THE PEJORATIVE "NAZI"

There is no greater sign of intellectual and moral bankruptcy in discussion of the Arab-Israeli conflict than to label Israeli actions "Nazi." It is intellectually bankrupt in that there is no comparison between the Israeli treatement of Arabs, and the Nazi treatment of Jews.

First, one needs to be clear about what the pejorative "Nazi" entails. The War against the Jews had three phases. For the most part those that throw out the term "Nazi" are referring to the first phase of racial discrimination. And while the Nuremberg laws were unprecedented in their drastic reversal of a minority groups integration into society (which for German Jews was almost complete in the 1920s), and extraordinary in their technical meticulousness - it is not a stretch to say such acts are comparable with other forms of legally codified racial discrimination, such as the Jim Crow Regime or Apartheid. Nazism however, trancended the evil represented by those systems. In the second phase of their war against the Jews, the Nazis forcibly removed Jews from their homes and cordoned them off into ghettos and concentration camps. This extreme level of brutality, is comparable to only the worst instances of ethnic cleansing throughout history, and puts even the worst of forced population transfers to shame. But what sets the Nazis apart, what transforms them into the avatars of evil in human history is the third phase - the Final Solution. I implore anyone who casually throws the term "Nazi" out to watch the excellent HBO movie "Conspiracy", which is based on the real transcript of the infamous Wanasee Conference. The plan to annihilate the Jews of Europe was effectively formulated over a two-hour lunch meeting. The various options for genocide were discussed in the same manner as a corporation weighing over where to locate a new plant. The evil, the cold, calculating, scientific evil behind such an event can not easily be transferred onto other human crimes. In the end, the term "Nazi" is inextricably linked to systematic genocide. This is a charge that should not lightly be cast even upon the most despicable of regimes.

The use of the term "Nazi" to describe Israeli actions is morally bankrupt in that its sole purpose is to 1) wipe the world's collective guilt over the Holocaust clean, and 2) place Jews once more outside the bounds of humanity. Nazis, by breaking every rule that humanity has ever set out, can no longer take refuge in the humanity of others. Similarly, when anti-Semites charge Israelis with being "Nazis", what they in effect are saying is that there is no moral cost to the killing of Jews. This principle, unlike anything Israel stands for, is quite commensurate with Nazi ideology.

From an objective perspective, Israel's treatment of its non-Jewish majority is laudable. Israeli Arabs serve in the Knesset and have full voting right. The government provides social services to all of its citizens. All of this in the context of non-stop war perpetuated by Israel's Arab neighbors. Still, from a Jewish perspective, good is not good enough. The services provided to the non-Jewish sector are seperate and most decidely not equal. This, however, does not justify progressive Jews aping of the langauge of anti-Semites. It is one thing to be disassified with any injustice brought about by a Jewish state. It is totally another to equate the uglier aspects of Jewish nationalism, militarism and triumphalism with ultimate evil. There could never be and there will never be an Israeli Wanasee Conference. As symbolized by the diminishing of our wine glasses in memory of the Ten Plagues during the Seder, for Jews, the lives of even our enemies is precious. One only need look at the consistent growing Palestinian population to recognize that the charge of genocide against Israel is the foulest and most sinister of lies. The Jewish people, as always, seek to be left in peace. And as always, they remain targets for the world's most evil of regimes.