either way.
No, personally , I don’t think everyone born in Europe is always partially at fault for the Holocaust. But I do think we Jews have the responsibility of perpetually defending and protecting ourselves from the possibility of another Holocaust, by force if need be.
Duplicated post.
As a human being the Holocaust is part of your heritage. So are positive acts that human beings have done. This is the legacy that you’ve been given.
Original sin is not a Jewish concept, so no. It’s what you do after you are born that determines your character.
No. “We” are saying that someone who is an inheritor of the culture responsible for the deaths of 6 million
a) has no right to tell us we must be silent about that forever more, and
b) bears responsibility for ensuring it never happens again, first and foremost by never forgetting what happened which can’t be done without hearing about it and learning about it FOREVER.
The way you oppose Jew-hatred is to support Israel. Unequivocally. And stop crying crocodile tears for the Arabs who covet Jewish land. If you don’t then there will be another Holocaust (it’s already begun) and that will be your personal responsibility, as well as your inheritance from the past.
I will add that those who did inherit that culture and use the Holocaust to intimidate Jews into being silent when threatened, or who distort the Holocaust to falsely accuse Jews of atrocities, or who side with those who are planning another one, do retroactively share in the responsibility.
Amen.
Don’t you love these people (like Ivan here) who think they are the only ones who know what science and logic is?
It is time to leave the past behind. The world has undergone many genocides. Get over it once.
The world had undergone many genocides. Getting over it smooths the way for the next one.
Irene, if someone put your loved ones in a gas chamber would you “get over” it?
that isnt how the jews roll
every year we relive the slavery in egypt….not remember….relive
we dont forget….
so gei kaken afen yam
While we’re at it, G*d commands to constantly remember what Amalek did to us.
Somehow I doubt that Irene will be back to read of the response to her post. Perhaps she is taking your advice, in which case she had better take a towel.
Or mine, in which case she won’t need one.
I am so angry about her comment. Can’t stop thinking about it. Maybe she IS Amalek.
“Time to leave the past behind?” That’s usually another way of saying “Shut up, Jew!”
Funny how no one talks about leaving the past behind when they can distort it to attack Jews.
Oh, whatever. Hakuna Matata!
Make that Ver geharget.
Only after you EuroDreck stop doing so many genocides. Grow up and leave us alone. After 2,000 years of robberies, rapes, enslavement and genocide one would think you would get over that too.
It goes further back than that.
You would be correct for one thing. And that is, they keep on trying.
AntiSemitism is so old its origin is lost in the mists of history.
The reason we are so “hung up” on it is that it keeps on being tried. I’ve read excerpts of the New York State report on the Crown Heights riots. (Good luck searching for it!) A woman cowers in her house with her children while the mob shakes the door off its hinges. If this had not been the US, it would have been a massacre.
You should genocide yourself. Do the world this favor.
I can’t really worry what Jew haters tell me their definition of bigotry is and how mine doesn’t count. It’s just that simple and when you give attention to Jew haters then that’s the kind of baiting they live for. If it were me I’d just send him a nice Nazi flag in the mail every day.
🙂
As I’ve said elsewhere, it’s Iran that played the Holocaust card.
The BBC had a question, in honor of International Holocaust Day, whether “the Holocaust should be laid to rest”. It is high time the BBC is laid to rest.
Well then if you say “get over it” is another way of saying “Shut up, jew” then we just say it “Shut Up jew!”. Even if the holyhoax happened the way you say it did, okay, so society got one off on you after you’ve had how many – like dozens?, that the jews have committed.