The remarks Helen Thomas made last week in an interview by Rabbi David Nessnoff, suggesting that the Israeli people move back to Germany, Poland, and other countries, instead of living in Israel, have generated a lot of anger.  While suggesting that Israelis simply up and leave their land is bad enough, the context in which Thomas made her’s is even worse: saying that they are occupiers bent on oppressing the Palestinians.  That alone is disgusting.  The Israelis are not occupiers, they do not want to oppress Palestinians, and any suggestion that this is the case should be expected to be denounced.  I don’t know what she was thinking when she said it, and her apology may have come too little too late, as this kind of thinking is not entirely unexpected from her.  I don’t think Helen Thomas has been known for her moderate views as long as I’ve been alive (almost 24 years).

With that said, I think one of the rationales some of her detractors are using to slam her for the remarks doesn’t make a lot of sense.  Some of the criticisms have invoked the Holocaust, saying that she doesn’t seem to understand what happened to the Jews all those years ago.  Let me say that I have no clue if Helen Thomas fully comprehends what happened to the Jews during the Holocaust.  At best, she seems indifferent to the fact.  Yet,  while the comments superficially claim to want to educate her about that period, a closer reading seems to warrant a different interpretation.

Take the video for example.  After Thomas is finished, up pops a title screen with the statement, “Six million Jews were killed at home…in Germany in Poland.”  Then there is this article in the Jerusalem Post (via Hot Air) that makes similar sentiments:

IN THE 62 years of our existence, we have had seven wars, thousands of terror attacks, buses which have exploded in streets, firing into schools, mortars fired on kindergartens. Yet you wish to exile us back to the inferno, as if nothing happened 65 years ago in Europe, as if our hands have not been stretched out for peace since the establishment of the state?

The two statements I quoted above seem to go beyond simply trying to remind Thomas about what happened during the Holocaust.  They don’t seem to be teaching statements, so much as anti-European sentiments, and more specifically, anti-German, anti-Polish, and anti-Austrian sentiments (read the whole JPost for more on the parts about Austria).  What doesn’t make sense about this line of attack is that Europe is in fact much changed from the fascist-run hellhole the Israelis escaped during the Holocaust.

If you took the quoted comments at face value, you might think Nazi Germany and its satellite states were still in power and running death camps, but that’s not the case. There are few citizens of those countries alive today that actually want to kill Jews.  Sure, there are Neo-Nazis groups and parties in Germany and Austria, but they’re by-and-large a minority (Austria’s parties are stronger), and they will likely always be there in some form and level of popularity, as will groups that profess hate for other ethnicities.  At some point, the Israelis will have to come to terms with the fact that quite apart from being the Europe of World War II, the Europe of today is likely to be quite welcoming to an Israeli.  Yet, at least some of them don’t seem to want to believe that.

Sure, there is a chance that one of these parties could come into power again, but that risk will always be there.  In my opinion, by constantly dwelling on their European past, the Israelis will find it difficult to move forward with any peace process in the Middle East.  That’s because their current cultural attitude of victimization, even 65 years after the fact, will cause them to always take far too much offense at the kinds of statements that people like Helen Thomas made last week.

You might be thinking, “But, the Jihadists!  Mahmoud Ahmadinejad!  How can you ignore the current threats Israel faces?”

I’m not ignoring them.  The threats to Israeli’s existence do current exist; make no mistake about it.  But the threats Israeli faces today are not coming from Germany, Poland, Austria, or anywhere else in Europe for that matter.  There is the UN’s uneven focus on the actions of the Israeli government, but I see that in much the same way as the focus the rest of the world gives the United States’ actions.  They may not agree with what my government does, but they’re unlikely to wish me any ill will.  All in all, the average Israeli is not going to find themselves in danger in Europe, and it is unfair to suggest that this remains the case.

Now, I’m not saying that that Israelis must forget about the Holocaust, as it would be a mistake to do that.  I’m not even saying they have to forgive the Europe for what happened – though recognizing that the last two generations of Europeans had nothing to do with it would be nice.  What I am saying is that the Israelis need to move on.  I understand there are still threats out there, so it is understandable that they need to deal with the situation that is in front of them.  However, failure to place the Holocaust in the proper historical context will cripple their ability to move into the future if they don’t let it go, at least to some extent.  Should they take what happened and help the people of the world learn from it?  Of course.  But they must also keep a thought toward building their future, and to do that, they must not let themselves become consumed by the past.