As a member of the Academy of Motion Pictures, Arts and Sciences for 43 years and a two-time Academy Award winner, I was shocked to hear Jonathan Glazer go up to accept his Oscar on March 10th before tens of millions of people around the world, and deliberately disparage his own people and the Jewish homeland, Israel.
Glazer was accepting his award for The Zone of Interest, a film about the Nazi Commandant Rudolf Höss and his family who lived right next to the Auschwitz concentration camp, where millions were murdered, including small children and members of my own family.
Glazer went on to say, “Right now, we stand here as men who refute their Jewishness and the Holocaust being hijacked by an occupation which has led to conflict for so many innocent people.” He continued, “Whether the victims of October 7 in Israel or the ongoing attack on Gaza…”
The first thing that came to my mind after hearing that were the remarks that were made by Oliver Stone in 2010, during a press conference for his then new documentary. “Hitler,” he said, “is an easy scapegoat throughout history and it’s been used cheaply. He’s the product of a series of actions. It’s cause and effect.” Stone’s goal in his documentary was to reexamine WWII in an attempt to put Hitler into context.
As I said then, placing Hitler into context is like placing cancer into context instead of realizing cancer for what it really is: a horrible, deadly disease. We desecrate the memory of the millions murdered when we attempt to place its architect into context, explaining away how human beings could escort children into a gas chamber.
Hamas are the Nazis of the 21st century
Make no mistake about it. Hamas is nothing less than the Nazis of the 21st century. Their final objective will always be the removal of the Jews altogether, not only in Israel but also around the world. There is no context for burning babies, raping women, killing parents and children in front of each other and taking hostages.
Like the Allies of WWII, we have no alternative but to completely eliminate these terrorists. Let us not forget the United States, France, England, Russia, and Canada, having devoured Hilter’s armed forces destroyed the Berlin railroad system, numerous churches, and rendered 450,000 Berliners homeless and tens of thousands dead, because they knew they were dealing with a leader who wanted nothing less than the destruction of western civilization. That is precisely the case today with the leaders of Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, and Iran.
As Simon Wiesenthal warned the world, beware, “Freedom is not a gift from heaven, it is something we have to fight for each and everyday.”
The writer is a cochairman of the Museum of Tolerance, Jerusalem and the founder and dean emeritus of the Simon Wiesenthal Center. He is the only rabbi who is a member of the Academy of Motion Pictures, Arts and Sciences and a two-time academy award winner in the documentary division.