These books are very relevant to the atrocities committed on October 7th by Hamas against Israeli civilians. But they also show the similarities between what happened to the Jews during the Nazi reign and the October 7th massacre.
How apropos that Hanukkah, the miracle of resistance, started on December 7th, the “Day of Infamy,” when America was the victim of an unprovoked brutal attack. As Jews around the world celebrate this festival, they are reminded that October 7th was, quoting an Israeli official, “Israel’s Pearl Harbor.”
Below is an interview with both authors about their books and the relevance to today.
Alan Dershowitz wrote the book out of outrage. “As soon as I heard about the events of October 7th, I dropped everything and called my publisher and said I must write a book about this because it changes everything. It makes it clear why Israel does everything in its power to destroy Hamas, a genocidal organization. If they had the opportunity to go further than the Kibbutz they would have beheaded, burned, raped, and murdered every Jew in Israel. This is a game changer, and the world must realize it.”
Renee Ryan wrote the book a year ago, having no idea how relevant it would be today. “I thought I was writing these quotes about what happened fifty, sixty, seventy, eighty years ago during the Nazi reign. I cannot comprehend that these quotes can be applied to October 7th. Quotes such as this by my Jewish character, Rachel, ‘This enemy, these new Germans are hardened, angrier, and more ruthless. Hate lives in their heart. Hate for people like us.’ It is so heartbreaking. Have we not learned anything. October 7th is very similar to what happened. It is even the same rhetoric, the exact same things said in the 1930s, 1940s.”
Mr. Dershowitz believes Hamas wants a Final Solution. “Never Again has not meant anything since the day it was uttered. Never Again tragically just became a slogan. Now on college campuses students and faculty feel free to call for genocide against the Jews. Everyone should read the Hamas Charter which in some ways is worse than Mein Kompf because it is more specific.”
Women were viciously gang raped, having their pelvis broken, children raped, babies burned in ovens, people brutally tortured and killed. Yet, many either demonstrate against Israel or just look the other way. Dershowitz refers to the Congressional testimony by the college Presidents of Penn State, Harvard, and MIT. He wonders, where are the feminist groups? People love to utter the words Fascist and Nazi against Donald Trump but refuse to say a word against Hamas.
Ryan noted, “History is repeating itself. People are saying it is a two-sided conversation and this is so untrue. It is a one-sided conversation. Everyone should be supporting our Jewish allies and our Jewish people in this country. We should not allow genocide to happen again. We should not be looking away. It is about people who are our friends, colleagues, and I wonder why we are not standing next to them shoulder to shoulder. The quote in my book can be used today, Rachel’s father says, ‘We are French citizens,’ and she responds, ‘No papa. We are Jews.’”
It seems there are some who do not want to apply the rules of decency and morality to the Jews. Briahna Joy Gray, Bernie Sander’s National Press Secretary, tweeted “Believe all women was always an absurd overreach: woman should be heard, claims should be investigated, but evidence is required. The same is true of the allegations out of Israel. But also, this isn’t a believe women scenario because no female victims have offered testimony.” This boggles the mind of both Ms. Ryan and Mr. Dershowitz considering it is hard to offer testimony when you are dead.
Just with many Jews today, Mr. Dershowitz, feels “the biggest disappointment has been groups Jews supported over the years including some African Americans, feminists, and gays. They have aligned themselves with Hamas. This is remarkable since Hamas would kill or take their freedom away. These are people who hate Jews even more than they like themselves. It is so hypocritical, but typical of the Progressive Left. It is worse with the hard Left organizations. Take groups like Doctors Without Borders that has become a spokesperson for Hamas. They refuse to accept Israeli doctors, do not have very many Jewish doctors. The point is that all these groups just lie, lie, lie about what is going on in Gaza. They present a narrative that Hamas wants them to present.”
He went on to say, “On October 8th things changed again when the extreme Progressive Woke Left used these massacres as an excuse to turn on Israel. This was even before Israel fired a single shot or sent a single troop into Gaza. Suddenly organizations like the National Lawyers Guild, and 33 student groups at Harvard, issued a statement praising Hamas for what they did along with others that showed the depth of antisemitism both in the US and around the world. People need to emphasize that the Israel attacks on Israel came before Israel attacked Gaza where there were collateral damage civilians.”
Renee Ryan’s book shows that it was not only the Germans, but the French who also committed the atrocities. “The goalpost kept moving. Laws in France kept changing during the occupation. It was not the Germans, but the French that were doing the roundups of the Jews and passed the harsh laws towards them.”
Just as Ms. Ryan pointed out, there was not much distinction in France between what the Germans were doing and the French citizens who joined them. Yet today, many want to make a distinction between Hamas and the Palestinians. The Arab World for Research and Development (AWRAD) conducted a poll of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip after October 7th. 75% of Palestinians supported Hamas, 88% rejected a coexistence with Israel, and 74% support the saying ‘from the river to the sea.’ Mr. Dershowitz noted, “There is no question that today the line between Hamas and the Palestinian people is a very thin line. It seems the more Israelis they kill, the more terror they engage in, the more Hamas gains stronger support.”
What he wants all Americans to understand and for readers to get out of his current book, “‘Ignorance is the father and mother of bigotry. It is also the child.’ Those marching with Hamas, the college aged people, have no idea what is going on in the Middle East. They are marching as if Left is right. Israel is not being held to a higher standard by the media, academia, and governments, it is being held to an impossible standard. A standard that no country in history has ever reached. Israel has had a better ratio in fighting urban warfare between the killing of collateral damage civilians to the killing of terrorists. Yet, Israel is condemned more than all the other countries combined. Israel has a much better record than when England and the US fought the War on Terror. When the enemy uses their own civilians as human shields there is obviously going to be greater collateral damage. This is part of Hamas’s goal, to put Israel in an impossible situation and the media falls for it. In the book I write about the Continuum of Civility. It refers to the urban fighting where terrorists do not wear uniforms and many blend in with the civilian population. Some are carpenters by day and terrorists by night or vice versa.”
As Sheryl Sandberg said, “Silence is complicity, and in the face of terror, we cannot be quiet.” Quoting an Israeli official, the world needs to understand “If Israel’s enemies laid down their arms, there would-be peace. If Israel laid down their arms there would be genocide.” As proven on October 7th.
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