John Deering for September 28, 2009

Bueller, I need some help with this one. I found about a dozen different definitions for the word “Jude.” The one that would seem to fit here, is the definition of “Jude” meaning a jewish person. Is that correct?

BCS, I can’t speak for Bueller but, I seems that he is referring to the yellow stars which the Nazis forced the Jewish citizens to wear as the Holocaust unfolded into history.

Considering that Ameaniejihad (or whatever) is a Holocaust-demier, and that that pretty much is the yellow star Jews had to wear in Nazi Germany, i’d say that that’s the reference - that just denying it doesn’t make it go away.

I’ll toss my ring in the hat. The others are right that the star is the one Jews were forced to wear in the Jewish ghettos during Nazi times. “Jude” means “Jew.”

While I’m not sure I want to associate entirely with wtf’s post, I will say that there were many other groups who were put in the concentration camps for the purpose of extermination. Two groups that come to mind are gays and Gypsies (Roma). There were far fewer of them to round up (and gays could hide more easily), but they were just as dead at the end of the process.

As to the comment about Palestine. I’m mixed. It is a fair question to ask: Since the residents of Palestine had nothing to do with the holocaust (which clearly DID happen), how is it that they were forced from their homes – or even forced to come up with some deal? It is an odd sort of justice, and any way you look at it, they come up losers.

Given that the state of Israel exists, however, it seems fair to guarantee them a place to be - and at the same time guarantee the Palestinians their own homeland that is not barren and not divided up into useless segments, and not controlled by another country.

The holocaust DID happen, Jews were roughly HALF the victims, over 50 MILLION people died in WW II. Israel HAS attacked refugee camps in Lebanon, attacked Iraq, Syria, and at the start of the 67 war, all its neighbors in a sneak attack, like Pearl Harbor, but wider. The settlements on the west bank are clearly violations of law and U.N. resolutions, Golan Heights DO NOT belong to Israel, but hey, who cares about a few facts.

When a country like Israel HAS attacked, and HAS nuclear weapons, should not those on the wrong end of THEIR weapons have some concerns , and a right to call for them to follow the law too?

GO BIBI GO!

After centuries of being pushed around, I guess the Jews diserve a place to call home.

But every time a palestinian dies, an Auschwitz victim doesn’t ressucitate.

The Iranians are tied into the Holocaust,more than the Germans..because the Germans love Israel now. And what about Pakistan ?aren’t they Islamic and have nuclear bombs?

troutma thank you for expressing what i’ve wondered about for years

nomad and cdward are right- the star is in reference to the stars Jews were forced to start wearing as a more overtly deadly phase of thecampaign against them got under way.

The above cartoon is actually one from a couple of years ago that the syndicate re-distributed this week, because recent events at the U.N. and more statements by Iran’s President made it timely again. The discussion here is interesting as usual. Some of the comments seem relevant to the issues surrounding Israel that we see now, but the actual cartoon theme really is limited to Ahmadinejad’s comments.about what he believes to have happened or not happened to Jews during WWII.

Or, rather, what he SAYS he believes happened. Isn’t this guy just another opportunist? Consider his position. Then mull over the fact that it’s pretty convenient for him to periodically state his “beliefs”, just in case the choir he’s preaching to starts to go cold on him. My opinion is that a lot of what we’re seeing and hearing from that region is a result of changes in communications and cultural exchange that are rendering Iran’s current leaders more and more irrelevant .By the way, I did cartoons critical of Israel’s military action in the 1980’s. Some editorial pages that ran them were mailed to me with “Seig Heil”, etc.. written on them. Does that mean I wouldn’t be offended by a Holocaust skeptic’s stated venom? No. I had to do some travelling, so sorry I didn’t send a response to your question, bcs.Also, parkerisinthehouse-I haven’t found an avatar yet. Maybe i’ll draw my own.

Bueller/John - I agree I think he is an opportunist, desperate for attention, and he knows well he is only a figurehead compared to the ayatollahs. In his twisted way he’s like any politician feeding raw meat to the base.

motivemagus - I think it’s interesting to try to figure out what makes some of these leaders tick. He does know that he’s a figurehead.The kinds of things he’s quoted as saying seem like the sort of hackwork that other governments delegate to their second bananas to go out and recite.

It reinforces things we had already guessed about the clerics propping him up,

Well, to be honest any president of Iran, under their current leadership, is somewhat of a figurehead. Ahmadinejad’s strings became readily apparent during the last election and the period that followed.

IMO the problem is how much of what he says is hot air, and how much actually indicates the true issues the Iranian leadership is concerned with.

bueller, while I agree with your figurehead assessment on the surface; let’s not forget how far some people will go in their own self importance … or even worse how far they will go to keep it.

yellow star, pink triangled(homosexuals), purple triangle (Jehovah’s Witnesses),…Don’t know what the gypsies wore, bat there were many more people than the Jews who were murdered by Hitler’s thugs, and NONE of those other groups are ever mentioned…why not?

Hmm, you don’t know who the gypsies are? They are sometimes called Rom, Roma or Romani. They aren’t all that popular as far as Holocaust victims go (though they were a significant part), but there is still a lot of them living in Southern and SE Europe.

They are not as often mentioned, I guess, because there weren’t that many compared to the jews and the political prisoners. Now, why the political prisoners aren’t mentioned… Well, I guess it might be because a large part was what today some people refer to as “lefties”.

4uk4ata, I think furnituremaker was unsure what the roma wore, not what they were. During the Nazi era, they were forced to wear black triangles, green patches or the letter “Z” (for Zigeuner, which means Roma).

One difference between Roma and Jews was that they were persecuted throughout Europe before the Nazis came to power. On the other hand, so were Jews. Sadly, they got little relief after the war – societies throughout Europe continued to persecute Roma.

^ This is very true. In Portugal they barely number 50 000 but they get blamed for e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g. They are at the bottom of the social pecking order. All other persecuted minorities don’t hesitate to persecute them, too.

Recently I was chatting about how cosmopolitan London was with an Italian co-worker, who is married to a Somali, and the subject of the Roma came up. Wow, I was surprised to hear so much racism from his mouth…

Oh, sorry, I saw that as “were,” not “wore.”