Although I hesitate to write this piece, I must. Three times in the past twenty four hours, I have seen or heard about this demonstration. The first time, I was doing research for a Holocaust film project that we are working on, and I came across the headline “Who are the real Nazis?” by blogger Jonah Goldberg. His post started with the following quote.

‘”Go back to the oven! You need a big oven, that’s what you need!”‘


Jonah continued, “This is what one young woman thought passed for acceptable discourse during an anti-Israel rally last week in, of all places, Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Other chants were similarly unlovely. You can watch it on YouTube if you like.


But why bother? The Fort Lauderdale outburst is just one window on the upside-down world of Israel hatred. Across the Islamic world, and in too many points West, it is still considered a penetrating and poignant insight to call Zionists the “new Nazis.” For instance, in Sunday’s Gulf News, Mohammad Abdullah al Mutawa, a sociology professor at United Arab Emirates University, penned an essay titled “Zionists are the new Nazis.” He began: “Today, the whole world stands as a witness to the fact that the Nazi Holocaust was a mere lie, which was devised by the Zionists to blackmail humanity.”

At a Saturday protest in New York against Israel’s military assault on Gaza, some carried signs that read: “Israel: The Fourth Reich,” “Holocaust by Holocaust Survivors,” “Stop Israel’s Holocaust,” “Holocaust in Gaza” and “Stop the Zionist Genocide in Gaza.”‘ You can finish the reading the rest of Jonah’s piece here.

A few hours later, my mother called to report that she had seen the same story on Fox News. I reluctantly went to YouTube to search for the proof myself. It was the second video I watched where I saw the young Muslim woman say those words verbatim, on the street in Fort Lauderdale, not far from where I used to work when I lived there. Then, close to 2 am this morning, a fellow film maker emailed me a link to the same video.

Before I went to write this I went to CNN and FOXNews online. I am not seeing this story being covered. Well, I guess that’s why I’m embarking on this film project with a Survivor. We clearly need to continue education efforts to combat the hate and lies that are being shouted on streets here in the U.S., today, in 2009.

If you are interested in supporting our upcoming project, please drop me a line. Thanks for all your support.