A displaced person's camp in Austria after World War II and the Holocaust. Photo: provided photo.

In today’s world, it is chic to use the Holocaust in order to promote your own agenda. And now it’s being used by activists against Israel to denigrate and debase the Jewish State. Look at the signs at any pro-Palestinian demonstration and you will see the most vile accusations against Jews and the Israeli leadership. Recently, 327 Jewish Holocaust survivors and their extended families, placed a despicable ad, which The New York Times in its wisdom, decided to run in its paper. The ad compared Israel’s actions to atrocities committed in the Holocaust.

But studying the ad carefully tells a rather different story. First of all, very few of those 327 individuals actually experienced Nazi atrocities personally. My count was about 14 people. The other 26 survivors were either very young or babies, which is not to minimize an involvement of some kind. However, the 287 other so called “survivors” only had a secondary experience with the Holocaust through parents, grandparents, or other relatives (I too am a descendant of Holocaust survivors). Yet these self-proclaimed morality experts jumped on the anti-Semitic bandwagon with all the people who have been terrorizing Jews and Israel since 1948.

Since the Holocaust represents the greatest absolute evil in human history, the use of Nazi analogies, graphics, photos, and comparisons will bring many people to your side of an issue. This is especially important to understand since the other side – Zionists and Israel – cannot use Nazi ideology to describe their enemies – even though Israel’s enemies today may possibly be as bad as the Nazis. Hamas’ leaders are very similar ideologically to Adolf Hitler – the only difference is that Jews today have the power and skills to defend themselves. And there lies the problem that the world Left has with Israel. The Left does not divide humanity into Good and Evil. They divide the world into Weak and Strong; they have compassion for the weak and disdain for the strong – which is why they hate America and Israel.

The Jewish Left is even worse; and most of those 327 so called “Jewish” individuals, many of whom do not even practice Judaism, are hard Left. If we understand the Stockholm Syndrome, where kidnapped victims began to identify with and support their kidnappers on political issues, we can begin to understand the “Israel-Palestinian Syndrome,” where some Jews like J Street, begin to identify with their enemies’ issues and arguments, even though those issues include the destruction of Israel and the murder of Jews worldwide.

The International Jewish anti-Zionist Network’s charge of a “massacre in Gaza” is an obscenity. Comparisons to the Holocaust actually trivialize the Holocaust. How can they have the audacity to compare a war that Hamas began and has approximately 2,000 casualties, to the burning, gassing, and torturing of 6 million Jews. The real problem is that these Leftist Jews are mostly pacifists who hate war, because part of the reality of war is that civilians will also get killed – not just the military. However, someone should tell each one of these 327 Jews that if not for war and a lot of German babies dying in Dresden and Berlin, they would not be here today. Unfortunately war is sometimes the only answer, which is an important lesson of the Holocaust.

It was Joesph Goebbels who said, “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it.” This was a Nazi ideal, and the Israel haters, both Muslims and Leftist Jews, have all picked up on it. The Times ad talked about the massive lie of “extreme racist dehumanization of the Palestinians in Israeli society.” What these ignorant Jews do not realize is that one fifth of Israel’s society is made up of Palestinian Arabs who are equal Israeli citizens. They vote, they have businesses, they work in Israel, and they have Arab representation in the Israeli Knesset. For God’s sake, there is an Arab justice on the Israeli Supreme Court.

Another lesson of the Holocaust besides the big lie is victimhood. The Nazis blamed the Jews for the ills in their society, just like the Palestinians and those 327 Jews blame Israel for the ills in Palestinian society. Victimhood is a terrific and convenient political tool that motivates people whose leadership has abused them, to feel disadvantaged and marginalized. It is all because of The Zionists aka The Israelis aka The Jews – who are the culprits of all their problems. Where have we heard that before?

Finally, this group of 327 calls for the economic, cultural, and academic boycott of Israel – a page taken right out of the Nazi playbook where the Germans boycotted Jewish businesses, fired all Jews who worked for them, and then Kristallnacht – where they burned all the Jewish books and synagogues – a true academic boycott. Shame on every one of those 327 Jews who without Israel today, would be experiencing the same death threats and abuse that we see in France. Today, our enemies know we have massive power because of Israel – and we will never walk into gas chambers again – despite those 327 Jews.

Irwin N. Graulich is a motivational speaker and author on ethics, morality, Judaism, religion, and politics, and president of Bloch Graulich Whelan Inc., a leading marketing, communications and branding company in New York City. He is a child of two Holocaust survivors.