Ghandi’s response to the Holocaust was to tell Jews to commit mass-suicide to awaken the conscience of the world. Do I want a Palestinian Ghandi? I don’t think so.

I see the quote from Al-maeda (Quran) above. In case you don’t know, that is the chapter that authorizes Muslims to kill and brutally torture anybody that opposes them (5.33) and is dedicated to teaching hate and violence against non-Muslims. Of course, Muslims never consider the hate and violence in the Quran or the evil deeds of Mohammad. Perhaps verse 101 explains this attitude (” O ye who believe! Ask not questions about things which, if made plain to you, may cause you trouble”).

That is right. Never think, never ask why, never consider the facts… Just believe, hate and kill.

There is no hope for the Middle East. Jews will not offer their throats to be murdered and Muslims will not stop the hate.

KACTUZ

about L-MAEDA

I wonder, though, whether your question is framed properly. Do we need a Palestinian Gandhi, to shame Israel into withdrawal from the territories, an eventuality that I also personally hope to see occur? Or do we simply need Palestinian moderates, who will refrain from attacking Israel, and focus instead on building their own society, albeit under challenging political and economic conditions? What if Palestinians in Gaza had simply desisted in attacking Israel after it had forcibly uprooted its own citizens in Gaza, rather than escalating their bombardment? That demonstrable willingness to live peacefully in a contiguous state would alone have been sufficient, I believe, to carry the momentum of popular sentiment further in favor of a total withdrawal from the territories, with the concurrent establishment of a recognized Palestinian political entity. This would not have entailed marching unarmed into a phalanx of tanks, but only a willingness to begin the arduous process of creating the institutions of state. In short, I suppose I’ve become enough of a pessimist to believe that you have given them too much credit by reducing their available options to either peaceful or violent resistance. Why can’t they just try co-existence, even in the face of hardships imposed by the Israeli military presence? At the very least, it would not have provoked the war in January.

In reality, of course, Gandhi said he thought that “the Jewish religion is a very fine religion” and that “[a]nti-Semitism is really a remnant of barbarism[.]“

Gandhi was, regarding the Jews, nothing more than a typical British-style genteel antisemite. He loved dead Jews, but had little use for live ones who were trying to survive. He wrote that he had little respect for Judaism as a religion, didn’t like the Bible (“too warlike”), yet like so many others, was very forgiving towards Muslim violence. He even justified Arab violence in Palestine, saying he could understand why they were violent. So much for this “principled proponent of non-violence-satyagraha”. Many Indians grew tired of him, viewing him as an apologist for Muslim violence, calling him “Muhammed Gandhi”.
Yes, I agree with Orwell that he was a major improvement on other revolutionary leaders like Mao, Stalin, Lenin, and he deserved credit that India did not become a totalitarian dictatorship as did other undeveloped large countries.
Having said, this I stand by my assessment of him as an antisemite.