Opposition blasts PM's Holocaust comparisons

"Israel is not about to be destroyed, not every enemy is Hitler and not every problem is Auschwitz," Gal-On says.

By GIL STERN STERN HOFFMAN
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu at AIPAC 390 (R) (photo credit: REUTERS/Joshua Roberts)
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu at AIPAC 390 (R)
(photo credit: REUTERS/Joshua Roberts)
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s political foes chastised him on Tuesday for comparing Israel’s current situation to that of European Jews ahead of World War II, in his address to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) Policy Conference.
In his speech, Netanyahu displayed copies of letters exchanged between the World Jewish Congress and the US War Department at the height of the Holocaust in 1944, which implored the US government to bomb Auschwitz.
He said the current situation was different because Israel exists and has the American government’s support.
“I don’t like his repeated comparisons with the Holocaust,” opposition leader Tzipi Livni said. “Israel is not Auschwitz.”
Livni’s competition in the Kadima leadership contest, MK Shaul Mofaz, warned Netanyahu that “Israel is not a ghetto” and that it is dangerous to make Israel into what the Torah calls “a nation that dwells alone.”
Meretz leader Zehava Gal- On said that as the daughter of Holocaust survivors, she was angered by Netanyahu’s comparison.
“Sometimes it seems the only history books Netanyahu has are about World War II. Israel is not about to be destroyed, not every enemy is Hitler and not every problem is Auschwitz.”
“With his crazy analogies, the prime minister is diverting attention from Iran to his fear-mongering,” Gal-On said.