Tuesday 31st of December 2024
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the inversion of morality and reality.......

One of the cruellest aspects of the new antisemitism is its perverse use of the Holocaust as a stick to beat ‘the Jews.’ Lesley Klaff explains the phenomenon of ‘Holocaust Inversion.’

 

Holocaust Inversion and contemporary antisemitism     by Lesley Klaff

 

In 2013 the Liberal Democrat MP for Bradford East, David Ward, after signing the Book of Remembrance in the Houses of Parliament on Holocaust Memorial Day, made use of the Holocaust to criticise Israel and ‘the Jews’ by equating Israel with Nazi Germany, and to characterise the Holocaust as a moral lesson from which ‘the Jews’ have failed to learn. He wrote, ‘Having visited Auschwitz twice – once with my family and once with local schools – I am saddened that the Jews, who suffered unbelievable levels of persecution during the Holocaust, could within a few years of liberation from the death camps be inflicting atrocities on Palestinians in the new state of Israel and continue to do so on a daily basis in the West Bank and Gaza.’

What has been called ‘Holocaust Inversion’ involves an inversion of reality (the Israelis are cast as the ‘new’ Nazis and the Palestinians as the ‘new’ Jews), and an inversion of morality (the Holocaust is presented as a moral lesson for, or even a moral indictment of ‘the Jews’). More: those who object to these inversions are told – as they were by David Ward – that they are acting in bad faith, only being concerned to deflect criticism of Israel. In short, the Holocaust, an event accurately described by Dan Diner as a ‘rupture in civilisation,’ organised by a regime that, as the political philosopher Leo Strauss observed, ‘had no other clear principle except murderous hatred of the Jews,’ is now being used, instrumentally, as a means to express animosity towards the homeland of the Jews. ‘The victims have become perpetrators’ is being heard more and more. That is Holocaust Inversion.

THE INVERSION OF REALITY AND MORALITY

Clemens Heni, the German political scientist and director of the Berlin International Center for the Study of Antisemitism (BICSA), believes that the equation of Israel/the Jews/Zionism with Nazism amounts to an ‘inversion of truth’ which is used today as a form of ‘extremely aggressive anti-Jewish propaganda.’ Anthony Julius, author of a landmark study of British antisemitism, notes that Holocaust Inversion is becoming part of the iconography of a new antisemitism. Headlines such as ‘The Final Solution to the Palestine Question,’ references to the ‘Holocaust in Gaza,’ images of IDF soldiers morphing into jackbooted storm troopers, Israeli politicians morphing into Hitler, and the Star of David morphing into the Swastika, are all increasingly common.

The 2009 Report of the European Institute for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism, Understanding the ‘Nazi’ Card: Intervening against Anti-Semitic Discourse, reported that equating Israel with the Nazis is an important component of incitement and racial aggravation against Jews in the UK today. The Report recommended that the Home Office, the Association of Chief Police Officers, and the Crown Prosecution Service prepare guidance for the police on whether the use of Holocaust imagery to refer to contemporary Israeli policy amounts to incitement of racial hatred against Jews.

Comparing Israel and the Nazi regime, David Ward said, ‘don’t forget, long before the death camps were set up, the treatment of the Jews in … Nazi Germany was racist … nastiness and harassment to begin with, and then escalated. And when you look at it – wherever it may be – the West Bank, and a declared intent by the Israeli forces to harass, often just annoy Palestinians – in terms of a check point that will be open on certain days, and then it will be open but at a later time, and the next day, it will open slightly earlier, so you get there and it’s been shut again … really just to harass, in many cases to move the Palestinians from land, to just give up and move on…’

Now, whether or not IDF soldiers deliberately change the opening and closing times of check points in the West Bank in order to harass Palestinians, I do not know; but even if they do, no matter how wrong that would be, there is absolutely no equivalence betweenthat and the denial of paid work, Jew-baiting, herding into ghettos, incarceration, disease and starvation in labour camps that occurred in Germany and Eastern Europe between 1933 and the Holocaust. Not only is there no historical equivalence between the two; there is no moral equivalence either.

he historian Deborah Lipstadt – author of Denying the Holocaust: The Growing Assault on Truth and Memory and successful defendant in the libel suit brought against her and Penguin Books by the Holocaust denier David Irving – has used the term ‘soft-core denial’ to highlight the damage done by Holocaust inversion. The false equivalencing of Israel and the Nazis, she says, ‘elevates by a factor of a zillion any wrongdoings Israel might have done, and lessens by a factor of a zillion what the Germans did.’ And as Anthony Julius points out, the Zionist=Nazi trope not only says to the world that the ‘Zionists are to the Palestinians what Nazis were to the Jews’, but also that ‘the “Zionists” and Nazis share the same Fascist ideology’ and that ‘the “Zionists” were complicit with the Nazis in the Holocaust.’

The ‘anti-Zionist’ writers, Hazem Saghiyah and Saleh Bashir published an article in 1998,Universalizing the Holocaust, which makes clear the moral inversion involved in the Holocaust Inversion. ‘The dissociation between the acknowledgment of the Holocaust and what Israel is doing should be the starting point for the development of a discourse which says that the Holocaust does not free the Jewish state or the Jews of accountability. On the contrary, the Nazi crime compounds their moral responsibility and exposes them to greater answerability. They are the ones who have escaped the ugliest crime in history, and now they are perpetrating reprehensible deeds against another people.’

Holocaust Inversion, then, involves the abuse of the Holocaust memory to issue a moral stricture aimed at Israel and ‘the Jews’, imposing upon them a uniquely onerous moral responsibility and accountability in their treatment of others.

THE ACCUSATION OF ‘BAD FAITH’

Criticised for his Holocaust Memorial Day comments, David Ward hit back by accusing his critics of bad faith: ‘There is a huge operation out there, a machine almost, which is designed to protect the State of Israel from criticism. And that comes into play very, very quickly and focuses intensely on anyone who’s seen to criticise the State of Israel. And so I end up looking at what happened to me, whether I should use this word, whether I should use that word – and that is winning for them.’

This is an example of ‘The Livingstone Formulation’, a term coined by David Hirsh to refer to the practice of responding to claims of contemporary antisemitism by alleging that those making the claim are only doing so to prevent Israel from being criticised; in other words, they are ‘playing the antisemitism card.’ Ward’s statement is a perfect illustration of the Livingstone Formulation because while Ward claims that an ad hominem attack is being made on him by a ‘huge operation out there, a machine almost,’ it is, in fact, he who is making an ad hominem attack on those who question him. Rather than a ‘huge operation’ deflecting criticism of Israel, it is actually Ward who is deflecting legitimate concerns about antisemitism in the form of the Holocaust inversion.

By inverting reality and morality, and by recklessly spreading accusations of bad faith, Holocaust Inversion prevents us identifying the changing nature of contemporary antisemitism and is an obstacle to marshalling active resistance to it.

 

Further Reading

Robert Fine (2009) ‘Fighting with phantoms: a contribution to the debate on antisemitism in Europe’, Patterns of Prejudice 43 (5); Manfred Gerstenfeld (2007) ‘Holocaust Inversion: The Portraying of Israel and Jews as Nazis’, Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, 55; Clemens Heni (2008) ‘Secondary antisemitism: from hard-core to soft-core denial of the Shoah’, Jewish Political Studies Review, 20 (3-4); David Hirsh (2010)‘Accusations of malicious intent in debates about the Palestine-Israel conflict and about antisemitism’, Transversal; Paul Iganski and Abe Sweiry (2009) Understanding the ‘Nazi Card’: Intervening Against Anti-Semitic Discourse, Report of the European Institute for the Study of Contemporary antisemitism; Anthony Julius(2010) Trials of the Diaspora: A History of Antisemitism in England.

https://fathomjournal.org/holocaust-inversion-and-contemporary-antisemitism/

 

GUS DOES NOT AGREE WITH EVERYTHING SAID ABOVE BUT MY VISITING ALIENS THOUGH YOU NEEDED TO KNOW... SHOULD YOU AND YOUR ALIENS BE INCLINE TO BE MORE OUTRAGED/AMUSED SEE: https://fathomjournal.org/the-pleasures-of-antisemitism/

 

YOURDEMOCRACY.NET RECORDS HISTORY AS IT SHOULD BE — NOT AS THE WESTERN MEDIA WRONGLY REPORTS IT.

 

         Gus Leonisky

         POLITICAL CARTOONIST SINCE 1951.

 

PLEASE DO NOT BLAME RUSSIA IF WW3 STARTS. BLAME YOURSELF.

 

anti-bibism....

WE'RE NOT ANTI-SEMITIC, BUT WE ARE ANTI-BIBI AND ANTI HIS DANGEROUS MAD SUPPORTERS....

 

READ FROM TOP.

 

YOURDEMOCRACY.NET RECORDS HISTORY AS IT SHOULD BE — NOT AS THE WESTERN MEDIA WRONGLY REPORTS IT.

 

         Gus Leonisky

         POLITICAL CARTOONIST SINCE 1951.

 

PLEASE DO NOT BLAME RUSSIA IF WW3 STARTS. BLAME YOURSELF.

 

SEE ALSO: https://theduran.com/jeffrey-sachs-on-the-evilness-of-the-israeli-and-american-governments/

avoid WW3?....

 

Greater Israel Is On The March 

 

Syria no longer exists. The Russian news service RT reports that Israel has launched the largest attack on Syria in history with Israeli warplanes hitting more than 250 military targets.  Other reports put the number at 300.  The Israeli Defense Force reports it has destroyed 80% of Syrian military capability. This is after Syria’s fall.  “Wave after wave of airstrikes carried out by IAF fighter jets and drones then hit Syrian airbases, weapon depots and weapon production sites in Damascus, Homs, Tartus, Latakia and Palmyra, according to the military. Meanwhile, on Monday night, Israeli Navy missile boats destroyed 15 naval vessels belonging to the former regime at the Minet el-Beida bay and Latakia port on the Syrian coast.” Possibly the Syrian Army, paid to stand down, suffered more casualties from these attacks than they would have suffered in battle in defense of Syria. The money for the generals came at a high price for the soldiers.

The Israeli military said the airstrikes destroyed many long-range projectiles, Scud missiles, cruise missiles, coast-to-sea missiles, air defense missiles, fighter jets, helicopters, radars, tanks, hangars and more.

Israel explains its aggression as self-defense to prevent the weapons from falling into the hands of terrorists.  But the terrorists that Israel, Washington, and Turkey employed to overthrow Syria have been turned into “democratic forces that liberated Syria” and whose leader has declared friendship with Israel.  The real explanation for Israel’s aggression is that Israel now occupies part of Syria. If you will remember, recently Netanyahu held up a map of Greater Israel and it included Syria. Netanyahu, despite his criminal indictment in Israel for corruption, is likely to go down as the greatest of all Israeli heroes, as the leader who achieved the Zionist goal of Greater Israel.

You might remember that the American media and “fact checkers” denied there was any such thing as Greater Israel.  It was all misinformation by anti-semites. Apparently, the narrative controllers regarded Netanyahu’s map  of Greater Israel as part of the anti-semantic misinformation.  The Zionist neoconservatives showed their hand many years ago when they put in motion their plan to destroy seven countries in five years. It took longer than five years, but with Syria’s fall only two of the seven remain–Iran and Saudi Arabia.  The inability of the Muslim Middle East to unify has doomed it.

Israel has sent tank columns into Syria with the intent of occupation.  Washington backs Israel’s invasion of Syria.
https://www.rt.com/news/609116-us-backs-israeli-invasion-syria/   

Washington’s narrative is that it is better to have Syrian territory in the hands of Israel than ISIS, Washington’s tool, already betrayed, in Syria’s overthrow. State Department spokesman Matthew Miller says  Washington expects Israel’s occupation of Syrian territory to be “temporary.”  Turkey’s reward is that Erdogan can now conduct military operations against the Kurds who were sheltered by Syria.

The myth that Syria still exists is alive in the UN and among Russian government officials. The UN Security Council is united in the need to “preserve the territorial integrity of Syria,” Russian Permanent Representative to the UN Vassily Nebenzia said after a a closed-door meeting on Monday. “We were talking about the need to work out a document by the Council … in the coming days,” Nebenzia said.
https://sputnikglobe.com/20241210/syrian-crisis-keeping-you-updated-1121140231.html 

Amazing. The Russians are going to save Syria with a document.

The absence of realism among the Russian government is disturbing. Syria already doesn’t exist and is rapidly becoming Greater Israel.  Washington covers up reality by emphasizing Israel’s right to self-defense.  Defense from what?  A non-existent Syria?

Washington is also conducting strikes on former Syria.. The US claims to be striking ISIS, the CIA created force the US used to overthrow Syria. If the US and Israel now turn on the ISIS-al Qaeda forces, now called Al-Nusra, a name now superceded by “democratic opposition,” used to overthrow Assad, the situation could develop badly for Washington and Israel.  

Assad in Syria and Saddam Hussein in Iraq were secular leaders.  This was necessary as both countries had Sunni and Shite residents.  But the jihadist forces Washington used against Libya and Syria contain real Muslims capable of jihad.  These Muslims opposed the secular leaders of Iraq and Syria and are willing agents for Washington and Israel to use for their own purposes against secular Muslim regimes. 

Now that Israel and Washington are turning on their jihadist tool, they possibly could have a fight on their hands and more instability than they counted on.  Both Israel and Washington are at work destroying Syrian air defenses, which with so much open territory will make it difficult for the jihadists to establish control over the territory they have conquered with the active help of Turkey, Washington, and Israel and the stand down help of Russia and Iran.  The question is: what will Washington, Israel, and Turkey do to dispose of the tool that they used to destroy Syria?

What Washington and Israel have going for them is that Muslims have been split since the fight over the succession to Muhammad. The Sunnis and the Shia hate one another more than they hate their Western and Israeli oppressors.  As UK ambassador Craig Murray explains, Turkey and the Gulf States accept the annihilation of the Palestinian nation and creation of a Greater Israel, in return for the annihilation of the Shia minorities of Syria and Lebanon and the imposition of Salafism across the Eastern Arab world.

The Russian government shows no understanding of the consequences of Greater Israel. Alan Sabrosky concludes that Russia was not willing to fight as hard in Syria’s defense as Washington and Israel were to fight for Syria’s downfall.
https://www.unz.com/article/regime-change-in-syria-another-step-towards-greater-israel/  The road to Iran is now clear.

The fact that matters most is that throughout the world the perception is that Washington and Israel have prevailed over Russia. This perception will strengthen Washington and likely have effects on foreign policies and on the development of BRICS. Saudi Arabia, which went so far as to hold joint military maneuvers with Iran and to express an interest in BRICS will likely reinstate the petro-dollar in exchange for Washington’s protection against the Israeli government minister who declared that the map of Greater Israel now includes Saudi Arabia.

The extraordinary defeat that  Israel and Israel’s American neoconservatives have dealt to Russia and Iran  pre-empts Trump from any peace moves. The West has recovered its hegemony with Russia’s defeat in Syria and is on a roll. Washington will insist on Russia and Iran’s obedience.

The purpose of Trump’s ceasefire in Ukraine is to protect the West from a defeat. As Putin prefers agreements to war, he might fall into the trap, and Washington will have succeeded in restoring its hegemony.

Did the Russian and Iranian governments understand that the stakes in Syria were Washington’s hegemony and Israel’s hegemony over the Middle East in the form of Greater Israel?  Do they realize the enormity of their defeat?

The “Syrian Democratic Opposition” at Work

As has long been the case, Muslims had rather murder each other than to kill their mutual enemies.

https://halturnerradioshow.com/index.php/news-selections/world-news/behold-what-we-have-done-by-overthrowing-assad-in-syria 

 

https://thealtworld.com/paul_craig_roberts/greater-israel-is-on-the-march

 

RUSSIAN AND IRAN HAD TO WEIGHT THE PROS AND CONS OF FIGHTING AGAINST THE USA, ISRAEL, TURKEY AND THE SUNNI TERRORISTS (NOW CALLED REBELS BY THE WESTERN PROPAGANDA) ALIGNED WITH SAUDI ARABIA... UNLIKE BIBI AND HIS NAZIS, RUSSIA AND IRAN FIGHT ARMIES, NOT POPULATION... SADIST BIBI DOES NOT MIND KILLING WOMEN AND CHILDREN... THE ONLY "POLLOYS" WHO CAN STOP HIM (BIBI) RESIDE IN THE PENTAGON, WASHINGTON. THEY WON'T.

RUSSIA COULD TAKE ALL OF THE ABOVE COUNTRIES TOGETHER IN A WW3 SCENARIO, BUT RUSSIA IS PATIENT AND MEASURED... MOST LIKELY, SOMETHING WILL BE DONE "LATER THAN SOONER"....

WE COULD BE WRONG.

 

READ FROM TOP.

 

YOURDEMOCRACY.NET RECORDS HISTORY AS IT SHOULD BE — NOT AS THE WESTERN MEDIA WRONGLY REPORTS IT.

 

         Gus Leonisky

         POLITICAL CARTOONIST SINCE 1951.

 

PLEASE DO NOT BLAME RUSSIA IF WW3 STARTS. BLAME YOURSELF.

 

the zionist fascists.....

 

They destroyed what was inside us: The children of Gaza     By Meg Schwarz

 

From the day the war began, 15-year old Ghazal’s life was irreversibly changed. “They destroyed what was inside us,” she said. Her story is a window into the larger tragedy of how war has devastated children, especially those with disabilities.

 

The unimaginable cost of war

Ghazal, a 15-year-old girl with cerebral palsy, has lost her home, memories and essential medical equipment in the ongoing conflict in Gaza. Her story is a window into the larger tragedy of how war has devastated children, especially those with disabilities.

From the day the war began, Ghazal’s life was irreversibly changed. “They destroyed what was inside us,” she said, describing how the bombing not only demolished her house but also took away her wheelchair and prosthetic devices – items essential for her survival and dignity.

Children bear the brunt of the crisis

The Human Rights Watch report, They Destroyed What Was Inside Us, documents the staggering toll on Gaza’s children. Recent figures paint an alarming picture:

  • Over 17,000 children have been killed in Gaza since October 2023, according to Gaza’s Ministry of Health.
  • Humanitarian groups report that at least ten children lose a limb every day, often due to explosive weapons.
  • More than 100,000 children have been displaced, with many separated from their families or caregivers.

For children with disabilities, the situation is even more dire. Mobility aids like prosthetics and wheelchairs have been destroyed en masse. Hospitals, already under siege, lack the resources to replace them or provide urgent care.

A crisis of rights and accountability

Under international law, including the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, children and people with disabilities are entitled to protection during armed conflicts. Yet the realities in Gaza demonstrate how these principles are being openly ignored.

Human Rights Watch has accused all parties of violating international humanitarian law by targeting civilians and failing to protect essential infrastructure. This is not just a humanitarian crisis – it is a moral failure of the global community to uphold its commitments.

What must be done?

Humanitarian organisations and rights advocates are calling for immediate action to address the crisis:

  • Medical aid: Hospitals in Gaza need urgent support, including prosthetics, mobility aids and rehabilitation equipment.
  • Psychological care: The trauma inflicted on children like Ghazal must be addressed through widespread mental health interventions.
  • Pressure for accountability: Governments must push for independent investigations into war crimes and ensure those responsible are held accountable.

A plea for humanity

Ghazal’s haunting question, “How can I go back to how I was?” echoes the loss of a generation’s hope and dignity. These children have not only lost their homes but also their sense of safety, belonging and future.

The international community cannot afford to look away. Beyond the politics, this is a call for humanity. Children like Ghazal deserve not just our sympathy but our action. Their voices must be amplified and their rights must be restored.

What can we all do?

  • Support organisations providing relief in Gaza, such as UNICEF, the International Committee of the Red Cross or local Palestinian charities.
  • Advocate for change by contacting your local elected Members for Parliament / Representatives and urging them to take a stand for humanitarian access and accountability.
  • Share stories like Ghazal’s to keep the focus on those most affected by this humanitarian catastrophe.

Human Rights Watch Report
Human Rights Watch Report – Easy Read

https://johnmenadue.com/they-destroyed-what-was-inside-us-the-children-of-gaza/

 

 

READ FROM TOP.

 

YOURDEMOCRACY.NET RECORDS HISTORY AS IT SHOULD BE — NOT AS THE WESTERN MEDIA WRONGLY REPORTS IT.

 

         Gus Leonisky

         POLITICAL CARTOONIST SINCE 1951.

 

PLEASE DO NOT BLAME RUSSIA IF WW3 STARTS. BLAME YOURSELF.