Israeli says offensive evokes WWII images

Israeli says offensive evokes WWII images

By JOSEF FEDERMAN
Associated Press
MIDEAST RESOURCES

JERUSALEM -- Causing an uproar, an Israeli Cabinet minister and Holocaust survivor said Sunday that Israel's offensive in a Gaza refugee camp -- including TV images of displaced Palestinians searching the rubble for their meager belongings -- brought back memories of his family's suffering.

The comments by Justice Minister Yosef Lapid reflected a growing debate in Israel over the justification for a campaign that has left 41 Palestinians dead, turned dozens of homes to dust, drawn international condemnation and yielded just one arms-smuggling tunnel.

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The 71-year-old justice minister said TV images from Rafah reminded him of the suffering of his own family.

"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 told Israel Army Radio.

A native of the former Yugoslavia, Lapid spent part of World War II in the Budapest ghetto and lost relatives, including one grandmother and his father, in the Holocaust. He immigrated to Israel in 1948 when he was 17.

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/headline/world/2588213

for them to recognize the similarity.

As a Jew, I must say that I agree with Lapid. What the Israelis are doing is terrible, though the Palestinians certainly are no better. They suicide bomb the Israelis, and the Israelis go in with tanks and choppers. The only difference is, the Israelis have stuff to lose. It seems to me like the Palestinians are just herded into these places like Rafah and kept almost like cattle. We should work to change those conditions and hopefully bring about higher education and better relations with the Israelis.

:hi:

Please discuss there. Thanks.