Waving the blueprints for Auschwitz and invoking the memory of his own family members murdered by the Nazis, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivered his most passionate and public riposte yet to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s questioning of the Holocaust.
The documents he brought to the podium of the UN General Assembly on Thursday also included the protocol of the meeting where the Nazis decided on the Final Solution.
Netanyahu tied the Holocaust issue to Iran’s nuclear program and Ahmadinejad’s rejection of Israel’s right to exist, and seemed to tacitly draw a parallel between the world’s treatment of Iran today and its failure to act against Hitler in time to head off World War II and save European Jewry.
PHOTO: BLOOMBERG
The Israeli leader came armed with original documents handed to him last month when he visited Germany, and launched into an angry denunciation of Ahmadinejad’s comments on the Holocaust, most recently in a speech in Tehran last week in which he spoke of “twisted propaganda plots” to depict Jews as oppressed, and said the Holocaust needed “research ... to clear up facts.”
Holding up the protocol of the 1942 conference at Wannsee, outside Berlin, where top Nazis decided on the destruction of European Jewry, Netanyahu asked: “Is this protocol a lie?”
Then he held up the blueprints including gas chambers and crematoria for Auschwitz-Birkenau, the death camp where more than 1 million Jews were murdered.
“Those plans are signed by Hitler’s deputy, Heinrich Himmler himself. Is this, too, a lie?” he asked.
Six million Jews were killed during World War II, one-third of all world Jewry. In Europe, nearly every family was affected — including Netanyahu’s own.
“What of the Auschwitz survivors whose arms still bear the tattooed numbers branded on them by the Nazis?” he asked. “Are those tattoos a lie?”
“My wife’s grandparents, her father’s two sisters and three brothers, and all the aunts, uncles and cousins, were all murdered by the Nazis. Is that also a lie?” Netanyahu asked.
To those who remained at the General Assembly on Wednesday when Ahmadinejad spoke, he asked: “Have you no shame? Have you no decency?”
In an interview on Wednesday, Ahmadinejad turned aside the subject of his questioning of the Holocaust.
Instead he argued that since the Holocaust was perpetrated by Europeans, the Palestinians should not have had to pay the price by accepting a Jewish state in their midst.
Netanyahu went on to warn that Iran’s nuclear program could evolve into another world catastrophe.
“The greatest threat facing the world today is the marriage between religious fanaticism and the weapons of mass destruction,” he warned.
The most urgent challenge facing the UN is to prevent “the tyrants of Tehran from acquiring nuclear weapons,” he said.
The Iranians deny they are producing such weapons, but Israel, the US and other world powers don’t believe them. Iran so far has refused to stop enriching uranium, a process that could be used to make bombs. Israel considers Iran to be its greatest threat.
Nauru has started selling passports to fund climate action, but is so far struggling to attract new citizens to the low-lying, largely barren island in the Pacific Ocean. Nauru, one of the world’s smallest nations, has a novel plan to fund its fight against climate change by selling so-called “Golden Passports.” Selling for US$105,000 each, Nauru plans to drum up more than US$5 million in the first year of the “climate resilience citizenship” program. Almost six months after the scheme opened in February, Nauru has so far approved just six applications — covering two families and four individuals. Despite the slow start —
MOGAMI-CLASS FRIGATES: The deal is a ‘big step toward elevating national security cooperation with Australia, which is our special strategic partner,’ a Japanese official said Australia is to upgrade its navy with 11 Mogami-class frigates built by Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Australian Minister for Defence Richard Marles said yesterday. Billed as Japan’s biggest defense export deal since World War II, Australia is to pay US$6 billion over the next 10 years to acquire the fleet of stealth frigates. Australia is in the midst of a major military restructure, bolstering its navy with long-range firepower in an effort to deter China. It is striving to expand its fleet of major warships from 11 to 26 over the next decade. “This is clearly the biggest defense-industry agreement that has ever
DEADLY TASTE TEST: Erin Patterson tried to kill her estranged husband three times, police said in one of the major claims not heard during her initial trial Australia’s recently convicted mushroom murderer also tried to poison her husband with bolognese pasta and chicken korma curry, according to testimony aired yesterday after a suppression order lapsed. Home cook Erin Patterson was found guilty last month of murdering her husband’s parents and elderly aunt in 2023, lacing their beef Wellington lunch with lethal death cap mushrooms. A series of potentially damning allegations about Patterson’s behavior in the lead-up to the meal were withheld from the jury to give the mother-of-two a fair trial. Supreme Court Justice Christopher Beale yesterday rejected an application to keep these allegations secret. Patterson tried to kill her
MILITARY’S MAN: Myint Swe was diagnosed with neurological disorders and peripheral neuropathy disease, and had authorized another to perform his duties Myint Swe, who became Myanmar’s acting president under controversial circumstances after the military seized power from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi more than four years ago, died yesterday, the military said. He was 74. He died at a military hospital in the capital, Naypyidaw, in the morning, Myanmar’s military information office said in a statement. Myint Swe’s death came more than a year after he stopped carrying out his presidential duties after he was publicly reported to be ailing. His funeral is to be held at the state level, but the date had not been disclosed, a separate statement from the
RSS