Be not indifferent

By Tom Quiner

“Never again.”

That was the pledge the world made following the Holocaust.  Six million Jews were murdered by the Nazi regime in the late 1930’s through 1945.  They were killed out of hatred.

Even the moral relativists of today grudgingly admit that the Holocaust was an evil act.

Has the civilized world lived up to their pledge of “never again?’

No.  Below are a few cold and impersonal statistics of post-Holocaust holocausts:

A still from the film The Killing Fields

Cambodia:  more than three million men, women, and children were exterminated by the communist government, Khmer Rouge, in the 1970s.

Rwanda:  500,000 to one million killed in 1994.

Uganda:  more than 200,000 killed in the 1980s.

Sudan:  2 million (and counting) killed starting in the 1980s.

Kurdistan:  tens of thousands Kurds killed by Saddam Hussein in the 1980s.

This list, unfortunately, merely scratches the surface of state-sanctioned mass murder since the U.N. General Assembly officially forbade it in 1951.

In other words, the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, as the U.N. calls it, has been ineffective in the eyes of the millions who are dead due to genocide SINCE international law made it illegal.

These crimes, tragic beyond human comprehension, are immediately urgent in light of the growing international isolation of Israel.

Hatred of the Jews is growing exponentially.  It takes two forms:  those who simply want Jews dead out of brute bigotry; and those who suggest that maybe Israel really isn’t entitled to its homeland.

The latter view was eloquently expressed by Helen Thomas last week.  As reported in my previous post, she said “I think the Jews should get the hell out of Palestine” and go back to Germany and Poland.
Helen Thomas

I would like you to think about what Ms. Thomas said.  She referred to Israel’s territory as, in fact, belonging to Palestine, despite the fact that it was established as Israel’s in 1948 by the United Nation.

So, what the U.N. says is only binding to liberals like Helen Thomas if it is sanctioning or censuring Israel.

The White House, to their credit, called her remarks “offensive and reprehensible.”

However, let us turn the clock back to 2007.  In an interview with Tim Russert, Helen Thomas said, “I do think it’s wrong to take somebody else’s land and displace them.”

In other words, she said the same thing in 2007 as last week, only without the word “hell” or the Poland or Germany references.  Her central concept, that Israel took land from Palestinians and doesn’t belong there, generated not even a peep.

The notion that Israel is the offending party is increasingly beyond question with liberal elites who dominate media outlets and universities around the world.

This same media has portrayed last week’s flotilla as a “humanitarian mission.”  The humanitarians on board the flotilla refused to allow inspections for weapons because they had weapons on board.

The humanitarians on board the flotilla radioed to the Israelis this humanitarian message:  “Shut up, go back to Auschwitz.”

The humanitarians on board the flotilla also sent out another humanitarian message:  “We’re helping Arabs go against the U.S., don’t forget 9/11.”

These aren’t humanitarians at all, they’re thugs who support terrorism.

Much of the Arab world is comfortable expressing their true intent when it comes to Israel.  Take the Deputy Minister of Religion for Hamas, Abdallah Jarbu.  He said that Jews “want to present themselves to the world as if they have rights, but, in fact, they are foreign bacteria – a microbe unparalleled in the world.”

This Deputy of Religion then offered up his fervent prayer:  “May He annihilate this filthy people who have neither religion nor conscience.”

Over in Iran, the Kayhan, the newspaper that is the mouthpiece for Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei characterized Israel as a “cancerous tumor” that must be excised from the “Islamic Middle East.”  Their goal?  According to the Kayhan:  Israel’s “total annihilation from the political geography of the region.”

This is the same country that is building a nuclear bomb.

What is striking about all of this is the lack of outrage from liberals toward an Arab world increasingly comfortable expressing their desire for another Jewish holocaust.  They reserve their outrage for Israel.  They exercise rhetorical restraint when it comes to the Arab world.

We’re heading toward an unimaginable worldwide tragedy if anti-Semitism is allowed to continue its rapid rate of growth.

On June 7th, 1979, Pope John Paul II visited Auschwitz.  He called it the “Golgotha of the modern world.”  Golgotha is the place where Jesus was crucified.

He knelt before the tomb of the unknown victims:

“In particular I pause with you … before the inscription in Hebrew.  This inscription awakens the memory of the people whose sons and daughters were intended for total extermination.  This people draws its origins from Abraham, our father in faith, as was expressed by Paul of Tarsus.  The very people who received from God the commandment ‘thou shalt not kill’ itself experienced in a special measure what is meant by killing.  It is not permissible for anyone to pass by this inscription with indifference.”

Pope John Paul II was famous for his encouragement to “be not afraid.”

Based on his remarks at Auschwitz, let us paraphrase what he is telling us now:  “be not indifferent.”

And pray this prayer:  “never again.”