Shocking Beyond Belief

I had a college roommate who claimed not to believe that the holocaust had happened. She also denied that slavery happened. She was supposedly a nice little Italian Catholic girl from a good Catholic family. I wonder if her parents knew that she had some of the views that she had or if, despite their gracious manner, were the source of her hate-speech? There was absolutely no logic behind her views or statements (she called Native Americans half-breeds and once wrote Puerto Rican terrorist group on the door of some Puerto Rican exchange students in our dorm). I've never understood what it buys people to deny the holocaust and other tragic events in global history.

Iran's hard-line president said Tuesday that Israel will one day be "wiped out" as the Soviet Union was, drawing applause from participants in a conference casting doubt on the Holocaust.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's comments were likely to further fuel the outcry prompted by the two-day gathering, which has gathered some of Europe's and the United States' best-known Holocaust deniers.

Anger over the conference could further isolate Iran as the West considers sanctions in the standoff over Tehran's nuclear program.

But Ahmadinejad appeared to revel in his meeting Tuesday with conference delegates, shaking hands with American participants and sitting near six anti-Israel Jewish participants, dressed in black ultra-Orthodox coats and hats.

"The Zionist regime will be wiped out soon the same way the Soviet Union was, and humanity will achieve freedom," Ahmadinejad said during Tuesday's meeting in his offices, according to the official IRNA news agency.

He called for elections among "Jews, Christians and Muslims so the population of Palestine can select their government and destiny for themselves in a democratic manner."

Ahmadinejad has used anti-Israeli rhetoric and cast doubt on the Holocaust to rally anti-Western supporters at home and abroad, particularly in Asia and the Middle East. Several times he has referred to the Holocaust as a "myth" used to impose the state of Israel on the Arab world.

"The Holocaust is the device used as the pillar of Zionist imperialism, Zionist aggression, Zionist terror and Zionist murder," David Duke, a former Ku Klux Klan leader and former state representative in Louisiana, told The Associated Press.

Ahmadinejad announced the conference would set up a "fact-finding commission" to determine whether the Holocaust happened or not. The commission will "help end a 60-year-old dispute," he said.
[...]
Rabbi Moshe David Weiss, one of six members attending from the group Jews United Against Zionism, told delegates, "We don't want to deny the killing of Jews in World War II, but Zionists have given much higher figures for how many people were killed."

"They have used the Holocaust as a device to justify their oppression," he said. His group rejects the creation of Israel on the grounds that it violates Jewish religious law.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair said Tuesday that the conference was "shocking beyond belief" and "a symbol of sectarianism and hatred."

Tony Blair is right. This is shocking beyond belief. But I am not sure what part shocks me most. Is it that someone has given David Duke yet another platform? Is it that even some Jews are participating in this "conference?" Is it that Ahmadinejad is still purposely using language to piss us off? Is it that they even have such a conference to debate something that was already decided upon? I may have issues with Zionism and the way Israel behaves in the region but denying the holocaust is not going to fix or change anything.