Jewish British lawmaker likens Israel to Nazis

LONDON - A veteran British Jewish lawmaker compared the Israeli offensive in Gaza Thursday to the Nazis who forced his family to flee from Poland.

Gerald Kaufman, a member of the Jewish Labour movement linked to Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s ruling party, also called for an arms embargo against Israel.

"My grandmother was ill in bed when the Nazis came to her home town . . . a German soldier shot her dead in her bed," Kaufman said during a parliamentary debate on the 20-day-old war which has left over 1,000 dead.

"My grandmother did not die to provide cover for Israeli soldiers murdering Palestinian grandmothers in Gaza.

"The present Israeli government ruthlessly and cynically exploit the continuing guilt from gentiles over the slaughter of Jews in the Holocaust as justification for their murder of Palestinians."

Israel’s claim that many of the Palestinian victims were militants "was the reply of the Nazi," he said, adding: "I suppose the Jews fighting for their lives in the Warsaw ghetto could have been dismissed as militants."

Kaufman, a well-known critic of Israel, said Hamas was a "deeply nasty" organization, but said it was democratically elected.

He urged Britain to impose an arms embargo on the Jewish state.

"It is time for our government to make clear to the Israeli government that its conduct and policies are unacceptable and to impose a total arms ban on Israel," he said.

"It is time for peace - but real peace, not the solution by conquest which is Israel’s real goal but which is impossible for them to achieve. They are not simply war criminals, they are fools," he added.