The American Jewish Congress and the Simon Wiesenthal have joined the Anti-Defamation League in condemning Rush Limbaugh’s comparison of the Democratic Party to Nazi Germany. So has the National Jewish Democratic Council, which is asking its activists to sign a petition to Rush’s radio company, Clear Channel Communications, and ask them to "stop allowing Limbaugh to abuse the memory of the more than 12 million Holocaust victims who suffered and died at the hands of Adolf Hitler and his Nazi regime."
The American Jewish Congress said Limbaugh’s remarks "are grossly offensive and intolerable. They reflect a nasty and hyperbolic tendency in our political culture, one which makes reasoned discourse impossible, confuses disagreement with evil, and which makes it impossible to distinguish evil from ordinary politics. It is not acceptable from either the right or the left, both of which have in recent memory used such analyses."
The Simon Wiesenthal Center’s Rabbi Marvin Hier said "Americans have every right to be critical of the President’s health care plan but we demean ourselves and everything that America stands for when we compare either Democrats or Republicans to the Nazi Third Reich. Some of us may be too liberal and others too conservative, but none of us are Nazis."
The AJCongress and Wiesenthal releases are after the jump:[[READMORE]]
First, the SWC:
The Simon Wiesenthal Center criticized those who have injected Adolf Hitler into the discussion of President Obama’s health care plan.
"It is preposterous to try and make a connection between the President’s health care logo and the Nazi Party symbol, the /Reichsadler/" said Rabbi Marvin Hier, founder and dean of the Simon
Wiesenthal Center."Americans have every right to be critical of the President’s health care plan but we demean ourselves and everything that America stands for when we compare either Democrats or Republicans to the Nazi Third Reich."
"Some of us may be too liberal and others too conservative, but none of us are Nazis," Rabbi Hier concluded.
And the American Jewish Congress:
Rush Limbaugh’s comments comparing President Barak Obama (and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi) to Hitler and the Nazis are grossly offensive and intolerable. They reflect a nasty and hyperbolic tendency in our political culture, one which makes reasoned discourse impossible, confuses disagreement with evil, and which makes it impossible to distinguish evil from ordinary politics. It is not acceptable from either the right or the left, both of which have in recent memory used such analyses.
It behooves all participants in the political process to unequivocally disavow such comparisons and to make it plain that peddlers of such noxious comparisons have no place in our politics, no matter how large their audiences.
We urge all Americans to make plain their disgust at the use of such ill-founded comparisons by talk show hosts of all stripes by a prompt use of the off button.
The American Jewish Congress is a membership association of Jewish Americans, organized to defend Jewish interests at home and abroad, through public policy advocacy, in the courts, Congress, the executive branch and state and local governments. It also works overseas with others who are similarly engaged.
