19 March 2010 I never knew that the Holocaust was like that

19 March 2010 I never knew that the Holocaust was like that




Most of the industrialized world and all of the nations which claim Islam as their state religion have, once more, denied Israel’s claim to East Jerusalem. This, apparently now, includes the U.S. It fails to matter that Israel annexed East Jerusalem only after it was captured by Israeli troops in 1967. It matters not that Israel took the Old City and surrounds only after Jordan, which Israel had promised not to attack, chose to join the other Arab states and invaded Israel. And it matters not that Israel has the strongest historical and cultural ties to Jerusalem of any nation.

The question of settlements has been a continual problem since 1967. Israel has used them to secure land within the West Bank, often inappropriately or unwisely. But East Jerusalem historically belongs to Israel, culturally belongs to Israel, and is, in no manner, needed by the would-be-Palestinians to form their would-be nation.

In what appears to be yet another oil-driven policy, the Obama administration has shown itself to be much more willing to overlook long military, political, and intelligence gathering alliances with Israel in order to curry favor with the Moslem nations. They fail to recognize that no amount of appeasement will convince the Arab states or the Moslem fundamentalists to accept the existence of Israel as a permanent state in the Mid East. 62 years of history are apparently not sufficient to demonstrate that the long term goal of the Islamic world is the destruction of Israel. Obama fails to realize that there will be no negotiations in good faith by the would-be-Palestinians or the Arab states that have, to date, kept them stateless and used them as cannon fodder in order to scapegoat Israel.

As the time post WWII passes, the American populace has become less able to understand the need for the state of Israel, why it must defend its borders, and how much hatred and anti-Zionism exists in the Arab states. The lack of support for Israel among the American populace and in particular on college campuses is seriously frightening.

One reason I chose to take “History of the Holocaust” is to see how the event is presented on a small southern campus, and how the Holocaust is viewed by the students enrolled in the class. While I expected some anti-Semitism and a large amount of anti-Zionism, what I’m seeing is even more disturbing.

On a good day in this class, my fellow students sit there waiting to be spoon fed answers that can be plugged into a question on an exam. No one seems to be very interested in expanding their scope of knowledge. No one asks any questions that deal with the victims unless it has to do with money, valuables, or property. After all, we Jews are all filthy rich. On a bad day in class, if I ask a question designed to open a discussion or to bring the lecture around to the Holocaust as it actually relates to Jews, then and now; no one says a thing, no one seems to be curious about what happened to six million people who died because their families once prayed in the wrong manner.

Today left me at risk of verbally assaulting another student.

Fritz actually moved away from the German aspect and showed a segment of Schindler’s List dealing with the roundup and transportation of Jews from the Krakow ghetto. I knew it was a movie, that no one was actually being killed, and it was still difficult to watch. It hasn’t been that long ago that people related to me died in similar roundups or were sent by rail to death camps. It hasn’t been that long ago that men and women related to me wore this nation’s uniforms and stood against the evil that was the 3rd Reich. The scenes depicted in the movie are the things I’ve been trying to bring forward by means of questions.

As I looked around the room to gauge response on those faces I could see I happened upon something that infuriated me. A young woman in the next file of seats had her laptop open and was busily looking through photographs that appeared to be absolutely unrelated to anything coincident to the Krakow ghetto or anything else related to this class material. She was absolutely unconcerned about anything taking place in the movie that was the most important thing Fritz has brought up to date. She wasn’t offended, sickened, saddened, disgusted, or move in any direction. She simply did not care.

Yes, it’s not my class to teach, I’m not paying for her education (unless she has some sort of grant), and I lack any standing to upbraid her for her lack of concern. I have no desire to be dragged off campus for questioning her lack of concern for the six million in public. That must surely be unacceptable on today’s PC campuses. And of course, since I’m wishing I could demand concern for “those Jews” instead of the “would-be-Palestinians” who would like nothing better than to see what happened in Poland happen next in Israel; I would be the non-PC offender, supporting apartheid by Zionists.

I used to wonder how any college students could fail to understand Israel’s need for security, for intact borders, to prevent attacks upon its civilian population. I used to wonder how they could collectively swallow the PR put out by the Arab states and the would-be-Palestinians. I used to wonder why the U.S. government was suddenly taking a decidedly anti-Israeli vector and supporting the same groups of terrorists in Gaza and the West Bank that are killing U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Those questions still need to be answered fully. But I imagine I can provide part of the answers.

When I was in university, the new and improved new left followed the lead of the socialists and communists in Europe, elevating the supposed refugees to hero status for their continuing murders of Jews in Israel. The Israelis had demonstrated their willingness and ability to defend their soil, and thus were no longer political underdogs. As the Arab states became Soviet clients, receiving Soviet armaments to proof against Israel, they and the Soviets launched a campaign to label Israel an apartheid state. The UN, voting largely in Catholic, Moslem, and Soviet blocs, hung slanderous labels on Israel which were picked up by the remaining leftists on university campuses. As political correctness grew in force, as Israel refused to pull back its borders or to give up Jerusalem, and as the religious right gained more political power in this nation, the sympathy for Israel among the young began to vanish.

Most people in my class, if not all, have no Jewish relatives; have never heard eyewitness accounts of Holocaust survivors, liberators, or even righteous gentiles. Most of them, if not all, have never talked with a Jew who recalls the days before Israel was reborn. If they’ve been to Israel at all, it has been with a Christian tour group. Israel and the Holocaust that preceded its rebirth are of no concern to them. WWII for most is as distant as the American Revolution and of as less consequence than the next basketball game.

They are almost all Christians, many fundamentalist &/or evangelicals. Jews will not convert so it must be that they are being “punished by God” once again.

The really frightening truth that I saw in her face today is an utter lack of concern for the people and nation of Israel, for the Jews here and there. It’s the same lack of concern that my family members saw on the faces of their neighbors on 1 Sept 1941 at Polonnoye as they were rounded up and marched out to be shot in the mass graves by the railroad forest.

That may seem a far reach or paranoid reasoning to you. I believe that it is true. We saw the re-emergence of anti-intellectual, anti- anyone not Christian politics in 2008. We can see it in the uglier tea party mob signs. One only has to look.