Several months ago, UN rapporteur Richard Falk asserted with respect to Israel's Operation Cast Lead in Gaza: "To lock people into a war zone is something that evokes the worst kind of international memories of the Warsaw Ghetto". Falk's hollow similitude spawned a new genre of twaddle, particularly popular among closet anti-Semites. What better than to turn the Holocaust upon the children of its victims? As such, a day does not go by without online comments referring to Israel as "The Fourth Reich", labeling Cast Lead as a "Blitzkrieg", and condemning Israel's actions vis-a-vis the Palestinians as "genocide".
But let's get down to brass tacks: Is there a basis for comparing the Warsaw Ghetto with the Gaza Strip? True, the Warsaw Ghetto was, and the Gaza Strip is, overcrowded. The Nazis herded 450,000 Polish Jews into an enclave, which, at its largest, measured 3.5 square miles. However, the Gaza Strip, where 1.5 million people live, measures 139 square miles. There seems to be a significant difference.
By comparison, Manhattan, which also has a population of some 1.5 million, occupies an area of 23 square miles. Are the Jews to blame for Manhattan's population density, which far exceeds that of the Gaza Strip? Many neo-Nazis would answer in the affirmative.
But there is another reason for the density of population in the Gaza Strip. According to the CIA World Factbook, in Gaza there are "5.19 children born/woman (2008 est.)". In contrast, in Holland there are "1.66 children born/woman (2008 est.)". Hence, the population explosion in the Strip from under 600,000 in June 1967 upon Israeli occupation after the Six Day War, to some 1.4 million in August 2005 when Israel evacuated Gaza. If Israel is attempting "genocide", it is doing a very bad job of it.
In the Warsaw Ghetto, countless Jews starved to death, but is this also happening in Gaza? Again, let's have a look at the numbers: According to the CIA World Factbook, the average life expectancy at birth in Gaza is 73.16 years (2008 est.). This differs markedly from the life expectancy of an infant born in the Warsaw Ghetto, whose life expectancy could be measured in days as opposed to years.
What about talk of "Greater Israel" which is again making the rounds in blogs and online comments and sounds much akin to the Nazis' lust for "Lebensraum"? Israel long ago returned Sinai to Egypt and offered all of Gaza and almost all of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, to Arafat in exchange for peace at Camp David in 2000. Re Gaza, Israel has no territorial aspirations whatsoever; every square inch was unilaterally handed over to the Palestinian Authority in 2005. No negotiations: "Take it, it's yours." On the other hand, Hamas is calling for the obliteration of Israel (preamble of its charter) and avers that Jihad is the only solution for the "Palestinian problem" (article 13 of its charter).
Did Polish ghetto Jews call for the extermination of Germans or lay claim to German soil? Not to my recollection. Nor did they target civilians of any creed. Gazans, however, overwhelmingly elected Hamas to manage their affairs, which, according to article 7 of its charter, calls for the murder of Jews: "The Day of Judgment will not come about until Muslims fight Jews and kill them. Then, the Jews will hide behind rocks and trees, and the rocks and trees will cry out: Oh Muslim, there is a Jew hiding behind me, come and kill him."
Does Hamas indiscriminately attempt to murder Jews? More than 10,000 missiles, rockets and mortar rounds were fired from Gaza at Israeli civilian targets between 2001 and the conclusion of Operation Cast Lead. Suicide bombings? Probably the most heinous occurred in 2002 when a Hamas operative blew himself up at a Passover Seder in the Park Hotel in Netanya, leaving 30 dead and 14o wounded. These suicide bombings led to the closure of the border to thousands of workers from Gaza, who crossed daily into Israel to support their families.
Internal politics in the Gaza Strip and the Warsaw Ghetto? Arafat's Fatah Party was corrupt, the Palestinians sought "change", and "change" they got, in much the same way that Germans democratically voted Hitler into power. Not only did they vote Hamas "in" and Fatah "out", they also watched as Hamas, after the 2007 civil war with Fatah, executed Fatah supporters. Muhammad Swairki, a cook for Abbas's Presidential Guard, was thrown off a 15-story building. In comparison, there were many different political factions in the Warsaw Ghetto, but there was never internal bloodletting of this kind.
In short, although the suffering of Gazans is real, and steps can be taken by Israel to alleviate their pain, it is also self-imposed by Hamas and its patron, Iran. Any comparison between the Gaza Strip and the Warsaw Ghetto is a canard, which joins Jew-haters from the left and right as bedfellows.
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Absolutely top-notch. Excellent piece JG! Really great writing. If the subject matter wasn't so painful, I'd be gleefully excited by every line you write. As it stands, I'm just very happy you're making the case for us. Thank you.
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