In lieu of conclusionThis chapter is a brief review of the Israeli response to genocide in the Balkans, focusing mainly on the response to what has been going on in Croatia. Part of it has to do with the way the political establishment of the Jewish state has responded to the first case of genocide in Europe since the Holocaust. However, an ordinary citizen is not privy to the complex, sophisticated, and sometimes esoteric considerations by which the politicians and diplomats of his or her country make their decisions and shape policies. Thus he or she may not be in a position to pronounce judgment on such matters.As for the response of ordinary citizens, the crux of the matter is the World War II argument which, as I said, I have been hearing from innumerable compatriots of all backgrounds and walks of life over the last three years. Concerning this argument, let me quote from the book How Can One Be a Croat? by the French-Jewish philosopher Allain Finkielkraut:
Serbia falsifies the past by saying that the Croats were all Nazis and the Serbs all resistance fighters, falsifies the present by saying that the Croats remain a "genocidal people" and, in the shadow of this double falsification, carries out the first racial war in Europe since Hitler. In a word: the Nazis of this story are trying to pass themselves off as the Jews. Being a Jew, says Finkielkraut,
I thought it necessary to deny the Serbian conquerors the blessing of Jewish memory, and to prevent the drafting of the dead, whose guardian I feel myself to be, into the service of those who are perpetrating "ethnic cleansing" today.[18] I have given this matter much thought. But I still do not have an answer to the question: how is it that so many of my compatriots have managed not to see "the Nazis of this story" for what they are, and have hastened to embrace them as fellow Jews instead?[19] |