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Nadia Matar is co-chairwoman of , a grassroots women's movement dedicated to the security and Jewish heritage of historic Israel.
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By Nadia Matar
September 30, 2004
Part Two of a three-part series. Links to others in the series are available at left.
My use of the word "Judenrat" and my stating to Bassi that "you are worse than the Judenrat of that time" resulted in two types of harsh criticism directed against me by the media and by the establishment. The first charge raised against me is that the use of Holocaust terminology is unfit and forbidden. The second, that my letter constitutes incitement to harm Bassi.
I wish to relate to both charges, to categorically deny them, and to indicate the hypocrisy of my critics:
1) The use of Holocaust terminology
The Jewish public in Israel and the world, from the left and the right, is divided on the question of the permissibility of the use of Holocaust terminology. Is it legitimate to compare then and now? Doesn't the use of terms from, and comparisons with, the Holocaust diminish the horrors of the destruction of European Jewry? Some say that the entire subject of the Holocaust is untouchable. It is sacred, and we are not allowed to use any word that recalls the Holocaust, because there is no situation today that can be comparable to what was then.
I respect those who hold such an opinion, and I know that I cannot convince them to think otherwise. Since, however, they do not have a monopoly on the Holocaust, I am entitled to disagree with them and maintain that it is very important to make comparisons, to draw conclusions, and to act so that there will not be another Holocaust.
I was born and raised in Belgium. A considerable portion of my family was destroyed in the Holocaust. Throughout my childhood I heard from my grandparents about the stories and about the horrors. Already at a young age I made a promise to myself to do everything so that it would not happen again, that I would act so that the murder of my family would not have been for nothing, that I would do everything not to forget, and not to forgive.
In my humble opinion, the Holocaust is an event that could recur, in some form or other, if we do not open our eyes and understand that the Nazi monster is still breathing, and attempting to continue what Hitler, may his memory be blotted out, did not have time to finish. I am speaking of the Arabs around us, who have been trying, even from before the establishment of the State of Israel, to eliminate any Jewish existence in Eretz Israel, regardless of our borders. The Arabs have been murdering us on a daily basis from the days of the pogroms in 1929 (when it could not be claimed that we were "occupiers").
They slaughter Jews at every opportunity, whether in war or in terror attack, cold-bloodedly firing at the heads of Jewish infants. Muslim suicide bombers explode buses, pizza parlors, and discotheques full of Jews. It is they who are the modern version of the Nazis. Every thinking person knows, or should know, that Hitler's legacy plays a starring role in the Muslim world. Hitler's book Mein Kampf is a bestseller in all the Arab countries. Everyone knows, or should know, that the hero of the Arabs, Haj Amin el-Husseini, was Hitler's close friend, and together they planned the Holocaust of the Jews of Eretz Israel. Every intelligent person knows, or should know, that all the wars and terror attacks by the Arabs against us have the same goal: the total destruction of the State of Israel, and the elimination of all its Jewish inhabitants. Every intelligent person knows, or should know, that every sign of weakness, submission, or retreat by Israel will encourage the Nazi-Arab enemy and incite him to engage in more and more terror.
Consequently, every political plan that will merely play into the hands of the Nazi-Arab enemy and bring him closer to his final goal, that is, the removal of the Jews from Israel and the elimination of the Jewish state, is a dangerous plan against which we must sound the alarm.
While, during the Holocaust, the Jews of the Judenrat played into the hands of the Nazi foe when they (unwillingly) collaborated and aided in the deportation of the Jews (without knowing the destination of the transports); today, Sharon's deportation plan also plays into the hands of the Nazi-Arab enemy, incites him to murder more and more Jews, and is liable - if, Heaven forbid, it were to be realized - to result in tens of thousands of murdered Jews, by Katyushas and rockets fired from Gaza and northern Samaria to the densely populated centers in Gush Dan.
In addition, Sharon's plan would give fuel to the anti-Semites in the world. They would rightfully say: "If a Jewish government can uproot Jews and deport them from their historic homeland; we in Europe can do the same and deport our Jews far away from here". Thus, in my eyes, the comparison between Yonatan Bassi (and Ariel Sharon) and the Judenrat is definitely appropriate. With the proviso that Bassi and Sharon constitute a much more horrible version, since, unlike the Judenrat of then, today, there is no one holding a gun to Sharon and Bassi's forehead and demanding that they commit the deportation crime.
People like Minister Natan Sharansky, who claimed that I compared the government of Israel with the Nazi regime, are wrong and deceptive. I would never compare Jew and Nazi! As I said, the Arabs who murder us today should remind us of the Nazis then. And Jews who play into the hands of the Nazi-Arab enemy with political plans that are the realization of the Hamas platform (the expulsion of Jews from Eretz Israel) should remind us of the Judenrat, in a more terrible version.
All those who have joined the outcry should recall the words of Ariel Sharon from nine years ago, when he was interviewed by the Kfar Habad magazine. On the agenda at the time was the declaration by the then Prime Minister, Yitzhak Rabin, that within the framework of Oslo it might be necessary to evacuate several settlements. When Ariel Sharon was asked about this, he issued a clear statement: "I am happy to say that nothing will be of avail to the government and its aims: the settlers do not intend to move from these places." When he was asked: "If so, then what response from them do you expect when an attempt will be made to evacuate the settlements?", Sharon continued: "This is inconceivable. [...] This would be an extremely grave matter. In my opinion, people will not leave, and I think that the government has to think well where this decision will lead. This will result in the most severe consequences [...] to civil war."
Mr. Sharon also had a clear definition of the government and its head, who were capable of even conceiving of the possibility of a withdrawal and the evacuation of settlements. Sharon also said in the same interview:
"It must be understood that this government and those heading it have fallen prey to insanity, and have lost all restraint. [...] Although we must not compare any current situation with the Holocaust, I nevertheless want to recall that before the Holocaust, as well [...] the Jewish leadership said then: There is no alternative.": "We are talking about cooperation between two people - Peres and Rabin - who, in any other country, would be put on trial in court. [...] I call here for all the parties to abandon their acting like beautiful people and to go forth, once and for all, to a battle that will bring about the fall of this disastrous government! [...] If, Heaven forbid, the government were to realize its plans, the public would have to blame itself for not having the powers of the spirit to arise and do what must be done. Already a year and a half ago I called for popular passive, unarmed resistance. If it were possible to conduct a silent demonstration of 50,000 people around the government ministries for ten days, this wanting government would already fall. [...] Defense of life is the most legal thing, and passive popular resistance, without weapons, is one of the ways to do this in democratic regimes. The Likud must lead the struggle against the government's policy, and fully support the settlers, who are defending, not only their homes, but the people as a whole."
If, nine years ago, none other than the Prime Minister himself compared the Rabin-Peres government to a Judenrat, because of their willingness to expel Jews from the Land of Israel, why, all of a sudden, is it forbidden to compare the government of Sharon and his aides, such as Yonatan Bassi, with a Judenrat?
Here is the place to cry out against the hypocrisy of those attacking me. In my letter I did not compare Bassi or Sharon to the Nazis, but to the Jewish Judenrat. Notwithstanding this, everyone in the media fell on me, crying out to the heavens. In contrast, the list of public figures from the Israeli left who compared Jews to Nazis is extremely long - and they were not attacked, neither by Yad Vashem nor by government ministers. They, of course, will not be placed on trial. The following reminder is a short selection from this lengthy list:
- A few months ago: Justice Minister Yosef "Tommy" Lapid, after seeing on television a picture of an Arab woman crying next to the ruins of her house, the house of Arab terrorists: "She reminds me of my grandmother in the 1930s." In other words, Lapid compared our dear soldiers to Nazis.
- Prof. Yeshayahu Leibowitz: "IDF soldiers are Judeo-Nazis."
- Prof. Moshe Zimmerman, from the Hebrew University: "The children of Hebron are Hitlerjugend ['Hitler Youth']."
- Uzi Benzamin, Haaretz, 2002: "The behavior of those who are called the 'youth of the hills' among the settlers is reminiscent of that of the skinheads in Europe and the US."
- Prof. Michael Harsegor, Haaretz, September 1996: "The leaders of the ultra-Orthodox are the enemies of democracy, no less than the blackshirts or the heads of the National Socialist Workers' Party [the full name of the Nazi party]."
- Shulamit Aloni, Maariv, December 2002: "Eli Yishai (as Interior Minister) acts in accordance with the Nuremberg Laws [...] the [PR] film [by the Shas party] reminds me of a Nazi propaganda film."
- Haaretz, May 1996: "The editors of Der Stuermer [the newspaper of the Nazi party] would enjoy reading these headlines [from the Likud election propaganda]."
- the newspaper of the Tel Aviv University student organization, May 2002: "Citizen, religion is your enemy, it is incumbent upon every Israeli citizen to fight it. [...]! When a person chooses to believe these lies, he throws man's essence into the garbage can. [...] Others will come and say that this makes [a person feel] good. [...] Many of those who joined the Nazi Party also experienced spiritual elevation and joy."
- Yedioth Ahronoth, Shlomo Gazit: "The religious soldiers remind me of the Nazis."
- Kidmah ("Progress"!), January 2003: "A general statement may be made of the ideological settlers, that they are much worse than any neo-Nazi in Austria."
- For many years the sculptor Yigal Tomarkin has made statements and engaged in acts that anti-Semites would not be ashamed to utter or do. For example, in 1980 he brought a pig enwrapped in tefilin to Malkhei Yisrael Square, in protest against the settlements. Some of his utterances that are reminiscent of leading anti-Semites: "When I see the ultra-Orthodox, I understand the Nazis," or "I identify the religious by their smell." In 1988 he won the Sussman prize by Yad Vashem(!! ) for his works relating to the Holocaust, but the awarding of the prize was canceled due to protests against him. Despite all his anti-Semitic statements, Tomarkin recently received the Israel Prize for sculpture from Education Minister Limor Livnat.
Concluding section coming soon: Were my statements incitement to violence against Yonatan Bassi?
Views expressed by the author do not
necessarily reflect those of israelinsider.
 
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