BLACK IS NOT WHITE: James Lileks has another phenomenal piece today on, among other things, why those who compare Sharon to Hitler are saying far more about their lack of moral and intellectual capacity than about the Middle East:
Aphorism #1: Nothing is ever black and white, but if the other side says it is, then you’d better operate on that principle.
...When the citizens of Israel are told daily by their press and TV that the Arabs are subhumans who must be destroyed, then Sharon will be like Hitler. When Arabs must wear crescents on their shirts, Sharon will be Hitler. When stadiums full of Jews bay for the blood of the Arabs, and pour out in a torchlight parade to kick and beat and shave the beards of devout Muslims, Sharon will be Hitler. When the organizing principles of the Jewish state are war against neighbors, territorial conquest and the extirpation or subjugation of all non-Jewish peoples, the Sharon will be Hitler. When the mosques are burned and the minarets toppled and the babies thrown in the air and speared on bayonet point, Sharon will be Hitler.
As it stands, there is not an Arab member of the Knesset who even worries that the door to his office will have its locks changed overnight.
...What makes the Sharon = Hitler construction so unforgivable isn’t just the dilution of the true horror of Nazism. The very idea suggests that its possessor has succumbed to moral imbecility. Hitler was devoted to the destruction of the Jews. Not the subjugation of a people for a political purpose, but the destruction of an entire race. And who preaches that today? I was listening this morning to a talk show host broadcasting from Israel, and he was noting what he saw on Israeli TV, and Palestinian TV. (Did Hitler allow an all-Jewish radio station to broadcast in Berlin in the 40s? Just asking.) The Palestinian TV had an interview with a psychiatrist about what to do if your child wants to be a martyr. He was generally against the idea, but the show was interrupted by ads featuring Arafat shouting Martyrdom! Martyrdom! Martyrdom! (The anti-globo folks would prefer this to an ad for Coke, I guarantee you.)
...There was the murder of the five-year old girl by Palestinian operatives. Shot to death in her bed. Shot to death in her Mickey Mouse sheets. Shot to death by a man who could look a child in the face and rejoice in her shattered skull. I know there are some people who believe that Israeli soldiers intentionally kill children, and that killing five-year olds is Israeli state policy. Believe what you want. Just find me the Israeli paper that celebrates this action. Find me the wall poster that salutes this brave soldier. Sing me the song that glorifies this murder as an active of devotion to G-d. Then tell me this:
Who is the greater threat to this child pictured below? It’s either the nation that withdrew from the Sinai, withdrew from Lebanon, admits Islamic Movement politicians to its deliberative body and would gladly make peace with any nation not sworn to destroy it - or it’s the culture that hangs the grenade around the necks of its children.
You decide. Let us pretend, for the sake of argument, that it’s actually a case of black and white.