Since World War II, America has been coming to terms with the Nazi Holocaust. How did a “civilized” German people commit such atrocities? Did they know of the extermination camps, or recognize the criminal insanity of their leaders?
How could they not have known? The decade before the war had been filled with the most hateful expressions of racial persecution. Millions of Germans participated in the beatings, the destruction of businesses, and the looting of homes. So very few spoke out against the impending genocide. Were they led astray by a blind, messianic nationalism? Were they simply scared to raise their voice against what had become a repressive military dictatorship?
All the time we have been studying someone else’s holocaust, reading about it, watching movies, and building monuments and museums, we have been silently involved in our very own. Perhaps we were more inclined to look the other way, since our nation was built on the ethnic cleansing of indigenous populations and the exploitation of millions of black slaves.
Whatever the reason, we have been blind to the ethnic cleansing and impending genocide of the Palestinian people. We have allowed five million Palestinians to suffer under apartheid while another six million were forced from their homeland. We have defended Israel against against worldwide condemnation, supplied it with high tech weaponry, and given it billions in US aid. Moreover, our Congress approves each new slaughter in Gaza, insuring that the “civilized” American people will be forever linked with the fate of the Palestinians.
Fred Nagel