Sunday, June 05, 2005

'Concentration Camp Guard' vs 'Jobsworth' (comment)

Johann Hari thinks that

'human rights abuses commited by Jews provoke far more rage
across the world than human rights abuses committed by any other group'
(Independent 23.2.5).

Which is an odd way of seeing things. If it were true then surely Israel would have been bombed and invaded by now? I guess that Israel gets away with a lot because of European guilt about the holocaust. From a Middle East perspective this latitude seems unfair given the fact that that particular piece of genocide had nothing to do with Arabs and yet they have to pick up the bill. Surely it should be the Germans who are expelled from their land to make way for the new state of Israel - its the least they could do - an outrageous suggestion I know - but it seems ok when those asked to pay have brown skins and live far away.

Ken Livingstone's remark may be a bit OTT but lets remember that 'concentration camp guard' is a common figure of speech - signifying those who are basically just doing a job without worrying too much about those on the receiving end. It's a stronger version of 'jobsworth' - sometimes you have to sting people if you want them to wake up to the fact that whats good for their career is trampling on my head

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