Showing posts with label Gandhi. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Gandhi. Show all posts

Wednesday, February 6, 2008

The Real Gandhi

FrontPageMag has an interesting article on the very well known Mahatma Gandhi:

When Hitler, whom Gandhi said was "not a bad man," was at the height of his power, Gandhi urged the Jews to commit collective suicide. As Richard Grenier noted in The Gandhi Nobody Knows, Gandhi later told biographer Louis Fischer, that the Jews died anyway didn't they? To be fair, he also told the English "Let them [the German National Socialist invaders] take possession of your beautiful island with your many beautiful buildings. You will give all these, but neither your souls, nor your minds." Gandhi's letter to Hitler began "Dear friend." Nothing came of it so perhaps it was poorly worded, like his grandson's January 7 screed. The Mahatma's stand on nonviolence, racism and colonialism was also rather shaky.

[ Full Article ]

That FrontPageMag article reminded me of a video I watched recently on YouTube.

I don't completely approve of the following video because it makes a couple of errors. For example, the video groups Iran and the Arab world together. While both the Arab world and Iran are often one unit in their animosity towards Israel, Iranians (Persians) are not Arab by definition.

Having said that, the video relays a powerful and relevent message.

While you watch it, note the following quote by Gandhi:

The Jews should have offered themselves to the butcher’s knife. They should have thrown themselves into the sea from cliffs.

[ Update: The source / context of this quote ]

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Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Nissim Reuben at MJE

On Friday, Nissim Reuben came to speak at MJE. I attended the event with Irina, longdistancedancer, my dad, and other friends of mine. Mr. Reuben spoke of Jews in India, as well as the diplomatic connections between India and Israel. He mentioned that Gandhi was an antizionist, and this hurt the diplomatic ties between India and Israel for 40 years. Sadly, this manifests today in India's support for Iran. It is a grave concern of mine. India and Israel have been subtely friends for many years, particularly since Israel helped India win the 1999 Kargil War, and Israel helped India in 1962 its war with China. That said, diplomatic channels did not open until BJP was in power in 1992. Mr. Reuben stated that the connections between India and Israel have only become more deeply ingrained, even as Congress is now in power.

I am hoping that the event on Friday will only be a kick off to what I see as many future events between Jews and Indians. I see so much in common between Jews and Indians, and so much that can be learned from each other; hopefully in time others will come to my conclusion.