YNET NEWS: Israel has no intention of allowing Ahmadinejad to have history repeat itself
President Obama delivered an important speech in Cairo Thursday directed to the Muslim world, in an effort to seize the opportunity and inject momentum into the stalled Middle East peace process. At the same time, on the very next day, the president seeks to engage and reassure the Jewish community by visiting Buchenwald Concentration Camp, which his great uncle helped liberate.
By making this visit, and bringing back the tragic memories of the past, the president is signaling Israel’s supporters that he understands their fears and concerns.
The president surely knows that, for Jews, those memories are at the very heart of the current impasse in the Middle East. How can they not be when the chief funder of terrorist groups like Hamas and Hizbullah is Iran – the same country that just successfully tested a new Sejil-2 surface missile with a range of 1,200 miles that can reach Europe; a country whose president denies the Holocaust, calls for the eradication of Israel and continues to defy the world by seeking to develop nuclear weapons.
However, to really understand the existential threat that Iran poses to Israel, the president and fellow world leaders gathering in France on June 6th to commemorate the 65th anniversary of D-Day, might recall a similar fear that gripped Winston Churchill in the days just prior to the launch of Operation Overlord.
Churchill was obsessed over what the Nazi response to the massive allied operation might be. On May 18, 1944, he wrote to his Chief of Staff, General Ismay: “I do not myself believe the Germans will use poison gas on the beaches ... the reason is that we could retaliate tenfold (with poison gas) ... however, the temptation to use it on the beaches might be strong enough to override prudence – it’s worth considering whether a warning should not be uttered by me and the President (Roosevelt) that if any form of gas or toxic substance is used upon us or any of our allies, we shall immediately use the full power of our forces to drench German cities and towns.” >>> Marvin Hier | Friday, June 05, 2009
Rabbi Hier is the Founder and Dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center
