Isn’t he the pastor who said the Holocaust was necessary to bring about the re-birth of the Jewish national homeland? Not «anti-semitic».
I have ancestors in my family line, in which husband and wife were separated in different parts of the country, one part never to see the other. I have a grandmother separated from the old country - never to be able to return for the rest of her life to see her immediate family. I have a grandfather who suffered being orphaned at a young age and passed around from family to family, not really wanted by anyone. But, for all that suffering and separation and tragedy - I would have never been here. I’m grateful I’m here today.
Does that mean I hate my ancestors and would have wished them ill and would have wanted them to suffer and have to live with all that for the rest of their lives. No, it doesn’t - but I do recognize why I’m here today - and it’s because of that.
And likewise, there was immense suffering and sacrifice for many in the Holocaust and those who perpetrated it will themselves be responsible in the end. And because of that Holocaust, there was the environment in the world, which did contribute to the sequence of political events - including the 1947 United Nations Partition Plan - which the Jews fought very hard to secure - that resulted in the formation of the State of Israel.
And now Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu can say to the world (and has said, just recently, too) - that the difference between the Jews then (during the Holocaust) and the Jews now - is that they in Israel have the ability to defend themselves.
SO ... yes ... we can fully recognize the evil of the Holocaust and full recognize the part it played in the formation of the nation of Israel, sanctioned by the world community - at that time - in the United Nations.