There are eye-witnesses to German atrocities, including reports from liberating soldiers from several nations. Holocaust denial is downright stupid, although the ends being pursued on the back of the holocaust are also a little dubious.
Although the testimonies of eyewitnesses in any situation often differ and can contain inaccuracies, I would certainly not question Nazi atrocities on the whole by any means! It happened. My 8th grade math and social studies teacher lost his toes to frostbite in a concentration camp. The father of one of my ex-boyfriends was one of the first American soldiers through the gates of one of the concentration camps when it was liberated. There does seem to be a difference, however, that has gotten lost in the shuffle, between Jewish Holocaust deniers and revisionists. I would agree that denial is stupid, but what Gill said about it not being banned surely makes a good point as well.
"[A] little dubious"? That surely must be an understatement. "[T]he ends being pursued on the back of the holocaust" appear to be the reason Jewish Holocaust questioning and denial are taking place in the Middle East. It is not necessarily anti-Semiticism but anti-Zionism, which we are supposed to think is the same thing but is not (although the two may exist together in some people). I think it is a mistake on their part to go down that road and a distraction from the actual legitamacy of the issue of the current atrocities commited against Palestinians, but it is certainly understandable, to my mind. Zionists used the Jewish Holocaust to bolster their claim to Palestine where they would establish a Jewish state that would be a safe haven for all Jews. Propaganda described this as a land without a people for a people without a land, completely overlooking and continually denying that there were already people there who had a right to stay there. And anyone who questions or disagrees with what they say and do is quickly labelled an anti-Semite (like President Carter), with all the nastiness that such a label implies.
Israel is a warzone of terror. Israelis and Palestinians literally hate and detest one another. They treat each other like dogs. Neither side are pure in this. The Israelis have the guns and aren't afraid to use them, but the Palestinians continue to provoke them. Neither side is innocent.
Israel is far less a war zone than the occupied territories, it seems to me. Or are you including the occupied territories as part of Israel? It also seems to me that Israelis are faced with far less "terror" than are Palestinians, some of who live in exile (longing for their demolished homes, farms, schools, and mosques and churches), others who live under occupation (have you read what that is like?!), or who live in refugee camps (have you read what that is like?!) If Israelis hate Palestinians wouldn't it be fair to say that this is because Palestinians refused to just shut up and go away, they insisted on fighting for their rights. I don't believe they have always hated and detested each other as I have read too many accounts to the contrary, but surely any mutual hatred is due to the establishment of Israel on Palestinian land and the consequences of that.
How do Palestinians treat Israelis like dogs? How are they in any position to do so? You will have to inform me. I already know how the Israeli government treats Palestinians, having the advantage, as you say. (And, as far as I have been able to discern, Israel does not treat Arab Israelis as equals in their so-called democracy, as some have claimed.)
Should the Israelis be the "bigger" people, since they have the advantage? That's an interesting moral debate in a culture that is at wide variance to the one we're familiar with. To even begin the debate you'd need to be able to get into the minds of the Middle-Eastern people. I know that, for one, I can't. I've observed first-hand a variety of cultures on three continents (Africa, Europe and North America), and studied many others, and know enough to ascertain the fact that people can be wired completely differently. That still doesn't permit me to properly understand their perspectives, though. I'd have to be terribly naive to think I could, as I've simply not walked in their shoes from birth.
I think you are mistaken in thinking "we need to be able to get into the minds of the Middle-Eastern people" in order to debate the morality of the situation and who should do what. Oppression, genocide, ethnic cleansing, lying, and suicide bombing are always wrong, no matter who is doing it to whom.
Please read One Country: A Bold Proposal to End the Israeli-Palestinian Impasse by Ali Abunimah if you have the chance. It is a very worthwhile read imo.
Merry:I tend to be leary of any excerpts, be it a single sentence or a couple of phrases. They need to be placed in the context of the entire speech and take account of the audience and tone used. That then needs to be placed into the wider context of the political attitudes of the speaker.
In this case the "intent" was clear, albeit it has also been "spun" up in the war of words. Neither side is ignorant of the game they play. A very deadly game that involves peoples' lives.
There's blood-letting taking place on both sides of this debate. Neither side can be trusted to be giving the full story, hence I wouldn't tend to defend either. "All is fair in love and war", and politics uses this as a theme-tune!
I too am leary of exerpts. That is why I decided to search for the context of that particular quote. (Within the article I linked to there are other links for even more context.) I hear that same phrase about Iran wanting and planning to wipe Israel off the map repeated over and over and over in the news, and I felt a need to research it (the same need that lead me to disbelieve JW propaganda). If you have a good case to make against someone (as the US and Israel claim to have against Iran and, before that, Iraq) then surely lying, deception and distortion are not the way to go in order to make that case.
And that is my concern--this "very deadly game that involves peoples' lives." I hope it concerns all of us and motivates us to uncover and piece together more and more of the reality, and (im)morality of what is transpiring.
~Merry