opinion
The Here and Now of Holocaust
Remembrance BY RUTHIE BLUM
FreedomMaster / iStock / Getty Images Plus
I t is of tragic relevance that anti-Jewish Arab
riots, rocket fire and hate-filled solidarity protests
around the world upstaged the lead-up to Yom
HaShoah, which began on April 27.

Normally at this time, Israel’s preparations for
Holocaust Remembrance Day are highlighted
in news broadcasts and discussed at length by
the punditocracy. Even during the more than
25-month pandemic period, when the customary
somber memorials around the country were can-
celed altogether or replaced by Zoom ceremo-
nies, the day marked by Israel for the anniversary
of the Nazi genocide of the Jews — purposely
slated for the week before Israel Independence
Day — was treated with deference.

This year, however, one would have been hard-
pressed even to realize that the date was fast
approaching. If anything, Israelis have been invok-
ing the Holocaust mainly to decry the events in
Ukraine, whose president, Volodymyr Zelensky,
played on this very heartstring last month when
he addressed Israel’s Knesset via video.

The desire to universalize the particular plight of
the Jews is nothing new. Nor is it surprising that
many Jews are at the forefront of the effort to turn
“never again” into a slogan that applies to any and
all forms of death, destruction and discrimination.

For the past few years, even a number of promi-
nent Israelis have joined the endeavor with gusto,
not only through false analogies but by using the
occasion of Holocaust remembrance to warn the
Jewish state about its own dangerous extremists.

Though some purveyors of this pernicious “cau-
tionary tale” happen to be members of parties in
Israel’s governing coalition, including in ministerial
positions, their narrative has difficulty permeating
the national membrane.

For one thing, most Israelis are too concerned
with their personal safety in the face of shootings,
stabbings, car-rammings and Molotov cocktails to
worry about the purity of their souls and adher-
ence to an unrealistic “rules of engagement”
doctrine. For another, the very real possibility of a nuclear
Islamic Republic is both looming and concrete,
with Iranian forces and proxies stationed along
Israel’s borders.

Israelis are aware as well that Tehran is among
those fanning the violent fervor of young Arabs
desecrating their cherished Al-Aqsa mosque —
on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem — by spread-
Doomsday scenarios are not constructive.

They certainly aren’t conducive to a “never again”
mindset or outcome, both of which require
internal resolve and military might.

ing the lie that Israeli forces are “storming” and
“defiling” it.

Such pressing security threats, with no end in
sight, help to explain the results of a poll released
this week by the Pnima movement. According to
the survey, conducted by Direct Polls, nearly half
of the Israeli public (47%) fears another Holocaust
against the Jews.

To be sure, this level of existential anxiety may
be misplaced or a function of general dread on
the part of a certain slice of society. Still, given
the steep rise in global Jew-hatred — coupled
with the spike in terrorism against Israelis and the
P5+1 countries’ desperation to return to a deal that
fills Iran’s coffers and guarantees its ayatollah-led
regime an arsenal of atomic bombs — it’s not com-
pletely irrational. It’s especially understandable
when explicit calls for the extermination of the
Jews have become so commonplace inside Israel
and abroad.

Nevertheless, doomsday scenarios are not con-
structive. They certainly aren’t conducive to a
“never again” mindset or outcome, both of which
require internal resolve and military might.

The same applies to those Israelis who opt
to learn the wrong lessons from the Holocaust.

Embracing the bogus comparison between
Hitler’s “final solution” and other conflicts is as
ill-fated as believing that a repeat performance is
inevitable. And even entertaining the idea that the
Jewish state is on some kind of slippery slope to
Nazism — when it’s forced to defend itself against
the terrorists in its midst and beyond its shores —
is immoral. JE
Ruthie Blum is an Israel-based journalist and
author of “To Hell in a Handbasket: Carter,
Obama, and the ‘Arab Spring.’”
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