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March 7, 2003/Adar2 3 5763, Vol. 55, No. 28
Rhetoric rings hollow
BARRY COHEN
Editor
The "Holocaust on your plate" exhibit, sponsored by the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, made a recent Valley appearance.
To promote vegetarianism, the exhibit, in a disgraceful cut and paste rhetorical display, co-opts one of the darkest chapters in human history.
PETA supporters set up panels at Arizona State University March 3 showing the following images: emaciated humans next to emaciated animals; people forced into cattle cars next to cows forced into cattle cars; piles of corpses next to piles of dead cattle.
"We are using the Holocaust as a way to widen people's circle of compassion to include animals," said PETA supporter Matt Prescott in a statement.
The campaign stunningly misses the mark. PETA is not using, but rather misusing and abusing the Holocaust.
The Holocaust is not a metaphor. It is a noun. And this noun must be used only when appropriate, to describe the Nazis' evil acts. When we compare the Holocaust to something else, we cheapen the lessons of humanity's terrifying capabilities. When PETA compares eating meat to reenacting the Holocaust, their rhetoric strips the historical event of its horror and lessens the tenacity of the survivors.
Stalin had his gulags. Pol Pot had his Cambodian Killing Fields. Rawanda's Hutus massacred the Tutsis. PETA claims there is no difference between these horrifying events and the Burger King drive-through window.
PETA suggests that because I eat chicken and roast beef, I am the equivalent of a concentration camp commandant, a Rwandan killer.
The ludicrousness of this charge is as astounding as it is infuriating.
And it gets worse.
In pursuit of their vegetarian/vegan agenda, PETA supports the Animal Liberation Front, a group that "carries out direct action against animal abuse in the form of rescuing animals and causing financial loss to animal exploiters, usually through the damage and destruction of property," according to its Web site, www.animalliberationfront.com.
Through association with this group, PETA further undercuts the moral high ground it is attempting to reach.
PETA then totally loses any moral claim when it weighs in on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Palestinian terrorists on Jan. 26 strapped a bomb to the back of a donkey and detonated the device as an Israeli bus passed by, according to Kerry Dougherty in Jewish World Review. Thankfully, no one was killed - except the donkey.
In response, PETA President Ingrid Newkirk, wrote Yasser Arafat in protest: "If you have the opportunity, will you please ... appeal to all those who listen to you to leave the animals out of this conflict?"
Newkirk fails to condemn the suicide attacks that have victimized thousands of Israelis. She rather condemns the means of Palestinian attacks.
PETA's foolish rhetoric, associations and pathetic plea to Arafat undercut their arguments that becoming vegetarian or vegan is indeed a compassionate act.
Contact the writer at barry_cohen@jewishaz.com.
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