Search

Israel: CNN’s Amanpour must apologize for comparing Trump to Nazis

In an open letter to CNN, Yankelevich slammed Amanpour for making a “false equivalency” and demanded an apology from the network.

By Lauren Marcus, World Israel News

Israel’s Diaspora Affairs Minister Omer Yankelevich has called on CNN anchorwoman and veteran journalist Christiane Amanpour to apologize for remarks she made last week comparing President Trump’s actions to Kristallnacht.

“This week 82 years ago, Kristallnacht happened,” Amanpour said last Thursday in the opening monologue of her foreign affairs program.

“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.”

In an open letter to CNN, Yankelevich slammed Amanpour for making a “false equivalency” and demanded an apology from the network.

“We find hereby the false equivalence made between the actions of a sitting U.S. 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,” read Yankelevich’s letter.

“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 historic and moral truths with dangerous implications.”

Read  Trump: Jews who vote for Biden don't love Israel

Amanpour’s remarks have sparked an outcry from Jewish groups including the Orthodox Jewish Public Affairs Council and Stop Anti-Semitism.

Attorney and pro-Israel advocate Hillel Neuer pointed out that Amanpour chose to use the word “identity” rather than “Jews” while making the comparison.

“No, @camanpour, the Nazi genocide was not ‘an attack on fact, knowledge, history & truth.’ They murdered 6 million Jews,” he tweeted. “Say it.”

“Fact: Kristallnacht was Nazi murder of Jews, burning of synagogues. Holocaust was Nazi genocide of Jews. Why did she erase Jews?”

Morton Klein, president of the Zionist Organization of America and the son of Holocaust survivors, tweeted, ““When Amanpour spoke about the Nazis she never mentioned the word ‘Jew’ but then disgracefully compared the Nazis to Trump. Fire her.”

Left-wing journalist Glenn Greenwald tweeted, “Stop exploiting Jews and the Holocaust and Nazi camps for your own sick psychodramas and desperate need for attention, purpose and ratings, you divisive ghouls.”