Condoleezza Rice has issued a warning that the evacuation of Jews from Gaza must be but a first step. Jews must also be cleared from other parts of Biblical Israel, namely regions in Judea and Samaria, also presumably as a first step. Only Condi Rice knows what she has in mind for second, third, fourth and fifth steps.
Meanwhile, planning for such deportations continues at a fast clip within the Sharon government; fast because Condi wants it fast and so does Ariel Sharon. This is not as easy as it sounds. Moving Jews from one place to another poses difficulties. It really comes down to logistics. Then there is this: not all Jews go quietly.
The Wannsee Conference of 1942 grappled with the same question, or rather the Jewish Question, and those of us who have studied the minutes of that protocol marvel at the efficient, businesslike atmosphere that prevailed from one detail to the next, for really, it was all about details.
The men who sat around the table January 20 in Berlin am Grossen Wannsee were remarkably short of emotion. The talk was seldom about extermination. There were few outbursts against the Jewish people, for this meeting was not so much about people as it was about trains.
In moving entire populations, professionally known as cargo, punctuality is a must.
Transportation - that was the main item on the agenda at Wannsee. The delegates had to form a plan of action that would meet two primary objectives. As taken directly from the minutes: 1. "The expulsion of the Jews from every sphere of life of the German people." 2. "The expulsion of the Jews from the living space of the German people."
As is obvious, Wannsee speaks to us today, not only in German. Trains yesterday, trucks and buses today.
Condi's plan falls right in step, as she demands that Israel be scattered into ghettos to make room for her Palestinian Arab state. In Condi Rice, some might say, the State Department finally has its uber-champion with the imperative to send the Jews packing. This is not anti-Semitism, but strictly business, upon the proposition that a 23rd Arab state in the Middle East, in place of Israel, will bring peace to the world.
So, removing the Jews from Israel, one region at a time, is actually a peace process. The Germans had the same peace process in mind. They meant no harm, except to destroy everything to make the world safe for Nazism, as the nations today seek to displace the Jews to make the world safe for Islam. All very simple and very orderly.
The secondary lesson from Wannsee - the first being the Final Solution - was this: Jews must be taught that no matter where they live, they are not at home. Jews are portable. They have been portable for more than two thousand years in other lands, and today, even in their own land.
But at Wannsee it was one headache after another and we can only imagine how frustrating it must have been to get all the schedules down to the minute, because when you are shipping people from here to there, everything must run smoothly. What to do about the elderly? The infants? The handicapped? They slow things down.
The Sharon government faces the same challenges.
Then what to do about those who resist? At Wannsee, it was decided to shoot these delinquent men and women on the spot, if only as an example.
The Sharon government has allegedly decided on using rock-salt bullets, obviously with the approval, perhaps even upon the suggestion, of Condi Rice.
Not all the men at Wannsee approved of on-the-spot shooting. Such displays might cause panic within the community and prompt the population to scatter; rank inefficiency. Therefore, in many cases, the people were to be told that they were being relocated to a better place, a place with music and dancing.
Of course, special units would have to be formed to carry out these deportations. Such security agents were already on the payroll. They were chosen because they were men who would declare they were only following orders when the time came for them to answer for their deeds.
The Wannsee delegates were merely implementing the Nuremberg Laws; as today, in Israel, we have the Deportation-Disengagement Plan. Moreover, the Wannsee ministers were startled to find they were not alone in their designs. Ordinary citizens were already helpful in book burning and in denouncing their Jewish neighbors.
Even more surprising was the reaction from the academic community. In universities where enlightenment was being taught, Jewish students were being scorned, berated, beaten and betrayed. Books, movies, newspapers and radio programs were engaged in characterizing the Jewish people as outsiders, even though Jews were citizens who had served gallantly in the military.
They were not being dispossessed, necessarily. They were being resettled. That was the word.
Newspapers like Der Sturmer were especially adroit at portraying the Jewish people as vultures and parasites at a time when Jews were tops in arts and science. In science alone, Jews numbered about 30 times above their due proportion, and in medical research they accounted for some 25 percent of all Nobel Prizes.
Dr. Hermann Strauss was among thousands of Jewish scientists who were nearing their goals in conquering diseases like cancer. Strauss taught at Berlin University. In his spare moments, he served as a researcher, where he was a world leader in finding remedies for diabetes and kidney disorders. He was onto other trailblazing work, but he ran out of time.
For he, too, was deemed unfit for property or life, as decreed at Wannsee. From Columbia University, excuse me, my mistake - from Berlin University he was resettled to the concentration camp at Theresienstadt.
The ministers at Wannsee were themselves well-educated, refined and cultured.
Condi Rice is an accomplished musician and her academic achievements, especially in history, are extraordinary.
As proof that we learn from the past, we merely need to update the agenda of Wannsee, item two, wherein we deduce, as policy being acted upon today by governments in both the United States and Israel, that "Jews must be expunged from the living space of the Arab people."
Meanwhile, planning for such deportations continues at a fast clip within the Sharon government; fast because Condi wants it fast and so does Ariel Sharon. This is not as easy as it sounds. Moving Jews from one place to another poses difficulties. It really comes down to logistics. Then there is this: not all Jews go quietly.
The Wannsee Conference of 1942 grappled with the same question, or rather the Jewish Question, and those of us who have studied the minutes of that protocol marvel at the efficient, businesslike atmosphere that prevailed from one detail to the next, for really, it was all about details.
The men who sat around the table January 20 in Berlin am Grossen Wannsee were remarkably short of emotion. The talk was seldom about extermination. There were few outbursts against the Jewish people, for this meeting was not so much about people as it was about trains.
In moving entire populations, professionally known as cargo, punctuality is a must.
Transportation - that was the main item on the agenda at Wannsee. The delegates had to form a plan of action that would meet two primary objectives. As taken directly from the minutes: 1. "The expulsion of the Jews from every sphere of life of the German people." 2. "The expulsion of the Jews from the living space of the German people."
As is obvious, Wannsee speaks to us today, not only in German. Trains yesterday, trucks and buses today.
Condi's plan falls right in step, as she demands that Israel be scattered into ghettos to make room for her Palestinian Arab state. In Condi Rice, some might say, the State Department finally has its uber-champion with the imperative to send the Jews packing. This is not anti-Semitism, but strictly business, upon the proposition that a 23rd Arab state in the Middle East, in place of Israel, will bring peace to the world.
So, removing the Jews from Israel, one region at a time, is actually a peace process. The Germans had the same peace process in mind. They meant no harm, except to destroy everything to make the world safe for Nazism, as the nations today seek to displace the Jews to make the world safe for Islam. All very simple and very orderly.
The secondary lesson from Wannsee - the first being the Final Solution - was this: Jews must be taught that no matter where they live, they are not at home. Jews are portable. They have been portable for more than two thousand years in other lands, and today, even in their own land.
But at Wannsee it was one headache after another and we can only imagine how frustrating it must have been to get all the schedules down to the minute, because when you are shipping people from here to there, everything must run smoothly. What to do about the elderly? The infants? The handicapped? They slow things down.
The Sharon government faces the same challenges.
Then what to do about those who resist? At Wannsee, it was decided to shoot these delinquent men and women on the spot, if only as an example.
The Sharon government has allegedly decided on using rock-salt bullets, obviously with the approval, perhaps even upon the suggestion, of Condi Rice.
Not all the men at Wannsee approved of on-the-spot shooting. Such displays might cause panic within the community and prompt the population to scatter; rank inefficiency. Therefore, in many cases, the people were to be told that they were being relocated to a better place, a place with music and dancing.
Of course, special units would have to be formed to carry out these deportations. Such security agents were already on the payroll. They were chosen because they were men who would declare they were only following orders when the time came for them to answer for their deeds.
The Wannsee delegates were merely implementing the Nuremberg Laws; as today, in Israel, we have the Deportation-Disengagement Plan. Moreover, the Wannsee ministers were startled to find they were not alone in their designs. Ordinary citizens were already helpful in book burning and in denouncing their Jewish neighbors.
Even more surprising was the reaction from the academic community. In universities where enlightenment was being taught, Jewish students were being scorned, berated, beaten and betrayed. Books, movies, newspapers and radio programs were engaged in characterizing the Jewish people as outsiders, even though Jews were citizens who had served gallantly in the military.
They were not being dispossessed, necessarily. They were being resettled. That was the word.
Newspapers like Der Sturmer were especially adroit at portraying the Jewish people as vultures and parasites at a time when Jews were tops in arts and science. In science alone, Jews numbered about 30 times above their due proportion, and in medical research they accounted for some 25 percent of all Nobel Prizes.
Dr. Hermann Strauss was among thousands of Jewish scientists who were nearing their goals in conquering diseases like cancer. Strauss taught at Berlin University. In his spare moments, he served as a researcher, where he was a world leader in finding remedies for diabetes and kidney disorders. He was onto other trailblazing work, but he ran out of time.
For he, too, was deemed unfit for property or life, as decreed at Wannsee. From Columbia University, excuse me, my mistake - from Berlin University he was resettled to the concentration camp at Theresienstadt.
The ministers at Wannsee were themselves well-educated, refined and cultured.
Condi Rice is an accomplished musician and her academic achievements, especially in history, are extraordinary.
As proof that we learn from the past, we merely need to update the agenda of Wannsee, item two, wherein we deduce, as policy being acted upon today by governments in both the United States and Israel, that "Jews must be expunged from the living space of the Arab people."