Bibi Netanyahu is prepared to prevent it, even if Barack Obama (among others) isn’t:
“The leaders of the Allies knew about the Holocaust in real time,” Netanyahu said at the opening of a permanent exhibit called “Shoah” in Block 27 at the Auschwitz- Birkenau State Museum.
“They understood exactly what was happening in the death camps. They were asked to act, they could have acted, and they did not.
“To us Jews the lesson is clear: We must not be complacent in the face of threats of annihilation. We must not bury our heads in the sand or allow others to do the work for us. We will never be helpless again.”
But the administration continues to fantasize that the barrier to the “peace process” is homes on the West Bank, rather than that one side that wants to destroy the other, while the other side refuses to acquiesce to its own destruction.
“They understood exactly what was happening in the death camps. They were asked to act, they could have acted, and they did not.
Short of bombing the camps – the worst of which were in Poland and near the ends of our bombers’ range – I’m not sure that more the Allies could’ve done about the Holocaust. They were already fighting total war. They might’ve bombed more railroad yards than they were already doing. They might’ve persuaded countries like Switzerland to allow in more Jewish refugees but beyond that, I can’t think of much else.
I do agree that Israel must be able to defend itself from those who seek their destruction. When someone says they want to erase Israel from the map, it’s a good idea to take them at their word.
“I’m not sure that more the Allies could’ve done about the Holocaust. ”
Larry, it starts with attitude. First, the governments had been told since at least 1935 that Jews were being murdered in Germany, and did little or nothing to allow immigration in greater numbers. They did this because of racism being a strong political force in their own countries that they were unwilling to take on. The now infamous Johnson’s appointment by Roosevelt’s Democratic administration as the head of the INS office to approve refugees is an example of officials actively keeping Jews inside Germany to be killed. He and his office alone cost the lives of 170,000, before war came to the US. Later testimony about his private talk with underlings made it clear he wanted “German solutions” to “German Jews”.
After the war started, the camps still had to be supplied, for their guards, if nothing else. There were specific bridges that could have been bombed to keep not only supplies but new victims out of those camps. I am the first to admit that bombing railroad bridges was a *very* hard task in WW2, largely because bomber politics had delayed guided bombs so long. Bombing those bridges would have kept new victims from being delivered, however. Since those inside at any one time were a small percentage of the total the camps killed, this would have meant keeping potential victims outside longer, in closer contact with the general population, where allowing camp conditions would have risked the lives of the general population from disease if nothing else. It took, according to the major post-war survey, about 200 tons of bombs to cut a railroad bridge once without guided bombs, and about 5 tons, IIRC, with guided bombs. The key was resources. We knew of the death camps soon after they went into operation.
Given the attitudes shown towards Jews even post-war among British military in the Levant and the Eastern Mediterranean, there was little to no willingness to rescue Jews, at any time or place, for *years* after 1945. Indeed, it was not until Jews picked up guns and began openly defending themselves within and from their own State that anti-Jewish bigotry in governments went underground more deeply. Not too surprising that people who’d sneer from the warm safety of an office at relatives of people who scored better than them in college would take notice once there was a chance they’d be on the wrong end of a gun.
Yes, the Israelis should defend themselves. The real question for me is whether, when a Shahab-3, or similar missile launches, at Tel-Aviv, will the US Aegis cruisers carrying Standard-3 missiles in the Med be allowed to do what they have practiced with the Israelis. If not, our nation will be tarred with shame deeper than even the Roosevelt administration’s bureaucrats could contrive for our future.
Anti-semitism is a centuries old hatred that I have a hard time comprehending. You mentioned racism but really, Jews come in many races. Israel is home to immigrants from over 100 countries.
Anti-semitism was very widespread before the war and the US and England weren’t exceptions. How else can we explain things like the rejection of refugees on the SS St. Louis? Perhaps the politicians of the era didn’t believe Hitler was seriously going to commit wholesale mass murder. Such a thing was practically unthinkable. One lesson from that is that when someone says that he wants to destroy a people, he should be taken seriously.
Years ago, I read that the Circular Error Probable (CEP) of conventional bombs dropped during daylight raids in WWII was on the order of 2600 feet, roughly 1/2 mile. Hitting a railroad bridge with the technology of the day was very difficult, that’s why then tended to go after railroad switching yards instead. While relatively easy to repair compared to bridges, they were much easier to hit.
There were literally thousands of camps spread across much of Europe during the war but by far the worst such as Auschwitz were deep in Poland. They were pretty much out of the range of heavy bombers from England. The 15th Air Force began operating out of Italy in November, 1943 but it was a while before they had sufficient long range escort fighters to strike deep into Nazi territory. It wasn’t until March of 1944 that the Allies achieved air superiority over most of Europe. After that, the buildup to D-Day had the highest priority. Bombers from the 15th Air Force in Italy did hit the railroad yards near Auschwitz in August of 1944.
Rightly or wrongly, it was believed that the best thing was to end the war as quickly as possible. Diverting bomber resources to hit the camps might’ve slowed the slaughter but if the war lasted longer, it’s possible more innocents would’ve died.
It’s worse than that. Our new U. N. ambassador, Samantha Power, has advocated using U. S. military might to impose a one-state solution on “Palastine” (i. e. driving the Jews from Israel, the West Bank, and the Gaza strip).
It’s not that they’re anti-war. It’s that they’re for the other side.
That sounds nice but I don’t think “them Jews” (or Bibi Netanyahu and his colleagues, more accurately) actually plan to address the same sort of issues that they accuse the Allies of failing on. Bibi knows “in real time” (whatever he means by that) about the genocide in Sudan, the death camps in N. Korea, the ethnic cleansing in Burma. The victims have begged the world to act. And Bibi will not. He will do the same thing the US and the Allies did in WW2 that he bitches and whines about. He will do the same thing the other Western powers do now. Pretend not to hear because it is not in their (or our) national interests (or there isn’t enough money in it). So F him.
We did exactly what Bibi is acting so proud to predict that he will do. We were threatened and we responded in our own interests. His nation is threatened and he says he’ll respond in it’s interest. So WTF is it with his moral posturing and slandering the Allies as a prelude?
…is that somebody insists on being able to see to their own defense rather than submitting to a “disnterested” tribunal dominated by enemies and untrustworthy “allies.”
Which is exactly the same barrier as faces America’s Leviathan.
They are doing exactly the same thing most rural Americans do every day. We hope local law enforcement can help us but we don’t leave ourselves defenseless. Having said that we really don’t know what danger they are really in right now. Iran’s government has never been very straightforward about what they are doing or what they are truly capable of doing. Seems prudent to make sure you are ready for the worst case scenario. I don’t take his speech as a shot across the bow. I think it was pragmatic. It would be hard to argue that people couldn’t see where the road the Nazi’s were taking the Jews down didn’t lead to a bad place. It was just how bad you were willing to imagine it would be. Look how that turned out for them.
Hmmm… right. The US isn’t helping Israel attack Iran but they are furnishing them with upgrades to the F-15 and F-16 with conformal fuel tanks and selling them the V-22 Osprey. Then there is Stuxnet and the like. Sure. Keep deluding yourself.
“Bibi Netanyahu is prepared to prevent [another Holocaust], even if Barack Obama (among others) isn’t”
Hell, Bambi would help. >:-(
That”s the problem with having the wrong values. Amazing what the constitutional law professor doesn’t know.