According to Gideon Levi, writing in Haaretz, “Contemporary comparisons leap out at you, page after page, day after day, in this diary of mounting horrors in prewar Germany, no matter how vast the differences.” Thus he feels compelled to draw his own comparison between the Nazis and the Israelis.

Have you watched CNN live from Gaza? Have you noticed the Palestinians that look like the Jewish Holocaust survivors in the randomly selected photo above?

Subject: Holocaust Revisionism at Haaretz

From Steven Plaut

The most blatantly anti-Semitic writer at Haaretz, Gideon Levy, wrote on 9/5/2003:
Read more >

Abe Foxman says that the lesson from Kristallnacht is that we must stop hate in its track. His article in Ynet about the significance of Kristallnacht is insightful. However, he strips Jewishness out of the conclusion. All hate must be stopped, you see! Not just hate of Jews. The real lesson, of course, is that Jews must arm themselves to the teeth and be vigilant, less this happens again – to Jews. Read more >

Germans never placed high value on Jewish life, so this story is not surprising. Judge Klaus Drescher, whose ancestors just two generations removed killed six million Jews, sentenced an Islamist to three and a half years in jail for stabbing one Jew. With time off for good behavior Sajed Aziz will probably be out in less than two years. Other than a seven centimeter stab wound to Rabbi Zalman Gurevitch’s lower abdomen, the Judge found no evidence that the Muslim attacker intended to kill the Jew. The Nazi descendant Judge concluded that calling a Rabbi ‘dirty Jew’ does not make the Islamist a bad person.

An Israeli friend sent us the link asking “If Israel does not protect Jews why should Germany?”

German Jewish leaders were “disturbed” and “disappointed” on Tuesday at the “very mild” sentence meted out to a young Muslim man in Frankfurt who was convicted of stabbing a local rabbi.

Sajed Aziz, 23, was sentenced on Tuesday to three and a half years in prison for stabbing Rabbi Zalman Gurevitch, 43, last September. According to Gurevitch, Aziz shouted anti-Semitic slurs at him before plunging a nearly seven-centimeter blade into the rabbi’s lower abdomen.

Aziz claimed the attack was an act of self-defense after Gurevitch allegedly grabbed him by the collar.

Judge Klaus Drescher said there was not enough evidence to support the original charge of attempted manslaughter, finding Aziz guilty instead of serious bodily injury. The court said testimony did not show that Aziz intended to kill the man, though Drescher noted that he clearly called Gurevitch a “Jewish pig.”

“I think the court missed an opportunity to send a signal that it won’t tolerate violence against another religion,” said Prof. Salomon Korn, head of the Frankfurt Jewish community. “This sentence was very mild, and it did not send a clear message toward other Muslim and non-Muslim youth who might do the same.”

Stephan Kramer, secretary-general of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, agreed. “It’s very disappointing and disturbing that the judges viewed the attack less severely than they could have. It’s absurd that they didn’t charge him for murder,” said Kramer.

According to Kramer, the sentence may reflect German authorities’ desire “to calm the situation so that the world doesn’t see people on the streets of Germany attacking Jews. It’s a very bad signal towards certain very violent anti-Semitic people we have in Germany.”

Is it that academics are more morally bankrupt than the population at large, or is it that they just get more Press?

25 German professors co-signed a manifesto published in the Frankfurter Rundschau calling on Germany to stop giving Israel “preferential treatment,” because, among other reasons, the country “helped” establish Israel by expelling Jews from Germany during the rule of the Third Reich. Approximately 160,000 Jews who were expelled from Nazi Germany ended up in the British mandate of Palestine and strengthened the Jewish presence here at the expense of the Arab population, they claimed.

Visiting in Israel as guests of the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES) and the Academic College of Netanya, four professors and co-signatories on the manifesto were debating their claims with Israeli academics who opposed them.

They claimed that approximately 160,000 Jews who arrived in mandatory Palestine enlarged Jewish control of the land from just six percent during the British mandate to approximately 60% after the War of Independence. Additionally, the Germans said their country has “paid off” its debt to the Jewish people by the sums it had given the Israeli government and survivors until today.

They admitted that the Holocaust was, nevertheless, an indelible stain in Germany’s history. (no kidding, ed.)

The professors called on the German government to improve its relations with Arab countries by adopting an “evenhanded” approach to both Israelis and Arabs.