Huckabee’s right
I find much of the discussion over US presidential candidate Mike Huckabee’s reference to the Holocaust with regard to the Iran nuclear deal disingenuous. Huckabee has made a very nuanced statement which was surprisingly dismissed even by many Israeli and Jewish politicians and leaders.
The “Holocaust metaphor” is much abused, and correctly, Jews bristle at inappropriate comparisons. However, no one less than the eloquent master of English and left-leaning diplomat Abba Eban coined the phrase “Auschwitz lines” in the context of foreign government policies that sought to return Israel to the threatening pre1967 territorial lines. Those policies which could bring the majority of the Jewish population of Israel within easy range of attacking armies with genocidal intentions (as broadcast by Arab leaders in 1948 and 1967) were aptly compared to the Holocaust precisely for their potential threat to masses of Jews. The term “Auschwitz lines” has since been used by many on the Left and the Right. The genocidal threats continue today.
Huckabee did not say the US administration was pushing Jews into ovens as did the Nazis and their cohorts. He implied the Obama administration was leading the Jews to the ovens. One recalls the short-sighted politicians and government officials (Chamberlain and Stalin/Molotov) signing agreements with the Nazis, who had already broadcast their intentions vis-a-vis the Jews and other “enemies,” foolishly ignoring the threats for the sake of avoiding war and other less noble interests. Leaders lead, sometimes foolishly. It is that foolish blindness that makes them culpable. Chamberlain is the quintessential fool who sought a utopian peace that ultimately cost 50-60 million lives, over six million of them Jews.
Huckabee’s mention of the Holocaust context with regard to Obama, who signs agreements with Iran that can’t be enforced, guarantees its nuclear weaponization sooner than later and ignores its repeated genocidal threats to masses of Jews, is very apt. A short peace has been bought for a much worse war in the future (1938 deja vu). Israeli officials should let the American candidates speak their mind. GABE GOLDBERG
Jerusalem