Krauthammer on Israel, and a history lesson

An excellent, viciously logical, very compelling article by Charles Krauthammer in the Washington Post:

Krauthammer: Those troublesome Jews

The whole point of this relentless international campaign is to deprive Israel of any legitimate form of self-defense.  Why, just last week, the Obama administration joined the jackals, and reversed four decades of U.S. practice, by signing onto a consensus document that singles out Israel's possession of nuclear weapons -- thus de-legitimizing Israel's very last line of defense: deterrence. 

The world is tired of these troublesome Jews, 6 million -- that number again -- hard by the Mediterranean, refusing every invitation to national suicide.  For which they are relentlessly demonized, ghettoized and constrained from defending themselves, even as the more committed anti-Zionists -- Iranian in particular -- openly prepare a more final solution.

Whoa.  Those are heavy, heavy words.  What do you think?  Is Krauthammer a drama queen for bringing up the Holocaust?  Or has the way the international community treats Israel gotten so insane, that the only way to make sense of the situation is to compare it to last century's organized attempt to wipe out the Jewish people?

Personally, I don't think Krauthammer is being hysterical here.  In college, I double majored in Political Science and German, and most of my coursework focused on twentieth century political, social, and economic developments in the United States and Western Europe.  It is one thing to read a textbook about the Holocaust, it is something entirely different to hear and comprehend Adolf Hitler's speeches in the original German.  The German language is especially well-structured for powerful symbolism, which can create works of art that lift the soul and enlighten the mind, like the poems of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, or it can be used as an instrument to deliver purely malevolent evil, as Hitler and the Nazis did. 

People on both sides of the aisle have been far too willing to compare their political opponents to the Nationalsozialisten.  George Bush is not Adolf Hitler, and President Obama is not a Nazi.  By cheapening the rhetoric, and tossing around the "Nazi" insult without respect for its true meaning, the overwhelming tragic losses of the Holocaust are also cheapened and minimized.  When Israel's defense of its borders and its people are misrepresented as aggression, and terrorists portrayed as victims, it is a betrayal of civilization and a deliberate ignorance of history.  

Everyone has heard this saying:

Those who do not learn from history are condemned to repeat it.

The economic and political climate in the world today causes me great worry.  There's no time period in history that is exactly like one that came before, but there are certain warning signs and potential trigger points for tragedy that are unwise to ignore.  

Remember, Adolf Hitler did not immediately demand the extinction of millions of innocent people when he first began his climb to power.  "Reforms" were passed little by little, step by step, and justified by the hated Versailles Treaty, the economic depression, and the Nazis' distasteful message of the inferiority of all non-Aryan people. 

One of the most powerful, and heartbreaking, history lessons I ever received was during a weekend trip to Munich during a summer studying abroad in Germany.  We took a short day trip to a nearby small town called Dachau.  If you recognize that name, it's because of its status as the site of the first concentration camp in Germany.  The Dachau camp was one of several that bore the insidious "Arbeit Macht Frei" (Work Makes You Free) slogan on the gates:

Visiting a concentration camp is not like visiting any other historical site.  Nothing really prepares you to gaze into a brick oven where human beings were burned, or to walk through a "shower" room where the faucets poured poison gas instead of water.   

For me, one of the most brutal and tragic aspects of Dachau was not within the walls, but just outside it: a residential neighborhood.  To fully understand the horror of this, I ask you to think about your hometown, where you grew up.  Picture where the grocery store was located, where you played Little League Baseball, what street your elementary school was on.  Imagine walking down whatever is "Main Street" in your town, turning down a side street to your favorite coffee shop, and at the end of the block you see a walled-in camp with giant plumes of sickly-sweet smelling smoke that burns without relief.

The day I visited Dachau, we were walking down a small street, looking at a map to find our way, turned the corner and stopped dead in our tracks and gasped, because this is the view we saw: 

I had previously assumed that the concentration camps were like many military bases, built in remote areas, or at least with a large buffer zone between the camp and adjacent development.  This is not the case in Dachau.  You walk down a street, and ARBEIT MACHT FREI is right before your eyes, and you can easily see into the grounds of the camp.  Any Dachau resident walking by would have easily been able to observe the smoke from the ovens and cries of pain from the people imprisoned there.  I cannot believe that the people of Dachau did not know what was happening at that camp.  

So what does this have to do with Israel and the Gaza flotilla today?  Simply, that those of us who value our humanity, our souls, and our civilization cannot just ignore what is happening right before our eyes.  The citizens of Dachau each made the choice to walk down the streets of their town and do nothing about the horror next door while the years passed and the body count rose above the ability of anyone to count.  Today, America should be a leader in refusing to deny history, refusing to deny the existence of acts of terrorism, and refusing to allow Israel's enemies to continue to try to destroy her people.  

I close with another well-known saying, 

...All that is needed for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing...

...and the beautiful and poignant memorial at Dachau, with the phrase, "Never Again" written in five languages:

Let that be our prayer:

NEVER AGAIN.