To my mind one particular sentence of O’Toole’s serves as an outrageous example of his Nazi libel against a whole nation, and demonstrates his almost psychotic way of thinking:

“Once you decide that your group is especially exempt from the demands of common humanity, there is virtually no limit to what you will do to others”.

In one crazy unsubstantiated generalisation he is saying that the Israelis have somehow as a nation decided that they are “ESPECIALLY EXEMPT FROM THE DEMANDS OF COMMON HUMANITY”..and therefore they are no limits in what they will do to others. In his later discussion of “Never Again” this clearly includes genocide of their enemies. What was done to them, they will do to others is the message.

In O’Toole’s world Hamas’s Charter and aims to destroy israel does not exist, and if it does it is not a factor to be included in the equation. Ditto the non-existence of thousands of rockets fired on Israeli towns. Not relevant. All that is relevant are Israeli reactions.

What might this kind of one-sided half-minded thinking be indicative of?

Simply a blind hatred of Israel? Anti-Israelism?

Simply blind hatred of America, through its strong ally Israel?

Simply some darker type of hatred that is not socially acceptable since the Holoccaust hiding under the cloak of anti-Israelism? Who knows, I don’t.

Or perhaps all three? For starters.

Well, in the end who cares, for the likes of O’Toole and those who think along similar biased lines on Israel - for whatever stange mix of motives - will always be with us. The irrational thinkers who pose as reasonable, humane people, concerned of course for those in need of help. But hey, let’s exclude the Israelis from our concerns. They got you all into this mess in the first place, didn’t they?

Now, why do I think there’s a parallel between with these sort of thinkers and the Nazis?

And man, O’Toole’s Gaza columns are the kind of column that drives me nuts. It’s a genre unto itself that can be named “Mournful Smugness”. Its practitioners claim to feel profound sadness over Israeli bad behavior, yet seem quite keen to demonstrate their moral superiority over Israel. Perhaps O’Toole believes that invoking Nazi crimes will shock the Israelis to their senses, but to me it looks like a Euro-wanker assuaging his post-colonial guilt by flaunting his moral righteousness.

The most frustrating thing is that in terms of specific policies — what Israel should do and should not do — I agree with O’Toole 60% to 70%. But he doesn’t get any points for making patronizing Nazi analogies.

A final note. At the end of his column O’Toole writes that Europe should be a “friend to Israel”. But why does he think Europe should befriend a state that he just compared to the Nazis? Is it because he knows that he made a lame exaggeration?

Shuggy’s parsing is excellent.

Of course he did. Here it is, in case you missed it:

“Which leaves Europe with a historic choice to make. It can continue to assuage its own guilt and meet the need of Jewish people for a sense of security in the way it has always done – at the expense of the Palestinians. Or it can face up to the second imperative of the Holocaust – the one that says “never again”. But it can no longer do both.”

In other words, the only thing stopping Europeans saying ‘never again’ (to another Holocaust he means - because there is simply no other meaning the use of this phrase could reasonably be argued to carry) is because they feel guilty about the last one. No ‘large leap’ needed to come to this conclusion. No leaping required at all. He even translated ‘living space’ into German in case anyone couldn’t catch the music of what he was saying, for goodness sake.

“Anyone wanting an example of the filth that has poured out upon Israel’s head during the time since the flotilla incident would be spoilt for choice. I here highlight a column by Fintan O’Toole in yesterday’s Irish Times, not because it is unusual in being odious in this general line, but merely because it will do; will do as a symptom of what ‘progressive’ opinion today permits itself, just like that, and without a squeak of complaint or protest from like-minded ‘progressives’ on the gesticulating segment (see post immediately below) of the Western left.”

http://normblog.typepad.com/normblog/2010/06/voice-of-restraint.html

He concludes:

“Israel, for him, is an instance not just of the arrogance of power but of the power without limit - ‘above the demands of humanity’ and treating others as below those demands, treating them ‘as sub-human’ - that terminated in the Shoah. Today’s Nazis are the Jews.
This is what may be written without a blush in the contemporary liberal press. Filth.”

http://normblog.typepad.com/normblog/2010/06/voice-of-restraint.html