The Nuclear (and the) Holocaust: Israel, Iran, and the Shadows of Auschwitz

Abstract

The main thesis of this article is that the Holocaust is indispensable for understanding Israel's treatment of what it perceives as the greatest current threat to its security -the Iranian nuclear program. The Holocaust's impact deviates in crucial ways from established teaching regarding balance of power in general and nuclear deterrence in particular. Mutually Assured Destruction, the distinction between capabilities and intentions, and even linkage politics -all of those basic concepts are profoundly altered in the Israeli case by the (often conscious) presence of the Holocaust. The Holocaust's influence is evident in the Israeli belief that deterring Iran might be impossible: MAD does not apply to the Iranians since, like Hitler, their regime is considered mad: its commitment to destructing the "Zionist entity" is understood as trumping any standard realpolitik calculations. This perception of Iran generates the conviction that the Iranian nuclear project must be stopped at all costs: Israel must prepare for the possibility that the Jews will once again be left alone and, if need be, launch a strike against Iran to prevent a potential second Holocaust. There will not be time for "accommodation" to the threat.

Transmitting the sum of all fears: Iranian nuclear threat salience among offspring of Holocaust survivors.

“…Following Solomon and Ginzburg (1998), the current findings can be interpreted as reflecting a symbolic association between the Iranian nuclear threat and the Holocaust, an association that may be more notable among OHS. Naturally, it is difficult to determine the exact process producing this association, because perceptions and behaviors transmitted from survivors to their offspring may instigate such an association, while the general Israeli discourse (Nili, 2011) and Iranian rhetoric (Jaspal, 2013) further tighten this association. However, it is more probable that factors inside and outside the survivor family intertwine in a more complicated way and jointly contribute to the association between the Iranian threat and the trauma of the Holocaust.…”

“…A recent national survey (Ben-Meir & Bagno-Moldavsky, 2013) showed that Israelis view the Iranian nuclear threat as the most serious national security issue confronting the country. Moreover, the Israeli discourse is abundant with analogies between the Iranian nuclear threat and the danger of annihilation that existed during the Holocaust (Nili, 2011). These analogies are also based on Iranian anti-Israeli rhetoric and Holocaust denial (Jaspal, 2013).…”

Historical analogies under dispute: Reactions of Israeli Jews to analogies between the Holocaust and the plight of African asylum seekers in Israel

“…Over the years rivals and enemies have frequently been equated with Nazis, and comparisons to Holocaust situations are not uncommon. Examples range from the famous saying that a withdrawal from the Occupied Territories would be a return to “Auschwitz borders” (Mann, 1998) to likening the Iranian regime to the Nazis (Nili, 2011). Holocaust exposure is associated with support for aggressive policies and militancy among the wider public (Canetti et al, 2018; Hirschberger et al, 2017), thus explaining such common use by politicians.…”