The six million Jews living in the Jewish state are currently the targets of an intended second Holocaust. The will is there — it is in fact publicized; only the technology is lacking, but it is under development. Saying “never again,” if it means anything, means a readiness and willingness to use armed force to stop it.
I was almost inexpressibly saddened to read the comments made today by President Obama at a Holocaust Days of Remembrance ceremony, at the Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC. In a mostly lyrical and affecting speech, I might have missed the significance of a key passage if not for the sharp ears of Commentary blogger Abe Greenwald, whose piece on the Obama appearance highlighted it, in the context of Obama’s willingness to engage with the national leaders of Venezuela, where Jews are under increasing attack from the major concentration of Hizballah in the Americas, and of Iran, where the elected leader advocates Holocaust denial.
The relevant passage reads as follows (my emphasis):
Today, and every day, we have an opportunity, as well as an obligation, to confront these scourges — to fight the impulse to turn the channel when we see images that disturb us, or wrap ourselves in the false comfort that others’ sufferings are not our own. Instead we have the opportunity to make a habit of empathy; to recognize ourselves in each other; to commit ourselves to resisting injustice and intolerance and indifference in whatever forms they may take…
The sadness here comes not from there being anything wrong with urging people to empathy, to recognizing ourselves in each other, and to committing ourselves to resisting injustice, intolerance, and indifference. Rather, the melancholy derives from the focus on these habits of mind as “the” bulwarks against genocide.
By J.E. Dyer @OptimisticCon
