I don't care what Joe Lieberman thinks. Speaking as a Jew, President Bush's remarks at the Knesset today marked a new level of depravity. I thought his solidarity through golf comment was asinine, but this...this...is beyond reproach. Among the galaxy of irresponsible, foolish, and generally incoherent statements George W. Bush has uttered during his presidency, this one hurts me the most. He probably has said more universally damaging things during his tenure, but comparing Barack Obama to a Nazi appeaser just deflates my lungs. Sure, Nazi comparisons are made all the time, but to my ears, this was singularly the most hurtful thing he has ever said.
Some seem to believe we should negotiate with terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along. We have heard this foolish delusion before. As Nazi tanks crossed into Poland in 1939, an American senator declared: "Lord, if only I could have talked to Hitler, all of this might have been avoided." We have an obligation to call this what it is – the false comfort of appeasement, which has been repeatedly discredited by history.
By itself, comparing the (all but certain) Democratic presidential nominee to a Nazi appeaser--someone whose actions facilitated the killing of millions of people-- is a reprehensible statement. But Mr. Bush, you crossed a line. You stood in the Knesset, in the home of the Jewish people, and compared Senator Obama to someone whose actions helped bring about the savage slaughter of six million of us. No, Mr. Bush. You cannot do that. You have no right to use the murder of millions for political gain. You have no right to link the Holocaust to your war of convenience. You, sir, are without shame.