They say the camera never lies but Norman Finkelstein, the controversial author of The Holocaust Industry and supporter of the now discredited Goldstone Report, demonstrates it is incapable of telling the truth.
In a recent blog “Deutschland uber alles”, Finkelstein (who has never set foot in Israel) sets disturbing pictures of Jews and Nazis alongside Israelis and Palestinians.
Some of the pictures are truly sickening, not simply because of the terrible scenes they depict but because Finkelstein would have us believe they prove modern day Israelis are on a par with the Nazis. “The grandchildren of holocaust [sic] survivors from World War II are doing to the Palestinians exactly what was done to them by Nazi Germany...” says Finkelstein.
None of the pictures of Israelis and Palestinians are set in any frame of reference other than similar shots of Jews in Nazi Germany.
We know the context of the black and white Second World War photos but there is no context other than that in which Finkelstein constructs. There are pictures of Israel soldiers pointing guns at Palestinian toddlers; there are shots of dead Palestinians with Israeli soldiers and civilians standing round (one in which an Israel civilian appears to be gleefully gloating); there are shots of fences alongside images of ghetto walls and concentration camp fences.
No doubt there are Israelis who hate Palestinians; doubtless there are rogue soldiers; there are probably Israelis who would like to exterminate the Palestinians.
Israel, like every other nation has those who are mad, bad, sad, or a mix of all three. But Israel is not Nazi Germany, and Finkelstein’s blog tells us far more about him than it does about Israel.
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