Ehud Olmert’s senior deputy lambasted Mahmoud Abbas for likening Israel’s offensive in the Gaza Strip to the Holocaust. The Palestinian Authority president said Friday that Israeli attacks in Gaza, which targeted Hamas rocket crews but also caused civilian casualties, were a “worse holocaust” than what befell European Jewry during World War II.
“I think this was a wretched statement to make,” Deputy Prime Minister Haim Ramon told Israel Radio Monday. “What is happening in Gaza in no way resembles the Holocaust.”
Using Abbas’ familiar name, Ramon went on to say, “Abu Mazen knows that there is a very simple way to stop everything that is going on in Gaza — for the terrorist groups, the terrorist state, to stop firing Kassams against civilian population centers.”
There was no immediate comment from Jerusalem, which is keen to preserve peace talks with Abbas amid Palestinian threats to halt them.
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