Comparisons between Israel and Nazi Germany

Comparisons between Israel and Nazi Germany occur frequently in some veins of anti-Zionism in relation to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict.^[1][2] The legitimacy of these comparisons and their potential antisemitic nature is a matter of debate. Historically, figures like historian Arnold J. Toynbee have drawn parallels between Zionism and Nazism, a stance he maintained despite criticism. Scholar David Feldman suggests these comparisons are often rhetorical tools without specific antisemitic intent. The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) sees them as diminishing the Holocaust's significance.^[3][4]

According to political scientist Ian Lustick, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania, such comparisons are "a natural if unintended consequence of the immersion of Israeli Jews in Holocaust imagery".^[5] A wide variety of political figures and governments have made the comparison historically, an example being the administration of the Soviet Union in the context of the Six-Day War within 1960s era Cold War divisions.^[6] Politicians in the 21st century who have done so include the President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdoğan,^[7] Brazilian President Lula da Silva,^[8] Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez^[9] and British parliamentarian David Ward.^[10] Critics of the comparison, such as public intellectual Bernard-Henri Lévy, argue that such comparisons not only lack historical and moral equivalence but also risk inciting anti-Jewish sentiment. Historian Deborah Lipstadt calls such comparisons "soft-core" Holocaust denial.^[11]