Sickening Kristallnacht analogy by CNN’s Christiane Amanpour desecrates the significance of the Holocaust for political gain

The anchor issued a half-hearted non-apology for using the anniversary of the Nazi pogrom to take a cheap shot at Trump, but her readiness to make the comparison is endemic of the bias and hysteria that has infected the media.

On November 12, CNN London anchor Amanpour made a comment about US President Donald Trump and his policies that not only exhibited the fallacy of false equivalence but also a serious misunderstanding of history and truth. Amanpour distorted the memory of the genocide committed during the Holocaust by comparing Trump’s policies to the Nazis’ 1938 pogrom Kristallnacht.

Kristallnacht was the “trigger event” that began the nightmare of the Holocaust  and led to the mass murder of six million Jews. Adolf Hitler, Joseph Goebbels and Heinrich Muller ordered the murder of Jews and the destruction of their businesses and synagogues across Germany and Austria. The orders specified that these actions should be made to look like spontaneous demonstrations, should not be interfered with, and the victims should be arrested. In the first 48 hours of Kristallnacht, nearly 100 Jews were murdered, 1,000 synagogues were burned, almost 10,000 businesses were destroyed, and 30,000 Jewish males were arrested and sent to the death camps.

She said: “This week, 82 years ago, Kristallnacht happened. It was the Nazis’ warning shot across the bow of our human civilization that led to genocide against a whole identity, and in that tower of burning books, it led to an attack on fact, knowledge, history and truth. After four years of a modern-day assault on those same values by Donald Trump, the Biden-Harris team pledges a return to norms, including the truth.” 

Amanpour’s dangerous rhetoric was carefully thought out and purposeful. It was not a spontaneous comment but was instead a crafted piece that she read off a teleprompter. CNN management had to have known and approved of its airing. The fact that Amanpour and CNN London would allow the broadcasting of misguided, repugnant parallels drawn between Kristallnacht, the Holocaust and the Trump administration’s policies not only desecrates the memory of the six million Jews murdered by the Nazi party but also stokes the rising resurgence of anti-Semitism across the globe.  

Christiane Amanpour, a staunch Hillary and Bill Clinton supporter, must certainly recall how the Democratic Party and Hillary made constant Hitler/Trump analogies over the past four years. 

By equating Trump and his supporters with Hitler, Amanpour and CNN are implicitly justifying violence against them, after all, we did fight a war against the Nazis. And yet, CNN calls the violence, arson, looting and riots perpetrated by BLM and Antifa “mostly peaceful protests.” Have Amanpour or CNN ever denounced these mob-rule Marxists and their violence? 

Israel’s Foreign Ministry and its Diaspora Affairs Ministry sent a letter to Jeff Zucker, CNN’s president, demanding the network denounce Amanpour’s piece and issue “an immediate public apology.” In the letter, Omer Yankelevich, the diaspora affairs minister, stated:

“We find hereby the false equivalence made between the actions of a sitting US president and the atrocities of the Kristallnacht pogroms which were carried out by the Nazis 82 years ago belittling of the immense tragedy of the Holocaust … Distortion and minimization of the Holocaust are deplorable lies that only encourage the evil voices of anti-Semitism. Employing the memory of the Holocaust for cheap shock value and to further a political agenda is a deeply troubling and offensive spin of historical and moral truths with dangerous implications.”

She also stated that CNN should fight this illness rather than fan the flames of hate and intolerance.

Many people, including myself, have raised objections to this piece run by CNN London. And yet, Hollywood Z-list celebrity Alec Baldwin, even after all these objections, still felt comfortable enough to post the following on his Twitter account: 

“Bury Trump in a Nazi Graveyard and Put a Swastika on His Grave.” 

Eventually Amanpour did issue an apology, though of course not for what she had said, but for “any pain” her ridiculous statement had caused. A half-hearted apology for a half-baked analogy, seems fitting.

Seeking to minimize the dehumanization and demonization of Jewish religious groups and Kristallnacht’s events should send shivers down the spine of all humanity. Misrepresenting and rewriting history to change the significance of historical events, tearing down statues, burning books and allowing anti-Semitic hate speech to be broadcast significantly enables, emboldens and condones violence by Marxist organizations such as BLM and Antifa.  

In a recent poll, 84 percent of Americans said they believe the media are responsible for creating division between groups. Long ago, the media were reporters. Today, they are political activists spewing propaganda, disinformation and lies with impunity. Dangerous rhetoric spreads hate faster than pouring petrol on a dried tinder-filled forest and lighting a blowtorch. None of this has any place in civil society and will only lead to a civil war.

It may be time to begin massive boycotts of everything “woke”, including all the political activists masquerading as journalists, all the Fortune 500 woke corporations funding this woke “revolution”, Hollywood/performing arts and all of the wokesters in professional sports.

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