From: goykhman_a@apollo.hp.com (Alex Goykhman)
Subject: Re: Irony continues in our history
Date: Thu, 13 Aug 1992 15:44:22 GMT
Organization: Hewlett-Packard Company, Chelmsford, MA

In article <1992Aug11.174958.14352@cbnewsl.cb.att.com> sethr@cbnewsl.cb.att.com (seth.r.rosenthal) writes:
>In article <BssH1K.3qJ@apollo.hp.com>, goykhman_a@apollo.hp.com (Alex Goykhman) writes:
>> In article <0eVVZFK00WB3E9AJJE@andrew.cmu.edu> re0x+@andrew.cmu.edu (Radu Eugen Edelstein) writes:
>> >Fifty years after fascist Croatians were slaughtering Jews, being
>> >proud of the praises they were receiving from Berlin about it, we
>> >are so loud in supporting their case against the Serbs (also Croats'
>> >victims during WWII).  This is what we're doing here, on scj, without
>> >even reading carefully the Israeli government's declarations in regard
>> >to concentration camps (they are talking about *all* concentration camps,
>> >not only about those controlled by Serbs).
>> ...
>> >The other irony for us, Jews, is that since its rebirth Croatia
>> >made no attempt at acknowledging its role during the Holocaust.
>> ...
>> 
>>     I am appaled by the knee-jerk reaction that many of us exhibit
>>     toward the civil war in xYugoslavia.  Instead of being concerned
>>     about the plight of the xY. Jews trapped in the midst of a brutal
>>     civil war (remember what happened to them during WWII there?), we 
>>     are rallying against Serbian concentration camps.  In doing this, we
>>     are employing a truly bizzare and perverse logic to rationalize our
>>     collective knee-jerk reaction.  It goes like this: "during WWII, 
>>     the rest of the world (with a few notable exceptions) silently 
>>     stood by while the Jews were being slaughtered, therefore we
>>     the Jews, more than any other people in this world, are obligated 
>>     to expend our precious moral and political capital on behalf of 
>>     other nations, INCLUDING THOSE WHO ACTIVELY PARTICIPATED IN THE
>>     HOLOCAUST."  Huh?
>> 
>
>First of all, are the sins of the parents visited upon the heads
>of the children and grand-children?

    Yes, that is why a war is raging on in xY.

>  Were Bosnian Muslims mistreating
>their local Jewish population between 1945-1989?  I think not.

    I think B-H was a part of Croatia during WWII.  If so, by 1945
    there had been no Jews left there.
>
>Second, the Jewish children of Sarajevo were flown to Israel, one
>plane of Jews went to Spain, anyone else still there is there
>because they want to be there, perhaps they identify with their
>neighbors and don't want to leave.  There isn't much else to be
>done there for the Jews of the area.

    It is good to see Israel helping the Jews while the
    Jewish-American leaders seem to be more concerned with
    the Croatians and Bosnian Muslims.
>
>>     Don't you think that before speaking out on behalf of a nation
>>     we should consider how that nation treated their Jews during WWII
>>     and what, if anything, has changed in their collective attitude
>>     toward the Jews since than?
>> 
>
>How about doing whats morally right, and perhaps changing some
>minds about their feelings towards Jews, rather than re-enforcing
>existing hatreds. ...
...
    This is an old fallacy that we can reform anti-semits by doing
    good things to them: I do not know of a single case in our
    history where it worked.  However, I can think of a group
    of people in this country who in the past received a lot of 
    support from the Jewish community, yet today seems to be blaming
    more and more of their problems on the Jews.
...
>		Seth Rosenthal
>
>Disclaimer: All opinions are my own not my employers'.


-- 
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Disclaimer: all opinions are mine.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Newsgroups: soc.culture.jewish