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Past and Future Holocausts In 1963, when Hannah Arendt’s book, "Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil", was first published, it stirred up all the arguments about anti-Semitism and the Holocaust that killed Jews for the crime of being Jews. The Holocaust is in the news because Iran’s president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has both denied it and is obsessed with it.
It required, too, that otherwise ordinary, seemingly decent, people turn a blind eye to it. It required the destruction of morality. Adolf Eichmann became one of the chief architects of Hitler’s Holocaust, the mass killing of Jews that included the comparable mass murder of anyone deemed an enemy of the Nazi regime. In all, an estimated eleven million died in the death camps, six million of whom were Jews. After World War II, he was captured in Argentina by Israeli operatives and returned to stand trial in Israel. As Arendt noted, "The trouble with Eichmann was precisely that so many were like him, and that the many were neither perverted nor sadistic, that they were, and still are, terribly and terrifyingly normal." Responding to the criticism that arose from the publication of her book, Arendt, who died in 1975, said, "I held and hold the opinion that this trial had to take place in the interests of justice and nothing else." Mahoud Ahmadinejad is an Islamist version of Hitler, who in a recent interview with Spiegel, a German publication, asked, "Why isn’t research into a deed that occurred 60 years ago permitted?" The interviewer replied, "there has been a great deal of research, and there is neither the slightest doubt about the Holocaust, nor about the fact—we greatly regret this—that the Germans are responsible for it." But Ahmadinejad persisted, trying to tie the Holocaust to the current situation involving the Palestinians. "And if the Holocaust actually occurred," he said, only to be asked if he thought it was a myth. "I will only accept something as truth if I am actually convinced of it." Suffice it to say, Ahmadinejad used every argument at his disposal to either deny the Holocaust or claim that the "Zionists" of today were holding Germans "hostage" to the past. "If there really had been a Holocaust, Israel ought to be located in Europe, not in Palestine." The ability to dismiss some 3,500 years of Jewish history, recorded in the Torah and in the New Testament requires a level of denial that exists throughout the Middle East and is widespread throughout the world.
Ahmadinejad is consumed by several things, not the least of which is the hatred of Jews inherent to Islam. In a veiled threat, he cited "three mistakes" which he deems Europe made "with respect to our people. The first mistake was to support the Shah’s government…the second mistake was to support Saddam in his war against us. The third mistake was Europe’s stance on the nuclear issue. Europe will be the big loser and will achieve nothing." It is absolutely essential to understand that Ahmadinejad is not merely threatening Israel, but all of Europe with the Iranian insistence on acquiring nuclear weapons that portend a new Holocaust, one that could take the lives of millions of Europeans. To those who opposed the U.S., British, and coalition members removal of an Iraqi despot responsible for the deaths of millions and who now oppose the use of military power to thwart Iran’s drive to acquire nuclear weapons, the only rational conclusion to be drawn from history is that the pre-emptive destruction of Iran’s nuclear facilities will soon be the only option left. The countdown has begun. Editor’s Note: One can read the Spiegel interview with President Ahmadinejad at http://service.spiegel.de/cache/international/0,1518,418660,00.html. What can you say about a state that had a motto, "New Jersey and you. Perfect together", scrapped it, and then could not come up with a new one despite the help of several hundred people who devised substitutes? What exactly was wrong with the original? Nothing. My older brother, born and bred in New Jersey, fled the state several years ago to a place famed for its palm trees and hurricanes. Even with his absence, the population of New Jersey is currently eight and a half million happy campers, including an estimated 140,000 illegal immigrants. For some reason, Mexicans cannot find their way to New Jersey fast enough, but they do show up on time and work hard. New Jersey also is home to a large Muslim population. Last year they had a Muslim-only day at one of our major theme parks. One of my former neighbors is in jail for trying to blow up the Twin Towers the first time. If you’re in Paterson or Jersey City, just keep saying "Allah Akbar" and you’ll be fine. If you love animals, New Jersey is a wonderful place because you don’t even have to visit a zoo to enjoy them. Recently, one of the estimated 3,500 black bears with whom we share the state wandered into the backyards of my own community and others. Weighing in at 153 pounds, this illiterate bear had ignored the official Bear Exclusion Zone mandates the legislature had passed and was in Zone 7, a no-bear zone. No one can understand why the bears will not stay in their designated zones. Can’t get enough of bears? Well, whole herds of white-tailed deer call New Jersey home, dining on the various succulents that homeowners plant or just plundering the crops of the farms that actually exist in the nation’s most densely populated state. If you are a bird lover, there are huge flocks of Canada Geese, protected by federal law, that often think that our public parks belong to them. How these and other wildlife actually manage to thrive in a state that is chockablock with dozens of refineries and plants identified as potential toxic hazard sites is a tribute to Mother Nature. In case, however, you want to learn the precise location of these plants, the New Jersey Work Environment Council has issued a 35-page report. Word is that it’s a bestseller among those who subscribe to "Al Qaeda Today" magazine. Pay no attention to that critic who called the report "a roadmap to potential targets." Environmental groups work fulltime in New Jersey to save us from ourselves. In a state that uses electricity to power everything people associate with "modern life", a former acting Governor (the one who replaced the gay one who resigned and has written a book about picking up strangers in public restrooms) commissioned a study in 2004 to explore wind power as an alternative. Earlier this year, when the "blue ribbon" report came out the state’s largest daily newspaper warned against making "Jersey a wind power guinea pig", noting that a phalanx of eighty 400-foot-tall turbines off the Jersey shore might be a really bad idea. "Practical knowledge about energy options is worth pursuing," said the Star-Ledger editorial, "but New Jersey doesn’t have to be the first to do it." They’re right, of course. Let Delaware or Maryland do it. And for those New Jerseyeans who spend scads of money maintaining the perfect green lawn, there’s a proposition in the state legislature that would ban the use of any fertilizer that contains phosphorous. Never mind that phosphorous is Mother Nature’s way of growing healthy lawns that contribute to noise abatement, the safety of those playing on them, and increase homeowner’s property values. If the ban passes, we shall all have to learn to love brown lawns and golf courses. New Jersey levies among the highest property taxes in the nation on homeowners. It has an income tax and a sales tax. Despite this, since Fiscal Year 2002, New Jersey is still broke. How can that be? More than $3 billion in tax increases were instituted barely four years ago and yet, according to the National Taxpayers Union Foundation, "New Jersey is sliding further into debt." Perhaps it had something to do with the fact that "From FY 2000 to 2002, spending in New Jersey increased 21 percent. Meanwhile, as an economic slump set in and unemployment rose, revenues actually declined 23 percent." I’m no economist, but this just doesn’t sound right, does it? The state is taking in less revenue and spending more? Maybe that explains why former Governor Christie Whitman was the first member of President Bush’s first cabinet to be fired after she was given the job of directing the Environmental Protection Agency? Whitman was famed for cutting taxes and then borrowing money unto the seventh generation of New Jerseyeans as yet unborn. The present Governor, Jon Corzine, bored with his job as the U.S. Senator from New Jersey, campaigned and won this prestigious job. Ignoring the fiscal policies that got us in this jam, Corzine has proposed a 9.2 percent budget increase. This will require more tax and spending increases, including a proposed $1.4 billion sales tax hike. As the Taxpayers Foundation points out, this would mean that New Jersey would have the second highest state-level sales tax in the nation. And still be broke. I will not even address New Jersey’s reputation for corruption. Did I mention the former gay Governor who put his boy-toy into a high paying state job involving homeland security? And the guy was an Israeli citizen! Did I mention the New Jersey University of Medicine and Dentistry that turned out to be a treasure trove of no-show jobs and perks for its trustees and others? Did I mention the NJ Supreme Court-mandated school program that has spent billions to build mostly unfinished schools in the state’s inner cities that ran out of money? Having noted some of its more colorful aspects, New Jersey has been my lifelong home and I frankly wouldn’t want to live anywhere else. Why would I? The state provides daily entertainment exceeded perhaps only by Louisiana or California, places that are subject to hurricanes, earthquakes, and mudslides. None of these occur in New Jersey where you will find some of the best restaurants, theatres, concert halls, highways, universities, and communities in which to live. This is why I have spent these passed few minutes simply noting that "New Jersey and you. Perfect together" is a wonderful motto and one which, in my humble opinion, should be reinstated. Pay no attention to that miscreant who suggested "New Jersey? Forgetaboutit!" No matter where you’re from, the Center needs your donation to keep our communications programs going. If you enjoy our weekly Warning Signs column, please help the Center with a small donation. If you prefer, you can send a check to The Caruba Organization, 28 West Third Street, Suite 1321, South Orange, NJ 07079. Thanks! Coming soon! "Right Answers: Short Takes on Big Issues" by Alan Caruba will be published by Merril Press.
©
2006 Alan Caruba. |
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The "Final Solution", code for the genocide of all of Europe’s Jews, was worked out at a January 1942 meeting in Wannsee, a suburb of Berlin, that lasted about an hour and a half at most. It required "more than the tacit acceptance from the Reich’s State apparatus," Arendt wrote, "it needed the active cooperation of all Ministries and the whole Civil Service."