President Obama compared the history of slavery to that of the Holocaust, according to the CNN Web site.
“It’s one of those things that you don’t forget about,” Obama told CNN in an interview scheduled to air Monday on “Anderson Cooper 360,” according to a report on the Web site.
To see the full report on this…. click HERE
The truth is, one does not have to compare the history of slavery to that of the holocaust….. all one has to do is look at the illegal Israeli settlements being built on Palestinian soil….. TODAY.
The following is the reality that Obama choses to overlook….
There once was a law that forbade black slaves from learning to read and write. There were also criminals who broke the law by studying and teaching. Anyone who issues the order to raze a school for Bedouin, approves the order or carries it out aligns himself with the thinkers, jurists, and law enforcement officials of the slavery regime.
The paragraph in italics was taken from the following report…..
The Jahalin tribe sends happy tidings from the West Bank to their brethren in Gaza: The effects of the Israeli siege can be overcome by building homes from used tires filled and covered with mud. This way refuse can be recycled, construction costs minimized and structures insulated from the cold and heat, something concrete buildings cannot do.
In one of the Jahalin encampments in the West Bank’s Wadi Qelt region, they’re building a school and kindergarten from used tires. This ignites the imagination – turning rubbish into treasure. Since their expulsion from the Negev in 1948, the Jahalin tribe has lived on privately-owned land leased from neighboring Palestinian villages. This was long before expanding settlements repeatedly encroached on their property and military edicts denied them the chance to wander with their flocks in accordance with the seasons and available water sources.
The Jahalin themselves built the school close to their homes because the authorities in charge of the land and planning did not do it. The Israeli government and Civil Administration, which have exclusive control over Area C (60 percent of the West Bank), do not take the Bedouin into account when determining their overall planning. Without a master plan, there is no real procedure for obtaining building permits, not for permanent structures for large families or medical clinics. As a result, the Jahalin and other seminomadic groups in the Jordan Valley are not hooked up to the electricity grid and water system. They live in tents and shacks slated for demolition by the authorities. By extension, the “eco-friendly” school and kindergarten are also considered illegal and have been marked for demolition.
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The root of the problem is not the illegality of the settlements and outposts, but the Israeli Jewish worldview that sanctifies inequality. In other words, what is naturally befitting for the Jews ought to be denied the Palestinians. What is painful and lacking for the Jews is not a problem for the Palestinians. The official talk of two states conceals the prevailing reality of one state, from the river to the sea, a state that embraces the South African ideology of “separate but unequal development of the races.” All on the same strip of land, all under the rule of the same government.
The Jews’ natural growth and their right to enclose balconies on territories that Israel conquered in 1967 have been the subject of discussions between its top officials and world leaders. The Bedouin exercising their right to educate their children under humane conditions in a place they have lived for the last 61 years has come to be considered a violation of the law.
The law is determined by man and reflects the current balance of power, either on a global or local scale. Equality, on the other hand, is a human attribute. Throughout history, this attribute has become clearer thanks to never-ending social struggles. Their success – either full or partial – influences the laws.
There once was a law that forbade black slaves from learning to read and write. There were also criminals who broke the law by studying and teaching. Anyone who issues the order to raze a school for Bedouin, approves the order or carries it out aligns himself with the thinkers, jurists, and law enforcement officials of the slavery regime.
Desertpeace 
irish4palestine said,
July 13, 2009 at 14:29
I tell you, whenI heard O’Bambi make that statement I almost lost my lunch. He needs his head examined……..badly
Barbara said,
July 13, 2009 at 15:42
Hey keep your lunch, sis. The guy listens to Rahm Emmanuel and you oughta hear what Obumble and the BROTHER have planned for America. Those two brothers ought to be chained and shot like any mad dog. So don’t expect reason from Obumble. Let alone original thought. He merely prattles what he is told to prattle.
So let me get this right. You take a bunch of garbage and build a school for your kids. Everything else you have built had been destroyed by the bully. THEN the bully comes along and says your new place is illegal and they are going to destroy it again. A place where your children come to learn to read and write. Scary building to me.
MEANWHILE, the bully, because he CAN, of course, has been pushing you around for 60 -100 years so he can build big parasitic illegal settlements on the land you have lived on since time began?
Sounds like Israeli mindset to me. They seem to be angry because the Bedouin have the nerve to keep existing and actually show spunk in recycling. I swear, the only good Palestinian, to these creatures, is one that lies down and dies and thanks you for the opportunity to do so.
aufzuleiden said,
July 13, 2009 at 16:31
What could possibly be wrong with comparing the horrific period of history that allowed slavery to thrive with the period of history that led to the holocaust? Quite frankly, the idea seems more than appropriate, it is not only timely but historically necessary. In both cases the subjugation of people who were considered to be ‘sub-human’ by those in authority over them led to the enslavement of people who were identified by means of their race, though the Nazis were willing to expand their definition of ‘untermenschen’ to include various non-Jewish peoples, such as homosexuals, disabled people, and various other ‘unwanted’ persons who were a ‘drain’ on German society.
The mass importation of slaves from Africa did not last for the same time period of the holocaust – it began with the legalization of slavery in 1641 in the colony of Massachusetts and came to an end with the … well, has it come to an end in America? In many states there is no minimum wage and African-Americans live far below the poverty line, barely subsisting on an income that would seem to be more akin to a 3rd world income rather than someone living and working in the ‘most developed’ nation in the world (of course, this is wage slavery as opposed to indentured servitude or absolute slavery).
Officially, however, slavery was ended by the ‘Emancipation Proclamation’ of 1863 (six years after the infamous ‘Dred Scott decision’ that denied citizenship to all slaves, ex-slaves, and slave descendants). 222 years of living hell on earth for a people who had been ripped from their homes, dragged across the world, with many dying during the trip, and forced into jobs that would lead to their deaths if they dared disobey their ‘Master’.
The essence of history is that it provides us with lessons, important lessons that we must study so that the atrocities of the past are not visited upon future generations. For this reason alone the history of slavery and the events of the holocaust must be shown together as parallels: colonialism paralleled with extreme nationalism and fascism that ultimately led to the deaths of millions. While there is some disagreement as to the exact numbers, there are estimates that the number of slaves that died while being transported to the New World ranges from 11 – 15 million – this does not include any deaths from the labour that they were forced to endure once they arrived.
Is this really about measuring the relative quantitative value of respective atrocities or is it more about not wanting to loose the victim status that Jews are able to claim as a result of what happened during the holocaust? Even though I did not live through it personally, my own experiences with anti-Semitism when I was growing up led me to study the holocaust so that I could answer my attackers with facts from history rather than ignorance.
Understanding the truth about the history of slavery would go a long way in giving American students, particularly those of African-American descent, a perspective about their heritage that they would otherwise never receive. If you can understand the past you have a better chance of understanding the present, of understanding the situations in which we find ourselves which grew directly out of the past. Of course, there is a vested interest for many that this type of knowledge not be spread to the ‘average’ American as it could well lead to a level of rage that might forever change the power structure of the nation.
Otherwise, the relationship between slavery and the holocaust is closer than many can imagine: believing that people who are not the same as you can be used for whatever purpose you see fit is the height of human depravity. Does it matter how many died or how long the atrocities took to take compared to the other? History is meant to prevent future atrocities and should be used accordingly. Slavery represents a level of human perversion that is difficult to comprehend; how people that claimed to be ‘Christians’ rationalized the brutalizing of other humans could do so and believe they were acting in accordance to the will of God eludes me.
As for President Obama’s comment, all I have to say is – bravo. It’s about time there is an historically sensitive man in the Oval Office. He understands that there is a connection between these events and sees the need for students and others to study and understand these important events from our past.
CC
aufzuleiden said,
July 13, 2009 at 16:39
Excuse me, but what do the acts taking place in the State of Israel have to do with the way history is – or, in this case, is not – being taught in the United States in regards to slavery and the holocaust? Furthermore, calling for the ‘Those two brothers ought to be chained and shot like any mad dog.’ – as Barbara has – is something the Secret Service frowns upon considering it is a threat against the President. Whether you like him or not is one thing – calling for someone’s death puts you on the same level as the worst of them.
Wake up.
CC
Scarlett said,
July 13, 2009 at 20:02
The acts taking place in the state of Israel do have a connection to history — they are simply history repeating itself. It is the standard game of tyrants used throughout the centuries. 1) Blame all your problems on a weaker minority/foreign group. 2) Demonize them and project your own hatred onto them 3) Provoke them into acts of violence, if possible. If not possible, commit acts of violence yourselves and blame them on this group 4) Declare that there is no compromise as your opponent is evil, crazed, fanatical, extremist 5) Declare, reluctantly, that the extermination of such a minority group is the only way to keep yourselves safe. 6) Carry out the extermination.
If only the Nazis could have successfully claimed that they were victims of anti-Germanism, perhaps they, too, could have gotten away with the Holocaust. Victimhood seems to be the perfect cover if you’re looking to commit genocide …
Iain Yuile said,
July 13, 2009 at 21:30
Holocaust, holocaust, Israel, AIPAC, holocaust, Israel, AIPAC, holocaust,
holocaust, holocaust, aipac, holocaust, Israel, Isreal, holocaust, holocaust,
Israel, holocaust…..”THE HISTORY OF SLAVERY CAN BE COMPARED TO WHAT HAPPENED IN THE HOLOCAUST”…….holocaust, holocaust, holocaust, holocaust, holcaust……”ok Benjamin, you can turn off the microwave directed at the Whitehouse for today, see ya at 9:00 a.m. tomorrow!!!!”
Just greed and cost efficiency. said,
July 14, 2009 at 00:13
Obama the smiling concentration camp commander.
Aufzuleiden said,
July 14, 2009 at 01:46
Uh, Scarlett, That’s exactly what the Nazis did – the rhetoric used to stir up the hearts and minds of the people was to make the Germans out as the ‘victims’ of the terrible Jews who were ‘controlling’ their economy, stealing ‘their’ jobs (even though they – the Jews – were a small minority of the population) and, furthermore, that the German people were victims of the Treaty of Versailles which had pushed the ‘Fatherland’ to the brink of bankruptcy with its terms of war reparations.
German victimization was the key to Hitler’s command over the people – it was how he convinced the people to rise up and ‘reclaim’ their country – taking it back from those who had ‘stolen’ it from the German people.
There it is … history – if you don’t know it, it comes back and bites you in the ass.
Sephardi said,
July 14, 2009 at 07:13
Along with the slavery/holocaust analogy, much ado was also made about “the chapel” in the slave castle’s grounds and “Latin inscriptions” inside. Oooh those nasty Christians. The same fiends responsible for Buchenwald, no?
Let’s not forget the large role my ancestors, Portuguese Sephardic Jews, played in the transatlantic slave trade. And the large role Christian groups played in ending it.
Oh wait. It hasn’t ended. Let’s also not forget the large role Israel plays in the sexual enslavement of young gentile women including turning a blind eye to markets in Tel Aviv where they are bought and sold like pieces of meat as documented by Canadian journalist Victor Malarek in his book The Natashas.