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— By F. Michael Maloof A Zionist commentator for the “Israeli” newspaper Haaretz has invoked the ominous specter of the Nazi past by calling on the “Israeli” government to undertake a “Lebensraum“ policy of expanding the “living space” of the Zionist state to include what amounts to all of the territories that the Palestinians seek to create for their own nation-state, and then some. The appeal by Yossi Sarid in his Aug. 26 column of Haaretz echoes the despicable German concept of Lebensraum that reflected an expansionist effort by Nazi Germany under the Third Reich of Adolf Hitler. Lebensraum was the most important German foreign policy goal under Adolf Hitler. The policy was designed to provide extra space for the growth of the German population for a “Greater Germany.” It also carried ethnic and racial overtones that eyed the then Soviet Union for its extra space for growth of the German population because of its vast and rich agricultural land which Hitler also saw as being inhabited by Slavic Untermenschen, or sub-humans. The Soviet Union was to become the breadbasket for Germany under the Lebensraum concept, but the Slavic peoples who populated the country would not be fed and would be allowed to starve to death toward extinction in order to preserve the German society. Sources say that despite the horrific treatment of the Jewish people at the hands of Nazi Germany in events leading up to and during World War II, Sarid’s call for Lebensraum reflects current thinking of the Jewish state’s leadership and has been an implicit policy followed ever since the June 1967 Six-Day War. “That was a nice big gift, we have to admit, stretching from the river of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates,” he said. “It was granted on various festive occasions not only to Abraham but to his heirs as well. Eventually it was forced to shrink, and now there is really no reason to shrink it further out of choice.” These comments echo those of Theodore Herzl, the founder of Zionism, in his Complete Diaries , Vol. II, p. 711. Herzl said that the area of the Jewish state would stretch “from the Brook of Egypt to the Euphrates. In testifying before the United Nations Special Committee of Enquiry on July 9, 1947, Rabbi Fischmann , member of the Jewish Agency for Palestine, declared that “The Promised Land extends from the River of Egypt up to the Euphrates (and) it includes parts of Syria and Lebanon.” In referring to lands “from the river of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates,” Sarid also has in mind the reoccupation of the Sinai Peninsula. The Sinai is three times the size of current “Israel” and has considerable natural resources such as uranium deposits, oil and natural gas which, if reoccupied, would guarantee its energy independence. The concept of Lebensraum for the “Israelis” is not new. He said there was a need to disperse the population and treat this effort as a domestic strategic aim “of the highest order.” “When we embarked on the Six-Day War, did we want to remove a threat or did we want to gain control in order to spread out?” Sarid said. “That’s what happens after 44 years of mire and moral corruption, which distort things and make us forget the original objective and replace it with an entirely different one,” he said. “The founding fathers, as opposed to the Diadochi who fought for control after Alexander the Great’s death, represented a different approach for the most part,” Sarid said. The Diadochi were the generals under Alexander. By August 2011, however, those talks were suspended due to a decision by the “Israeli” leadership to resume settlement construction on the West Bank and east Jerusalem. Besides being a columnist for Haaretz, Sarid was a member of the Knesset, or parliament, for 32 years, served as Education minister, Environment minister and opposition leader as head of the Meretz party from 1996 to 2003. Ironically, the Meretz party supports a two-state solution for Palestine, peace with the Palestinians, human rights and religious freedom. |
River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian
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