devarim

I sent an Email to a website listed over at Dov Bear's blog. I post my email and the response below:

To whom it may concern,

One may argue reasonably whether the resettlement of Jewish settlers from Gush Katif is a good idea or not.
It is offensive and wildly inaccurate to make comparisions between the Holocaust and the upcoming disengagement from Gaza. Please try to find a more rational and historically accurate way to convince the Israeli government and the majority of the Jewish people of the validity of your views. You would serve your constituents better, and you would not continue the desecration of the memory of the true victims of expulsion and genocide.

Here is the reply:

Thanks for your inquiry and your suggestion. You neglected to include your "reasonable" arguments for the expulsion of Jews from Jewish land, making concessions to Arab terror, and the contemptuous rejection of our Divine inheritance. To push the Holocaust analogy a bit further, I would point out that during the Shoah there were also Jews, such as yourself, who vehemently opposed "offensive" ads that called attention
to the plight of European Jewry (Stephen Wise comes to mind). No doubt these Jews also had "reasonable" arguments for their position. So make your arguments, send your asinine emails, oppose those of us who are trying to do something, and join the ranks of those vile and repugnant Jews who abetted our enemies and will forever be relegated to the dung heap of Jewish history.

For those of you who haven't been keeping up at DovBear and OrthoMom, the website that Jordan is talking about is here.

Charming fellow, isn't he?
Here is my response:
I am not sure i deserve the vilification and invective you have chosen to heap on me. My point was that in the world of policy, there are many reasons one could oppose the disengagement from Gaza. You listed some of them on your website. I was merely observing that the Holocaust imagery you chose to emphasize was an inaccurate reflection of the potential error that the Sharon government was espousing, and shows a lack of respect for a true Holocaust.
I never for a second said that I supported the withdrawal. My feelings about the disengagement are not at issue here. I am sure I do not support comparing the actions of the current Israeli government to the Nazi regime.
The disengagement may be the worst idea ever attempted by the State of Israel. But it is not the action of people who are trying to destroy us.

The difference between the Gaza withdrawl and Nazi Germany, is that today, the jews who resist leaving gaza will not be shot, when they leave they are going to Nitzan, not gas chambers, and when they get there, they ill not be shaved and beaten, but given $200,000 compensation. hopefully taht clears things up!

You're preaching to the choir, ittay.

Jeff Jacoby gives his perspective on the topic in a recent Boston Globe column:

Let's be clear: You don't have to support disengagement to agree that the Nazi-talk is grotesque... And yet there is no getting around the fact that Israel is about to become the first modern, Western nation in more than 60 years to forcibly uproot a whole population -- men, women, children, babies -- solely because they are Jews.

The whole piece is worth a read.

[ Link ]

(hey, shanna... any chance you could alter your stylesheet so that links actually show up underlined and in blue, so we can see them?)

I certainly agree that the Nazi imagery is horrendously inappropriate ... however, I also feel that it is important not to reproach the community in their time of pain. So long as no one is being physically hurt ... let them grieve in whatever way works for them.