U.S. professor's Holocaust-Gaza comparison stirs debate

Saturday 02nd May, 04:50 AM JST

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USARonin at 05:34 PM JST - 5th May

I see the basic problem here...

The professor doesn't understand the definition of 'holocaust'.
NeilWarnock at 06:35 PM JST - 5th May

WEll done professor for speaking the truth about Israel. Please don't bow down due to pressure from extremist Jewish groups, who want these facts hidden from the world. The Gazan's continude genocide must never be forgotten.
smithinjapan at 09:28 PM JST - 5th May

bushlover: "Thanks Smith and likeitis for clearing that up for me. It's totally ok for Professors to give an inkling on which side they take in conflict as to adversely affect the debate/discussion by students and make them wonder if their marks would be compromised due to having an opinion that may not be favorable to a fanatic Professor."

Appreciate the thanks, but it's funny to hear your hypocrisy about being 'objective' with the subjective drivel you spill out raging against people who present you with facts and objective opinions (hence the 'fanatic Professor'). Good job in sinking your own arguments, as usual.
WilliB at 12:38 AM JST - 7th May

NeilWarnock:

" he Gazan's continude genocide "

It is an incredibly tacky insult to the holocaust victims to call Gazah a "genocide". But I guess it is a testimony for what passes as education in the West today.
LostinNagoya at 11:34 AM JST - 7th May

Unfortunately, this professor will have the same fate as of that one of another professor, Ward Churchill, from University of Colorado, who dared say, correctly, that 9-11 victims were ¨little Eichmanns¨ - refering to Adolf Eichmann, one of the most influent nazi SS officials. By the way, his fate: he was convicted, even if symbolically, for something that should be deeply analysed instead of just dismissed without further questioning. Professor Churchill said in an essay that 9-11 eleven victims were just the exposed part of a politic system that had continuosly sponsored terror too. Only that this terror was official and applied by US and Israel against all mid-eastern people. And as Eichmann who just sided blindly with Hitler, without considering his actions, 9-11 victims were also some sort of ¨co-workers¨ just by simply being Americans, whose governments continuosly sides with Israel. Professor Robinson´s ideas deserve being analysed too, instead of just being bullied. Jewish people deserve a land, a place they can call their own. But the way they are doing it somehow erases their horrible suffering in WWII.
Brunobear at 12:00 PM JST - 7th May

WilliB. We should never blow out someones else's candle just to make our burn brighter.

What passes for many people as education is referencing to only of one part of the European 1917-1947 "Wholecaust", namely that committed by the Nazis and not addressing the much larger and wider issue of the Bolshevik Holocaust which was equally as cruel and brutal but caused the death of far greater numbers. 10 million Ukrainian's were starved by the Russian Bolshevik leadership in one example in in 1932-33 and historian Robert Conquest described the Ukraine at the time as a giant version of the later Bergan-Belsen death camp. The Ukrainian's called this the "Holodomor". Goodness knows how many tens of millions of people in the Soviet empire or countries they overran in conflict, were treated equally as bad as anything that was metered out by the Nazi's. If the international Jewish diaspora want to be treated with creditability then they need to campaign on behalf of all Europeans that suffered during this horrible 30 year "Wholecaust" period. Instead they just publicly and loudly claim credit where Jews do something good, without facing up to and admitting to events were Jews that did terrible wrongs against mankind. We all want Jewish people to be okay but the same applies for the Palestinians. A a fair and just political solution based on good faith by both sides is the only road map to peace but it seems inpossible because "fair", "just" and "good faith" have remained absent for 61 years.
nokomarie at 01:30 AM JST - 8th May

LostinNagoya, the problem with these analogies is always one of proportion. Eichman at least was one man in control of much, who knowingly took part in doing a lot of damage. You will note that his office cleaning lady was not executed whereas the vast majority of the victims of 9-11 had about as much control over finacial affairs as she did but were killed all the same.

Do I approve of Isreal's occupation of the West Bank? Well, no, I think Isreal is very unjust in this. As it is an artificial state, begun with a history of oppression and injustice, one would like to think they would want to avoid committing injustice themselves. But no, people will be people and Isreal wants to (and feels entitled to) expand. Oddly, Isreal is turning up the rhetoric about the Holocaust and ant-Semitism just as the last survivors of the death camps are dying of old age. Worried about something, are they?
WilliB at 01:07 PM JST - 8th May

Brunobear:

" We all want Jewish people to be okay but the same applies for the Palestinians. "

That´s the typical cover for the antisemitic propaganda today. Jews are Palestinians, in fact they are the original inhabitants of Palestine, long before islam was even invented.

The definine muslim Arabs as "Palestinians" was a invention of Yassir Arafat, and a stroke of genius as that. You will not find the term "Palestinians" used for muslim Arabs only before the 70s, but since then we have swallowed this mislabelling hook, line and sinker.

Note that the hatred against Jews and Israel only emanates from muslim Arabs, and not from other groups in the region (Christian Arabs, Druzes, Alevites, etc.).

Note also that the hatred against Jews and Israel is not limited to residents of Palestine -- Iranians are not Arabs, and are thousands of kilometers away. Yet, they join the Jihad against Israel. Note also that Zoroastrian and Bahai Iranians have no beef with Israel.

In trying to blank out the islamic aspect of the hate against Israel, you demonstrate our faulty education.
Brunobear at 02:17 PM JST - 8th May

WiiliB. Choose the behavior, and you choose the consequences.

Jews from Eastern Europe mainly, have flooded into Israel over the past 60 years at the brutally crude expense of the long term inhabitants.

Where did the Palestinian "Arabs" flood to Palestine recently from? Arabs have occupied Palestine at least as long as the Jewish culture/religion has and for at least the two more recent milleniums, the Arabs have been the vast majority.

The fact that an Arab man, concerned with the violence in his homeland, comes up to Palestine from Arabia and studies Judism and Christianity in the eighth century AD., and takes it back to Arabia to create his own religion called "Islam" has nothing to do with two thousand years of continuing occupation by Arab Palestinian families whether they eventually became Jews, Christians or Moslems. All it means is that the three religions are all based on the same original common historic Jewish scriptures and practices that themselves have antecedents well before Judism.

Some Jews, and a very small number indeed, had continuous occupation of a small piece of arid land(deemed in 1948 as Israel) during those same two milleniums. Most Jews had long ago abandoned Palestine and spread elsewhere, especially Europe. Today about half live in the US and almost the same number have relocated back to a part of Palestine residing in Israel or the occupied West Bank.

Everyone hates bad behavior. If a particular groups behavior causes a form of universal disdain (hatred you call it) then at some point in history, it might be sensible for the group to see why this is so and if reasonable, what can be done to ameliorate it instead of blaming everyone else and worse more, putting a racist slur nomenclature to it. No group can just keep being brutal (in all its senses)to those around them without consequences. Look at the Nazi's and Bolsheviks. Eventually the world will pay the group back and when it does its punishment, I have observed, is severe. Better to do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

WilliB, the way you think, determines the way you feel and the way you feel determines the way you act. That applies to leaders too.

As a financial and political strategist, I simply put fresh new thoughts into leaders minds when I see them going in the wrong direction. That is all I do WilliB. Then I see them gradually change whether instantly or over six months. I don't expect thanks or acknowledgment. I just want to see the world more cerebral, honest, fair, just and progressive. All people on earth are valuable assets. That is why I decided to write in 'Japan Today" on this topic. In fact I would love to get into President Obama's head and sort out the US economic and social debacle. There is about an hours work in it. That's all. The US's problem is the way they think. The US is as great and powerful a force for good and prosperity as ever. They don't know how to handle what abundant riches they have for the common good.
WilliB at 03:29 PM JST - 8th May

Brunobear:

" Jews from Eastern Europe mainly, have flooded into Israel over the past 60 years at the brutally crude expense of the long term inhabitants. "

So many wrong statements in one sentence... The "long term inhabitants" of Israel are Jews, so Jewish immigration into to the Jewish state is not something outlandish. There is nothing "brutally crude" about the treatment of non-Jews in Israel, in fact Israel is the ONLY country in the middle East that offers modern human rights and freedoms to all its citizens, including the hostile Arabs. To wit, the Israel has muslim Arab members even in the Knesseth (who often agitate against the interest of Israel, and quite legally so). You´ll find nothing comparable in the neighbouring countries.

" Where did the Palestinian "Arabs" flood to Palestine recently from? "

From other Arab countries, plus from the wombs of Arab women. The Arab muslims are the only group in the world that has managed redefine the term "refugee" to include anyone who wants in in eternity -- thus, the number of so-called "refugees" from Israel keeps growing and growing, even though hardly any of them has ever fled from anywhere. By the same token, we would all be refugees, because way back some of our ancestors surely ran away from somewhere.

" Arabs have occupied Palestine at least as long as the Jewish culture/religion has and for at least the two more recent milleniums, the Arabs have been the vast majority. "

That is ridiculous. Jewish history in Palestine goes back 5000 years; Arabs have have lived in the same neighbourhood for a long time too, but only began to define their identity when islam was founded in 700, and then proceed its violent, explosive conquest of the region (and ultimately the world). Incidentally, islam also got rid of the Jews of Saudi Arabia -- ever wondered what happened to them?

All that you are demonstrating is your ignorance on the topic -- alas, typical.

Moderator: Do not be impolite to other readers just because you disagree with their opinion.
sharky1 at 04:29 PM JST - 8th May

There is no comparison. Jews were not steadily bombarding Germany with missiles. Jews didn't refuse to recognize Germany as a state. Jews weren't trying to wipe Germany off the map. No comparison at all.
Brunobear at 09:55 PM JST - 8th May

WilliB. Everyone is entitled to their opinion but no one is entitled to be wrong in their facts. The bigger picture is what is important here and I am only interested in the wider facts and a solution that might flow from them. I am not cheering for any side. If the world has to hear about the Jewish Holocaust everyday, year in and year out, then the world might as well hear the full tragic story of the Wholecaust.

The adoption of we are the only people that matter attitude evident from your comments and those of Shark1 won't help anyone in Palestine on either side of the divide. The haughty anger of the international Jewish Diaspora due to its daily inability to offer an intelligent and factual response is no reason to resort to legitimate criticism as hate speech or anti semitism. Most of the deaths and abject misery between 1917 and 1947 by the Bolsheviks and the Nazi's weren't caused by missiles. It was caused by highly organised official mass starvation, mental and physical torture, despair and hopelessness and the theft of wealth and property amongst a long list of evil behavior. 100 million died and countless more suffered as a result. The Japanese still don't admit to their 1936 - 1945 attrocities in Asia and the Pacific, nor do numerous others fess up to theirs. If the hat fits, wear it. Eventually the truth always comes out. Why not now. So we can move on to a better world.
irishosaru at 11:28 PM JST - 8th May

Not all Jews live in Israel, not all Israelis are Jews. Yet there exists, and has existed for a long time, the idea that to criticize the state of Israel is somehow anti-Semitic. To say that at least some of the actions carried out by the Israeli state military in Gaza means you are intolerant of a religion.
Den Den at 11:46 PM JST - 8th May

This guy is actually an intellectual. He studies groups and society for his living and is an expert. The Zionists and their sympathizers who criticize him are merely fundamentalist radicals, hell-bent on their personal viewpoint, clouded with emotion. Thank you Brunobear for your interesting points. 1.5 million Jews died so we shouldn't use their deaths as a propaganda tool...we should learn from this lesson, and many others, and stop the oppression.
Brunobear at 11:31 AM JST - 10th May

WilliB. My final comment on this matter is the Jews in Iran have far more freedom than the Palestinians in Gaza or the West Bank. There is no fool like and old fool, that applies to religions too. Cheers to all the readers for caring to read this article and comments on the besieged Californian Professor. UCSB is a respected University and not a kindergarten. If some students feel threatened by facts perhaps they are at the wrong level of education. A Uni can only be fun if it challenging. The Professor knows that.