“The Nazis didn’t kill the Jews in 1933. They killed them in 1941. They killed them after dehumanizing them.â€
So states Shulamit Enber of the International School of Holocaust Studies at Yad Vashem, Jerusalem’s Holocaust Memorial Museum, in an interview with Michael Greenspan for the television docu-drama “Against all Odds†which is poised to screen on PBS across the United States.
Greenspan, an investigative reporter, wanted to know how it was that Hitler’s followers singled out the Jews as the one group to focus everybody’s hatred on.
“The image of the Jew through the generations from traditional antisemitism to modern times was always that the Jew is the Satan or the outsider or we have a problem with him,†Enber said.
“The Nazis brought it to an extreme because the Nazis talked about genocidal antisemitism…â€
And how did they turn that antisemitism into a weapon?
“Propaganda against Jews was done everywhere. If you went to a film you saw a film of an image of the Jew, if you read the newspapers you saw the caricatures, Mein Kampf [Hitler’s manifesto] was bought and people read it; students in schools learned that features of Jews are different from features of Germans.
“And if you hear something a million times a day and you hear it in school, you hear it in the streets and the leader leads you to it, so the atmosphere becomes like that.â€
As we know from history, six years passed from the time that Hitler became chancellor until he began making good on his threat to “annihilate the Jewish race in Europe.â€
Those six years were necessary in order for the antisemitic mass media to prepare the ground – create the atmosphere – in which the extermination could be carried out without objection; in fact, with widespread national support.
For the last nearly 60 years, the world’s media has been working to dehumanize the people of Israel and delegitimize their state.
At first, after 1948, there was enough residual sympathy for the survivors of the Holocaust so that the newly reborn Israel received much positive press. Soon enough, however, following the Sinai Campaign in 1958 (in which Israel took the fall for England and France), and then in a major way after the Six Day War saw Israel conquer territory used aggressively against her, the general attitude of the world’s largely liberal journalists swung sharply against Israel.
Fed around the clock by outrageous “Palestinian†propaganda, the press began portraying Israel as an illegal occupier of Arab lands and a vicious abuser of human rights. Soon the Arabs had succeeded in getting the media to buy in to their version of Middle Eastern history.
It holds that the territory the Bible calls the Land of Israel is nothing of the kind; that all the land currently under Israeli sovereignty and control is Arab land; that Israel is a western implant, a colony created by the guilt-ridden western powers who stole that land to give to the Jewish survivors of the Holocaust; that Israel immediately became an expansionist state set on swallowing up more Arab lands; that Israel is responsible for the plight of the “Palestinians†including their “dispossession†and being made refugees; that ; it, ancient Jewish lands become ancient Arab lands, the Land of Israel’s Jewish history is erased and debunked, while the Islamic
It was only after the first Intifada broke out in the late 1980s however, and as world leaders began to embrace the Arab side, that the impressive impact of the years of hostile press coverage was to be seen.
That kind of reporting has only intensified in the ensuing nearly two decades, perversely fomented by the Arabs’ responsibility for the failure of the Oslo land-for-peace process, and concomitant with an increasing willingness of television and newspaper editors to run reports that have not been verified and are often filed by openly anti-Israel individuals.
Accuracy has long ago given way to inaccuracy, exaggerated reports have been overtaken by those containing libelous lies, and today we have arrived at the place where Israel is regularly accused of massacres, war crimes and cries against humanity including genocide.
Influential leaders draw scandalous comparisons between Israel’s actions and those of the Nazis, and between Israel’s Zionist policies and the policies of Apartheid South Africa.
It’s working; the media has done its work and their consistent demonization of Israel is having the desired effect. Just as, after six years of brainwashing, the German and Austrian people were prepared to accept, support and even welcome Hitler’s final solution, so too are the nations of the world, after nearly 60 years of increasingly bitter reporting about Israel, being readied to accept, support, and even welcome the Jewish state’s removal from the Middle East.
So we see that, in a recent BBC-run poll, the majority of Europeans view Israel (the land whose people have impacted humanity with everything from the Bible to the cell phone and the Pentium chip) as the country that most negatively affects the world.
An earlier survey, taken about two years ago, showed that most Europeans believe Israel poses the greatest threat to world peace. A former president of the European Union has reportedly stated that permitting the re-creation of Israel was the greatest mistake made by the international community in the last century.
And Ha’aretz reported on March 12 that 30 percent of Germans agree that Israel is doing to the Palestinian Arabs “what the Nazis did to the Jews.â€
It’s incredibly far-reaching, this insidious international effort to dehumanize Israel’s people and delegitimize their state. Like the Jew in the Diaspora in 1940, Israel is widely seen as “the Satan,†“the outsider,†and the one with whom the world has a problem.
And it’s a frighteningly short step from here to the place where the nations will be ready to support, assist with, and even embrace the end of the Jewish state.
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* Anti-Israel journalists strongly reject any allegations that they are antisemitic, protesting that it is their right to be as critical of Israel just as they [assert] they would be of any other country.
But their readiness to swallow the Arabs’ revisionist rendition of history hook line and sinker and to consistently propagate it to hundreds of millions of people around the world, coupled with their determination to cynically dismiss and gainsay the Jewish (and, by the way, overwhelmingly Judeo-Christian world’s) perspective in virtually every report they write or broadcast; their repeated culpability in reporting as investigated fact the wildly spun Arab allegations of Israeli-perpetrated massacres; and their unwillingness to confess their errors when found out… altogether their overall attitude towards Israel reeks of antisemitism.
GOD BLESS ISRAEL AND HER DEAR PEOPLE THE JEWISH PEOPLE..YOU GOT MY LOVE AND MY PRAYERS..
MARY
I totally agree with Jordon’s king Abdallah’s statement re the right of refugees to return to their original homelands. Just hope he remembers that his daddy, after killing ten of thousands of “palestinians” back in 1970 chased the remainder to refugee camps in Lebanon and created the civil war in that country. Let King Abudallah put his money where his mouth is and practice what he preaches. Then he and his British-created Hashemite family pack up and move back to Saudi Arabia SO THE PROMISED PALISTINIAN STATE CAN BE FORMED AS PROMISED BACK IN 1920’s. LET ALL ARAB STATES TAKE BACK IN THEIR PEOPLE WHO THEY CLAIM TO CARE FOR. IF THEY DID THAT, THEY WOULD SOLVE THIS REKNOWNED PROBLEM IN THREE MONTHS
I stand in the gap for you, Israel with prayers and financial support as much as I am able. I love you and I know you are the apple of HIS eye stay strong and remain faithful always to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
It may appear to many that Israel stands alone falsely accused but please know that MANY, MANY believers such as myself strongly support and pray for Israel. God WILL protect HIS people and HIS land and will raise up HIS wrath against ALL who stand against the “Apple of God’s Eye”….Israel!!!!!
STAN, YOU HAVE DONE YOUR HOMEWORK WELL, THIS IS TRUE ABOUT THE 6 YEARS. I REMEMBER MY GRANDMOTHER TALKING ABOUT THIS VERY SAME THING. SHE WAS AND I AM FOR ISRAEL AND I WISH I WAS IN ISRAEL TO HELP FIGHT AGAINST THESE BLOOD THIRSTY ARABS. I’M OLD BUT CAN STILL SHOOT PRETTY STRAIGHT, THIS FARM WOMAN LEARNED YOUNG TO SHOOT CRITTERS THAT WAS AFTER OUR LIVE STOCK OR CHICKENS.
MY HEART AND MY PRAYERS ARE FOR ISRAEL.
BLESS YOUR PEOPLE LORD.
BS’D
G-D’S PROMISE TO ‘BLESS THOSE THAT BLESS ISRAEL…
AND CURSE THOSE WHO CURSE ISRAEL’
SHOULD IMPELL ALL TRUE FRIENDS OF ISRAEL TO IMMEDIATELY
BEGIN TO ACTIVELY OPPOSE THE DIABOLICIAL PLAN BY EHUD
OLMERT …THE ‘CRIME’ MINISTER OF ISRAEL….TO EXPELL
THOUSANDS MORE JEWISH RESIDENTS FROM THEIR HOMES IN
JUDEA AND SAMARIA!!!.
ONE SUCH EFFECTIVE WAY IS TO INITIATE A BOYCOTT BY
INFORMING OLMERT THAT MILLIONS OF TOURISTS WILL NOT VISIT THE JEWISH STATE UNLESS AND UNTIL THE GOVERNMENT OF ISRAEL CEASES TO GIVE UP TO ISRAEL’S ENEMIES… THE LIBERATED LANDS WHICH G-D, BLESSED BE HE, RETURNED TO THE JEWISH PEOPLE.
(Please see website: http://www.victimsofarabterror.com)
Although your intention is the opposite, your piece of writing draws “scandalous comparisons between Israel’s actions and those of the Nazis”. This from the very title: “First we dehumanize you, then we can destroy you.” Just what Israel is doing with Palestinians nowadays, in order to restrain them from claiming back their land.
You pretend to hold righteousness of land grabbing and occupation on the Bible. What is the Bible for any other people? Maya book of the dead speaks about human sacrifice. Should they promote nowadays it’s coming into being?
I do not claim that Israelis are like nazis. But attitude makes 100% for rooting justice. Israel State’s attitude towards people living in the land is much too similar to your sentence.
Mirror yourself, not into history’s mirror, but into the other people’s burden: it is all too much Israel’s State responsibility, whose supposed right to land grabbing is based on a book of generations passed over 2000 years ago.
Sometime before that, there were no morals. Pillage was the law of the land, and people killed each other and with no remorse. The process of the Bible was intended to leave that behind, by setting moral standards. But all too much through history, it has been done just the other way round. May your god forgive you for what he would not see - would he exist - as a rampant breach of biblical principles.
History is about to repeat itself .
God works the same way today as He did when Israel’s leader and the people united in calling out to Him. Things looked hopeless as Israel was surrounded and outnumbered. THEY HAD NO ONE ELSE BUT HIM.
Now we move to 2007 and the same circumstances come into play.
What can Israel do ?
What is missing today as Israel is distracted from her real help, too dependant on a false ally for useless help and false security .
God will break this yoke of bondage so Israel can come to Him with one heart and voice.
When Israel’s God makes His move ,Israel’s surviving neighbors will learn fear and humility.
He will accomplish this once again.
Everything is NOW in place and Israel’s proud enemies fall into God’s trap.
We will soon see this replay in our day.
It happened after this that the people of Moab with the people of Ammon, and others with them besides the Ammonites,* came to battle against Jehoshaphat. Then some came and told Jehoshaphat, saying, “A great multitude is coming against you from beyond the sea, from *Syria; and they are in Hazazon Tamar” (which is En Gedi). And Jehoshaphat feared, and set himself to seek the Lord, and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah. So Judah gathered together to ask help from the Lord; and from all the cities of Judah they came to seek the Lord.
Then Jehoshaphat stood in the assembly of Judah and Jerusalem, in the house of the Lord, before the new court, and said: “O Lord God of our fathers, are You not God in heaven, and do You not rule over all the kingdoms of the nations, and in Your hand is there not power and might, so that no one is able to withstand You? Are You not our God, who drove out the inhabitants of this land before Your people Israel, and gave it to the descendants of Abraham Your friend forever? ………..
here they are, rewarding us by coming to throw us out of Your possession which You have given us to inherit. O our God, will You not judge them? For we have no power against this great multitude that is coming against us; nor do we know what to do, but our eyes are upon You.”
Thus says the Lord to you: ‘Do not be afraid nor dismayed because of this great multitude, for the battle is not yours, but God’s. Tomorrow go down against them. They will surely come up by the Ascent of Ziz, and you will find them at the end of the brook before the Wilderness of Jeruel. You will not need to fight in this battle. Position yourselves, stand still and see the salvation of the Lord, who is with you, O Judah and Jerusalem!’ Do not fear or be dismayed; tomorrow go out against them, for the Lord is with you.”
And Jehoshaphat bowed his head with his face to the ground, and all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem bowed before the Lord, worshiping the Lord. Then the Levites of the children of the Kohathites and of the children of the Korahites stood up to praise the Lord God of Israel with voices loud and high.
So they rose early in the morning and went out into the Wilderness of Tekoa; and as they went out, Jehoshaphat stood and said, “Hear me, O Judah and you inhabitants of Jerusalem: Believe in the Lord your God, and you shall be established; believe His prophets, and you shall prosper.” And when he had consulted with the people, he appointed those who should sing to the Lord, and who should praise the beauty of holiness, as they went out before the army and were saying:
“Praise the Lord,
For His mercy endures forever.”*
Now when they began to sing and to praise, the Lord set ambushes against the people of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir, who had come against Judah; and they were defeated. For the people of Ammon and Moab stood up against the inhabitants of Mount Seir to utterly kill and destroy them. And when they had made an end of the inhabitants of Seir, they helped to destroy one another.
So when Judah came to a place overlooking the wilderness, they looked toward the multitude; and there were their dead bodies, fallen on the earth. No one had escaped.
When Jehoshaphat and his people came to take away their spoil, they found among them an abundance of valuables on the *dead bodies, and precious jewelry, which they stripped off for themselves, more than they could carry away; and they were three days gathering the spoil because there was so much. And on the fourth day they assembled in the Valley of *Berachah, for there they blessed the Lord; therefore the name of that place was called The Valley of Berachah until this day. Then they returned, every man of Judah and Jerusalem, with Jehoshaphat in front of them, to go back to Jerusalem with joy, for the Lord had made them rejoice over their enemies. So they came to Jerusalem, with stringed instruments and harps and trumpets, to the house of the Lord.
And the fear of God was on all the kingdoms of those countries when they heard that the Lord had fought against the enemies of Israel. Then the realm of Jehoshaphat was quiet, for his God gave him rest all around.
2 Chronicles 20
Shalom Stan,
Well said my brother. The anti -semite main stream media has indeed fooled most of the world. But we, who are not part of this world, can not be fooled. As the lost tribes return to the land of Israel to receive their Messiah we have every confidence that God’s plan for Israels redemption is right on schedule. These poor ignorant roadmappers and Islamic terrorists don’t realize that they have no chance to prevail against the mighty God of Jacob. They can never dissolve Israel nor can they ever wipe it off the face of the map. God has sworn that Israel will never cease to be.
Thus saith the LORD, which giveth the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, which divideth the sea when the waves thereof roar; The LORD of hosts is his name: If those ordinances depart from before me, saith the LORD, then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before me for ever. Jerimiah 31:35-36
Genesis 15:18 In the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates:
And I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; Genesis 17: 8
For when God made promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he sware by himself, Saying, Surely blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee. And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise. For men verily swear by the greater: and an oath for confirmation is to them an end of all strife. Wherein God, willing more abundantly to shew unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath:
Hebrws 6:13 -17
Everlasting, Immutable, God said it ,that settles it!.
Shalom Jeremy
Stan, Thank you for your insightful journal. I am always blessed to visit your site. My love for Israel and it’s people began even before my visit in 1985. You and those who post here remind me that our Lord’s promises never fail. G-d’s richest blessings on you and your family.
Yours in Christ.
As painful as it is to look at, these things do have to happen. And then just when it seems that Israel is left all alone without a glimmer of hope at that moment her Messiah will return for her with a mighty deliverance! Then the whole world will see how dead wrong they were about the apple of His eye. Of course this does’t negate our responsibility to work with all our heart and strength for the welfare of Israel. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem, they will prosper that love thee! May her Messiah return soon and in our days!
Well said, Stan! My prayer is that everyone who reads this will multiply its message by sending copies to all their friends, pastors and other contacts. It needs a much wider audience than the faithful group who normally read it.
Blessings.
Our God is a mighty God and knows of our plight, and if He be for us how can we fear the things that will come upon us? Oh Israel, repent and turn to your God, the God of Abraham. For He loves you as a wife of His youth. I am is coming soon; look up your redemption draws near. In the love the Messiah, Shirley
Keep the truth coming Stan. May the Almighty continue to bless His people, despite the rampant growing anti-semitism. My prayer is that Israel will turn to their G-d for support and not the world leaders, who are deceiving them into giving up His land.
Hi, Stan:
There is irony here: the one who tries to “dehumanize” is the one who is dehumanized. When one ceases to listen to the law of nature (as C. S. Lewis describes if) one ceases to be human. If you do not express compassion and mercy, you will cease to be human.