Haaretz Debases Warsaw Ghetto Uprising…writes Isi Leibler
I rubbed my eyes in disbelief this week when I read an article prominently featured on Haaretz website entitled “The Warsaw Ghetto Myth”.
Isi Leibler
The story asserts that the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, the largest single revolt by Jews under Nazi occupation, was extremely limited in in scope and duration. The most obscene aspect of the article is the allegation that the fighters were responsible for the death of the 50,000 Jews in the ghetto who had not yet been deported.
This unquestionably distorted interpretation of events typifies the historical revisionism to which Haaretz is predisposed, not only with regard to post-Zionism but now also to Jewish history. That such an article is given prominence in an Israeli daily newspaper with a wide internet English readership reflects adversely on us all.
The author, Eli Gat, is a Holocaust survivor who, in 2009 privately published a shoddy book “Not Just Another Holocaust” describing his sufferings and alluding to the revisionist nonsense incorporated in his current article. His book was completely ignored and very few people would have even heard his name until Haaretz published his article.
In his article Gat dishonors the heroes of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising and diminishes its historical and symbolic significance. He insists that there were fewer than 700 ghetto fighters and that the revolt lasted a mere two days, after which time many fighters fled. Gat has the gall to repudiate the accepted view that the most significant portion of the uprising took place over the course of a month and specifically dismisses the assertion confirming this by the late Professor Israel Gutman, a respected Holocaust historian and participant in the uprising.
The most obscene aspect of “The Warsaw Ghetto Myth” is the allegation that the ghetto fighters were responsible for the death of the 50,000 Jews who remained in the ghetto and were engaged in factories producing goods for the Nazi war effort, claiming that these Jews may have survived had the revolt not taken place. He justifies the tragically mistaken and failed policies of most of the Judenrats (Nazi appointed Jewish committees to oversee the ghetto inhabitants) who opposed resistance and were convinced that acquiescing to the Nazis demands might save them. The unqualified fact, however, is that the Nazis were unaffected by the Warsaw Ghetto heroes’ decision to die with honor rather than be led to slaughter; their commitment to a program of complete extermination was already absolute.
This article is only one example of Haaretz’s irresponsible and biased journalism. Over recent years the newspaper has served as the primary vehicle for promoting destructive post-Zionism. It has engaged in deliberate campaigns to demonize Israel and frequently published articles promoting the BDS movement.
Indeed, its online edition now represents one of the principal sources of fodder for global hatred against the Jewish state by the hostile international media and anti-Israeli politicians. It has and continues to inflict enormous damage on Israel.
A most blatant example of Haaretz’s self-hating approach was its vitriolic campaign against the IDF, in which it published numerous examples of alleged war crimes committed by individual soldiers. These allegations were subsequently proven to be unfounded, but only after the damage had been done: the stories were reproduced on the front pages of the major media outlets throughout the world, fermenting the hostile climate which paved the way for the notorious Goldstone Report.
There are a number of Haaretz journalists who are often indistinguishable from Palestinian propagandists. For example, in April this year after an incident in which a three year old Israeli girl was critically injured when a car driven by her mother was struck by a stone, Amira Haas, notorious for her pro-Palestinian bias, even justified the act by stating “Throwing stones is the hereditary right and duty of someone under a foreign power”. Haaretz publisher Amos Schocken defended her, stating “sometimes you have to fight violence with violence”.
Gideon Levy, who regularly churns out articles that quote verbatim obscene Palestinian allegations of Israeli oppression and criminality, in October of last year produced a front page story entitled “Most Israelis Support Apartheid Regime in Israel”. Israelis were outraged and five days later Haaretz was forced to publish an apology. But again, the damage was done and newspapers throughout the world widely disseminated this lie.
There are endless similar examples of the constant rabid maligning of Israel and blaming it as solely responsible for the failure to reach a peace settlement with the Palestinians. But in recent years, Haaretz has extended its post-Zionism to promoting a revisionist narrative which undermines the core of Jewish continuity, questions links of today’s Jewish people with the biblical era, and challenges the validity of a Jewish nation.
Last year it published an article resurrecting the theory that the majority of Jews are descendants of the Turkic Khazars converted in the eighth century who allegedly now represent the bulk of European Jewry. This absurd notion was employed in the past by anti-Semites and is now heavily promoted by the Arabs to prove that the Jews of today have no link to the biblical land of Israel.
Haaretz’ unprofessionalism is simply inexcusable. In its zeal to undermine the core principles of Zionism, it has done irrevocable damage. The distortion of facts and outright lies have aided our enemies and confused our friends, including Jews living in the Diaspora with limited understanding of Jewish or Israeli history. The Gat article demonstrates to what depths Haaretz will sink, twisting the facts – even of Holocaust history – in order to provoke its readers and disallow them even the smallest measure of Jewish pride.
Freedom of the press allows Haaretz, like any newspaper in Israel, the right to publish what it deems fit. However, newspapers are dependent on readers and the rapidly diminishing number of Haaretz subscribers should do what is necessary and take the most effective steps to influence the publisher and editor to prevent the paper from serving as a launching pad for enemies of Israel and the Jewish people.
It seems to me that Haaretz always represented the disaffected,- whether diaspora Jew or Israeli,- the ones who do not believe in a “Jewish State” for the Jewish people.
There are Jews who are anti-Zionism even in Israel itself unfortunately.
Eli Gat would probably belong to those who would rather have had the Jews of the Warsaw ghetto belong to that group whom the world tends to refer to as ‘sheep meekly led to slaughter’!
I believe that Gat and Haaretz would rather see that Israel also give up its armed struggle to defend itself and instead take on that mythical “democratic one-state” solution!
There can be no other explanation for their awful editorial policies.
This obscene garbage has nothing to do with ‘freedom of speech’ – this is falsification of the facts and incitement to hate. Israel is on a constant war-footing so this is also treason and the newspaper and the so called journalists who contribute to the rag should be charged and dealt with accordingly.
Israel is surrounded by countries wanting to see her demise, she does not need these rats undermining her from within. Haaretz needs to be shut down permanently – whatever it takes.
Isi,
You are too kind with this lot.
Haaretz represents nothing less than a fifth column whose clear aim is to undermine the country, rid it of any Jewish heritage and pave the way for the takeover of Israel by the sons of Ishmael.
If no one will say it then I will.
Enough is enough
This paper should be shut down with the publisher, editor and his entire editorial board and writers arrested and incarcerated for treason.
It appears that insanity has infected Israel. Abbas has said again and again and again that the PA will NEVER recognise Israel as a Jewish state, yet in spite of this, those geniuses of the Israeli stage, Livni and Peres, maintain that “talks” should go on, the country should ignore the spate of terrorist attacks and the next batch of murderers should be released on time to receive a heroes welcome by the PA.
All the spin, all the excuses constantly used by well meaning Jews in Israel and the diaspora to rationalise Israeli behaviour can now be seen for what it is, an exercise in futility.
One can no longer even attempt to rationalise the irrational.
In Australia, no doubt some so called “leader” will emerge with the earnest and profound comment “I fully understand the dilemma Netanyahu faces and understand his logic in releasing those with Jewish blood on their hands.” I say, on behalf of the majority of Jews please, whoever you are, spare us your views and your profound intellect.
Recently China called in the Bureau chiefs of many foreign news outlets stationed in Beijing because they had the audacity to even question China’s belligerent naval posture in the South China Seas. These editors waited with bated breath, not even a peep, to see if they would be deemed persona non grata, have their visas revoked and unceremoniously kicked out of China.
Israel can’t even control its own media let alone bring the foreign media and hostile NGO’s to heel. It is in need of a Government that is both feared and respected. It cannot go on the way it is.
I fully support your comments, Gil. Congratulation on your reply to Isi’s article.
You have the courage to call a spade a spade. As Lord Sacks, the ex chief Rabbi of Great Britain said, only disunity within will can destroy Israel, unless to stay united, we are doomed.
The Ha’aretz should be banned from the country and to hell with the ‘Freedom of the press’. There is too much of it in Israel and it’s music to our enemies ears.
Isi is mistaken on a number of counts, resulting in him being too soft on Ha’aretz, the rag of the beautiful superior people who sneer at the common Jew who seeks self-determination and lacks the heightened sensitivity which informs the self-nominated elite that a healthy confession of Jewish guilt, reparations and acceptance of mohammedan overlordship will bring peace and prosperity to all.
The article by Eli Gat is a falsification of history. The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising is amply documented and gives the lie to Gat’s obscene rave. Without any supporting verifiable documentation Ha’aretz should not have printed that offensive antisemitic confabulation.
Gat’s claim about the number of fighters or the duration of the uprising are false, but more importantly, they are irrelevant. The fact that any group of poorly armed Jews stood up against the most powerful power at that time, speaks volumes about the heroism of the fighters.
The assertion that the Ghetto Fighters were responsible for the deaths of the 50000 who were still alive in the ghetto fits in well with the theme that Jews aided the Nazis in the extermination of Jews in order to better steal land from the “Palestinians”. It also has the message that appeasement of the Nazis would have worked, hence resisting “Palestinian” demands will be similarly disastrous.
Ha’aretz journalists are as one with the PA propagandists. The issue however is not that they cause harm, but that the harm they cause is through deceit and treason. Israel is at war and through lending legitimacy to the mohammedan enemy by speaking as though it was a valid Jewish voice, Ha’aretz is not only siding with the enemy, but betraying the nation in which it exists.
Ha’aretz’s offensiveness is not an issue; if they reveal facts then they are doiing their job. If they publish falsities, they are doing the enemy’s job.
When they publish items that show callousness to the grieving and the hurt, for no reason than to excuse and support the brutality of the enemy, they lose the right to publish. Vilification and defamation are not made legal just because they are done by a newspaper, even a pretend one.
The press does not have unlimited freedom. It has an obligation to print the truth. It has an obligation to meet journalistic standards. It has a duty to stay within the law and to not commit treason or incitement against the state in which it is stationed. And the state has an obligation to close it down or to fine it with higher and higher amounts until it collapses or goes out of business. But that of course would require the cleaning up of the journalists, the schools that indoctrinate them and the judiciary which is prepared to disregard facts for the ideal of democracy, ignoring that democracies have a right and duty to defend themselves.
Few, if any, can say it like Paul Winter !!!!
And that’s why he’s ME MATE !!!
I wrote to Haaretz my disgust at that article. It diminishes the struggle undertaken in by my mother in law in that ghetto, and yes, she fought for about a month. Freedom of speech should not include freedom of hate speech which is all Haaretz does