Sho'a and Holocaust

In the New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/29/world/europe/29pope.html?_r=1 Pope, Expressing Solidarity With Jews, Reacts to Uproar Over a Holocaust Denier ...But tensions remained, a day after Israel’s highest religious body sent a letter to the Vatican asking to postpone an annual bilateral meeting and voicing “sorrow and pain” at the pope’s decision to welcome the bishop back into the fold. On Saturday, the pope revoked the excommunication of four schismatic bishops from a traditionalist sect, including Bishop Richard Williamson, who in an interview broadcast in Sweden last week and widely available online said he believed that no more than 300,000 Jews perished during World War II, none of them in gas chambers. Oded Wiener, the director general of the Chief Rabbinate of Israel, praised the pope’s comments on Wednesday as “a giant step forward” and “an extremely important statement, not only for the Jewish people, but also for all the world.” But on Tuesday, the annual Holocaust Remembrance Day, Mr. Wiener sent a letter to the Vatican saying that unless the bishop issued a public apology and recanted his “deplorable statements,” it would be “very difficult for the Chief Rabbinate of Israel to continue its dialogue with the Vatican as before.” ... As noted before, not all Jews acknowledge the legitimacy of Israel. However, Israel is in a sense founded on the Holocaust, and the Holocaust has become the defining event in the holy history of Israel. As for me, I affirm - as do all other right-thinking people - that the Holocaust did occur, and probably in the size and proportions that the people who are vested in it would have us believe. However, we absolutely dispute your interpretation of its significance and meaning. In particular, we disagree with the Christian Zionists who shamelessly use the Holocaust as a stage device to set the scene for their own Apocalyptic Follies of 1948. Period.