On 30 Jan 2007 04:25:37 -0800, wrote:
WE STILL REMEMBER EXPULSED JEWS BY FUCKING CATHOLIC SPANIARD IN
1492!
DO YOU REMEMBER EXPULSED JEWS BY FUCKING PRODESTANT ENGLAND?
IT HAPPEN AGAIN SOON!!!!
On 30 Jan, 08:36, "Heinrich" <Heinr...@Ruhrgasnet.de> wrote:
It's time for Israeli Jews to leave behind the mentality of the victim and
the ghetto, and stop making comparisons between Hitler and Arafat, Saddam
Hussein or even Ahmadinejad, said former Foreign Minister Shlomi Ben-Ami in
a speech to the Spanish Parliament Sunday.
Such comparisons are an obstacle to Israel's relationship with the
international community and, even worse, "Give legitimacy to some
Palestinian comparisons between Israel and the Nazis," he said.
In his speech, the keynote event in a Spanish ceremony in honor of the
international Holocaust Memorial Day, Ben-Ami also censured Europe and
Spain's left-wing, whom he claimed lead a campaign of anti-Semitism,
disguised as anti-Zionism.
In particular, he condemned Nobel prizewinner Jose Saramago, who referred to
Jenin as "Auschwitz".
Nonetheless, he concluded his speech with criticism of Israel and Jews in
general, saying "if the strongest nation in the Middle East refers to every
war and every threat as a threat of Holocaust, we ourselves are making the
Holocaust banal."
We can't hold on obsessively to the mentality of being the victim, he
continued, warning that "Israel is a captive of paranoia of the memory of
the Holocaust."
Ben-Ami's statements caused a storm in the small Jewish community in Spain,
and among Israel's Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The head of Spain's Jewish
community, Jacobo Israel, emphasized to the Spanish Parliament that Israel
is under existential threat by the Iranian regime.
The Foreign Ministry said that Ben-Ami's statements were enraging,
particularly when made abroad by an Israeli Jew, speaking in the capacity of
a former foreign minister.
Ben-Ami defended himself to the Yedioth Aharonoth newspaper Monday, saying
"I believe in explaining things in a balanced manner, which is the only
thing that lends credence to our cries against others...We must not
interpret current events as a Shoah."
"The ability to critique ourselves is sometimes the best advocacy...I'm
sorry that narrow-minded people, instead of promoting Israeli interests, are
weakening Israeli advocacy," he said
"Ninety-nine percent of my speech was a defense of Israel and a harsh
criticism of the European left...I respect everyone's feelings but am sorry
for those who don't see the statements within the proper context," he added
.
