PI ION

Editorials are posted and archived on JNOnline.com

Greenberg's View

Twisting The Holocaust

here there's promise there's hope, howev-
er slim. We can't help but think the
Israeli Arab lawyer who runs a 3-month-
old Holocaust education center in rented space on
the main street of Nazareth, Jesus' hometown, isn't
as compassionate toward the Jewish cause in the
embattled Middle East as he seems to be. Let's be
blunt: Khaled Kasab Mahameed's comments on his
Web site leave a lot to be desired.
Still, his apparent sincerity in talking to the press
about the existence of the Holocaust is a significant
first step given the long-held Arab claim that the
Holocaust never happened or was exaggerated — a
claim broached by Palestinian Authority President
Mahmoud Abbas in his dark past. Mahameed
learned about the Holocaust while studying at
Hebrew University In Jerusalem. He awards stipends
to Arab students who want to study the subject.
The Arab Institute for Holocaust Research and
Education tells the story of Nazi Germany in
Arabic. It is rooted in the belief that Arabs must
understand Hitler's fury if the Israeli-Arab
conflict is to end. It contains a few dozen
photographs that Mahameed says he
bought at Yad Vashem.
Notably, the Israeli city of Nazareth is Arab to the
core: a third Christian and two-thirds Muslim.
Mahameed, a Muslim, argues that centuries of Jew
hating have compelled Jews to defend against perse-

cution and protect their ances-
tral homeland from invasion.
This defensive posture, he
argues, permeates Israeli policy
toward Palestinian Arabs in the
West Bank and Gaza. He con-
tends that once Arabs stand
with Israel against such hatred,
the Jewish people will respond
with a show of greater under-
standing of the Arab plight per-
petrated by Israel through cur-
tailed rights in Israel and mili-
tary occupation of the territo-
ries.
We're incensed that
Mahameed wants Jews to believe
that Palestinian suffering allegedly fomented by
Israel's creation is equal to Jewish suffering in the
Holocaust — or that all Israeli policy, and world
Jewish opinion, is somehow colored by the ashes of
the Holocaust. "Understanding the mean-
ing of the Holocaust in a proper way can
lead to very positive results on creating the
peace between the two peoples," he writes
(wvvw.alkaritha.org).
A hint at what Mahameed means by "a proper
way" lies in his contention that Arab understanding
of the universal effects of the Holocaust can lead to
peaceful resolution of what fuels the Israeli-Arab
conflict. He mindlessly contends that Arab under-
standing of how 6 million Jews died from Nazi ter-

EDIT ORIAL

E-mail your opinion in a letter to the editor of no more
than 150 words to: letters@thejewishnews.com .

Take Back Your Ham

I

once appeared on the Auntie Dee show.
To those under the age of 55, that means
absolutely nothing. But if you were growing
up in Detroit in the 1950s, you will recall that it
was a fairly big deal. Kids with talent clamored for
a slot on the Channel 7 show. I had very little tal-
ent but I clamored anyhow.
With three co-conspirators, I formed a quartet at
Roosevelt Elementary School. We sang two num-
bers. One was "The Syncopated Clock," and the
other was not.
We auditioned and, much to our aston-
ishment, were called back to appear on
live TV. We sang our song, Auntie Dee
hugged us, and then we got our prize: a
Hygrade's Honey Brand Ham.
This presented a problem. I grew up in
a kosher home and extreme treif like this didn't
cut it. My mother put the ham in a back hall, and
I never asked what happened to it. The only award
I ever won in show business, and I couldn't keep it.

ror will convince Jews that, because Arabs care
about this wrongful Jewish slaughter, Jews should
care about Palestinian turmoil caused by Israel
through its land, border, economic, security and set-
tlement policies.
He also feels that Arab grasp of the lessons of the
Holocaust would encourage world leaders to shed
the kid gloves and pressure Israel to gives its Arab
minority the same rights as Jewish citizens.
If the museum changes the thinking of Holocaust
deniers, it will have achieved a noble purpose.
Whether it has an impact on the Israeli-Arab con-
flict, which is rooted in the Arab commitment to
Israel's destruction as a Jewish state, only time will
tell. We have but a glimmer of hope. ❑

was doing me a favor by bringing it up to
Sometimes, life is like that.
my place. I gave it to him and wished him
Mom used to make something called
happy holidays and told him just to keep it
beef" enette, which fried up like bacon but
himself next time. But there was no next
was a kosher product. This was deemed
time because I got married and moved out.
permissible, although I think it violated the
A few years later, the local TV station for
spirit of the thing. But that was the closest
which I was doing features went into a cost-
we came to the dietary line.
cutting mode and decided it could dispense
My father wasn't glatt and we would eat
with my services. I was called into the news
GEORGE
at restaurants. But only fish or dairy. We
director's office and given the hard news,
CANTOR
had to walk out of two restaurants on vaca-
which was a bit of a jolt because the money
tion trips when they didn't have a single fish
Reality
was pretty good, and it was a cold
entree on the menu.
Check
December outside.
When I moved out on my own, I lapsed
We shook hands cordially upon my departure,
on this issue, although keeping kosher in my own
and then he called to me as I walked out the door.
apartment. But, then, I had to deal with
"Don't forget to pick up your Christmas ham on
gift hams again.
the way out," he said.
In the days of looser journalistic ethics,
I think he was trying to cheer me up. Instead, it
newspaper people customarily received hol-
just made me see that I was to be haunted by these
iday gifts from organizations they covered.
unwanted hams throughout my career.
Not good, but an accepted practice more
I haven't led an exemplary life. I could have been
than 30 years ago.
more observant.
I was travel editor then, and every year one of
On the ham issue, however, I stand firm. You
these companies would send me a gift. A big old
can fire me, bribe me, mock me with unusable
Christmas ham.
prizes. But take back your lousy hams.
It turned up at the office twice, and I refused
On the other hand, a jar of gefilte fish, and I'm
delivery. The third year, I opened the door to my
yours. ❑
apartment one day and there, sitting on the living
room floor, was the ham. The caretaker thought he

REAL ITY
CBE CE

George Cantor's e-mail address is
gcantor@thejewishnews.com .

4IN

6/30

2005

27