Israeli minister vows Palestinian 'holocaust'

[The Straight Story]

This discussion thread was locked as off-topic by Violet_Crumble (a host of the General Discussion forum).

Israeli minister vows Palestinian 'holocaust'

A senior Israeli politician provoked controversy today when he warned that Palestinians firing rockets from Gaza would be punished with a "bigger holocaust" from Israeli armed forces.

The use of the Hebrew word for holocaust, "shoah", tends to be used exclusively in Israel to describe the Nazi persecution of Jews.

Palestinian activists routinely claim to be suffering a "shoah" at the hands of Israel, but the Jewish state normally denies any moral equivalence between the suffering of Palestinians today and European jewry under the Nazis.

Matan Vilnai, deputy defence minister, broke that taboo when he used the term "shoah" during interview on Army Radio.
"The more qassam fire intensifies and the rockets reach a longer range, they (the Palestinians) will bring upon themselves a bigger shoah because we will use all our might to defend ourselves," he said.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/1580339/Israeli-minister-vows-Palestinian-holocaust.html

http://www.reuters.com/article/2008/02/29/us-palestinians-israel-minister-idUSL2963112220080229

[2naSalit]

1. At least

they are finally speaking up about the pogrom that's been playing out for decades. Reminds me of the abuse victim becoming the abuser.

[BlueMan Votes]

2. the cat's out of the bag now.

oops.

[JDPriestly]

3. People need to understand. Israelis remember the loss of at least 6 million

Jews who were herded, virtually without resistance, into concentration camps by the NAZIs.

My impression is that Israel would rather go down in flames than allow itself to be harassed into giving up its rightful place as a nation, as a haven for a people who have been oppressed since the Roman destruction of the Jewish temple in Jerusalem in 70 a.d.

Palestinians do not understand that while they have alternatives as to where they can go and what they do as a people, Israelis do not feel that they do. It is, in my opinion, as a non-Jewish person, for Jews not a matter of the territory of the place, but of having a historical anchor from a time before their centuries of persecution. That gives meaning to the Holocaust of WWII for them. The nation of Israel represents for many Jews, including many who do not live in Israel, the right to have an identity and to be free and govern themselves as a people.

We Americans should understand that. We are a nation of people, many of whom came here because of persecution or utterly miserable economic deprivation in another country.

Palestinians need to negotiate peace. They need to focus on making peace, on finding a settlement rather than on stockpiling more rockets.

Israelis are extremely strongly motivated to save their country. They are motivated by nearly 2000 years of a history of persecution. Could there be a stronger motivation? Only the Armenians come close to that, and they did not convert to Christianity until about 300 a.d. and did not face repression until much later.

Palestinians should stop whining and get realistic. If they become realistic and reasonable, they can come to a good settlement with Israel I believe. Maybe with time, Israelis will feel confident enough that they will not be persecuted in the future and become just another ethnic group in a nation that includes Palestinians. It's just too soon for that.

[Violet_Crumble]

4. Sorry, as old as the OP is, excusing the disgusting hate and bigotry of an extremist is revolting

Urgh...

[Violet_Crumble]

5. Locking. This is from a few years back and not about what's happening right now in Gaza nt/