Last week I went to visit Yad Vashem the Israeli Holocaust Museum. I had been shocked to learn of the differing opinions and politics that surround the Jewish perspective of the Holocaust. Today I was even more astounded to learn that just yesterday it was vandalized by what was likely radical Orthodox Jews (although this hasn't been confirmed). I've been learning about how many different branches of people even within the same religion/ethnicity but its something completely different to see it happen here where I live. I will try to be sensitive to politics in my blog here so if your interested in the situation I would look up more about it online. If I've learned anything about modern politics from being here in Israel its that even as complex and confusing as the American news reports can be, they are way simplified and the whole issue is much more complicated than they can or choose to portray. There are so many layers of opinions here, it is simply not enough to categorize the issues between Palestinians and Israelis or even moderate vs radical Palestinians or Orthodox vs Secular Jews. It all sums up to a quote I once heard...
"If your not confused than you don't really know whats going on."
This was last week when we went to visit the Holocaust Museum
This Graffiti was found yesterday morning.
Loosely translated it says:
"If Hitler hadn't existed, the Zionists would have invented him."
"Hitler, thank you for the great Holocaust. Only because of it did we receive a state from the UN"
"Persecuting Jews! You declared war on Hitler in the name of the Jewish people. You brought about the Shoah!"
"The Zionists wanted the Holocaust!"
These are difficult things to read. I have never been exposed to opinions such as these before. Suddenly learning about the origins of the different Zionist and Jewish branches has hit me closer to home.
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