Yediot’s Barnea: Netanyahu asks Wiesel to intervene with Obama

[Jefferson23]

**Pathetic.


Say something to Obama

Nahum Barnea, Yediot, April 4 2010


Wiesel and Obama
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu knows that he is in deep trouble at the White House. This weekend he made an interesting effort to find ways into Barack Obama’s heart. The author Elie Wiesel, in Israel for the holiday, received a call from the Prime Minister’s Office asking that he meet urgently with Netanyahu. On Friday afternoon Wiesel arrived at Netanyahu’s Ceasarea home.

Obama venerates Wiesel, a Holocaust survivor and Nobel laureate. He sees in him a role model for the struggle for human rights. When Obama, on his way back from the Cairo University speech, decided to visit the Buchenwald concentration camp, he asked Wiesel to accompany him and give the keynote speech at the on site ceremony. Obama asked that he join him on the Air Force One flight to Washington.

During the flight, Wiesel read the text of Obama’s Cairo speech and remarked that there was no room for comparison of Jewish suffering during the Holocaust and Palestinian suffering. Obama was convinced and rectified the message in a speech he gave after returning to the US.


Netanyahu
This is the background for the request that Wiesel meet Obama as soon as possible, in order to defend the Prime Minister and convince the President that he is mistaken in his appraisal of the motivations and actions of Netanyahu and his government.

Wiesel listened and told Netanyahu that he is scheduled to meet the President for lunch soon and he will use the opportunity to expand on the issues raised by the Prime Minister.

<...>

http://coteret.com/2010/04/04/yediots-barnea-netanyahu-asks-wiesel-to-intervene-with-obama/

[Ozymanithrax]

1. Elie Wiesel is one of the finest men of the age...

Actually, it is a good idea. That doesn't mean that Obama should back down from the demands that Israel stop settlements.

[Jefferson23]

2. Are you serious? Nothing good will come from it, the status quo

is what he would prefer Obama to maintain.

[notadmblnd]

3. I for one am tired of Isreal claiming that no one has suffered

as much as them under Nazism. What was done to them by the Nazis does not justify what they have done to the Palestinians. Nor does it make their suffering any less. If Hitler and his minions had succeeded in their plan, more than just the Jews would have been annihilated off the face of this earth. They were the first to suffer the Nazi's plan, they would not have been the last.

[monmouth]

4. Well said....n/t

[cali]

6. Some events can be compared to the Holocaust

others shouldn't be. That has nothing to do with justifying what the Israelis are doing to the Palestinians, btw. But no, horrific as the Occupation is, it's absurd to compare it to the Holocaust.

And you might want to read Mein Kampf and a bit of history. Of course there were other victims- the Roma, political dissidents, etc- but the Jews were the main target and were singled out for the most heinous treatment.

[azurnoir]

7. you might learn to read comments

because the poster said nothing like what you try to foist off here and perhaps you need to read a bit more history start with Google Sinti/Roma Holocaust would be a good place to start

[cali]

8. I don't need to read light weight stuff- I realize that's the extent of your knowlege

of the era. Mine is a bit more comprehensive, sweetie.

[azurnoir]

9. Pffft if that was true there would have no need for either

of your supposedly insulting comments nor would I have had to say anything

but at least you admit you did not read the comment

[notadmblnd]

10. And when finished with the Jews, the Nazis would have moved on to other groups

There Russians were high on their list, they were only going to allow enough to live to provide slave labor for food production for the Fatherland. I have read some history and Mein Kampf was written before WWII while Hitler was in jail.

It was not published in Hitler's life time, but there was a sequel to Hitler's book. I CAN ASSURE YOU his genocide would not have ended with the Jews. He planned on conquering the world and exterminating everyone the Nazis deemed inferior. So why don't you pick up another book besides Mein Kampf and learn a little more history yourself?

I'll even suggest one for you "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich" by William L. Shirer
You can read excerpts from Hitler's sequel, which expands on his ideas in his first book, Mein Kampf, at Amazon.com. Just enter Hitler's Second book in the search box.

Then perhaps you can articulate to me- just why it is absurd to make the comparison? I'm not going to believe it's absurd for no other reason than- you say so.

I stand by what I wrote in my post to the OP.

[bemildred]

18. Well said.

History is littered with evil, murder, genocide, all of the 4 horsemen, it is not an ethnic trait. One need not minimize what Hitler did to the European Jews, and various other groups, to also recognize that it was not something all that new.

[monmouth]

5. I should expand to my previous reply...It's all well and good that

Mr. Wiesel will speak with POTUS. A wonderful human being. My question is, what if Wiesel goes back to Bibi with comments the POTUS and he himself offer and Bibi doesn't like the answers? I doubt this will go anywhere, Bibi wants what he wants and that's all there is to it. I'm sorry in a way that Mr. Wiesel has to be brought into this..

[Violet_Crumble]

11. No, Elie Wiesel's not a wonderful human being. He's a denier of the Armenian genocide...

While his contribution to the field of Holocaust studies is very valuable, his attitude towards other things like the Armenian genocide and his steadfast opposition to any commemoration of Roma victims of the Holocaust aren't wonderful at all...

[oberliner]

12. Elie Wiesel: “Affirming the Incontestable Fact of the Armenian Genocide”

This summer, Elie Wiesel was the lead signer of a statement co-signed by 126 Holocaust scholars and intellectuals on “Affirming the Incontestable Fact of the Armenian Genocide” (June 8, 2000, New York Times)

http://www.emory.edu/EMORY_MAGAZINE/autumn2000/letters.html

126 HOLOCAUST SCHOLARS AFFIRM THE INCONTESTABLE FACT OF THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE AND URGE WESTERN DEMOCRACIES TO OFFICIALLY RECOGNIZE IT

At the Thirtieth Anniversary of the Scholars' Conference on the Holocaust and the Churches Convening at St. Joseph University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, March 3-7, 2000, one hundred twenty-six Holocaust Scholars, holders of Academic Chairs and Directors of Holocaust Research and Studies Centers, participants of the Conference, signed a statement affirming that the World War I Armenian Genocide is an incontestable historical fact and accordingly urge the governments of Western democracies to likewise recognize it as such. The petitioners, among whom is Nobel Laureate for Peace Elie Wiesel, who was the keynote speaker at the conference, also asked the Western Democracies to urge the Government and Parliament of Turkey to finally come to terms with a dark chapter of Ottoman-Turkish history and to recognize the Armenian Genocide. This would provide an invaluable impetus to the process of the democratization of Turkey.

http://www.armenian-genocide.org/Affirmation.21/current_category.3/affirmation_detail.html

[Violet_Crumble]

13. Thanks for the correction. I should have said he downplays other genocides compared to the Holocaust

And his attitude about the Roma victims of the Holocaust are accurate, afaik. Not as *wonderful person* at all...

[oberliner]

14. Wiesel apologizes to the Roma people and promises to do more to recognize their suffering (1986)

"I confess that I feel somewhat guilty towards our Romani friends. We have not done enough to listen to your voice of anguish. We have not done enough to make other people listen to your voice of sadness. I can promise you we shall do whatever we can from now on to listen better."

http://www.reocities.com/~patrin/porraimos.htm

Another citation for those remarks can be found in this book:

"Gypsies" in European literature and culture
By Valentina Glajar, Domnica Radulescu

http://books.google.com/books?id=sjhbXnK_J-sC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_v2_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false

[shaayecanaan]

15. That was a mealy-mouthed apology...

that followed a long period of fighting against the Roma by Wiesel and his associates whilst he was on the Holocaust Memorial Council. Ironically, it was counterproductive. Wiesel was so bitter and mean-spirited towards the Gypsies that eventually people that originally had no dog in the fight started to support including a token Gypsy on the Holocaust Memorial Council. Had they simply fobbed off the Gypsies their attempts for inclusion on the Council would have come and gone, their influence on American politicians was obviously next to nothing.

It has been suggested that Wiesel`s dislike of gypsies was motivated by the actions of Gypsy kapos towards his father during the holocaust:-

http://www.observer.com/node/33625

The gypsy looked him up and down slowly, from head to foot. As if he wanted to convince himself that this man addressing him was really a creature of flesh and bone, a living being with a body and a belly. Then, as if he had suddenly woken up from a heavy doze, he dealt my father such a clout that he fell to the ground, crawling back to his place on all fours... I did not move... Yesterday, I should have sunk my nails into the criminal's flesh... I thought only: I shall never forgive for that...

While one can understand his reactions, it should be remembered that there were plenty of Jewish kapos and his father`s assailant could have just as easily been Jewish. Moreover there were plenty of instances of Jews being less than charitable to the Gypsies in the camps.

[oberliner]

16. Perhaps - but with all his faults, I would still characterize Wiesel as a wonderful human being

Not perfect by any means, but I think he has done enough admirable things in his life to have earned such a designation.

[shaayecanaan]

17. Perhaps I am more misanthropic than you...

but I tend to believe that the best tests of one`s moral character occur not when self-interest and morality converge, but when they diverge.

I just read Wiesel`s wikipedia page, which also refers to his opposition to recognition of the Armenian genocide at Israel`s behest. I must say, I find it incredible that these influential Jewish luminaries were able to switch from being champions of recognition of genocide to opponents of it without so much as a twang of moral conscience, or even an appreciation of the immense irony of the situation.

As human beings, we all carry coals. Myself, I probably dislike the Turks more than I should. I have no problem with them one-on-one but like many people I tend to dislike them as an abstract, collective whole. On the other hand, one of the few people that I actively dislike is a Druze, who happens to be in the same line of work as myself. I find him to be unctuous and disingenuous and unfortunately I tend to associate that with his being a Druze, unconsciously or not.

But I would like to think that being conscious of this probably goes some way towards ameliorating it. Plus, I attempt to be as critical of my own community as I can reasonably be, and to point out the occasions when that community has not behaved well.

[Violet_Crumble]

19. The way he carried on about the Roma victims of the Holocaust was really nasty...

Clearly yr much less fussy on what makes someone a wonderful person than I am, as even if he had changed his mind totally after being like that for years, that sort of ugliness means he's definately not a wonderful person in my book...

[bemildred]

20. Being a victim of the Holocaust and getting really pissed about it and hunting the perps down

does not make you a nice person. It makes you a really pissed off victim. Not saying that is bad, but it's not Mother Theresa either. He has no cred with me when it comes to morality or ethics. He gets some cred for the hunting down part, depending on whom he hunted down.

[cali]

21. have you ever actually read any of his work?

and his contribution has not been to the field of Holocaust studies.

[Violet_Crumble]

22. Yes, I have. Have you?

Sorry, but he has made contributions to the field of Holocaust Studies. I'm aware the Holocaust isn't the only subject he's written on, but I never claimed it was...