William C. Carlotti

It was with considerable interest that I read the interview with Hajo Meyer and, of course, his personal experiences with the Nazi led government of Germany, the Nazi led occupation of the Netherlands, and his experiences in Auschwitz are tragic and important.

At the same time, however, these same experiences serve to focus his historical perspective. So, when he encounters the activities of the Jewish Zionist led, Christian Zionist supported Israeli government that have similarities to his experiences in each of these nazi created environments he makes what he considers to be valid, based on his experiences, comparisons.

According to the interview, Mr. Meyer makes the comparison that coincides with his experience:

“I can write up an endless list of similarities between Nazi Germany and Israel. The capturing of land and property, denying people access to educational opportunities and restricting access to earn a living to destroy their hope, all with the aim to chase people away from their land. And what I personally find more appalling then dirtying one's hands by killing people, is creating circumstances where people start to kill each other. Then the distinction between victims and perpetrators becomes faint. By sowing discord in a situation where there is no unity, by enlarging the gap between people -- like Israel is doing in Gaza.”

“Of course it is positive that parts of the Jewish population of Israel try to see Palestinians as human beings and as their equals. However, it disturbs me how paper-thin the number is that protests and is truly anti-Zionist. We get worked up by what happened in Hitler's Germany. If you expressed only the slightest hint of criticism at that time, you ended up in the Dachau concentration camp. If you expressed criticism, you were dead. Jews in Israel have democratic rights. They can protest in the streets, but they don't.”

This last, “Jews in Israel have democratic rights. They can protest in the streets, but they don't.” is a clear distinction between what went on in the brief period—approximately two decades---in the environments created by the nazi led, fascist led German, Italian, Spanish governments that so much of our history of brutalizing, murderous regimes has focused on and what is going on in the current Zionist led Israeli government created environment.

It is a critical distinction.

This critical distinction between Zionist led Israeli government’s created environment and the Nazi led German government’s created environment makes the totality of the comparison demonstrably invalid even though elements deserve comparison.

What is Zionist led Israel doing and what historical comparison would be more valid than the comparison to Nazi led Germany’s created environment?

First, the Jewish Zionist led Israeli government is bombing, strafing, shooting the people of Palestine; using behemoth bulldozers supplied by Caterpillar to demolish more than a thousand Palestinian homes and eradicate hundreds of whole villages and towns; crush thousands of hectares of decades old olive and orange orchids; they fly their supersonic jets low over the Palestinian population and break the sound barrier to create the sonic boom that has deafened hundreds of vulnerable Palestinian children; they are building ghetto style armed Jewish settlements all over the territory of Palestine; they restrict the water, the electricity, the medical care, the sewage, the education, the employment, the travel, the communications and every facet of the lives of the people of Palestine; they make targeted assassinations of the selected and elected representatives chosen by the people of Palestine killing dozens of other people in the process; they have confiscated court, land and title records that confirm the property rights of the people of Palestine; they are building a wall to recreate their beloved ghetto existence armed to the teeth with nuclear bombs and chemical and biological weapons: they have driven millions of the people of Palestine off of the land of their forebears, they hold thousands of Palestinians, not only men. but also women and children in prison many of whom are tortured.

In the meantime, the Israeli economy is nominally flourishing, the Israeli government, its administration, its Knesset, its courts, its Supreme Court, its army, navy. air force, its clandestine intelligence, its regularly held elections, its colleges, universities, religious institutions, its factories, schools, water electricity, transportation, farming, international trade are all functioning.

As Mr. Meyer says: “Jews in Israel have democratic rights. They can protest in the streets but they don’t.”

The question is then, What is the appropriate historical comparison for the Jewish Zionist led created environment?

Israel is a racist, colonizing country.

It is a racist colonizing country just like the democratic French government as the racist colonizer of Viet Nam (remember Dienbienphu) and Algeria that Franz Fanon wrote about; just like the democratic government of Italy as the racist colonizer of Ethiopia and Libya; just like the democratic government of the Netherlands as the racist colonizer of the East Indies: just like the democratic government of Belgium as the racist colonizer of the Congo (remember King Leopold); just like the democratic government of Germany as the racist colonizer of East Africa; just the democratic government of England as the racist colonizer of India (remember Ghandi) , Rhodesia and South Africa; just like the democratic government of Australia as the racist colonizer of its indigenous people and in its completed genocide of Tasmania; just like the democratic government of the United States as the racist, genocidal colonizer of the indigenous population and the African slave trade.

In each of these countries its citizens had the same democratic rights as those that Mr. Meyer describes for the Jews in Israel. And in each of these countries the opposition to the racist colonizing was ”paper thin”.

And, in fact, it remains so.

The United States, with its unspeakable history of racist colonizing, refused to send representatives to the United Nation Conference On Racism. France, Italy, Belgium, Australia, and England, each with its own unspeakable history of racist colonizing, formed a coalition of racist colonizers to walk out of the conference in opposition to the Conference’s condemnation of Zionist led Israel’s racist colonizing.

In fact, the racist colonizers in the European Union have invited Zionist led Israel’s racist colonizing government to join the European Union.

So, if we are going to make historical comparisons we ought to get it straight---ISRAEL IS A RACIST COLONIZING STATE—without the kind of caveat-like exception that Mr. Meyer’s experiences compel him to make and that serve the purposes of Zionist exceptions.

-###-

By William C. Carlotti Posted on: http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article10568.shtml