Nothing compares to the admiration I feel towards Israel and the Israelis. They are absolute realists who call things by their names, unlike us who live in an imaginary world and call things by the names that please us. This realism was confirmed by the statement of Israel's Deputy Defence Minister Matan Vilnai who recently threatened the Palestinians with a "bigger holocaust in Gaza a few hours before embarking on a massacre last week which claimed the lives of tens of Palestinians including women, children and old men. With that, Israel's Deputy Defence Minister offered the most accurate description of the war of extermination the Palestinians have been subjected to for over half a century; a reality the whole world has known about but none has ever dared to utter because it confirms the Nazi-like nature of the Israeli military occupation of Palestine. It is a description that every observer of the bloody war perpetrated by Israel had been avoiding for fear of accusations of anti-Semitism. In the West you can deny the existence of God and offend prophets and messengers all you want - especially if it's the Prophet of Islam. Indeed, we live in an open society which believes in absolute, unfettered freedom of expression, so long as it isn't directed at those who are not Muslims or Arabs. No one has the right to violate Jewish history. If you disagree with them, they call you a "revisionist , and if you cast doubt on certain historical facts, you're a "Holocaust denier - an accusation with serious legal consequences. The Holocaust is the worst of sins if it is practiced against Jews, the perpetrators of which deserve to be punished by history like Hitler, for which the German people have been paying a heavy price for decades in the form of endless compensations. As Jewish-American author Norman Finkelstein wrote in his book "The Holocaust Industry: Reflections on the Exploitation of Jewish Suffering, the US Jewish establishment has created a lucrative Holocaust "industry to further Israeli interests. But we must know that Israelis are nothing like Arabs and Muslims - they are indeed God's chosen people, and what is permitted to them is not permitted to others. That's why the Holocaust, which is depicted as the worst, undisputed crime in history, can be publicly replicated by Israel with impunity, for it only practices it against Arabs - and we all know that Arabs, like Muslims, don't count. An official spokesperson can even announce to the world his intention to embark on a Holocaust against Arabs and Muslims in Gaza without being even remotely held accountable. On the contrary, he would be inundated with applause and his country honored in major international cultural events like the Paris and Turin book fairs. I tried hard to think of the real reason why France and Italy would invite Israel as the guest of honor in their fairs and realized that the only reason was that Holocaust it has begun against the Palestinian people. The honesty and realism of Israeli officials who never shy away from calling a spade a spade in front of the whole world naturally means that we too should admire and applaud them. Mohamed Salmawy is President of the Arab Writer's Union and Editor-in-Chief of Al-Ahram Hebdo
