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Where the Nazis Failed, America’s Largest Teachers’ Union Now Aims to Succeed
A drone view of the “Arbeit macht frei” gate at the former Auschwitz concentration camp ahead of the 80th anniversary of its liberation, Oswiecim, Poland, Jan. 10, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Kacper Pempel
Dr. Gregory Stanton, founder of Genocide Watch, argues that genocide unfolds through a ten-step process. It begins with early warning signs like discrimination and dehumanization, then escalates into violent persecution and extermination. But Stanton’s final stage might come as a surprise. He says genocide culminates with denial, and that denial is an integral part of the process itself.
Of course, denial can help relieve the conscience of the perpetrators, or be part of their efforts to shield themselves from legal culpability. But according to Stanton, denial is actually a final act of violence towards the victims. It completes their destruction by assaulting even the memory of the victim group, causing not only further psychological anguish but also cultural erasure.
This last step the Nazis were largely unable to achieve. How they singled out, persecuted, and ultimately mass murdered Jews is on display in museums worldwide. Jewish youth return to Auschwitz each year for the March of the Living, keeping the death camps and the memory of what took place there preserved.
But where the Nazis failed, the United States’ largest teachers’ union now aims to succeed.
The National Education Association (NEA), which represents nearly three million public school teachers, just released a new handbook instructing teachers to no longer tell their classes that Jews were the primary target of the Holocaust. Instead, they are now supposed to say that the Nazis killed “millions of victims of different faiths.”
The fact that Jews were taken to the gas chambers solely because of their religion is to be covered up; that the Holocaust was an assault on European Jewry is something they want to erase.
Why the change? The political context makes it clear. In the NEA’s view, the memory of Jewish persecution at the hands of the Nazis is being improperly used to exempt Israel from scrutiny over its conduct in Gaza, and the legacy of the Holocaust is causing undue hesitation in accusing Israel of genocidal conduct.
Believing that Jewish persecution by the Nazis has been misappropriated in defense of Israel, the NEA seeks to sever this link between the Holocaust and Jews.
And of course, they have a point about how history can be misused. Clinging to historical grievances often fuels efforts to correct past injustices. And all too easily, that impulse can lead to inflicting new injustices on others
But the NEA seems to have no such compunctions when it comes to the history of Palestine. The new manual goes into great detail about “the Nakba.” Teachers are to tell students that the establishment of the State of Israel resulted in the violent, forced displacement of at least 750,000 Palestinians from their homeland. They claim this is important in order to help understand what they call the ongoing trauma of Palestinian Americans today.
But doesn’t this kind of Nakba education risk inflaming tensions and fueling further violence? By their logic, wouldn’t it be better to offer a more generic description — something like, “When the State of Israel was established, some people of various ethnicities relocated to new places.”
After all, history has shown us that the ongoing effort by many Palestinians to rectify what they perceive as the injustice of 1948 has repeatedly led to violence against Israelis and Jews.
It seems that the NEA’s real aim is not to revise history in order to defuse its potential for fueling violence in the present, but rather to weaponize it in support of the Palestinians’ cause against Israel. Unfortunately, this will only plant the seeds for more conflict in the future.
We can’t achieve peace by denying the history or suffering of others. That only deepens resentment and hatred — and eventually, it will resurface. The path to peace begins with a willingness to face the past honestly: to acknowledge the pain, injustice, and harm both experienced and inflicted by all sides. From that shared reckoning, the foundations of peace can finally take hold
Memory of the Holocaust certainly should not be used to exempt Israel from legitimate criticism or scrutiny. But the solution is not to deny that the Holocaust was an attempt to destroy the Jewish people. Instead, we have to make sure that when we say never again, we mean never again for anyone — not for us, not for Palestinians, not for anyone else.
Shlomo Levin is the author of the Human Rights Haggadah, and he uses short fiction and questions to explore human rights at https://shalzed.com/
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Iran Says Direct Nuclear Talks With US Possible Under Suitable Conditions
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian speaks during a meeting in Ilam, Iran, June 12, 2025. Photo: Iran’s Presidential website/WANA (West Asia News Agency)/Handout via REUTERS
Iran could hold direct nuclear talks with the United States if conditions are suitable, first Vice President Mohammadreza Aref said on Tuesday, according to state media.
But he said US demands for Tehran to drop uranium enrichment entirely were “a joke.”
A sixth round of talks between Tehran and Washington was suspended following Israeli and US strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities in June.
Both powers accuse Iran of seeking nuclear weapons, an accusation Tehran has rejected.
“Iran is ready for negotiations under equal conditions in order to safeguard its interests … The Islamic Republic’s stance is in the direction that people want and, should there be suitable conditions, we are even ready for direct talks,” Aref said.
Previous rounds of negotiations, which started in April, were indirect, mediated by Oman. Washington says uranium enrichment in Iran constitutes a pathway to developing nuclear weapons and should be dropped.
On Sunday, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian made a controversial statement in favor of resuming negotiations with the US regardless of current levels of distrust.
“You don’t want to talk? Well then, what do you want to do? Do you want to go to war? … Going to talks does not mean we intend to surrender,” he said, adding that such issues should not be “approached emotionally.”
A senior commander of Iran‘s Revolutionary Guards, Aziz Ghazanfari, reacting to Pezeshkian’s comments on Monday, said foreign policy requires discretion, and careless statements by authorities can have serious consequences for the country.
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Australia’s Albanese Says Netanyahu ‘In Denial’ Over Gaza Humanitarian Situation
Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese speaks at a Labor party election night event, after local media projected the Labor Party’s victory, on the day of the Australian federal election, in Sydney, Australia, May 3, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Hollie Adams
Australia Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Tuesday his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu was “in denial” about the humanitarian situation in Gaza, a day after announcing Australia would recognize a Palestinian state for the first time.
Australia will recognize a Palestinian state at next month’s United Nations General Assembly, Albanese said on Monday, a move that adds to international pressure on Israel after similar announcements from France, Britain, and Canada.
Albanese said on Tuesday the Netanyahu government’s reluctance to listen to its allies contributed to Australia’s decision to recognize a Palestinian state.
“He again reiterated to me what he has said publicly as well, which is to be in denial about the consequences that are occurring for innocent people,” Albanese said in an interview with state broadcaster ABC, recounting a Thursday phone call with Netanyahu discussing the issue.
Australia’s decision to recognize a Palestinian state is conditional on commitments received from the Palestinian Authority, including that Islamist teoor group Hamas would have no involvement in any future state.
Right-leaning opposition leader Sussan Ley said the move, which breaks with long-held bipartisan policy over Israel and the Palestinian territories, risked jeopardizing Australia’s relationship with the United States.
SENTIMENT SHIFT
Albanese said as little as two weeks ago he would not be drawn on a timeline for recognition of a Palestinian state.
His incumbent center-left Labor Party, which won an increased majority at a general election in May, has previously been wary of dividing public opinion in Australia, which has significant Jewish and Muslim minorities.
But the public mood has shifted sharply after Israel said it planned to take military control of Gaza, amid increasing reports of hunger amongst its people.
Israel recently increased the flow of humanitarian supplies into Gaza, after imposing a temporary embargo in an effort to keep them out of the hands of Hamas, which often steals the aid for its own use and sells the rest to civilians at inflated prices. While facilitating the entry of thousands of aid trucks into Gaza, Israeli officials have condemned the UN and other international aid agencies for their alleged failure to distribute supplies, noting much of the humanitarian assistance has been stalled at border crossings or stolen. According to UN data, the vast majority of humanitarian aid entering Gaza is intercepted before reaching its intended civilian recipients.
Nonetheless, tens of thousands of demonstrators marched across Sydney’s Harbour Bridge this month calling for aid deliveries in Gaza.
“This decision is driven by popular sentiment in Australia which has shifted in recent months, with a majority of Australians wanting to see an imminent end to the humanitarian crisis in Gaza,” said Jessica Genauer, a senior lecturer in international relations at Flinders University.
Opposition leader Ley said the decision was “disrespectful” of key ally the United States, which opposes Palestinian statehood.
“We would never have taken this step because this is completely against what our principles are, which is that recognition, the two state solution, comes at the end of the peace process, not before,” she said in an interview with radio station 2GB.
Neighboring New Zealand has said it is still considering whether to recognize a Palestinian state, a decision that drew sharp criticism from former prime minister Helen Clark on Tuesday.
“This is a catastrophic situation, and here we are in New Zealand somehow arguing some fine point about whether we should recognize we need to be adding our voice to the need for this catastrophe to stop,” she said in an interview with state broadcaster RNZ.
“This is not the New Zealand I’ve known.”
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Iran Says It Arrested 21,000 ‘Suspects’ During 12-Day War With Israel
Rescue personnel work at an impact site following a missile attack from Iran, in Bat Yam, Israel, June 15, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
Iranian police arrested as many as 21,000 “suspects” during the country’s 12–day war with Israel in June, a law enforcement spokesperson said on Tuesday, according to state media.
Following Israeli air strikes that began on June 13, Iranian security forces began a campaign of widespread arrests accompanied by an intensified street presence based around checkpoints and “public reports” whereby citizens were called upon to report on any individuals they thought were acting suspiciously.
“There was a 41 percent increase in calls by the public, which led to the arrest of 21,000 suspects during the 12–day war,” police spokesperson Saeid Montazerolmahdi said. He did not say what those arrested were suspected of, but Tehran has spoken before of people passing on information that may have helped direct the Israeli attacks.
The Israel–Iran conflict has also led to an accelerated rate of deportations for Afghan migrants believed to be illegally in Iran, with aid agencies reporting that local authorities had also accused some Afghan nationals of spying for Israel.
“Law enforcement rounded up 2,774 illegal migrants and discovered 30 special security cases by examining their phones. 261 suspects of espionage and 172 people accused of unauthorized filming were also arrested,” the spokesperson added.
Montazerolmahdi did not specify how many of those arrested had since been released.
He added that Iran‘s police handled more than 5,700 cases of cyber crimes such as online fraud and unauthorised withdrawals during the war, which he said had turned “cyberspace into an important battlefront.”