18 Aug 2022: The difficulties of conducting work in a troubled land: When one stays in “victim mode” constantly, one can never do any wrong; your neighbors can never do any right; and it is permissible to exaggerate your neighbor’s wrongs, to lie, and falsify, with no limits.
Pals Trivialize Holocaust; Germans and Israelis Outraged
“Especially for us Germans, any relativization of the Holocaust is unbearable and unacceptable.” — German Chancellor Olaf Scholz speaking to Bild after Abbas’ holocaust trivialization comments in Berlin. https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-714943
So – this is what happened. On 16 Aug 2022, Germany hosted Mahmoud Abbas to give a speech in Berlin. Abbas is leader of the Fatah party and of the Philistinian leadership in Samaria. After the speech, a reporter asked Abbas why, after 18 years in power, has he not apologized for the Palestinian terrorists who killed 11 Jewish athletes at the 1972 Olympics in Munich.
Abbas’ response – in Arabic – was to allege that Israel has committed 50 holocausts against the Pals. Ridiculous. (He said “holocausts” in English; the Hebrew term is “Shoah”). Clearly, the non-Israeli Arab population has grown from 1 million to 5 million since Israel became a state in 1948. Today, that’s 3 million in Samaria and 2 million in Gaza. Separately, there are around 2 million Israeli Arabs living in Israel with full citizenship, voting rights and all.
While this is clearly incorrect, this is only part of a global trend. “Combat Antisemitism Movement” has reported that there were over 214 public comments in the last year trivializing the Shoah, with 37.4% coming from the USA, followed by UK, with Germany in third place. The report is entitled “Holocaust Trivialization Report: A Burgeoning Threat in 2021-2022 Trend Manifestations and Analysis.”
“The countries that showed the highest rates of Holocaust trivialization were the US, United Kingdom, Germany, Australia and Canada.” https://www.jpost.com/diaspora/antisemitism/article-714904
Therefore, Abbas is not unique in his holocaust trivialization. However, looking around the world, we cannot find many public officials other than Abbas who wrote their doctoral thesis in holocaust denial. At a Soviet university in Moscow, he wrote his thesis on the ridiculous claim that the Jews collaborated with the Nazis to create the Holocaust in order to fabricate an excuse to relocate to Israel.
In one press conference, Abbas accuses Israel of “50 holocausts” against the Palestinians, and then talks of building trust? That combination obviously can’t work, and Abbas knows it. https://www.jpost.com/arab-israeli-conflict/article-714940
Incidently, the German Chancellor also rejected Abbas’ use of the word “apartheid” when referring to Israel’s treatment of Arabs:
“Naturally we have a different assessment with a view to Israeli politics, and I want to expressly say here that I do not espouse the use of the word ‘apartheid’ and do not think it correctly describes the situation,” Scholz said. The German chancellor rejected the use of the word ‘apartheid‘ in a meeting with the PA president • Liberman: Abbas is alive today only because of security coordination with Israel. https://www.jpost.com/breaking-news/article-714856
Without drastic change, this Pal leadership could never make any sincere offers of peace with the Jews. And most of the Pal population agrees with the leadership.
The Fatah party commended Abbas for his comments in Berlin, saying, “Abbas, you are strong.”
Abbas intended to “remind the world of the suffering of the Palestinian people, who deserve an apology for the crimes committed against them.” –Munther al-Hayek, senior Fatah official. https://www.jpost.com/arab-israeli-conflict/article-714930
Germany is so furious, they’ll probably not invite Abbas for a very long time. [Update: As of 5 Sept, 2022, Germany officially apologized for its failure to protect Israeli athletes from the Arab murderers in the 1972 massacre].
“Israel’s ambassador in Berlin, Ron Prosor, told The Media Line that German politicians are ‘furious with (Abbas) for exploiting the stage he got.’ From what I see, I doubt Abu Mazen will be invited here again any time soon,” Prosor said, using Abbas’ nom de guerre. https://www.jpost.com/international/article-714985
Victimhood: What is the answer–how can the cycle of victimhood ever be broken? Messiah is the only answer.