Obama: “No Equivalency” Between Palestinians and Jewish Holocaust Experience

Aaron Keyak — June 5, 2009 – 4:50 pm | Israel | Foreign Policy | Iran | Obama Comments (1) Add a comment

This morning, on the “Today Show,” President Barack Obama reiterated his understandings of the Jewish Community and our history - and that there is “no equivalency” between what Jews experienced in the Holocaust and the experience of the Palestinians.

Here’s the video:

 

A couple of written excerpts:

Brokaw: What do you think Iranian President Ahmadinejad could learn from your visit to Buchenwald?

Obama: He should make his own visit. I was very explicit yesterday. I have no patience for people who would deny history. And the history of the Holocaust is not something speculative. Part of the reason we’re going to Buchenwald, in addition to having the extraordinary honor of Elie Weisel accompanying me, is also because my great-uncle (my grandmother’s brother), was part of the unit that first liberated Buchenwald. And I’ve told this story before: he was so traumatized by the event; he was an 18, 19, 20 year old kid from Kansas, suddenly seeing this horror that he suffered from what we now know we would call post-traumatic stress disorder.

Brokaw: What can the Israelis learn from your visit to Buchenwald? And what should they be thinking about their treatment of Palestinians?

Obama: Well, look, there is no equivalency here. But I do think that given the extraordinary moral traditions of Judaism, the potential power of empathy that arises out of having gone through such historic hardships, that will ultimately give the people of Israel the strength and purpose to seek a just and lasting peace. And that I believe will involve creating two states, side by side, with peace and security.

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