Abbas is choosing the wrong friends. Photo Courtesy of UN Photo/Marco Castro
It’s a sad irony that there are those who deny the Holocaust happened before and yet burn with such hatred of Jews they threaten yet another Holocaust. Past leadership of Iran made this linkage very clear—literally denying the Nazi program to kill the Jews while promising to wipe out Israel. But such sentiments are not isolated to Iran. In fact, Hamas, the group poised to resume power sharing in the Palestinian government, does this as well.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in comments released by his office, said on Sunday that “Hamas denies the Holocaust even as it attempts to create an additional Holocaust by destroying the State of Israel. It is with this Hamas that [Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas] chose to form an alliance last week.” If the Palestinian alliance deal goes through, that obviously will make peace with Israel impossible without a dramatic change of beliefs.
To highlight the seriousness of Hamas’ views on the Holocaust, the Israeli Government Press Office had a list of various news articles showing Hamas‘ Holocaust denial. For example, back in 2011, The Guardian reported that Hamas opposed the teaching of the Holocaust in Gaza schools by the United Nations.
The Guardian quoted a statement from the Hamas ministry for refugee affairs that said of the Holocaust education: “We cannot agree to a program that is intended to poison the minds of our children.
“Holocaust studies in refugee camps is a contemptible plot and serves the Zionist entity with a goal of creating a reality and telling stories in order to justify acts of slaughter against the Palestinian people.”
Of course, those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it, and so it is with Hamas—which has repeatedly rejected peace talks with Israel and promoted violent resistance against them. Hamas lays claim to all of Israel from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea.
In light of that, it’s no wonder Netanyahu has given Abbas an ultimatum to choose Hamas or peace. In his comments on Sunday, Netanyahu said Abbas “needs to choose between the alliance with Hamas, a terrorist organization that calls for the destruction of Israel and denies the Holocaust, and a true peace with Israel. We hope that he will disavow this alliance with Hamas and return to the path of true peace.”
(By Joshua Spurlock, www.themideastupdate.com, April 28, 2014)