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  In order to explain to us why he does not subscribe to the expressions of horror and outrage at the Israeli state’s ethnic cleansing of Gaza and the West Bank, David Trigger recommends we read his ABR review of Michael Gawanda’s book, 'My Life as a Jew'. Trigger approvingly cites Gawenda’s assertion that “accusing Israelis, and by extension Jews, of behaving like Nazis is now commonplace among parts of the far left”. This deft little phrase, “and by extension, Jews”, is an inexcusable slur against the millions of people around the globe who have very clearly made the crucial distinction between the racist Zionist state and Jewish people. Professor Trigger, by tacitly endorsing the words of Gawanda, should not be allowed to propagate this dangerous insinuation because it is exactly the kind of claim which is being deployed to silence critics of the Israeli regime. In the US and elsewhere, a McCarthyite witch-hunt against these critics is now in full swing, driving respected senior academics from their posts, and there is no question that similar techniques are being or will be employed here. Professor Trigger should be asked to retract that insinuation in ABR.
  
  When Professor Trigger recites the mantra that historical comparisons drawn between Zionist supremacist ideology and Nazism is “commonplace among parts of the far left”, must we presume he is talking about people such as Albert Einstein, Hannah Arendt, Sydney Hook, and scores of other Jewish intellectuals who made that comparison as early as 1948, stating unequivocally that Menachem Begin and his Herut party (later to become Likud), of whom Netanyahu is the ideological heir, were “fascists”, “racists”, “criminals” and “terrorists”:
  
  ‘Among the most disturbing political phenomena of our times is the emergence in the newly created state of Israel of the "Freedom Party" (Tnuat Haherut), a political party closely akin in its organization, methods, political philosophy and social appeal to the Nazi and Fascist parties. It was formed out of the membership and following of the former Irgun Zvai Leumi, a terrorist, right-wing, chauvinist organization in Palestine.
  The current visit of Menachem Begin, leader of this party, to the United States is obviously calculated to give the impression of American support for his party in the coming Israeli elections, and to cement political ties with conservative Zionist elements in the United States. Several Americans of national repute have lent their names to welcome his visit. It is inconceivable that those who oppose fascism throughout the world, if correctly informed as to Mr. Begin's political record and perspectives, could add their names and support to the movement he represents”. https://archive.org/details/AlbertEinsteinLetterToTheNewYorkTimes.December41948
  
  Trigger also fails to note that such comparisons appear to be more common amongst far-right Zionist ethnonationalists, to the utter horror of the staff of the Auschwitz Museum.
  
  As reported in the Jerusalem Post, The Auschwitz Museum in Poland expressed their disgust at the remarks made by Metula Council head David Azoulai:
  
  "The entire Gaza Strip should be emptied and leveled flat, just like in Auschwitz." Azoulai said.
  https://www.jpost.com/israel-hamas-war/article-778465
  
  “Memory of victims of Auschwitz has, at times, been violated and instrumentalized in various extreme statements,” the Auschwitz Museum said. “Calling for acts that seem to transgress any civil, wartime, moral, and human laws, that may sound as a call for murder of the scale akin to Auschwitz, puts the whole honest world face-to-face with a madness that must be confronted and firmly rejected.”
  
  
  Tony Redmond

  18 January 2024 Posted by Anthony Redmond