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Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilnai (without his foot in his mouth)
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| By Israel Insider staff March 2, 2008 |
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Deputy Israeli Defense Minister Matan Vilnai said on Friday the Palestinians would bring on themselves what he called a "bigger holocaust" by stepping up rocket attacks on Israel from the Gaza Strip.
"The more Qassam (rocket) fire intensifies and the rockets reach a longer range, they (the Palestinians) will bring upon themselves a bigger holocaust because we will use all our might to defend ourselves," Vilnai told Army Radio.
Vilnai was later at pains to clarify that he meant "calamity" or "disaster." Indeed, his recorded remarks, replayed repeatedly on the radio, indicate that he was not using the word shoah to suggest any comparison with the German Holocaust against the Jewish people. It was also pointed out that references to the historical Holocaust are preceded with the definite article: haShoah.
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"It's very regrettable that what is happening is more than a Holocaust,"
Constable of the West Bank Mahmoud Abbas
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"Holocaust" is a term rarely used in Israel outside discussions of the Nazi genocide during World War Two. Many Israelis are loathe to countenance using the word to describe other contemporary events.
The Palestinians had no such hesitation. Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri said of Vilnai's comments: "We are facing new Nazis who want to kill and burn the Palestinian people."
Israeli forces killed 61 people in the Gaza Strip on Saturday, the bloodiest day of losses for Palestinian terrorist organizations since an uprising against Israeli occupation began in 2000. The IDF reprisals were in response to a sharp escalation in rocket attacks from Gaza on Israeli citizens
"It's very regrettable that what is happening is more than a Holocaust," Constable of the West Bank Mahmoud Abbas told reporters in Ramallah. Abbas has been criticized for claiming in his university thesis that Jews greatly exaggerated the extent of the Holocaust.
Khaled Meshaal, the exiled Hamas leader living in Syria, chimed in, denouncing the Israeli attacks against Gaza's civilians as "the real Holocaust".
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