No, Gaza is not Auschwitz

An interesting blog post I read and translated from hebrew. I may not agree with every word she says here, I think she may have a few points a bit off, but on the other hand she makes some other interesting and relevant points. I would, though, have corrected "the people of Gaza" in some places to "Hamas".

by Suki Da Yo, published January 2nd 2009, on her Israeli blog "Sort of a Diary"

Sometime, when I wasn't looking, the comparison between what is happening in Gaza and the Holocaust became acceptable. It began, of course, with the people of Gaza, Arabs, the extreme left wing and foreign bleeding hearts, and somehow filtered through to the dismal situation where even normal people, israelis, and even second and third generation think that "maybe there's a point there".

Well, what those people have in common is that their knowledge of history is seriously lacking, and that they are not familiar with Godwin's law.

Therefore, as part of the official preparations, I would like to explain, short and clear, why it is not the same thing, no matter how hard you try, and regardless of how un-supportive you may be of the fighting going on in Gaza right now.

The Jews in Germany were an integral, active and contributing part of German society at the time of the rise of Nazism.
The people of Gaza are not part of the State of Israel, do not wish to be so, and never will be. They are also not an occupied population since the Disengagement.

The Jews in Germany and occupied Europe were persecuted for pseudo-scientific-racist reasons.
The people of Gaza are being attacked as a response to constant missile firing from their part towards the State of Israel, after we asked, most politely and patiently, that they would agree, please, to extend the cease fire, during which we did not see an Israeli assault on Gaza territory.

The Jews in the Reich camps were forced to work for the Reich - death via labor, it was called, and not for nothing the slogan "arbeit macht frei" (work brings freedom) was printed at the entrance to several concentration camps (Auschwitz being the most known, but also Dachau, Sachsenhausen, and others).
The people of Gaza were given opportunity after opportunity to establish a general array to benefit the welfare of their citizens (primarily from EU funding after the Disengagement) - an array that would include the basis for a healthy economy and creation of jobs. Instead, Hamas chose to use this money to fund the purchase of weapons against Israel.

The Jews at Nazi camps suffered from hunger until death.
The people of Gaza recieve dozens of trucks worth of food and medical supplies coming through the passes bordering Israel. From the Egyptian border, make no mistake, not a single grain of rice or Advil pill comes through to Gaza.

The Jews could not communicate with the outside world, and those that could, such as the prisoners of Terezín [Theresienstadt] who could send several postcards a year, were forced to write under the watchful eye of the Nazis who forbade any mention of the conditions at the camp.
The people of Gaza take a very learned advantage of the benefits of modern communication.

No one is conducting medical experiments on the people of Gaza, no one is claiming racial inferiority or denying their very humanity. The people of Gaza are not being murdered systematically and without reason.

The people of Gaza are a people that live next to us, who chose to attack the sovereignity of the State of Israel (and let us not discuss now the politics of total denial of Israel's right to exist). The people of Gaza and we are fighting each other, and there are losses on both sides, and the numerical comparison is simplistic and silly.

The Nazis continued, until their last day, to annihilate the Jewish people (plus millions of other prisoners for varying reasons - gypsies, gays, political opposition, anti social, people of status or academics from the occupied states, etc.)
Israel, on the other hand, is prepared to cease fire as soon as it is guaranteed that the citizens of Israel are safe. Israel, on the other hand, binds its army so as little amount of civilians as possible are hurt, when, were we as cold hearted and blood thirsty as the Nazis, we could demolish all of Gaza in heavier, cheaper and less precise bombardement.


So to simplify the matter - you could compare the State of Israel to the Nazis, were we to take Israeli Arabs, pronounce them inferior by way of being Arab, posing a threat to any Jew anywhere, place them in camps and kill them all. Yes, not the people of Gaza, the Israeli Arabs.
But - what do you know, Israeli Arabs here are represented in the Knesset, in the Government, they can demonstrate against Israel, and even claim the IDF is performing genocide in Gaza, that it is canibalism, and compare us to the Nazis.