The Most Appropriate Thing Ever

Tomorrow, as part of the celebrations to mark the 85th anniversary of the Polish Air Force, three visiting Israeli F-15 aircraft are going to fly low along the railway tracks leading to the Auschwitz death camp. The pilots, who are descendants of Holocaust survivors, will read the names of victims who were arriving at the camp at that time exactly sixty years earlier. “They will fly over the camp for about a second to honor the ashes of their fathers and grandfathers”, said the Israeli ambassador to Poland.

But the Auschwitz museum is opposed to this form of commemoration. It issued a statement saying it “felt such a display was inappropriate” and that it “deplores the demonstration of Israeli military might in this place”.

They do not know what they are talking about. This is arguably the most appropriate thing to have happened anywhere, ever. How can someone work at Auschwitz and not know that?

Violence

I think this is an example of the "Violence Is Bad" meme that I discussed in a recent post on my blog. Many people have drawn the wrong conclusions from the Holocaust.

Some people refuse to recognize that, while violence is often wrong and bad, it is sometimes right and good. They are offended by any "demonstrations of might". They prefer to declare all violence as wrong and imagine that if enough of us demonstrate that we are unwilling and unable to defend ourselves with force, then nobody will take advantage of that.

They are wrong.

Gil

PC rot loses!

The "sheep led to slaughter" model has been tried and found wanting. What part of "Never again!" don't they understand?

The "never" part. They under...

The "never" part. They understand the "again" part just fine. ;-)

Simplicity is not always a virtue...

“deplores the demonstration of Israeli military might in this place”...

The adjective "Israeli" makes me wonder. Are we to assume that, for example, GERMAN military might in Auschwitz was more appropriate?

I agree with Gil. The one virtue of the "all violence is bad" concept is that it's easy to understand. And, as with many other concepts that are easy to understand, it is dead wrong.

Daniel in Medford

They are afraid to look at pa...

They are afraid to look at past sin and hope that bad memory will just fade away if nobody notice.

Words can fool men but nature doesn't give a damn!

Not quite

They are afraid to look at past sin and hope that bad memory will just fade away if nobody notice.

I don't think this is a reasonable interpertation of the perspective of people who want to treat the site as a cemetery and think flying over it disturbs the concentration of mourners.

They're wrong, not because they don't want people to remember, but because they think remembering is enough.

~Woty
http://woty.davidsj.com

Interesting Quote

There's a pretty good NY Times Magazine article about anti-semitism available online that contains this interesting quote:

"The Germans will never forgive the Jews for Auschwitz."

Gil

Re: Violence

1. If celebrating the anniversary of the Polish Air Force is appropriate then such a fly over certainly is.

2. This fly over seems to be more a celebration of life than of military might.

3. Unfortunately our conclusion that our enemies are wrong & immoral and that we are right & moral is ultimately based on a leap of faith.

All violence *is* bad

There is a large grain of truth in Pacifism. It *is* true that war and violence is a very terrible thing even for the good guys. Many of them die or suffer for the rest of their lives, after all. And it is true that there are alternatives to war and violence and that if there is a way for good and truth to win out over evil without having to fight about it, then that is the way we should take.

Pacifists are just wrong in their idea that war and violence is *always* wrong, and that there are *always* better ways to deal with evil, and that violence is *never* right.

Stephen (who can't remember his password and username probably due to almost never using it)

> Since you & I will never...

Since you & I will never be able to glimpse in the soul of the people described above, then interpretation is all depending on your perspective. It's possible that they might think remembering is enough but it's also possible that people want to rewrite the history and they do not want to resurrect the memory of the holocaust. In absence of an absolute truth, my interpretation is very possible and reasonable unless you can prove otherwise. Of course, I can be wrong and so are you.

Words can fool men but nature doesn't give a damn!

violence!?

ya really think this is about violence and anti-military memes!? it's 3 planes not shooting at anyone...

aww, c'mon, why did i skim through the TEN comments and not see THEY ARE FUCKING ANTI-SEMITES spelled out a bit more loudly? (yeah yeah, someone noticed the adjective 'israeli'). jews with guns on near germany is inappropriate cause they jews were supposed to die, and the germans failed.

btw i liked the 'never again' post. and the notion the germans are just afraid to remember their sin seems silly when they're acting like they don't think it was a sin. it seems more like they don't want their Great Attempt tarnished by this act which would show that it failed.

-- Elliot Temple
http://curi.blogspot.com/

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