Yahoo! News - Israeli Leader's WWII Analogy Draws Fire

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Israeli Leader's WWII Analogy Draws Fire
Sun May 23,12:44 PM ET

By RAMIT PLUSHNICK-MASTI, Associated Press Writer

JERUSALEM - Causing an uproar, an Israeli Cabinet minister said Sunday
he was reminded of the suffering of his family under Nazi rule when he
saw TV images of an Israeli offensive in a Palestinian refugee camp.

Justice Minister Yosef Lapid, a Holocaust survivor, insisted he was not
likening army actions to Nazi policies. However, he said the picture of
an elderly woman searching for medication in the rubble of a home razed
by Israel in the Rafah camp reminded him of his grandmother.

Infuriated Cabinet colleagues said that even if unspoken, the analogy
was clear, and demanded he retract his comments.

Lapid's remarks added fire to a debate in Israel over its offensive in
the Gaza Strip (news - web sites) camp, which is near the border with
Egypt. Some critics said the campaign makes little sense from a military
point of view, while others questioned why Prime Minister Ariel Sharon
(news - web sites) approved it even though he is pushing for an Israeli
withdrawal from Gaza.

Israel has damaged or demolished dozens of homes in Rafah in its six-day
offensive, an attempt to root out militants and uncover arms-smuggling
tunnels. The practice has been widely criticized around the world and
questioned by Israel's attorney general.

Early Sunday, four military bulldozers and three tanks moved back into
Rafah's Brazil neighborhood, scene of fighting last week.

Hundreds of residents fled the area, with some women loading belongings
and young children onto donkey carts. Gunfire crackled in the air, and
Israeli helicopters flew overhead.

Separately, three members of the Hamas militant group were killed Sunday
while handling explosives in the West Bank town of Nablus, Palestinian
security sources said on condition of anonymity.

The men had pulled their car up alongside an abandoned vehicle used to
store their explosives, and the storage vehicle blew up while one of the
militants was handling materials inside, the sources said, adding it was
unclear whether the explosion had been accidental or carried out by Israel.

Lapid, of the centrist Shinui Party, called for a halt in the
demolitions during a Cabinet discussion Sunday, evoking images of his
family's suffering during World War II.

"I am talking about an old woman on all fours looking for her medicine
in the rubble of her home and I thought about my grandmother," he later
told Israel Army Radio.

Lapid, a native of what is now Yugoslavia, spent part of the war in the
Budapest ghetto and lost many relatives, including one grandmother and
his father, in the Holocaust. He immigrated to Israel in 1948 when he
was 17.

Many Israelis have relatives who perished in the Nazi genocide, and
using the issue in political debate, however heated, is considered
taboo. Any comparisons between the Holocaust and other acts are seen as
cheapening the memory of the 6 million Jews killed by the Nazis.

"Can he make such an analogy just because he is a Holocaust survivor?"
Health Minister Danny Naveh told Army Radio. "The comparison, maybe
hinted or even unintentional, between the systematic murder of the Jews
by the Germans and the army's operations in Gaza ... is not a legitimate
analogy."

In the radio interview, Lapid also revealed that the army is considering
demolishing some 2,000 homes in Rafah to expand a patrol road between
the camp and the border with Egypt. Military officials, speaking on
condition of anonymity, confirmed for the first time that they are
exploring plans involving the demolition of 700 to 2,000 homes.

"We look like monsters in the eyes of the world," Lapid told Israel
Radio. "This makes me sick."

Israeli military officials want to widen the patrol road to make it more
difficult for weapons smugglers to dig tunnels. The plan has been
criticized by the United Nations (news - web sites), the European Union
(news - web sites) and the United States.

Israeli officials said Attorney General Meni Mazuz believed the
road-widening plan would not hold up in local and international courts,
and that he told the army to come up with alternatives that would cause
less destruction. In a meeting with Mazuz, military chief Lt. Gen. Moshe
Yaalon and Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz proposed offering compensation
to Palestinians who lose their homes, officials said. No decision was
made on the he proposal.

Forty-one Palestinians have been killed since "Operation Rainbow" began
last Tuesday. Israel says its offensive has resulted in the arrest of
dozens of militants and the killing of a local leader of the armed group
Hamas. The army also said it had discovered one arms-smuggling tunnel.

The ongoing violence has put new pressure on Sharon, who wants to
withdraw from Gaza.

Sharon is exploring the possibility of bringing the moderate Labor Party
into his government as he tries to push forward with the withdrawal
plan, which faces considerable opposition in his Cabinet, officials said
Sunday.