Cohen: Enough about the Holocaust already
Roger Cohen, again. This time, it's a call for Israel to stop talking about the Holocaust already and dismantle its assumed nuclear arsenal.
The Holocaust represented a quintessence of evil. But it happened 65 years ago. Its perpetrators are dead or dying. A Holocaust prism may be distorting. History illuminates — and blinds...
There’s another way of looking at the ongoing struggle in the Middle East — less dramatic and more accurate.
That is to see it as a fight for a different balance of power — and possibly greater stability — between a nuclear-armed Israel (an estimated 80 to 200 never-acknowledged weapons), a proud but uneasy Iran and an increasingly sophisticated and aware (if repressed) Arab world.
Some of Israel’s enemies contest its very existence, however powerless they are to end it. But the death-cult terrorists-versus-reasonable-Israelis paradigm falls short. There are various civilizations in the Middle East, whose attitudes toward religion and modernism vary, but who all quest for some accommodation between them...
I’ve long argued, Iran makes rational decisions. Rather than invoking the Holocaust — a distraction — Israel should view Iran coolly, understand the hesitancy of Tehran’s nuclear brinksmanship, and see how it can gain from U.S.-led diplomacy.
Full column here.
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Roger Cohen is an idiot.
The Israelis can let go of the Holocaust just as soon as the Arab world let’s go of their promise to ‘Finish what Hitler started’.
The same people who want to denigrate the significance of the Holocaust are usually the same people who think genocide of the Jews is a good idea.
Mr Cohen, whilst I will not argue with you re the Holocaust as long as you do not deny it.
However on Israel and her possible Nuclear arsenal and maybe Lazer weapons I hope.
Are you completely naive-
Here is the Charter from Hamas ,which is part of the Islamic brotherhood, of which IRAN is a supporter and main financial banker:-
“Our struggle against the Jews is very great and very serious. It needs all sincere efforts,
. The Islamic Resistance movement is but one squadron that should be supported… until the enemy is vanquished and Allah victory is realized. It strives to raise the banner of Allah over every inch of Palestine.......”
“The prophet.... has said “The day of judgement will not come about until Muslims fight the Jews, killing the Jews, when the Jews will hide behind the stones and the trees. The stones and the trees will say “there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him"…
There is no solution for the Palestinian question except through Jihad. Initiatives, proposals and international conferences are all a waste of time and vain endeavours. Palestine is an Islamic land”..... and it goes on with more rhetoric..
I hope you read these comments, for if you desire Israels demise then you are talking the talk her adversaries are delighted with!
Uriel Hellman and JTA, no matter how much you disagree with what Roger Cohen writes, you have an obligation to get it right in paraphrasing his views. Please reread the column—Mr. Cohen most definitely did *not* call for Israel to “dismantle its assumed nuclear arsenal,” nor did he say “Enough About the Holocaust Already”—rather, he called for limiting Holocaust-related allusions in formulating policy and policy statements, and focusing more on a realpolitik encounter with the very real menace that is Iran. Cohen might be wrong, but it doesn’t help matters to inaccurately report what he is saying.
David Szonyi
Bloomington, Indiana
Echo David Szonyi’s criticism of Uriel Hellman’s blatent misrepresentation of what Cohen called for.
I fail utterly to see how the interests of Jews anywhere on the planet are furthered by such glib intellectual dishonesty.
I expect more from JTA. A lot more! Take away the intellectually honest reporting and these daily JTA digests are just more unwanted spam cluttering my inbox.
David, you’re partially correct. Cohen wants Israel to sign the non-proliferation treaty, so Iran and Arab states can stop whining about a double standard. However, there is strategic value in Israel keeping its nuke status in the dark. Iran might attack Israel if it knew Israel had, say, 10 nukes, or they might have their proxy, Hezbollah, do so. But Iran doesn’t know if Israel has 10 or 100 or 500 nukes, so the mullahs become more hesitant in their fanaticism. For all we know, Israel doesn’t have any nukes!
The “never again” mentality is not outdated, as recent genocides have shown. The Tutsis of Rawanda will testify that our present civilization is perfectly capable of mass slaughter. “Never again” means, in part, “Various peoples may kill off each other, but we are done going like lambs to the slaughterhouse. If you try it again against us, many more of you will die than us. So think it over.” Thus, the threat of a retaliating nuclear Israel folds perfectly and logically into its “never again” mentality.
Please excuse me. I am a backward country fellow and the words that Mr Cohen has written have as much sense to me as if they were written on a leaf blown wind.
Out here in Montana when there is that much animosity and self loathing uttered the proper response is...................and the horse you rode in on too!
Jerry Weissman
Great Falls, Montana
I thought that Roger Cohen would be embarrassed by the election that his buddy Ahmadinejad stole. Now he is embarassing himself again as an apologist for Iranian fascists. The only reason I can see for publishing him is as an affirmative action program for imbeciles. Mr Cohen finally puts to rest the myth of Jewish intelligence. Most 5 year olds have a better understanding of the threat of a nuclear Iran
The Almighty is happy with Israel’s hostile neighbors and restive foreign inhabitants! Opposition has been good for the Jewish politic. Yes, the Hebrews suffer, but the enemies of the Hebrews suffer far worse for their resistance. Nuclear weapons could be abandoned, the Jews have switched over to modern non-nuclear neutron weapons (disguised as ‘phosphorous’ weapons) anyway. Any attacking Arab army would burn alive like the Gaza Hamas fighters did. Israel is invincible.
Ross, as the Yom Kippur War demonstrated, Israel must be constantly vigilant. If they don’t make themselves invincible, they might end up invisible.
Having said that, one would think that given their numerous defeats, the Muslims would have an inkling that, just maybe, Allah is not on their side.
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MICHAEL B KOLSKY
10/16/09 12:47 PM
Mr. cohen lives in La-La Land. Maybe the police in NY should revert back to working the streets without guns to demonstrate to the “Hoodlums” that they are really good guysa and want peace.
If Israel gives up their military might how long do you think oit wpould take before the “Arab states” make peace, or more likely attack Israel again.
The Arab world like Hitler needs a “scapegoat” for the level of existance their citizens live, without Israel to complain about how long would the dictators in the Arab World last.
Mike Kolsky