Posted March 3 2008
A Call for an End to Hitler Comparisons
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas recently declared Israel’s military incursion into Gaza to be “worse than the Holocaust.” Ironically, Abbas’ “doctoral thesis” was a work of Holocaust denial, so it’s not clear what insult was being insinuated by comparing Israel’s actions to something that he claims never happened (perhaps it was actually meant as a compliment?).
But it’s not just terror supporting Holocaust deniers who play the Hitler card. Right here at home, Robert Byrd, Rick Santorum, Howard Dean, Tom Delay, and others have all compared their political opponents to the cartoonish, mustachioed German dictator. Hillary Duff, Bill Clinton, the Pope, Martha Stewart, and people who smoke have all been compared to Hitler. Strangely enough, Zimbabwean dictator Robert Mugabe once compared himself to the Fuhrer. Global warming has been called a modern-day Holocaust. And who can forget when PETA equated the consumption of chicken to the murder of 6 million Jews.
The number one rule of debating should be that the first person to compare the other side’s views to that of the Nazis, or even to invoke the Holocaust in any way, automatically loses the debate. Unfortunately, anyone who browses internet chat rooms can testify that these emotional arguments are commonplace. Godwin’s Law, already promulgated in the early 90’s, postulates that: “as an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches one.” But even long before internet chat rooms, as early as 1950, philosopher Leo Strauss decried what he called the “reductio ad Hitlerum” debating fallacy. Comparing someone to Hitler has become as mundane as saying “you stink.” It has become stripped of any meaning or oomph it may have once carried. It is a simple way of avoiding nuance and shades of gray and invoking the emotional comfort of raw nerve hyperbole. And it’s downright lame.
I am therefore using this forum to officially call for a 100 year moratorium on using the words “Hitler,” Holocaust,” or “Nazis” in the context of debate, unless actually referencing those things themselves without attempt at comparison. Let’s treat it like a game of taboo. Let’s start an online petition to this effect soon, and anyone who signs on binds his/herself to play this game of taboo for the next 100 years (or as soon as said comparisons go out of style, whichever comes first).
WHO’S WITH ME??
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6 Comments currently posted. 
Ezra Butler says:
Ezra Butler says:
Personally, I have lived in Israel for 5 years, have spoken to Israelis in Hebrew all that time, and have never heard this word used this way. This seems like backpedaling.
Even if it has the same connotation as ‘nuclear “Holocaust”‘, I don’t think that that should be broadcast or used in connexion with Gaza, for the simple possibility of a PR nightmare, or “PR Holocaust”.
“Mashaal’s multiple references to the Holocaust appeared to be a reaction to a statement Friday by Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilna’i who told Israeli Army Radio that Israel had “no other choice” but to launch a massive military operation in Gaza. Vilnai said the Palestinians would be “bringing upon themselves a greater ’shoah’ because we will use all our strength in every way we deem appropriate, whether in airstrikes or on the ground.”
The Hebrew word “shoah” most often refers to the Holocaust but Israelis use it to describe all sorts of disasters. Vilna’i spokesman Eitan Ginzburg said the deputy defense minister never intended it as a reference to the Holocaust but used the word “shoah” to denote a disaster.”
GaDo says:
שואה (shoah) is a regular Hebrew word that means a disaster. השואה (ha-Shoah — the Shoah) means the Holocaust (or at least would carry those connotations) — as in Yom HaShoah, (Holocaust Remembrance Day). There is no way Vilnai was referencing the Holocaust with his comment. A simple reading of his full statement should show even a layman that this is the case.
“The more the Qassam rocket fire [on Israeli civilians] intensifies and increases its range, the Palestinians are bringing upon themselves a bigger ’shoah’ because we will use all our might to defend ourselves.”
It takes quite a bit of stretching to make this into “The more Qassam fire intensifies and the rockets reach a longer range they will bring upon themselves a greater Holocaust (with a capital H) because we will use all our might to defend ourselves.” How can you possibly have a “greater Holocaust,” and one in self-defense no less?!?! He was merely telling them that they were making things worse for themselves by continuing to force Israel’s hand by their continued attacks against Israeli cities. He was essentially saying, “If you continue to fire thousands of rockets at our cities killing our people (like Roni Yichye, father of four who was murdered by a Qassam rocket last week in Sderot), we will no longer sit on our hands; we will retaliate and you will face the consequences of your actions.” (If only Israel took such a position all the time!)
The whole thing was based on a mistranslation of the word “shoah” by Reuters, which is notorious for its anti-Israel bias. A number of similarly anti-Israel media outlets, such as the BBC, compounded this error by writing that an Israeli official called for a Holocaust in Gaza — and failing to even quote his full sentence, stripping the word of its context and meaning.
At best this was an ignorant mistranslation — like mixing up a “white house” with “The White House” — but I have a suspicion there was more to it than that, given the sources of the mistranslation.
That the leaders of Hamas and Abu Mazen (Mahmoud Abbas) have used this to attack Israel is no surprise. It is interesting to note the topic of Abbas’s Ph.D. thesis though. A Holocaust denier accusing Jews of perpetuating a Holocaust — it’s almost as absurd as the proposition that Mahmoud Abbas is a “moderate.”
Moshe Grussgott says:
Hey Ezra, this post was specifically about people who compare their enemies to Hitler or their actions to the Holocaust. Vilani’s comment was bizarre in that he said his own side would bring a shoah to the other side (but he apparently was only responding to Abbas’s original statement, and only meant we’d bring shoah to the terrorists, not the Palestinian people). Vilnai’s comment was really really dumb. But it was a isolated and strange. In the Muslim word, the state run media constantly deny the Holocaust and compare Israel and Jews to Nazis as a propaganda tool so it’s a pervasive issue as opposed to a stupid statement by one guy.
Jewneric » The Age of Apathy. says:
[...] long ago, Moshe Grussgott wrote about the use of the Holocaust as hyperbole, specifically regarding Abbas’ statement about [...]
Jewneric: A New Platform for the Jewish Voice » Real Estate, Real Problem says:
[...] things get creepy. And while I would never resort to Moshe Grussgott’s infamous “reductio ad Hitlerum” rule of Internet debate, it does make me nervous when extreme racial or religious bias [...]
Just to put it into context:
Apparently an Israeli (I forget who) referred to Israel’s attacks on Gaza (or perhaps vice versa) using the term “Shoah”. Therefore, the Israelis should read this as well.