In 2002 the AFR thought it fit to print the following by Joseph Wakim, at one point the country's multicultural affairs commissioner: "Sharon's war is not a war," he wrote. "Genocide would be a more accurate description." In Ireland Tom McGurk, a columnist in the very mainstream Sunday Business Post, noted that "the scenes at Jenin last week looked uncannily like the attack on the Warsaw Jewish ghetto in 1944." Jose Saramago, Portugal's Nobel Laureate in Literature, observed after a visit to Ramallah that the Israeli incursion into the city "is a crime that may be compared to Auschwitz."

Never mind that the total number of Jews "dealt with" in the Warsaw ghetto, according to Nazi commandant Jürgen Stroop, was 56,065, whereas the number of Palestinians killed in Jenin was no more than 60. Never mind that at the time Mr. Saramago visited Ramallah a total of about 1,500 Palestinians had been killed in the Intifada, whereas Jews were murdered at Auschwitz at a rate of about 2,000 a day.

12/16/2006 4:15:17 PM

There are no comparisons to be drawn because there's not a high enough number being killed? Is this seriously your argument?

12/16/2006 4:31:37 PM

Obviously a killing innocent civilians doesn't matter unless you kill a whole lot of them.

I'd love to see this arguement used in court. Why am I getting in trouble for killing this guy? That Manson guy killed way more than me, obvioulsly my murder isn't wrong.

12/16/2006 5:06:54 PM

It's the same

and a palestinian bomber killing 7 Israelis in a cafe is the same as Al Qaeda killing thousands of people in NYC five years ago.

12/16/2006 5:21:23 PM

murdering your husband when you see him fucking a broad is clearly just as bad as ordering the extermination of millions of jews.

after all, the number of people killed is irrelevant!!1

12/17/2006 6:18:35 PM

Seems like everything is lost on you.

The comparisons are drawn because you have a group of priveleged people who feel they're racially superior stomping all over a group of "lesser" humans who are living in filth and poverty.

12/17/2006 7:07:37 PM