The Final Solution

I’m certain that the title of this piece will cause some readers discomfort and anger. That’s good. It’s time for some discomfort. For too long, we have looked the other way in our unconditional support of Israel. Too many support Israel unconditionally, not because they’re right and not because their actions are justified but because they are Jews.

In the 1930s and 1940s, Hitler and the Nazis coined the phrase “Final Solution” to describe their answer to the “Jewish problem.” Hitler tried to convince other countries to take Jews in but met with resistance. His answer was to exterminate the Jewish population of Europe.

What the Jews experienced was inhumane treatment and suffering. Jews had to wear yellow armbands in order to be easily identified. Jewish businesses were destroyed, the assets of Jews were stolen. In the middle of the night, without warning or warrant, the homes of Jews were invaded and the occupants escorted out of their homes, many of whom disappeared forever. The strategy was clearly a policy of genocide where millions of Jews lost their lives for no other reason than they were Jewish.

What a horror these people were forced to endure. Yet, many people throughout the world remained unaffected and uninvolved. Not that they were anti-Semites or bad people, but like many, they went ahead with their lives, completely unaffected by the suffering of people targeted by the Nazi regime.

Why do I bring up this sensitive part of human history? Because we are still suffering from the aftermath of that horrendous time. It is my contention that people are reluctant to confront Israel today because of an international collective guilt regarding the Holocaust. As President Obama has said, “Israel has the right to defend itself.” What exactly are they defending themselves against . . . rock throwing adolescents?

Jews were not the only ethnic group to suffer from genocidal policies.

In 1915, authorities of the Ottoman Empire arrested some 250 Armenian intellectuals, and community leaders. Thereafter, the Ottoman military uprooted Armenians from their homes and forced them to march for hundreds of miles, without food and water, to the desert of what is now Syria. Massacres ignored age and gender, with rape and other sexual abuse commonplace. The majority of Armenian diaspora communities were founded as a result of these events. Mass killings continued under the Republic of Turkey during the Turkish–Armenian War phase of the Turkish War of Independence.

In 1995, a paper published by the Russian Academy of Science M. V. Philimoshin put the civilian death toll in the regions occupied by Germany at 13.7 million. Philimoshin cited sources from the Soviet era to support his figures, he used the terms “genocide” and “premeditated extermination” when referring to deaths of 7.4 million civilians in the occupied USSR caused by the direct, intentional actions of violence.

In 1937, Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo ordered the execution of Haitians living in the Dominican Republic. The Parsley Massacre, known in the Dominican Republic as “El Corte” (the Cutting), lasted approximately five days. Trujillo had his soldiers show parsley to suspected Haitians and ask, “What is this?” Spanish-speaking Dominicans would be able to pronounce the Spanish word for parsley (“perejil”) perfectly. In Haitian Creole, the word for parsley is “persil”. Those who mispronounced “perejil” were assumed to be Haitian and slaughtered. The program resulted in the deaths of 20,000 to 30,000 people.

During the Guatemalan civil war, some 200,000 died. More than one million fled their homes and hundreds of villages were destroyed. The officially chartered Historical Clarification Commission attributed more than 93% of all documented human rights violations to Guatemala’s military government; and estimated that Maya Indians accounted for 83% of the victims. It concluded in 1999 that state actions constituted genocide.

I could go on and cite many other examples of genocide in human history. My goal here is to bring our attention to modern Israel, a Jewish state, a state that is currently imposing a genocidal policy on its non Jewish neighbors.

Israel is today, an occupational force with extreme military power. They have imposed a ghetto life on the Palestinian people, a life where they are dependent on Israel for their water and electricity which is rationed out several hours each day. There is no barbed wire keeping the Palestinians in their ghetto, but there’s a wall with many checkpoints. There is no yellow armband but there are roads and highways where only Israelis are allowed to travel. In other words, Palestinians are a captive and subservient people.

The most recent event illustrates Israel’s real agenda. In June of this year, Fatah and Hamas announced that they are forming a united government. Natanyahu expressed his anger at this turn of events. About a week later, three Israeli youths disappeared. What an opportunity for Netanyahu. He immediately labeled the disappearance a kidnapping and blamed Hamas. No evidence was ever forthcoming that this, in fact, was orchestrated by Hamas. History tells us that Hamas has never been reluctant to claim responsibility for their acts against Israel. But here we have Hamas denying involvement. Quite frankly what would have been their motive?

Although he was informed by Mossad that the boys had been killed almost immediately after being abducted, Netanyahu did not share this information with either the boys’ parents or the Israeli population. Instead, he continued to push for the invasion of the West Bank and the arrest of Hamas members. Homes were destroyed and Palestinians killed. Palestinians labeled this “collective punishment.”

Hamas finally responded, as Netanyahu hoped, by firing rockets into Israeli territory. This opened the floodgates for Netanyahu who again labeled Hamas terrorists as he proceeded to bomb Gaza with abandon. We now have close to 200 Palestinians dead, 36 of them children and one Israeli death. Netanyahu provokes Hamas and when they respond, labels them terrorists.

As far as I can see, every conflict between the Palestinians and Israeli’s over the past 60 years has resulted in an overwhelming amount of death and destruction for the Palestinians with comparatively little of the same for Israelis.

This is not war between two nations; this is a massacre or Israel’s “Final Solution.”

Is this what you want to support? Is this what you want your mayor (DiBlasio) and your governor (Cuomo) to support? They promised to stand shoulder to shoulder with Israel while Israel implements its program of genocide. This is the first time I’ve heard a mayor and governor speak out on foreign policy issues. Could they be catering to the Jewish vote in New York?

To make this a truly Jewish state, Israel must rid itself of the Palestinian people. They have been implementing this policy since 1948. Therefore, the question of a Jewish state or any state sponsored by a religious sect must be seriously assessed. A religious state results in political and public decisions being made under the cloud of religious doctrine and dogma. We can’t talk about religious freedom while we support a specific religion’s control of our political, economic, and social lives.

Dave Alpert has masters degrees in social work, educational administration, and psychology. He spent his career working with troubled inner city adolescents.