Israeli minister warns of Palestinian 'holocaust'

Israel's deputy defence minister, Matan Vilnai, has said on army radio:

"The more Qassam [rocket] fire intensifies and the rockets reach a longer range, they will bring upon themselves a bigger shoah because we will use all our might to defend ourselves."

The little media coverage there has been of this comment (imagine it was the other way round), has concentrated on some kind of future warning Vilnai is giving. To me it sounds as if he is describing that what Israel is putting the Gazans through now is a holocaust and a "bigger" one is to come.

It comes the day after 31 Palestinians were killed in Israeli attacks, nine of them children, including one six-month-old baby.

Read more at the Electronic Intifada.

Comments

[Shavez]

Maybe the nice people at Holocaust Memorial Day will include the Palestinians now.

[Yunus]

Monday's Independent includes a letter tellingly comparing the response to the above and Cameron's Auschwitz "gimmick" clanger.

http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/letters/letters-israel-and-gaza-790495.html

[Rob]

Presumably Elie Wiesel will call Vilnai a self-hating Jew for suggesting that there could be more than one holocaust, sorry, "Holocaust". After all, when Shimon Peres referred to Auschwitz and Hiroshima as the "two holocausts of the twentieth century", the unlovely Weasel put him right ; "He shouldn't have". (Against Silence, quoted by Norman Finkelstein in The Holocaust Industry, Verso (2001) p.46)

[aineliva]

Been watching news reports on this since you posted.

What you have not mentioned is that rockets have been fired into Israel on a regular basis for the past 6/7 years and people have been killed. Channel 4 News Report/BBC 24.

However harsh, stupid, or just plain old bloody minded, the Israeli response is, I imagine, a response to long term provocation. Sometimes I wonder that when you post on these issues the information provided is a little one sided. I feel that it changes the whole perspective when I discover that this situation is one where the Palestinians have been firing rockets into Israel for 6/7 years. Imagine if my neighbour had been lighting fireworks and directing them into my garden and at my family and children for 6/7 years and I just ignored the provocation for some time, maybe one day I would say, had enough of this, and respond, and it is likely that my response would be an accumulation of pent-up anger and frustration at my neighbours unacceptable behaviour.

And on the other hand, really with the world heading for environmental disaster, why should we be bothered about grown adults who cannot solve messes of their own making, why do the rest of us have to be involved. Let both the Israeli's and the Palestinians take some steps toward taking responsibility for the situation these parties currently appear to revel in, ( of course they do, like children they get attention for their bad behaviour). If it were possible, I would remove all aid from both countries and let them sort out their own probs, and ignore them. Once they realise that we are not going to pay attention, give aid, etc. that shouldn't take long then. It's called Tough Love, a concept applied to those who have become addicted to their own personal methods of self-destruction.

What really angers me is that it is power factions, who don't give a damm for the ordinary person who continue to fight and cause damage to the ordinary individual who just wants to get on with their lives.

If you and everyone else, including governments of various nefarious countries, turned your backs on this conflict and the countries involved and said get on with sorting out your disagreement with your neighbour, then it might actually happen. But whilst some wish to find a scapegoat to blame and not provide the full information and background, of course people are led to think of, Big Bad Israel, when in fact it's a fairly small strip of land in the Eastern Mediterranean.

What do the people of Gaza want? To live without fear, in the faint hope that they will have food, lighting and heating. That's probably a good start. So why don't the various Palestinian factions that are preventing that from happenning cease the activities that harm their own people. That's what I get from a wide range of news reports and not the narrow vision that this post provided.

Surely Osama, you are better than that.

[aineliva]

Yunus, Cameron didn't actually make any clanger, he was quite clear in what he said. The newspapers, however chose to report it in such a way that would cause offence, and then there would be something to write about.

As usual those who are keen to take offence to get some "air-time" will always do so. It's the usual type of spin.

[Shavez]

I'm not surprised that's the picture you've picked up from the BBC et al Aineliva. You imagine dealing with "fireworks" for 6/7 years from your next door neighbour. I'd still say you would be an idiot for attacking people in the next street who have nothing to do with it in response, much less unleashing a holocaust on them.

Imagine also being a refugee for 60 years. Imagine your refugee camp being under occupation for 40 years. Imagine the world ignoring your plight for that time. Imagine there would be some people willing to do extreme things as a result. Did you know any of this? Still think you're getting both sides of the story on your box?

[joe90]

ainlivia with her usual tosh.

If it isn't tosh, then ainlivia won't mind providing proof that Israel definitely is the one who responds to Palestinian provocation.

I only ask because she seems so definite in her opinions but fails to provide the evidence, especially when she is so keen on pointing out the supposed bias of others.

As we all know, and can prove,
the Palestinian response however pathetic is a just that, a repsonse, to Israeli racist war crimes against them.
UN Report slams Israeli 'colonialism, apartheid and occupation'
posted on SPSC
28 Feb 2009

Imagine if my neighbour had been lighting fireworks and directing them into my garden and at my family and children
- The correct analogy would be something along the lines of.....imagine if your neighbour had stolen your property and home, butchered and then terrorised family members who tried to return, and imprisoned the survivors in a squalid ghetto....you get the idea.

I would remove all aid from both countries and let them sort out their own probs, and ignore them.
- ainlivia doesn't seem to realise that aid has been cut to Gaza and Palestinians have always been ignored.

Big Bad Israel, when in fact it's a fairly small strip of land
- The zionist myth of poor little defenceless Israel which is in fact,
- the world's 4th largest army
- has an airforce larger that France and the UK combined
- currently has an illegal arsenal of c.200 nuclear warheads (cf treatment of Iran over its non-existent nuclear WMD as well as Saddam Hussein)
- has constantly attacked its neighbours since it stole Mandate Palestine from its legitimate Palestinian owners
- currently illegaly occupies in part or in whole 3 neighbouring countries
- attacked the whole of Lebanon not too recently
- etc etc

The apologist for apartheid Israel and presumably a 'Palestinian shoah denier' then trumpets -
What do the people of Gaza want? To live without fear, in the faint hope that they will have food, lighting and heating. That's probably a good start.
- Er, no actually - that's merely a symptom not the disease. You obviously aren't a big fan of history.

What Palestinians want, and have been wanting for decades, is an end to the illegal racist Israeli apartheid occupation of Palestine (West Bank and Gaza) - and their representative organisations within the wider PLO, and Hamas, the elected government of the Palestinian Authority (PA) have made repeated calls for peace talks with the Israeli Government, which Israel rejects.

How anybody can write so much, about such an important issue, and get it all wrong !

In line with American public opinion, I wouldn't withdraw aid completely from one side or the other, just the one who breaks international law and order - which would mean Israel would have to make peace tomorrow, withdraw from its illegal occupations, stop breaking the 4th Geneva Convetion, stop attacking its neighbours etc etc.

Without crucial US, UK and the EU support the current racist war criminal regime of Israel that currently controls all the population of the whole of former Mandate Palestine would cease to exist.

ps
good to have you back Osama!

The Superbowl seems so long ago now!