Holy War, Unholy Peace - June 1994
	A recent visit by hundreds of homosexuals and lesbians to the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem bears more mention than perhaps it has received.  This group of people, many of whom were Jewish, visited the memorial to pay their respects to the hundreds of thousands of homosexuals that were killed as a part of the Nazi Holocaust during World War Two.  Another reason for their visit was to publicize the non-recognition of their plight, as a group, by Holocaust remembrance authorities around the world. One thing that was, perhaps, not intended by this group in their visit to Yad Vashem, was their acknowledgement of the genocidal aims of the Nazis against the Jews.  There are many holocaust memorial shrines around the world, in Europe, Israel, and even the United States.  If these people had wanted to remember their fallen members, would it not have been better for them to travel to Europe, to the scene of these atrocities, than to come to Jerusalem?  Yad Vashem is primarily a Holocaust museum, not a place for pilgrimage. Yet, these homosexuals and lesbians came from around the world to Yad Vashem for their remembrance.  Although it may not have been intended as such, this choice of destination does recognize the primacy of Jewish victims in the Holocaust, and the primacy of the Holocaust in Jewish history. For the past thirty years or more, Yasser Arafat has been conducting a war of genocide against Israel on behalf of all Arabs.  Recently, certain world leaders believe he has moderated his aims, and is truly interested in reaching a peaceful compromise with Israel.  But immediately after reaching a major agreement which supposedly would bring that peace, Arafat was once again the terrorist par excellence he has always been, calling for a "jihad to liberate Jerusalem". Genocide is nothing new to Jews.  For centuries we have suffered unspeakable horrors at the hand of a world that did not care.  The culmination was to have been the Holocaust.  Yet we see that even the mass murder of one third of the world's Jews, along with other identifiable "alien" groups, was not enough to end the cycle of hatred and violence that has pursued the Jews through history.  The hate, incitement, violence, and death, continue to pursue Jews today, even with the establishment of the State of Israel, and the supposed defence that provides to the world's Jews. Homosexuals understand that violence can be persistent against identifiable groups, regardless of efforts made to rectify the situation.  They understand that the State of Israel is the largest attempt in history to rectify such a situation, and they recognize what it represents to the perennial victims of history.  This may be a reason for their pilgrimage to Israel for their remembrance. Unfortunately, Yitzchak Rabin and Shimon Peres do not recognize the symbol that is Israel.  They do not recognize the need for a strong and secure State of Israel that results from such hatred as the Holocaust.  They do not recognize the need for continued security of Israel that results from such neighbours and regional aspirants as Yasser Arafat, whose only purpose is to inflict more death and suffering on Jews in any way that he can. Israel stands in the way of successful genocide.  These homosexuals realize this.  Arafat realizes this.  Rabin and Peres do not.  How ironic that the biblically cursed and the anti-semite see more value in Israel than the people elected to lead the country. Copyright 1994.  Reproduction in electronic or print formats by permission only.