Palestinians are not Blacks (or South Africans, or in Nazi Germany)
I hope for peace in the Mideast from both sides, but there seems to be a wave of comparing the current Gaza invasion to either South African apartheid, blacks in the South, or Nazi Germany? I'm confused because these comparisons don't make any sense according to the history told to me.
Jews in the 1930s were NOT actively attacking Nazis before the Holocaust or calling for the elimination of the German race. Blacks in the south were NOT engaged in any organized form of violence against Jim Crow and taking vows to kill all whites. In South Africa so-called 'violent' anti-apartheid protests meant standing up to white police and defending townships, but not kidnapping and killing White South Africans.
In all three cases, you had a peaceful minority group (or in the case of South Africa, a political minority) that was being systematically killed by a government that was basing its policy on a widely disseminated and accepted racist ideology. As much as I think Prime Minister Netanyahu is the Israeli Dick Cheney, he's not basing this war on any explicit racist ideology, or seeking genocide against a civilian population.
These inaccurate historical analogies frame the current and very real crisis for both Jews and Palestinians poorly. By just grabbing an oppressed group and saying 'it's like this' you misrepresent the past, obscure the present dilemma, and decrease the chances of a solution in the future.
Palestinians and Israelis have their own unique history and dilemma. Their plight should be respected and examined, with all its complexities rather than deducing them to the most inflammatory historical comparison.
Jews in the 1930s were NOT actively attacking Nazis before the Holocaust or calling for the elimination of the German race. Blacks in the south were NOT engaged in any organized form of violence against Jim Crow and taking vows to kill all whites. In South Africa so-called 'violent' anti-apartheid protests meant standing up to white police and defending townships, but not kidnapping and killing White South Africans.
In all three cases, you had a peaceful minority group (or in the case of South Africa, a political minority) that was being systematically killed by a government that was basing its policy on a widely disseminated and accepted racist ideology. As much as I think Prime Minister Netanyahu is the Israeli Dick Cheney, he's not basing this war on any explicit racist ideology, or seeking genocide against a civilian population.
These inaccurate historical analogies frame the current and very real crisis for both Jews and Palestinians poorly. By just grabbing an oppressed group and saying 'it's like this' you misrepresent the past, obscure the present dilemma, and decrease the chances of a solution in the future.
Palestinians and Israelis have their own unique history and dilemma. Their plight should be respected and examined, with all its complexities rather than deducing them to the most inflammatory historical comparison.
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