So that's why Israel oppresses Palestinians. Thanks, Netanyahu, for clearing that up

October 23, 2015
Issue 
Benjamin Netanyahu has form when it comes to bizarre statements.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu raised the odd eyebrow when he insisted in an October 20 speech that Adolf Hitler had no plans to exterminate Jews until convinced to do so by a Palestinian — the then-Mufti of Jerusalem Haj Amin al-Husseini.

The German government immediately responded by pointing out that “all Germans” know their nation was responsible, which must have made for an odd phone call: “Is that Mr Netanyahu? Yes, hi, Germany here. Ah, we just wanted to … um ... this is a bit awkward but ... you know that whole Holocaust thing? Yeah? That was us.

“Yeah, that's right. We did it. Six millions Jews. Yes we know ... very unfortunate, but so yeah, we've never really heard of this Mufti guy ...

“What? No, no. No Palestinians were involved.

“Yes we're sure, we were caught red handed with the death camps in our country and everything. Nowhere near Palestine. We just wanted to clear that up, and, again, we're really very sorry ...”

One impressive thing is that a recurring argument by right-wing Zionists like Netanyahu is that Palestine never even existed before Israel was created in 1948.

So not only is he saying the Nazis weren't really to blame for their attempted extermination of the entire Jewish people, but that the blame actually lies with these other inherently Jew-hating people who aren't even real.

Just to clarify, this man heads a heavily-armed state with nuclear weapons.

It also seems strange to suggest that the idea for the Final Solution came from a non-European, because Hitler did have some quite strong views on the matter of racial superiority.

It is not hard to imagine the ex-Fuhrer in Hell, railing angrily at the very suggestion that the idea for his Final Solution came not from decent Aryan stock, but some goddamn Arab!

But the oddest thing of all is not that Netanyahu's claim is historically false on the technical grounds that the Holocaust was well under way before Hitler's one-off meeting with Husseini; it is the logic Netanyahu seems to want us to draw from his claim.

As if we are meant to conclude that Israeli occupation of Palestinian land, ongoing ethnic cleansing, illegal settlements, bulldozing of homes, apartheid-like laws, violent repression including shooting unarmed children at point-blank range and the brutal siege and murderous bombardment of the Palestinians trapped in the open-air prison that is Gaza are all justified ... because of the alleged comments made to Hitler in 1941 by a guy who's been dead since 1974.

Then again, Netanyahu does have form when it comes to bizarre statements slandering his enemies with things for which they cannot possibly be responsible.

For instance, there was that time he tried blaming Palestinian solidarity activists for the crimes of ISIS.

In June, Netanyahu called supporters of the boycott, sanctions and divestment (BDS) campaign against Israel “hypocrites” because “they boycott Israel but they refuse to boycott ISIS. That tells you everything you want to know about the BDS movement.”

I am not sure it tells us everything we need to know about BDS activists. I suspect it tells us about as much about the BDS movement as Netanyahu's al-Husseini claims tell us about the history of Nazi Germany.

After all, Netanyahu didn't give examples of ISIS products that BDS activists should be boycotting. Perhaps ISIS are exporting their own range of perfumes?

True, ISIS are pretty big players in the beheading business, but I wasn't aware BDS activists were much into the hiring of beheaders. And if they did need any beheadings, then surely BDS activists would go out of their way to procure them from ethical sources, such as the beheaders working for the Western-backed regime of Saudi Arabia.

A major part of the BDS campaign is a cultural boycott, where musicians and others refuse to perform in Israel until the campaign's demands of an end to Israeli occupation and anti-Palestinian discrimination are met.

I am not aware, however, of any artists seeking to perform in ISIS-held territory. Jon Bon Jovi, for instance, was slammed recently for breaking the cultural boycott against Israel and playing a gig in Tel Aviv.

To the best of my knowledge, he has never been invited by ISIS to play in northern Iraq. But if Jon Bon Jovi did travel to ISIS-held territories, then I'm sure pro-Palestinian activists would be the first to ... wish him the very best of luck with his gig.

• • •

Sweden witnessed a horrific incident on October 22 when a sword-wielding masked man attacked a school in the town of Trollhattan, killing two students and wounding two others before being shot dead by police.

This was a tragic act by a random madman with no broader social or political ramifications. We know this because, as ABC News reported: “Several media outlets said the masked man had a YouTube account where he posted material glorifying Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany, and critical of Islam and immigration.”

So the violent attack on a school “including many newly-arrived immigrants” was clearly the work of a lone lunatic and not in any way politically motivated terror.

It could, obviously, have only been a terrorist attack and a threat to modern civilisation if the killer's YouTube videos had glorified Osama Bin Laden and Sharia law, and been critical of Western nation's foreign policies.

In that case, the evil ISIS death cult-inspired terrorist atrocity would no doubt prove the need for ground troops in Syria and new anti-terror laws in all Western nations to allow the immediate rendition of any Muslim straight to Guantanamo Bay if they so much as breathe incorrectly during the playing of their nation's national anthem.

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