THE HOLOCAUST IS OVER WE MUST RISE FROM ITS ASHES

square and deserted the universal humanistic responsibility that had set him free.Almost always, when he had to decide on matters of Judaism, Israel, and society—which side he was on—he chose exactly the opposite pole from where my Jewishvalues were. Sharansky had become a typical faithful speaker for nationalist,chauvinist Israel, denying in his decisions his past as remembered by freedom loversin the West.On the Knesset podium that day, Sharansky was consistent with his isolationistviews:Mr. Chairman, Mr. Prime Minister, ministers, members of theKnesset. I will modify my speech a little following the speech ofKnesset member Avraham Burg. Twenty-five years ago I was anAliyah activist and human rights activist in Russia, formerly the SovietUnion . . . And I was sure, just as Avraham Burg is, that democraticEurope is our ally, and that after the Holocaust, it was impossible thatthere could be anti-Semitism in the democratic free world . . . [Today]my position and my concern are exactly the opposite of those ofBurg. I think that on the day when they teach in Europe about theHolocaust, on that day, indeed, they ask if it can happen again . . .Then what should we be afraid of? . . . One must not forget that it didnot happen in one day. Before they collected Jews to the trains, beforethey brought them to the extermination camps, before they burnedthem, they had to persuade tens of thousands, maybe millions. Theyhad to convince that a Jew was less than a human, that it wassubhuman, that to kill a Jew is not to violate “Thou shalt not kill,” but itis almost a mitzvah. If there are no people who think so, who feel so,you cannot motivate a people, all the people, to Holocaust.So, whether to talk about this? Yes. The preparation has alreadybegun. Demonization of the Jews is happening . . . the new anti-Semitism is a real danger to the continued existence of the State ofIsrael. The Palestinian terrorists can kill people, and they cancomplicate our lives. They cannot endanger our existence. But thepropaganda that delegitimizes our right to exist, the propaganda withthe goal of isolating us—this is the true danger. Against this we have to