It is a rare experience for an outspokenly pro-Israeli Jewish representative
to be quoted by the Iranian Islamic Republic News Agency. Obviously, the
quote published by IRNA has little to do with reality. As you can see on the
TAZ-website, I did not “acknowledge that the Zionist regime” was
instrumentalising the Holocaust for their own political objectives.

What I did say was that individual members of the Israeli government and
parts of Israelis society used the Holocaust for political purposes. This
criticism has been levelled by Israelis, too. When Ultra-Orthodox leaders
compare the Israel Police or the Israeli Supreme Court to the Nazis – this
is an abomination, just as much as comparisons, by individual, radical
settlers, between the evacuation of the Gaza Strip and the Nazi expulsion of
Jews, or comparisons, by individual representatives of the radical Left,
between Israeli policies in the Palestinian territories and the so-called
Third Reich.

As for Iran, the nuclear threat against Israel is real and must be fought.
However, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is not Adolf Hitler, even though he personally
may wish he were. And Israel is – thank God – not defenceless, as opposed to
Europe’s Jews during the Holocaust. Therefore, I think, as do many Israelis,
that the comparison with the Nazi “Final Solution” is factually wrong and
should not be made. One can only dream of European Jews having one-hundredth
of the defence capabilities the IDF, commanded by the son of a Holocaust
survivor, has today.
Stephan J. Kramer, Secretary-General, Central Council of Jews in Germany

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