SHIMON Peres only tells the truth by accident. He is a political impostor and a political sham. Like a traveling salesman offering a counterfeit product, the Israeli president is now peddling the merchandize called Benjamin Netanyahu. He presents to the world a Netanyahu we have never known: A peacemaker, the epitome of truthfulness, a man with no other ambition than to go down in history as the founder of the state of Palestine.
Like a lackey walking in front of the king, strewing flowers on the road, Peres flew to the US to prepare the ground for Netanyahu’s coming visit. He imposed himself on a reluctant Barack Obama, who had no choice but to receive him.
Posing as a new Winston Churchill, the man who warned the world against the rise of Nazi Germany, he informed Obama with solemn bombast: “As Jews we cannot but compare Iran to Nazi Germany.”
About this sentence at least three things must be said: (a) it is untrue, (b) it trivializes the Holocaust, and (c) it reflects a catastrophic policy. Does Iran really resemble Nazi Germany?
Iran is not a fascist state. Nor is Iran an anti-Semitic state. A Jewish community, whose members are refusing to emigrate, is living there comfortably enough.
And, most important: Iran is not an aggressive country. It has not attacked its neighbors for centuries. The long and bloody Iraq-Iran war was started by Saddam Hussein. It may be remembered that at the time Israel (contrary to the US) supported the Iranian side and supplied it with arms. Before the revolution, Iran was our most important ally in the region.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad hates Israel. But it has been denied that he has threatened to annihilate Israel. It appears that the crucial sentence in his famous speech was mistranslated: He did not declare his determination to wipe Israel off the map, but expressed the opinion that Israel will disappear from the map.
Frankly, I don’t think that there is such a great difference between the two versions. When the leader of a big country predicts that my state will disappear, that makes me worry. When that country appears to do everything possible to produce a nuclear bomb, that worries me even more.
But, Ahmadinejad — unlike Hitler — is not the supreme leader of his country. The speeches of one demagogic leader do not turn a country into Nazi Germany. Iran is not a mad country. It has no real interests in Israel/Palestine. Its interests are focused on the Gulf area, and it wants to increase its influence throughout the Arab and Muslim world. Its relations with Syria, Hezbollah and Hamas mostly serve this purpose, and so does the anti-Israeli incitement of Ahmadinejad. In brief, the comparison of Iran to Nazi Germany lacks a factual basis.
From the Jewish point of view, the comparison is even more objectionable.
The Holocaust was a crime. True, the 20th century has seen other terrible acts of genocide, but they did not resemble the Shoa. Nazi Germany was unique in employing the instruments of a modern industrial society in order to eliminate helpless minorities in a prolonged, planned and highly organized process, with the participation of all the organs of the state.
Nothing like that can reasonably be expected to happen in Iran. As far as its growing nuclear capabilities are concerned — the Israeli deterrent power will prevent any such thought from arising. (Let’s not forget that the only country ever to use nuclear bombs in war was our friend, the US.)
COMPARING the Arabs to the Nazis is no less odious than comparing the Israelis to the Nazis. Many terrible things have been and are being committed in our name — but they are as far from the deeds of the Nazis as the earth is from distant galaxies.
Any such comparison for the sake of some fleeting propaganda advantage is trivializing the Holocaust and its perpetrators. If the Nazis were not worse than the Iranians, then the Shoa was not so terrible, after all.
Does the comparison of Iran to Nazi Germany serve Israeli interests?
Iran is there. It was our ally in the past, and may be our ally again in the future. The nuclear threat to Israel will not disappear — not after a (bad) speech by Peres nor after a (good) speech by Netanyahu. All over the region, nuclear installations will pop up. This process cannot be stopped.
As an Israeli professor, a former employee in the nuclear center at Dimona, said this week, “We must reconsider our nuclear policy. It may well be to our advantage to accept the demand of the American spokeswoman that Israel (as well as India and Pakistan) join the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty and a regime of strict supervision.”
President Obama is now saying to Israel: Put an end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. That is a precondition for the elimination of the threat to Israel. When the Palestinians, and the entire Arab world, make peace with Israel — Iran will not be able to exploit the conflict for the furthering of its interests.
The refusal of Netanyahu-Lieberman-Barak to accept this demand shows the insincerity of their arguments about Iran.
If they really believed that Iran posed an existential menace, they would hurry to dismantle the settlements, demolish the outposts and make peace. That would, after all, be a small price to pay for the elimination of an existential danger.
