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Politics : War -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: William B. Kohn who wrote (10459)	12/29/2001 5:28:09 PM
From: Thomas M.	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 23908

Even an idiot like you, filled with hate Looking in a mirror? namely that the only way to deal with the Arab populations that what to throw Israel to the sea, is to rid yourself of those populations. I'd say the reverse is much more appropriate, considering that the Arab population was there originally, until some Jews came along and proposed to throw the Arabs into the sea. Tom

To: William B. Kohn who wrote (10459)	12/31/2001 5:23:06 AM
From: GUSTAVE JAEGER	Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 23908

Uh... How dare you! Anyway, here's more news for you to be "ashamed about": Dahan's Holocaust remarks draw ire -------------------------------------------------------- By Judy Siegel December, 31 2001 ----------------------------------------------------- JERUSALEM (December 31) - Health Minister Nissim Dahan declined yesterday to retract the controversial remarks he made made Friday night that assimilation - and not the Holocaust - "was the worst catastrophe ever to beset the Jewish people." However, the Shas minister told reporters who pressed him about his speech he "apologized to anyone who was hurt" by his words. Ministry spokesman Ido Hadari said in a statement Dahan "has in the past and is now doing much to help Holocaust survivors. He does not minimize the horrors of the Holocaust and does not regard them lightly. The minister's words over the weekend related to the need to regard assimilation as a tragedy that did and does beset the Jewish people. "On November 8, [Dahan] visited a hostel for Holocaust survivors who are psychiatric patients and said: 'In the name of the state of Israel and the Jewish people, I apologize that we did not treat you in the past as we should have and hope that the treatment you are getting today is somewhat easing your distress,'" Hadari said. Dahan made the remarks at the Orthodox General Assembly, a group of Orthodox rabbinical and lay leaders from around the world organized by the World Zionist Organization, at a Shabbat dinner at Jerusalem's Renaissance Hotel. Members of the Diaspora audience said they "didn't notice anything unusual" in his words, but an Israel Radio reporter was present and reported the remarks, which immediately sparked debate. Yesterday, on radio and in an encounter with reporters, Dahan said he "did not dispute the fact that the Holocaust was the greatest disaster in terms of human suffering, [but] more Jews had been lost through assimilation." Estimating that 10 million Jews were present for the revelation of the Torah at Mount Sinai (extrapolating from the counting of over 600,000 Jewish men qualified for military service in Exodus), Dahan reasoned that, over 3,400 years, the Jews would have been expected to multiply through natural growth to some 500 million, but today there are only 12 million. "Where has this nation disappeared to?" he asked. "First, 80 percent of this nation disappeared 3,000 years ago when the Ten Tribes got absorbed into the areas they were exiled to," he said. "Then, there are still another 200 million [who disappeared]," who he said had assimilated in the Diaspora. This phenomenon, said Dahan, was "another huge disaster" - no less than the Holocaust. The Yad Vashem Holocaust Remembrance Authority protested strongly against Dahan's statement, saying, "even if [Dahan] had positive aims relating to prevention of assimilation, his statement about the Holocaust is outrageous and disgusting. "We are sorry about it especially during this difficult period for the Jewish people that a minister chooses to say such serious things that encourage division. "Warning about the seriousness of the phenomenon of assimilation, which is worrisome, does not need to be compared to the Holocaust - the greatest catastrophe that has befallen the Jewish people and all humanity." Deputy Foreign Minister Michael Melchior called Dahan's comments a "vulgarization" of the Holocaust. "As someone who has devoted most of his life to a struggle against assimilation and to strengthen Jewish identity, I think that Rabbi Dahan's claims imply that an assimilated Jew is worse than a Nazi - and this is a way of denying the Holocaust." MK Yosef (Tommy) Lapid, the leader of the Shinui party, agreed. Those who say the Holocaust wasn't the greatest Jewish tragedy, he said, "are also those who accuse Israel of magnifying the Holocaust so as to profit from it." "That for him the murder of one-and-a-half million Jewish children is not the greatest disaster, is a terrible stain on the government of Israel and Israeli society," Lapid asserted. Dahan's comments inspired the same sharp criticism heard after Shas spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef said in August 2000 that Jews who died in the Holocaust were resurrected sinners being punished for crimes committed in past lives. Shas officials complained there is a negative reaction whenever a Sephardi says anything about the Holocaust. They said the phenomenon stretches back decades, long before Yosef's comments. "We feel that we aren't permitted to say anything about the Holocaust, as if it's only an Ashkenazi tragedy and not a tragedy for the entire Jewish people," a top Shas official said. "Dahan made an important point about assimilation in the proper forum - among Orthodox rabbis who deal with the problem every day - but what he said was lost because he made the mistake of raising the Holocaust to emphasize his point," he added. (Gil Hoffman contributed to this report.) jpost.com Tell you what.... how about resettling you folks on some other planet, or a moon base? Ooops... I just get it! Isn't the current intl space-station a crypto-safe-haven program for you Jews? Indeed, out there in outerspace you wouldn't incur the ugly risk of "assimilation", would you?? Safe home... to MARS! Gus