Aharon Appelfeld

[David McDuff]

"We are not saints and not angels. But nevertheless, there are not yet trains from Jenin to concentration camps in the Negev. There are no smokestacks. Yet, the Guardian and Le Monde feel the need to draw that comparison every day. To say of the Jews that they are a little like the Nazis. Not exactly Nazis, just a bit. When I see that, I say that there is something very deep in European civilization: the need to demonize us runs very deep. Because to this day, Europe has not given itself a full reckoning of what happened between 1939 and 1945. Because it is not only the Nazis, you know, it's not only Germany. Women and children were taken from France openly. There was collaboration all across the continent. And it didn't happen in Zimbabwe or in Nicaragua; it happened in the very heart of Europe. Therefore, because to this day they haven't made a confession, the Europeans feel the need to say of the Jews that they are no better than them. On the contrary - they are worse."


http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=393349&sw=Ari+Shavit

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