Berlin – On the heels of a string of European anti-Israel protests over its Operation Protective Edge in Gaza, the German newspaper Bild launched an anti-Semitism campaign on Friday featuring statements from prominent Germans speaking out against increasing Jewish hatred.
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TELGRAAF.nl (http://bit.ly/1pRK7qj) reports that among those featured in the campaign titled “Never Again Jew Hatred” is German Chancellor Angela Merkel who called outbursts at recent demonstrations “attacks on freedom and tolerance” while saying they will “not be tolerated.”
On Thursday, demonstrators at a protest at the Hague in the Netherlands drew attention, chanting “Death to Jews, death to Israel,” while one speaker said at the rally said the day will come when someone says, “There is a Jew hiding behind me, kill him.”
Included in Bild’s campaign against Jewish hatred are fashion designer Wolfgang Joop who called the exclusion of any people “unbearable,” and television personality Marcel Reif who said, “Not here, not now, never again!”
We should be appreciative of the efforts of this newspaper. Unlike the Japanese, the Germans have shown contrition for the Holocaust and other war crimes, and are ashamed of their past. Hence, they’ve looked to rectify their past misdeeds, by teaching about the Holocaust in their schools, and by paying reparations to the victims. On the other hand, the Japanese have selective amnesia, and like to portray themselves as the victim. To this date, the Japanese have never paid a dime in reparations to any of the victims of their past barbarity, whether it involved victims of slave labor, sex slaves, or former POW’s who were starved, and brutalized. Also, in Japanese schools, there is no mention of its aggressive history, and atrocities which it perpetrated, from 1931-1945.
For the germans, the war is “something we did.” For the Japanese, the war is “something that happened to us.”