T. Belman. This was a horrendous mistake by the Trump administration. They doubled down when they called the criticism “pathetic”. And now they are calling it “asinine”.
Deputy assistant to Trump says that criticism of statement on Holocaust was motivated solely by a desire to attack the president.
A deputy assistant to Donald Trump said that criticism of the White House statement on the Holocaust that omitted Jews was motivated solely by a desire to attack the president.
Sebastian Gorka lashed out after being asked Monday by conservative talk show host Michael Medved if he would acknowledge that it was “questionable” for the White House not to specifically acknowledge the Jewish people in its Holocaust remembrance day statement last month.
“No, I’m not going to admit it,” Gorka said. “Because it’s asinine. It’s absurd. You’re making a statement about the Holocaust. Of course it’s about the Holocaust because that’s what the statement’s about. It’s only reasonable to twist it if your objective is to attack the president.”
In a statement last month to mark International Holocaust Remembrance Day, the White House noted the “victims, survivors, heroes of the Holocaust,” but did not specifically mention the Jewish people. Six million Jews were killed in the Nazi genocide.
The omission was broadly condemned by Jewish groups from across the political spectrum — including the Anti-Defamation League, the Zionist Organization of America and the Republican Jewish Coalition — with the notable exception of the World Jewish Congress, which said the statement “appropriately commemorates” the victims of the Nazis.
In response, White House spokesman Sean Spicer called the criticism “pathetic.” Other administration officials have also defended the statement, saying the decision not to specify the Jews was a deliberate effort to be “inclusive.”
Gorka, who was formerly an associate dean at the National Defense University and worked with the FBI’s counterterrorism division before joining the Trump administration, was quoted by JTA in 2006 defending the reappearance of a Hungarian flag appropriated by the pro-Nazi Hungarian Arrow Cross.
The flag wavers “are a soft target, because how do you prove you’re not a fascist?” Gorka said. “If you say eight centuries of history can be eradicated by 18 months of fascist distortion of symbols, you’re losing historic perspective.”
@ Sebastien Zorn:
Lauder was also smacking ADL’s Obama mole Greenblatt.
Lauder knows a diplomatic nod to Russia on the Holocaust will pay off with Hezbollah.
First time I think well of Ronald Lauder.
@ LM Howard:
Ronald Lauder, President of the World Jewish Congress, agrees with you (and me) except he didn’t call it a blunder.
http://www.breitbart.com/jerusalem/2017/01/28/world-jewish-congress-slams-anti-defamation-league-crying-wolf-antisemitism/
@ Birdalone:
Anachronistic attack makes it look as if Kushner’s Grandmother was talking about Trump when she was talking in a 1982 Oral History Project about how hard it was for Jews to escape.
http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2017/01/30/fakenews-website-uses-kushner-grandmother-attack-trump/
Of course Gorka is correct. THE MENTIONING OF THE JEWS IN THE STATEMENT ON HOLOCAUST IS COMPLETELY REDUNDANT. I am not blaming the gentiles I am blaming the Jews who forgot or perhaps never knew that the term “Holocaust” or “Shoa” in Hebrew pertains explicitly to the destruction of the European Jewry. For reasons of the political correctness in order to weaken the sense of the tragedy that befall the Jewish people the meaning of the term was expanded to include in it other victims of the Nazi Germany. With the passing time the word Holocaust became devalued and used nowadays cheaply. The proper way to describe the barbarism of the Nazi Germany is to state that it perpetrated Holocaust and also murdered scores of other people. The Holocaust means Shoa – nothing else.
Maybe Jared Kushner’s grandmother wanted to be remembered as a fighter, not a victim. She survived Nazis by joining the Bielski brothers “Defiance”
Trump is also fighting Identity Politics in the USA. I repeat: The Identity Politics of this new Democratic Party relies on a ‘Holocaust Victim’ frame for American Jewish Identity.
Anyone who imagines that the Holocaust was anything but an antisemitic conspiracy to commit mass murder against Jews does not have a sufficient grasp of history to sit in a position of leadership. The entire thesis of the Nazi Party and the Third Reich was that all the world’s problems were the fault of the Jews. That was it. Even homosexuality was something blamed on the avowedly degenerate influence of Jews. Everything was blamed on the Jews and the Final Solution to the so called Jewish Problem was to kill them all, quietly and out of the prying eyes of history.
The Trump administration dropped the ball on this one and Spicer really fouled himself suggesting that complaints were “pathetic”. But he mentions priests as being victims of the Holocaust alluding that somehow the Catholic Church was also a victim of the Third Reich, a canard frequently repeated by the Catholic Church and Spicer, being a Catholic, might be under this influence.
the negative comments about Sebastian Zorka are asinine. he’s a good guy, and if you knew how he and his father went literally through hell to get out of Nazi- held Hungary and later communist-held Hungary, you would show some respect.
Trump Administration so far has been rushed in their hurry and zeal to accomplish promises. Along the way the early way they have made some mistakes.
One of the mistakes was the ill worded statement on the Holocaust. The IDF by the way just made the same mistake and out the Jews as Holocaust victims in their statement. They when called on it admitted their error and said they would do better next year.
The Trump Administration is very defensive which is somewhat understandable as they are being attacked left right and center. Their modus operandi is to hit back and not to admit mistakes.
They could have ended the whole saga by simply saying that Jews where major victims of the Holocaust or something similar and say it was an oversight. Not admitting mistakes always makes things worse.
Some who attacked them about this are just attacking them about everything else, so yes they are being attacked.
Israel has bigger problems and the Trump Administration is not anti-Semitic and hopefully should be a true friend and ally.
I also believe that the Trump administration blundered stupidly and even more stupidly doubled down.
But Israel is in a fight for survival. And Trump is an ally.
Jews should save their energy to attack those who threaten their survival.
@ Sebastien Zorn:
I meant “who is anti-jihadist”. “not” was a typo.
This was also problematic:
“Exclusive: Trump to focus counter-extremism program solely on Islam – sources”
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-extremists-program-exclusiv-idUSKBN15G5VO?utm_campaign=trueAnthem:+Trending+Content&utm_content=5892aff004d3012ade6d4b39&utm_medium=trueAnthem&utm_source=twitter
So, White Neo-Nazis like the ones terrorizing Jews in Whitefish Montana and Klansmen like the one who shot up a Black church are off the list.
It’s probably just a decision that we are at war and it’s necessary to focus but it makes me uneasy. But, it may be just one program. There may be others. Trump’s enemies are looking for anything.
Also, the Holocaust universalisation sounds like something it’s more likely that a Jew uneasy about being accused of dual loyalty would do.
It was also a real screw-up to have a Muslim-Brotherhood connected mullah speak at a White House Prayer Breakfast, especially as it turns out the verses he used are usually interpreted as implicit curses of Jews and Christians. He obviously picked him because of some anti-Jihadist statements he made.
Rather, I remember Front Page Magazine at one point listed some genuine moderate Muslim organizations given the cold shoulder by Obama. He should have consulted with David Horowitz or someone in that organization.
There’s also this guy. I’ve been getting his mailings for a while and he seems to be a former Jihadist who is not anti-Jihadist as he says. Trump might have asked his advice on who to pick.
http://www.tawfikhamid.com/
They probably decided to wing it instead of seeking advice from the right people. Dr. Marvin Hier of the Simon Wiesenthal Center accepted Trump’s invitation to the inauguration much to the consternation of the liberals. He would have been the perfect person to ask to craft the statement. Hopefully, next year. I can see how he doesn’t want to apologize about anything. Putin understands that. Most of the world does. Once you start apologizing, it never stops.
I’ve often told my violin students, never wince on stage when you make a mistake. It’s counter-intuitive, but people won’t give you a break on account of knowing what you did. It’s more like bleeding in the water around sharks. On the other hand, if you pretend it went fine, people will think they misheard.
Gorka has become, regrettably, a good soldier in an administration that finds it hard to admit error. Too bad Trump has forgotten the business aphorism that “The best defense is a complete confession.”