A good editorial that ties them all
together.
The
message of the Holocaust — indeed, the barest facts about it —
have gotten lost in the clamor of world events.
A recent BBC survey
in Great Britain revealed that 45 percent of adults in that country had
never heard of Auschwitz. The number went up to 60 percent among those
younger than 35.
In a study by the International Society for
Sephardic Progress, 63 percent of Americans questioned hadn’t a clue
about that ultimate death factory; again, ignorance was higher among
younger respondents.
So should we be surprised that each new
instance of genocide, from Cambodia to Rwanda to Darfur, is met with
indifference — especially if the victims are not Europeans?
----
The Jewish community has been more vocal about
Darfur than most; the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum’s Committee on
Conscience has used its enormous credibility to try to generate concern
about Darfur and some Jewish groups have spoken out forcefully.
The
communal response has been much more tepid in response to
Washington’s decision to carve out big exceptions in our national
morality for reasons of “security” when it comes to the
treatment of foreign prisoners.
During recent hearings on the
confirmation of Alberto Gonzales as attorney general, the issue of torture
in U.S. prisons in places like Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and Abu Ghraib was
front and center because of the nominee’s memo suggesting that the
Geneva conventions are “quaint” and our own laws against
torture do not apply offshore.
The torture-genocide connection
should be obvious: Countries that justify torture are, at least indirectly
and maybe directly, endorsing a worldview suggesting that threats to their
nations, real or imagined, justify any act, as long as it can be
classified a matter of national security.
In the case of America,
the threat of terrorism is real — unlike the threat that Adolf
Hitler claimed was posed by the Jews he tortured and murdered.
But
tolerating torture undermines civilization and weakens the restraints that
prevent genocide; it helps legitimize the ideas that genocidal leaders and
tyrants always use to justify their actions.
----
Jewish leaders should look at the worldwide
indifference to Darfur, at the appalling lack of Holocaust knowledge in
the Western nations and at America’s own casual endorsement of
torture when it suits our interest — and see a real connection.
Maybe then, their silence might be replaced by outrage and genuine
leadership.
Yep, I've read this book already. It's a
tragedy and an outrage.
