The Holocaust



December 31, 2008 “Information Clearinghouse” — –Holocaust denial is anti-Semitic. But I’m not talking about World War II, Mahmoud Ahmedinijad, or Ashkenazi Jews.  What I’m referring to is the holocaust we are all witnessing and responsible for in Gaza today and in Palestine over the last 60 years.  By definition, a holocaust is a mass slaughter of people or a thorough destruction involving extensive loss of life, especially through fire.  There isn’t a more accurate description of the hell that US-armed and –funded Israeli Occupation Forces are unleashing on the people of Gaza at this moment.  Since Arabs are Semites, US-Israeli policy doesn’t get more anti-Semitic than this.

If you think I’m being grandiose, let us look at the words of Matan Vilnai, Israel’s Deputy Defense [sic] Minister, from February of this year: “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.” In Hebrew, “shoah” refers to the Jewish Holocaust of the 1940’s.  But massive airstrikes are not self-defense if you are the aggressor.  That goes for the whole stupid so-called “War on Terror,” in which not a single one of its victims had anything to do with the events of September 11, 2001.  That goes for the United States in Iraq and Afghanistan; that goes for Israel in Palestine.

And that goes for Germany in Poland.  In 1940, the Germans began massing Polish Jews into ghettoes prior to their deportation to extermination camps.  The largest one was the Warsaw Ghetto, where an uprising—a Jewish insurgency—began in 1943.  Today, Gaza is essentially a large ghetto, with a population of around 1.5 million living on about 139 square miles.  Israel controls Gaza’s land border, airspace, water, maritime access, and the flow of goods including food and medical supplies.  Since June 2007, Israel has imposed a blockade on the people of Gaza, slowly starving them to death, slowly killing them by denial of medical care amidst intermittent gunship airstrikes.  These crimes against humanity are, of course, in violation of the Geneva Conventions—international law established after World War II in the spirit of “never again.”  Unlike in Warsaw, Gaza is not the staging area for the extermination camps; Gaza IS the extermination camp.

Qassam rockets fired from Gaza as retaliation for Israeli F-16 airstrikes are the equivalent of the Molotov cocktails used by the resistance in the Warsaw Ghetto in 1943.  Like the small arms of the Polish Jews, they are no match for the sophisticated weaponry of the invading army.  This is why the death toll is so high for the people on the ground in Gaza, and minimal for Israelis.  The mainstream media is depicting this as an “all-out war,” as it depicts the illegal occupation of Iraq.  But in both cases, you have a starving, essentially unarmed people being assaulted with F-15s/F-16s, cruise missiles, depleted uranium, cluster bombs, tanks, and artillery.  This is not war; this is mass murder; this is genocide.  And it is American military, financial, and political support that makes this bloodletting possible.

From North America to Germany to Cambodia to Rwanda to Palestine to Iraq, mass murder is wrong.  When Americans are looking for whom to blame, we cannot blame the victims.  Yes, there are many players involved and many governments turning a blind eye to genocide, but don’t we brag about how much better we are than that?  Shouldn’t we stop being complicit in these supreme crimes against humanity?  All we have to do is abide by our own laws, which include all signed international treaties and agreements.  We must end our illegal occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan and stop funding and providing armaments for the illegal occupation and stealth of Palestinian land.  In the words of Rachel Corrie, a 23 year old American college student who was murdered in Rafah by the Israeli Occupation Forces on March 16, 2003:

“…Just want to write to my Mom and tell her that I’m witnessing this chronic, insidious genocide and I’m really scared, and questioning my fundamental belief in the goodness of human nature. This has to stop. I think it is a good idea for us all to drop everything and devote our lives to making this stop. I don’t think it’s an extremist thing to do anymore. I still really want to dance around to Pat Benatar and have boyfriends and make comics for my coworkers. But I also want this to stop. Disbelief and horror is what I feel.  Disappointment. I am disappointed that this is the base reality of our world and that we, in fact, participate in it. This is not at all what I asked for when I came into this world. This is not at all what the people here asked for when they came into this world…So when I sound crazy, or if the Israeli military should break with their racist tendency not to injure white people, please pin the reason squarely on the fact that I am in the midst of a genocide which I am also indirectly supporting, and for which my government is largely responsible.”

Let us heed her brave wisdom, and end illegal occupation.  If we fail to act, then the next time someone flies airplanes into American buildings, let us not ask ignorantly, “Why do they hate us?”

Dahlia Wasfi was born in the United States in 1971 to an American Jewish mother and an Iraqi Muslim father.  She earned her medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 1997.  Dr. Wasfi speaks out in support of immediate, unconditional withdrawal of American forces from Iraq and the need to end the occupation “from the Nile to the Euphrates.”  Her website is www.liberatethis.com .



4 Responses to “The Holocaust”

1. Dr.Shabir Karim says:

   December 31, 2008 at 11:01 pm

   Good Work! Keep growing.The world needs more people who are humanity centerd,and justice focussed..
2. Dr.Shabir Karim says:

   December 31, 2008 at 11:08 pm

   December 31, 2008 at 11:01 pmGood Work! Keep growing.The world needs more people who are humanity centerd,and justice focussed..
   If the World in general and the Western Capitals in particular do not heed to the harrowing injustices being enacted on daily basis on the usurped land of Palestine.Then we should not be surprised to see the predictions of Nostradamus of the man in the Blue turban! come true sooner.
3. Linda Marie says:

   January 7, 2009 at 6:45 am

   I am an American and I do see the Holocaust going on today in the Gaza strip! I am sickened by what the Israelis are doing in Gaza!
   They are the same people that have to remind the world of their Holocaust with a movie or documentary at least every two years!!
   I’m Irish descent and have never seen a Holocaust movie of the Irish people during the Great Potato Famine while the English stood by and did nothing. A million Irish people starved to death…let alone crank out one every two years or so….
   Israel should be ashamed of themselves!!
   The news coverage is very slanted here. They talk of this being a war against Israel and the Gaza strip!! What war?
   It is an extermination of people with the most sophisticated weaponry known to man! What antiquated weaponry do the people of the Gaza strip have? Why is Israel doing this?
   It is because they don’t like the leadership of Hamas so if they bomb and slaughter the people into submission and beat them down to a “nub” they can enslave them emotionally and physically into doing what they want ??
   Israel is real big on repeating the phrase “Israel doesn’t have the right to Exist” It seems more like Israel feels like “Arab people don’t have the right to Exist” and they are doing a great job to that end by exterminating them every chance they get. Of course, Israel won’t use the phrase about the Arabs not having the right to exist because they know the power of words. Why do you think they use the phrase “Israel doesn’t have the right to Exist” over and over again? They think by using that phrase gives them the right to attack the Arab people anytime they want all in the name of “Defending themselves” …The Arab people have to see that! I hear that over and over again here in the United States and somehow it makes what they do is right! Who was the leader that said that? So everytime someone repeats those words it only gives the Israelies more fuel. They say “See, they say we Don’t have the right to Exist”
   Very powerful Words…it not only gives them the right to defend themselves but it also beckons back to the Holocaust perpetrated on them! The Israelies never say the Arab or Persian people don’t have the right to exist but their actions don’t prove that.
   I work out of my home and most of the coverage is slanted.
   Every once in awhile something will slip out and we see some of the carnage. Innocent women and children being brought into makeshift hospitals with bloodied heads and limbs. I saw one segment with a family huddled into one room with candles for lights afraid to move and the look in the children’s terrorized eyes brought me to tears!!! I am the mother of three grown sons and the pain these people must feel I know I Can’t even imagine! This Holocaust must Stop now !!! In two weeks we will have new leadership in our country and I know in my heart and pray every day they will get help! Believe me the world Sees what Israel is doing !!!
   I know the people in the Gaza strip and the rest of that region want revenge on the Israelis and quite frankly I understand that. Let me ask you this…if my neighbor slashed my tires do I slash his? Do we burn down each others house? What next ? Where does it end? Do we end it when we are all dead? I Know that if we all have that response eventually we would All blow up the world and the few people left would start all over with the Lessons of War.
   I am Catholic of Irish/Scottish descent and I believe our Supreme Being whatever name you have for him gave us the Most powerful Weapons on earth and that is our minds and most importantly from our minds “Our Words”!
   Israel should be accountable for what they did and are doing.
   Violence is Not the way! There should be televised talks back and forth and the world should see the outcomes of the talks. If Israel or Hamas is all one-sided …let the world see that !!
   I pray for the people of Gaza every day…I pray for all the innocent people over there and well thinking people are Not blinded by the Propaganda anymore! The truth will come out !! If there is some kind of attack on Israel they will love that because they are the Big Bully in the neighborhood. Do they really think Israel is afraid of the antiquated bombs? No…it just pisses them off …. Do you know who Israel would be afraid of? A Ghandi like figure who can lead the people and Expose Israel. Someone who can make Israel look like the dogs that they are!! Boasts of destruction and violence falls on deaf ears! The world looks down on that! There have been many Holocausts over the centuries and none more devastating then the next but this is 2008 and We All need to Stop and Learn !! You can’t look down on a Ghandi like person. You need a Great Statesman who is truly for peace. We all do !! Someone who can speak for the people! I think out in the open talks will expose them and finally equalize you all…I Pray for open communication …Forgive me if I rambled on too long…Linda
4. ASRAR FAROOQUI says:

   January 9, 2009 at 3:36 am

   THE DOUBLE STANDARD OF AMERICAN,EUROPEAN,RULERS (NOT PUBLIC)AND U.N.O:
   WHEN A TIGER KILLS A MAN IT IS FEROSITY
   WHEN A MAN KILLS ATIGER IT IS SPORTS