{Originally posted on author’s site, FirstOne Through}
Many books and studies have been written analyzing Nazi Germany during the 1930s and 1940s, including the famous “Hitler’s Willing Executioners” by Daniel Goldhagen. The premise of the book revolved around the question of how Hitler – a single madman – could possibly kill millions of people. The book advanced a theory that, putting it simplistically, a single extreme individual or idea could stop being viewed as extreme if many others harbored similar thoughts. Millions of people could be actively annihilated if an entire society believed in the extreme notion that Jews, gays, gypsies and other “undesirables” should be killed. Such a society was capable – and did – murder millions. It was not a lone extremist with a gun, but a country with an army.
The dynamics of the Palestinians in 2014 runs parallel to the Germans in the 1930s in many respects.
Position
- Position of Germany: The Nazi platform in 1920 made clear its intent of stripping Jews of citizenship. It allowed Jews to live in the country as “aliens”, but forbade any new Jews from moving to the country. Position of Hamas: The Hamas party made clear its position of Jews in its 1988 charter, calling for their murder and destruction of the Jewish State. The more “moderate” Fatah leadership of the Palestinian Authority has called for a new country to be void of any Jews. The PA has established laws that call for the death penalty for any Arab that sells land to a Jew. The major Palestinian university bans Israeli Jews entry onto its campus.
Popularity
- Majority support: The Nazi party won 44% of the votes in 1933. Hamas won 58% of the seats in Parliament in 2007 with their radical platform.
- Last election. The Nazis suspended elections after the 1933 vote. The Palestinians have held neither presidential elections nor parliamentary elections since their 2007 election.
- Popularity of Nazis: There are no polls to show how the Nazis would have fared if additional elections were held. Perhaps the Nazis feared that they could have lost an election and therefore did not allow one. Popularity of Hamas: There are dozens of polls that show Hamas would win the presidential elections and the parliament with over 50% of the vote, no matter what year the poll was taken. The current acting PA President Mahmoud Abbas (of the Fatah party) and the world knows this, so has suspended any new elections which would clearly show the desires of the Palestinian Arabs for war.
As seen above, the Hamas positions are more extreme than the Nazis at the time of the respective elections. The Palestinians voted much more overwhelmingly for Hamas than the Germans did for the Nazis. Palestinian anti-Semitism in 2014 is more extreme and mainstream than the Germans in the 1930s.
As further evidence, in May 2014, the Anti Defamation League conducted a global poll of anti-Semitism. By a substantial margin, the Palestinians held the most anti-Semitic views in the world, with almost every single Palestinian Arab (93%) in the West Bank and Gaza holding anti-Semitic views. In comparison, 26% of countries outside of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region held anti-Semitic views.
Germany rose to power in the 1930s and the world did not hold the Nazi aspirations in check. As such, Nazi Germany went on to execute its plans killing millions of civilians until the world reacted. Perhaps it did so, only because Germany crossed into their backyards.
Today, the Palestinians do not have significant fire power and have therefore only been able to kill scores, not millions of Jews.
- Will the world encourage and embrace such a nation and leadership on the world stage?
- Will the world enable Iran or other allies of the Palestinians to obtain nuclear weapons?
- Does the world believe that “Never Again” only means in Europe?