In its determination to probe the Israeli psyche to a hermetic degree, The Times has a report up about young Israelis getting tattoos on their arms to commemorate the numbers their ancestors got in Auschwitz. The piece ends in Jerusalem with a comment by Doron Diamant, 40, after he got a number tattoo to remember his ancestor Yosef.
“This is the reason [the tattoo artist] sits here, this tattoo and what this number represents,” Mr. Diamant said. “We got the country because of these people.”
The statement recalled a controversy 3 years ago. Obama in the late-lamented Cairo speech:
America’s strong bonds with Israel are well known. This bond is unbreakable. It is based upon cultural and historical ties, and the recognition that the aspiration for a Jewish homeland is rooted in a tragic history that cannot be denied. Around the world, the Jewish people were persecuted for centuries, and anti-Semitism in Europe culminated in an unprecedented Holocaust.
This upset neocon David Frum, a leading proponent of the Iraq war, who wrote:
About Israel’s origins, the President said: “The aspiration for a Jewish homeland is rooted in a tragic history that cannot be denied” — that is, as he proceeded to explain, in the history of the Nazi Holocaust.
Jews could tell him that the aspiration for a Jewish homeland in Zion long antedates the horror of 1933-45. “If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand lose its cunning,” is a verse far less obscure than the story of Isra and at least a thousand years older. Worse, the President’s mention of the Nazi Holocaust as justification for the Jewish state invites the unanswered question, “Why should Arabs and Muslims surrender land because of a German crime?”
Good question.
Re the hermeticism of the Times piece, Jodi Rudoren interviewed “10 tattooed descendants… [who] wanted to live the mantra ‘Never forget'”. And yes, she also questioned the impulse:
Arguments rage about whether that approach trivializes symbols long held as sacred and whether the primary message should be about the importance of a self-reliant Jewish state in preventing a future genocide or a more universal one about racism and tolerance.
But then she let it drop; and the phrase in the headline, “Their Skin Says ‘Never Forget'” captures the mood of the piece. Ten interviews– and interviews are hard work. Is it really the business of the Times to be exploring the Israeli psyche in such a respectful manner when this society is becoming a pariah nation because of its unending occupation? One of these young tattoo-eds got it after a trip to Auschwitz in Poland. Yoav Shamir showed how these trips were used to indoctrinate the view that the world wants to kill Jews. I wish the Times readers could have heard about that.
what symbol do Palestinians use to remember *their* holocaust?
.. oh .. they don’t need a memory aid .. it’s ongoing.
Phil,
Good catch and good points. I just finished reading the piece about ten minutes ago and had exactly the same reaction.
As I wrote to the friend who had forwarded the piece to me:
“The remembrance conundrum is reflected in the great title of Dan Ben-Amotz’s holocaust remembrance novel which translates perfectly into English: ‘To Remember, To Forget.'”
One of the telling facets of “never forget” for the majority of Jews is that slogan generally only refers to crimes committed against Jews. If our MSM etc would focus on all of the genocides. Even the most recent one in Iraq which was directly caused by the U.S. invasion. Not just the Holocaust and not just the Jews who were horrifically murdered in that war.
On the Holocaust thing.
Obama actually got it quite right, which is why Frum was so outraged.
I remember reading an article on YNet that stated that something like 97% of all Israeli Jews considered the reason of the existance of Israel to be the Holocaust.
It’s drummed into their heads on a daily basis via the school system, complete with a visit to Auschwitz or a similar camp. Bibi constantly compares Iran with Hitler’s Germany.
Everyone in Israel constantly compares all threat with the appeasement of Hitler.
It’s a mental hangup; these folks haven’t moved on. Yes, it was a tragedy, but most people who died under WWII were not Jewish and most civilians who died because of the Nazis were not Jewish either.
Second, I bet a lot of people, like the Armenians, would want the constant stream of Hollywood films on their forgotten and neglected genocide(who’s only brought up in a disgusting and cynical manner to pressure Turkey for political ends, not because people care) the way Hollywood constantly pumps out Holocaust-related movies.
Third, about the humanizing Times’ piece. I think a lot of people in the lobby understand that Brand Israel is severely tarnished. That’s why they’re being given space in the New Yorker or given the frontpage and the main feature story in the New York Magazine on several occasions(like that cover story on Gilad Shailt, imagine the access these people have! Or that story on Iran where an Israeli journalist was allowed to use propaganda on a multiple of pages).
This is a very important reason why there isn’t a mainstream understanding of Israel as the new(and worse) Apartheid South Africa, because that country never had even nearly as sympathetic press corps in America as Israel have, and yes, there’s a Jewish question binding all of this, of power and privilege and a question of dual loyalty vs liberal principles.
But nobody wants to touch that issue for career preservation, for obvious reasons.
So the train rolls on, however slightly more dysfunctional for each minute passing.
Oh man…that is sick to me. The irony of Jews having been tattooed in concentration camps and now these freaks recreating it?
They aren’t commemorating their ancestors with this, they are defining themselves as something. A Star of David tatoo isn’t good enough for their identity, they have to signify their membership in the vicitmhood class?
I will never understand this’ need’ to be a victim. Think of the billions in mental health money spent on treating and counseling victims of rape and all kinds of abuse specifically to get them ‘out of’ the victim mentality or self image as a victim so they can lead normal lives.