Never Forget

After every man-made catastrophe and massacre, the World always shouts that it will never forget, but our memories usually resemble a coarse sieve. While another war on Gaza is raging, the outside world is discussing the question of responsibility for this catastrophe and humanitarian disaster. Remarkably though, the government of Israel is constantly pointing its finger at Hamas and the ever growing threat of Palestinian terrorists. But the same people prefer to forget their own history.


No one likes to remember the massacre of Deir Yassin, for example, that happened on 9th April, 1948, in which soldiers of the radical zionist underground groups Irgun (led by Menachem Begin at the time) and LEHI "carried out the slaughter in a cold and premeditated fashion...The attackers ‘lined men, women and children up against the walls and shot them,’...The ruthlessness of the attack on Deir Yassin shocked Jewish and world opinion alike, drove fear and panic into the Arab population, and led to the flight of unarmed civilians from their homes all over the country.” Israeli author, Simha Flapan, “The Birth of Israel.”


Those not interested in history might be surprised to know that Mr. Begin became Israel's Prime Minister in 1977 and received the Peace Nobel Price along with the President of Egypt, Anwar Sadat, in 1978. The very same man later claimed that the massacre of Deir Yassin "did not only have its justification - without the 'victory' of Deir Yassin there would not have been a state of Israel" (http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Menachem_Begin)


I am completely baffled about the double standards according to which Western governments and the media judge Israelis and Palestinians in this respect. These days the Palestinians have certainly not forgotten the victims of Deir Yassin and never will. No one who believes in equal human rights and justice should do that either.