Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Iran is not Auschwitz

Israeli Historian Yehuda Bauer is fed up with Bibi Netanyahu's constant equation of an Iranian bomb with the Holocaust:
Contrary to Netanyahu's claims, Iran's nuclear facilities are not the same as Auschwitz. Is it possible to drop an atomic bomb on Israel? Of course it is possible. And our friend, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, would do so if he could. Of course, an error of one degree or less would end up destroying Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa mosque, and the bomb issue has more to do with the Iranians' desire to control the petroleum reserves of Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states than a credible threat to Tel Aviv - although this cannot be discounted.

Still, this is very different from going helplessly to the gas chambers. It is a different situation. Then, it was impossible to stand up against what was being done to the Jews. Today Jews have options, including military ones. The analogy is false, demagogic and infuriating, and it is more dangerous for us than it is for the Iranians. Any air strike against Iran, God forbid, will be the result of an Israeli decision. It will wreak uncontrolled disaster and delay only briefly the manufacturing of an Iranian bomb. Bombing Iran, not Iran's bomb, could destroy Israel. There is no analogy.

2 comments:

Thomas said...

The sentence, "And our friend, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, would do so if he could," seems a bit over the top. He might do it if he thought he could get away with it, if there would be no consequences to himself or his country. But I've seen no evidence that he's suicidal.

John said...

I agree. I think Bauer was trying to concede his opponent's strongest claims and still argue against their conclusion. Even if Ahmadinejad really wants to nuke us, he is saying, that is still nothing like Auschwitz.