Progressive Politics

It appears that in Israel they believe that it's sufficient to attach the label "humanitarian" to convert every act into a legitimate one. Just like the term "the most moral army in the world", which is no longer connected to what IDF soldiers are doing, they're now trying to present a concentration camp to be used for the transfer of population as the most moral one in the world.

An Israeli source said Wednesday that "the plan is to move all civilian Gazans southward to a large tent city in Rafah, in which they'll have hospitals and plenty of food." He added: "Just like the prime minister said, as far as I'm concerned, they can be given Ben & Jerry's ice cream." A source of blue-and-white pride: In our concentration camp they have ice cream.

In Israel, you're not allowed to make comparisons, and when you do compare to benighted periods, something always "goes wrong in the translation." As long as the concentration camp isn't a waystation on the way to gas chambers, it's easy to refute the comparison and thereby normalize almost any evil. As long as it's not a Holocaust, everything's okay. Thus the historical comparison, which was meant to be cautionary, becomes a tool for muzzling critics and for normalizing the evil.