On March 21, 2022, United States Secretary of State Anthony Blinken spoke at the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. Blinken’s remarks focused on the decision by the US government to declare that the Burmese military committed a genocide against the Rohningya. The location of the talk was consistent with the museum‘s mission to be a resource to teach “about the Holocaust and other genocides and mass atrocities.“
Blinken never mentioned Israel in his speech, yet it was featured prominently on the US embassy in Israel’s website, including a link to the video and the full text. One could not find a link to the speech on the websites of embassies to other countries (also not mentioned in the speech), except for Italy.
One must assume that the US government opted to post a speech about the genocide of the Rohingya on Israel’s website because the Holocaust was about the annihilation of Jews, and Israel is the only Jewish State. It is unclear why Italy was also selected.
In his remarks, Blinken mentioned the ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya from regions of Burma but has never discussed the Jordanians ethnically cleansing the Jews from Judea and Samaria and eastern Jerusalem in 1948-9.
Blinken talked about the Burmese military’s so-called “Clean and Beautiful Nation” activities which led to atrocities, but neglected to mention the popular Palestinian political-terrorist group Hamas’s 1988 charter (article 3) which urges everyone to “raise the banner of Jihad in the face of the oppressors, so that they would rid the land and the people of their [Jews] uncleanliness, vileness and evil.“
Blinken also discussed “Burma’s 1982 citizenship law, which effectively excluded Rohingya from citizenship and denied them full political rights, echoing the 1935 Nuremberg Laws that stripped Jews of their German citizenship,” but has thus far refused to similarly call out the 1954 Jordanian citizenship law which specifically excluded Jews.
Blinken noted the Burmese “dehumanizing hate speech,” in which “Rohingya were compared to fleas, to thorns, to an invasive species,” but hasn’t called out Palestinian Authority officials who call Israel “the greatest cancer,” and the leader of Iran who similarly called Israel “a cancerous tumor.“
Blinken knows the warning signs and said “Understanding the contours of this [genocidal] path is a core part of the Holocaust Museum’s mission. It’s crucial to all of us who are committed to living up to the maxim of “Never again.” By learning to spot the signs of the worst atrocities, we’re empowered to prevent them.“
The current United States government clearly understands that the Holocaust relates to Jews and the importance of the subject to the Jewish State. So one must wonder why it deliberately ignores the genocidal behavior of Israel’s Arab and Muslim neighbors.
Regrettably, it may be because the current administration is adopting the Palestinian Arabs’ false narrative that Israel was created because of the Holocaust, blinding US officials to the deeply-instilled anti-Semitism in many parts of Arab society.
Related articles:
Seeing the Holocaust Through Nakba Eyes
The Arabists of the US Embassy in Israel