Professor Edward Said Compares the Holocaust and the Palestinian Disaster

The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) ^ | 10-02-02 | staff

[backhoe]

 

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Subject: Professor Edward Said Compares the Holocaust and the Palestinian Disaster

> Special Dispatch - Egypt
> October 2, 2002
> No.424               
>
> To view this Special Dispatch in HTML format, please visit:
> http://www.memri.org/bin/opener_latest.cgi?ID=SD42402
>
> Professor Edward Sa'id Compares the Holocaust and the Palestinian Disaster: "Every Human Calamity is Different"; "But... There is Value in Seeing Analogies and Perhaps Hidden Similarities"
>
> In an article published in the London Arabic-language daily Al-Hayat,(1) Palestinian-American professor Edward Sa'id compared the European Jewish Holocaust with the current situation of the Palestinians.  The English version of Sa'id's article, titled "Low Point of Powerlessness," appeared in Al-Ahram Weekly On-Line.(2)  The following are excerpts from the article:
>
> 'Every Human Calamity is Different' But...(3)
>
> "Sixty years ago, the Jews of Europe were at the lowest point of their collective existence. Herded like cattle into trains, they were transported from the rest of Europe by Nazi soldiers into death camps where they were systematically exterminated in gas ovens. They had offered some resistance in Poland, but in most places they first lost their civil status, then they were removed from their jobs, then they were designated official enemies to be destroyed, and then they were."
>
> "In every significant instance they were the most powerless of people, treated as insidious, potentially overpowering enemies by leaders and armies whose own power was far, far greater; indeed, even the idea of Jews representing a danger to the might of countries like Germany, France, and Italy was preposterous. But it was an accepted idea, since with few exceptions most of Europe turned its back on them during their slaughter..."
>
> "Every human calamity is different, so there is no point in trying to look for equivalence between one and the other. But it is certainly true that one universal truth about the Holocaust is not only that it should never again happen to Jews, but that as a cruel and tragic collective punishment, it should not happen to any people at all. But if there is no point in looking for equivalence, there is a value in seeing analogies and perhaps hidden similarities, even as we preserve a sense of proportion."
>
> Israel Makes Arafat Feel Like a Hunted Jew
>
> "Quite apart from his actual history of mistakes and misrule, Yasser Arafat is now being made to feel like a hunted Jew by the state of the Jews. There is no gainsaying the fact that the greatest irony of his siege by the Israeli army in his ruined Ramallah compound, is that his ordeal has been planned and carried out by a psychopathic leader who claims to represent the Jewish people. I do not want to press the analogy too far, but it is true to say that Palestinians under Israeli occupation today are as powerless as Jews were in the 1940s.  Israel's army, air force and navy, heavily subsidized by the United States, have been wreaking havoc on the totally defenseless civilian population of the occupied West Bank and Gaza strip..."
>
> 'Criticism of Israeli Policy is Equated by the Zionists and their Allies with Antisemitism'
>
> "And still Sharon makes the case that Israel is struggling to survive against Palestinian terrorism. Is there anything more grotesque than this claim, even as this deranged killer of Arabs sends his F-16s, his attack helicopters and hundreds of tanks against unarmed people without any defenses at all?... As popular protests grow worldwide, the organized Zionist counter-response has been to complain that antisemitism is on the rise... Criticism of Israeli policy is now routinely equated [by the Zionists and their allies(4) with antisemitism of the kind that brought about the Holocaust..."
>
> "What conclusion is one to draw from all this? That Israeli policy has been a disaster for the entire region. The more powerful it becomes, the more ruin it sows in the countries around it, to say nothing of the catastrophes it has executed against the Palestinian people, and the more hated it becomes. It is power used for evil purposes, not self-defense at all. The Zionist dream of a Jewish state being a normal state like all others has come to the vision of the leader of Palestine's indigenous people hanging on to his life by a thread, while Israeli tanks and bulldozers continue to wreck everything around him. Is this the Zionist goal for which hundreds of thousands have died?... Isn't it time for those who feel that his [i.e. Sharon's] appalling actions do not represent them to call a halt to his behavior?"
>      
> Endnotes:     
> (1) Al-Hayat (London), September 30, 2002.
> (2) www.ahram.org.eg/weekly/2002/605/sup21.htm
> (3) Headings added by MEMRI.
> (4) This phrase appeared only in the Arabic version.
>
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[backhoe]

ALL Americans owe it to themselves to see what the Arab world says about us and Israel- subscribe here, and be prepared to be horrified:

MEMRI: The Middle East Media Research Institute

[Mudboy Slim]

"RE-IMPEACH Osama bil Clinton!!"

I ain't takin' "NO" fer an answer...MUD

[backhoe]

FYI--

[backhoe]

Slim, I'll add that link to the mass email I am composing now... long as God gives me breath, I'll keep hammering that corrupt clown until he rings like a cheap bell...

[aruanan]

Professor Edward Said Compares the Holocaust and the Palestinian Disaster

Prof. Said is a demonstrated liar. Quite a bit of his childhood memories in his memoirs were fabricated to fit a political agenda. He is as careful of historical fact as Hanan Ashwari.

An historically more apt comparison to the Holocaust is what the Muslims have been doing to the Jews (and to Christians) since the founding of Islam, beginning with the genocide of the Arabian Jewish community (including a couple of Jewish kingdoms) in the 7th century, followed by centuries of brutal oppression in the rest of the Middle East where Jews had been living from centuries to over a millennium before Mohammad ever had his first wet dream about the dark-eyed houris.

It's too bad that Said, like Ashwari, ostensibly "Christian" in background, should adopt wholesale the historical fraud that is so-called Palestinian so-called history.

[Mudboy Slim]

"Ring DemBells!!"
(To be sung to Bob Dylan's "Ring Them Bells")

Ring Dem bells, you heathens with yer Big Guv'ment schemes...
Ring Dem bells from yer sanctuaries where Vile Lib'rals preach!!
"Re-Impeach!!" Mudboy cried...
"We got Truth on our side...
"And Clinton's Power's fractured...Sweet Justice be thine!!"

Ring Dem bells, good FReepers, let yer OUTRAGE show!!
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Folks, it's Rush Hour now...
Help us FReep 'gainst the Power!!
Lord, the sun is goin' down upon Left's sacred cows!!

Ring Dem bells, Sweet Justice, tell yer Congressman...
Ring Dem bells so the World will know McAuliffe's SCUM!!
Folks, the Networks are asleep...
But their Power's weak...
And the Country's still filled with lost sheep.

Ring Dem bells...fer Left's Blind Ignorance!!
Ring Dem bells for those morally-bereft!
Ring Dem bells for Left's chosen few...
Who would judge the many...
Yet say, "Slick is KEWL!!"
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For the kids that died...
When innocents FRIED!!

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List of crimes is long...
But Bold FReepers are strong...
And we're breakin' down resistance to Rightin' Wrongs!!

Mudboy Slim

Folks, it's time we demonstrated the Power of FReepin' to those who would deprive us of Justice and Liberty!! Terry McAuliffe, outspoken proponent of Campaign Finance Reform and Chairman of the DNC, has committed multiple FELONIES to get to his position of prominence in the DemocRATic Party, yet no one seems willing to hold him accountable!! As Bill Clinton's Chief Fundraiser in the '96 Presidential elections, McAuliffe was the mastermind behind the Union/DemocRAT scheme to bilk hard-working blue-collar workers out of Millions of Dollars of Pension Funds so as to provide Bill Clinton with the cash to retain his position of Power, and no INDICTMENT has been forthcoming. Elle Bee tells me there is a 5-year Statute of Limitations--expiring this Fall--on this Crime, and George Bush's Attorney General, John Ashcroft, has not said one word about holding the DNC Chairman accountable for his crimes!! THIS INJUSTICE SHALL NOT STAND!!

A small contingent of Justice-loving FReepers have--for over a month--been promoting a series of threads exposing McAuliffe's long criminal history, but now it's time to take the Truth beyond FreeRepublic!! Please assist our efforts with your emails, phone calls, and snail mails to those who need to expose this lowlife SCUM for all the World to see!!

Thanks for your help in Ringin' the Bells of Justice!!

FReegards...MUD

1 Posted on 08/17/2001 22:59:43 PDT by Mudboy Slim (NOW or NEVER Time, FReepers!!)

[backhoe]

More about this August Perfessor here:

Jeff Jacoby: The Lies of Edward Said
Jeff Jacoby. The Lies of Edward Said. FrontPageMagazine.com | October
2, 2000 get a printer-friendly version of this article. ...
Description: Article by Jeff Jacoby criticizing the Palestinian intellectual for fabricating his life story.

Edward Said
... Nation; Peace and Its Discontents, a review by Matthew Dalek for Salon; The Edward
Said Archive, includes a few other articles by Said and links to other online ...

Ross Douthat on peaceniks on National Review Online
... to two words: blame Israel. Writing in the UK's Guardian, the ever-reliable Edward
Said remarks that Arab hatred of the USA is eminently understandable, given ...

CAMERA Update -- Edward Said's Documented Deceptions
Edward Said's Documented Deceptions. Public Station WNET Airs
Anti-Israel Documentary In Search of Palestine. ...

Edward Said: Professor of Terror
Edward Said: Professor of Terror. Regarding
Edward Said Click here to continue.

[backhoe]

Please assist our efforts with your emails, phone calls, and snail mails to those who need to expose this lowlife SCUM for all the World to see!!

Want to tell lots of people about this? Go here:

Ignorance Making You Ill? Cure It!

for links, tools, & instructions about how to contact a pile of different people, and how to send a link to this story right here ( or anywhere else ) to a "mass email" using Outlook Express.

---

Do be advised that since I increased my volume of mass emails to letters to editors I have gotten return volleys of virus attacks- my ISP filters them out before the get to my PC, but if yours does not, take appropriate precautions to guard your PC.

I take this as a positive- my emails are simply links with no editorial content; so the other side must fear & loath the information even reaching the public.

Want to strike back at the malicious & childish clowns who send viri? Look here:

-http://www.all-nettools.com/tools1.htm--

... for online traceroutes and other help, so you can email all the ISP's in the chain that propagated the virus, and let them investigate.

[Mudboy Slim]

"...my emails are simply links with no editorial content; so the other side must fear & loath the information even reaching the public."

I've had similar experiences, but it hasn't decreased my resolve one iota...MUD

[backhoe]

I've had similar experiences, but it hasn't decreased my resolve one iota...

Same here- actually, the virus volleys just made me hopping mad, and motivated me to find a way to retaliate ( see above ) and send even more emails.

If the Other Side doesn't like it, they are free to propagate their own links and opinions.

[glc1173@aol.com]

Said needs to be deported. Jews during Hitler's era didn't commonly have in-ground swimming pools in their backyards - as many Palestinians now do in Ramallah.

[Alouette]

Professor Edward Said Compares the Holocaust and the Palestinian Disaster

A technique of propaganda called "Turnspeak"

The Arab League makes use of a cognitive technique of propaganda called "turnspeak", where you attack someone and then turn it around 180 degrees and claim they attacked you. Because the truth is the exact opposite of the information being disseminated it is psychologically difficult to counter and leads to confusion.

Turnspeak leads to psychological confusion and a feeling of being "burned-out" or "overwhelmed" with too much information, effectively creating a blanket of "white noise" which makes clarity difficult to achieve.

Joan Peters, former White House consultant on the Middle East writes:

The term was first used by journalists to describe German propaganda after it invaded Czechoslovakia in March of 1939.  To win sympathy for their invasion, the Germans practiced what has  become known as "turnspeak". They turned the blame back on the Czechs for trying to precipitate an all-out war in the region. In other words, the Czechs in their attempt to hang onto their land were ready to plunge all of Europe into war.

How did the rest of Europe respond to this lie? They believed it. World leaders decided that something had to be done to preserve peace at any cost.

Author William Shirer, who was a reporter in Europe at the time,  distilled the truth simply when he wrote, "Thus the plight of the German  minority in Czechoslovakia was merely a pretext...for cooking up a stew in a land he [Hitler] coveted, undermining it, confusing and misleading its friends and concealing his real purpose...to destroy the Czechoslovak state and grab its territories..."

The Arab claim that Jews are "Nazis" is not without motive.  They are trying to obscure their own close connection with the Nazis.  During World War II leading Muslims including Haj Amin al-Husseini worked for the Nazis in Germany and called for a intifada against Britain. Haji Amin al-Husseini was the grand mufti of Jerusalem, as well as Yasser Arafat's close relative and mentor

The Arabs, especially Iraq, sided with Germany during W.W.II. In May 1941, Haj Amin al-Husseini issued a fatwa - "summons to a holy war against Britain". The Mufti's widely heralded proclamation against Britain was declared in Iraq,  and was instrumental in his 1941 pro-Nazi intifada in Iraqi. The Mufti also requested Arab-Americans not to support FDR.

Yasser Arafat's actual name is Abd al-Rahman abd al-Rauf Arafat al-Qud al-Husseini. He shortened it to obscure his kinship with the notorious Nazi and Mufti of Jerusalem.

Saddam Hussein was raised in the house of his uncle Khayrallah Tulfah, who was a leader in the Mufti's pro-Nazi coup in Iraq in May 1941. Both Yasser Arafat and Saddam Hussein were greatly influenced by the Mufti during their time in Cairo during the 1950s.

See also History of Fedayeen, PLO, Fatah, PFLP, PFLP-GC, DFLP, etc Militant Palestinian Groups and  Yasser Arafat worthy successor to Haj Muhammad Amin al Husseini

Side-by-side comparison of "turnspeak"

Many examples of "turnspeak" abound in today's news media.  For example a article in a leading Western news service reported "The settlers are a roaming the west bank with guns and randomly shooting at Palestinian civilians... making Palestinians prisoners in their own villages", or another article that said "They [the settlers] are hunters... They go into jail through one door and out the other."  An even more obvious example is Arafat's claims that Israel is stopping the peace process.
 

What "turnspeak" says: (from Arab and Western media) Israel is aggressive, expansionist On the day that Israel declared their statehood -- May 14, 1948 -- it was invaded by an alliance of Egypt, Lebanon, Iraq and Syria. Their motivation was the already clearly stated intent of Israel to disregard international treaties Israeli violations of human rights are the worst in the world The Israelis are barbaric in their occupation of the territories The Israeli methods are worse than the Nazis Israelis are Nazis Palestinian holocaust The Israeli government is a gang of thieves Israel is poisoning the Palestinian water supply. Israel is a terrorist state Israel doesn't want peace Israel rejects all overtones of peace by Arab countries. PM Sharon is a war criminal. The nobel peace price should be revoked from Shimon Peres Israel routinely sanctions war crimes. Israel is terrorizing Palestinian cities. Israel shoots randomly at Palestinians Israeli killing and organized Israeli terror Israel has annihilated Palestinian villages for decades Israeli media is inciting religious hatred towards Moslems. Moslem holy places are in danger by Israel. Mosques and Churches are being made into Synagogues The Jews want to destroy Al Aksa Mosque (and Dome of the Rock)< Arabs have no legal rights in Israel. Christians have no legal rights in  Israel. The settlers are roaming the west bank with guns and randomly shooting at Palestinian civilians. The settlers are making Palestinians prisoners in their own villages Arab villages are surrounded by barbed wire fences (barbed wire concentration camps) They [the settlers] are hunters... They go into jail through one door and out the other Palestinians have been living in Palestine for thousands of years. Claims of historical or religious ties of Jews and [the land of] Palestine are incompatible with the facts of history... Palestinians outside Israel have an even higher standard of living than Israelis Arabs who live in Israel live in the same third world conditions that exist in  most Arab countries Iraq, Egypt, Syria and (now) Iran have purer democracies than even the United States Israeli press is government run. The Jews are preventing the Arab countries from having democracies. Palestinian Terrorists are martyrs.

Yet the counterpart is probably closer to the truth: [Militant] Islam is aggressive, expansionist. On the day that Israel declared their statehood -- May 14, 1948 -- it was invaded by an alliance of Egypt, Lebanon, Iraq and Syria. Their motivation was the already clearly stated intent of the Arabs States to disregard U.N. declarations. Arab States violations of human rights are [some of] the worst in the world [Some] Islamic States have been barbaric in their treatment of minorities (Kurds, Armenians, etc.), women's rights (honor killings) and criminals (cutting off hands, body parts, beheading...) Many Arab leaders were Nazi sympathizers, see above. Jewish holocaust The Palestinian Authority is a gang of thieves. Palestinians have on occasion poisoned the Israeli water supply [or poisoned Israeli produce]. The Palestinian Authority is a terrorist entity Arafat doesn't want peace The Arab States reject all overtones of peace by Israel. Arafat is a war criminal. The nobel peace price should be revoked from Arafat. Arafat (and the Arab States) routinely sanction war crimes. The military wing of the PA is terrorizing Israeli cities. Palestinian Terrorists shoots randomly at Israelis Terrorists killing and organized Palestinian Authority terror Arab States have annihilated Jewish villages (in Arab States) for hundreds of years Arabic media is inciting religious hatred towards Jews. Jewish holy places are in danger by Islam. Synagogues and Churches are being made into Mosques. The Wakf is actually destroying the Temple Mount artifacts Jews have no [reduced] legal rights in the [some] Islamic States The Palestinian Terrorists are roaming the west bank with guns and randomly shooting at Israeli civilians. The Palestinian Terrorists are making settlers prisoners in their own villages. Jewish Settlements are surrounded by wire fences. They [the Palestinian Terrorists] are hunters... They go into jail through one door and out the other Jews have been living in Palestine for thousands of years. Claims of historical or religious ties of "Palestinians" and [the land of] Israel are incompatible with the facts of history... Arabs who live in Israel have an even higher standard of living than Arabs outside Israel United States and Israel have  democracies, Iraq, Egypt, Syria and Iran are not. Most Arab press are government controlled The Arab Leaders are preventing the Arab countries from having democracies Victims of Palestinian Terrorists are martyrs.

1."From Time Immemorial" by Joan Peters, 1984
^2.The Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin al-Husseini was later the notorious Nazi who mixed Nazi propaganda and Islam.  He was wanted for war crimes in Bosnia by Yugoslavia.  His mix of militant propagandizing Islam was an inspiration for both Yasser Arafat and Saddam Husein: He was also a close relative of Yasser Arafat and grandfather of the current Temple Mount Mufti. "Arafat's actual name was Abd al-Rahman abd al-Bauf Arafat al-Qud al-Husseini. He shortened it to obscure his kinship with the notorious Nazi and ex-Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Muhammed Amin al-Husseini." Howard M. Sachar, A HISTORY OF ISRAEL (New York: Knopf, 1976).  The Bet Agron International Center in Jerusalem interviewed Arafat's brother and sister, who described the Mufti as a cousin (family member) with tremendous influence on young Yassir after the Mufti returned from Berlin to Cairo. Yasser Arafat himself keeps his exact lineage and birthplace secret.  Saddam Hussein was raised in the house of his uncle Khayrallah Tulfah, who was a leader in the Mufti's pro-Nazi coup in Iraq in May 1941.

[2sheep]

A technique of propaganda called "Turnspeak"

Thanks.  Excellent post.

[backhoe]

Valuable information- thanks!

[DonQ]

Anyone who can't spot the flaws in Said's attempted analogy shouldn't be allowed to sit at a keyboard.

Arafat as a hunted Jew   ??!!

How about Arafat as a hunted mass murderer?

[1john2 3and4]

What "turnspeak" says: closer to the truth:
i did not have sex w/ that woman uh huh

alouette, with YOUR sense of humor, im amazed YOU DIDNT do this!
p.s. how's the "koran in the jar of urine, with a life-sized sulpture of osama (or was it mohammed?) humping a goat" project going?
getting nea funding yet?

[aruanan]

Thank YOU!! And if you haven't already read it, I recommend From Time Immemorial: The Origins of the Arab/Jewish Conflict over Palestine by Joan Peters. The chapter on Palestine of the 19th century is really interesting. It does about as good a job on the myths of the Palestinian Arabs claim of having lived in that region for thousands of years as Palestinian Arabs as the Romans did on the temple in 70 AD.

Another particularly interesting thing about the book is that it shows what happens to people's productive efforts as the result of unchecked taxation and corruption. Muslim society, whether Turk or Arab, was particularly given to these vices that destroyed civilization and laid waste to vast tracts of formerly productive land.

[Tailgunner Joe]

De-Nazify the West Bank