Uproar caused on Israeli leader's WWII analogy with Rafah offensive

By: Ahmed Hammadi

HELD JERUSALEM: An Israeli Cabinet minister’s remarks on Sunday have added fire to a debate in Israel over its six-day offensive in the Gaza Strip camp which left dozens of Palestinians martyred and several homes leveled.

Justice Minister Yosef Lapid, a Holocaust survivor, said during a Cabinet discussion he was reminded of the suffering of his family under Nazi rule when he saw TV images of the Israeli offensive in the Palestinian refugee camp. He called for a halt in the demolitions.

Lapid insisted he was not likening army actions to Nazi policies. However, he said the picture of an elderly woman searching for medication in the rubble of a home razed by Israel in the Rafah camp reminded him of his grandmother.

Infuriated Cabinet colleagues said that even if unspoken, the analogy was clear, and demanded he retract his comments.

In a radio interview later, Lapid revealed that the army is considering demolishing some 2,000 homes in Rafah to expand a patrol road between the camp and the border with Egypt.

Military officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed for the first time that they are exploring plans involving the demolition of 700 to 2,000 homes. “We look like monsters in the eyes of the world… This makes me sick,” Lapid told Israel Radio.

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