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The "They-of-All-People" Argument

(Jewish Chronicle-UK) Chas Newkey-Burden - There is still one anti-Israel argument that makes my jaw drop. And it is one made with unfortunate frequency. It is the "they-of-all-people" argument: the suggestion that the Jews, having faced extraordinary persecution, should know better than anyone not to be oppressors. I contend that, as a result of the Holocaust and what preceded it, it is we gentiles who should know better. The Holocaust followed centuries of slander, persecution, violence and murder committed by gentiles against Jews. So it is not the Jews who have an increased responsibility to behave morally, but us. The world's ceremonies and gestures of regret over the Holocaust would carry an increased weight of sincerity were they to be matched with robust support for Israel as the countdown to a nuclear-armed Iran, whose leader denies the Holocaust while promising to commit a second one by wiping out the Jewish state, continues. Let us strip the "they-of-all-people" argument down to its very basics: gentiles telling Jews that we killed six million of your people and that as a result it is you, not us, who have lessons to learn.
2012-08-03 00:00:00
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