Israeli PM says he did not intend to absolve Hitler of his responsibility for the Holocaust 
 
 Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has backtracked on controversial comments he made last week during which he said a Muslim elder had convinced Adolf Hitler to exterminate Jews. 
 
 Netanyahu caused widespread outcry when he claimed that Adolf Hitler had no intention of killing the Jews, but only wished to expel them. According to the Israeli prime minister, the idea for mass extermination came from the then-Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin al-Husseini. 
 
 "I wish to clarify my remarks about the connection between the Mufti Haj Amin al-Husseini and the Nazis," Netanyahu wrote on his Facebook page. "In no way did I intend to absolve Hitler of his responsibility for the Holocaust. Hitler and the Nazi leadership are responsible for the murder of six million Jews." 
 
 In contrast to his previous remarks, Netanyahu wrote Friday that "the decision to move from a policy of deporting Jews to the Final Solution was made by the Nazis and was not dependent on outside influence. The Nazis saw in the Mufti a collaborator, but they did not need him to decide on the systematic destruction of European Jewry, which began in June 1941." 
 
 "Still, the Mufti was one of those who supported the Nazi goal of destroying the Jews," Netanyahu continued. "He conducted his activities from Berlin during the war, disseminated virulent anti-Semitic propaganda on behalf the Nazis, recruited Muslims to the SS, demanded that after conquering the Middle East the Nazis destroy the Jewish national home and vigorously opposed the emigration of Jews – even children – from the Nazi inferno, knowing full well that this would seal their fate." 
 
 The prime minister said that his remarks were intended to illustrate the murderous approach of the Mufti to the Jews in his lengthy contacts with the Nazi leadership. "Contrary to the impression that was created, I did not mean to claim that in his conversation with Hitler in November 1941 the Mufti convinced him to adopt the Final Solution. The Nazis decided on that by themselves." 
 
 He said it was "absurd" that his remarks were interpreted as though he absolved the Nazis of "even one ounce of responsibility" for the Holocaust. 
 
 "It was important for me to point out that even before World War II it was the Mufti who propagated the big lie that the Jews intend to destroy the al-Aqsa mosque," Netanyahu wrote. "This lie lives on and continues to exact a price in blood." 
 
 Netanyahu's original comments were heavily criticized throughout Israel and the international community. Germany even reiterated that responsibility for the Holocaust lay with the Germans. 
 
 "All Germans know the history of the murderous race mania of the Nazis that led to the break with civilization that was the Holocaust," Chancellor Angela Merkel's spokesman Steffen Seibert said when asked about Netanyahu's remarks. 
 
 "This is taught in German schools for good reason, it must never be forgotten. And I see no reason to change our view of history in any way. We know that responsibility for this crime against humanity is German and very much our own." 
 
 In a speech at the World Zionist Congress in Jerusalem, Netanyahu described a meeting between Husseini and Hitler in November, 1941: 
 
 "Hitler didn’t want to exterminate the Jews at the time, he wanted to expel the Jews. And Haj Amin al-Husseini went to Hitler and said, 'If you expel them, they'll all come here.' 'So what should I do with them?' he asked. He said, 'Burn them.'" 
 
 Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas responded to Netanyahu's claims, saying that the Israeli leader had exonerated Hitler and was implicating Haj Amin al-Husseini for the "heinous crime that was committed against the Jews." 
 
 He concluded, "In this vicious and despicable manner, Netanyahu wishes to fabricate history." 
 
 The claim that Husseini came up with the idea of the extermination of European Jewry has been proposed by some historians at the fringes of Holocaust research, but is generally rejected as a theory. 
 
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 Netanyahu's new Nazis ||||| JERUSALEM — After more than a week of local and international condemnation, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel issued a statement on Friday retracting his accusation that it was a Palestinian cleric who gave Hitler the idea of annihilating Europe’s Jews during World War II. 
 
 Mr. Netanyahu, criticized even by Israeli historians for distorting facts, had already said he never intended to absolve Hitler of responsibility for the Holocaust by blaming the mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin al-Husseini, but the new statement went further. 
 
 “The decision to move from a policy of deporting Jews to the Final Solution was made by the Nazis and was not dependent on outside influence,” Mr. Netanyahu posted on Facebook, in Hebrew and English. “The Nazis saw in the Mufti a collaborator, but they did not need him to decide on the systematic destruction of European Jewry, which began in June 1941.” 
 
 He went on: “Contrary to the impression that was created, I did not mean to claim that in his conversation with Hitler in November 1941 the Mufti convinced him to adopt the Final Solution. The Nazis decided on that by themselves.” 
 
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 That description aligns with the prevailing view of Holocaust historians, but was contradicted by Mr. Netanyahu in a speech on Oct. 20 to the World Zionist Congress where he recounted the meeting between Hitler and Mr. Husseini. “Hitler didn’t want to exterminate the Jews at the time — he wanted to expel the Jews,” Mr. Netanyahu said in his speech. He quoted the mufti as saying, “If you expel them, they’ll all come here,” referring to Palestine, and then said Hitler had asked, “So what should I do with them?” The mufti replied, “Burn them,” according to Mr. Netanyahu. 
 
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 Historians declared his account to be a lie that appeases Holocaust denial, and many political analysts said Mr. Netanyahu’s speech undermined his own accusations that President Mahmoud Abbas of The Palestinian Authority was peddling falsehoods. But the controversy had mostly died down, making the timing of Mr. Netanyahu’s Facebook post — on a Friday afternoon, a quiet time in the Israeli news media — curious. ||||| Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned as “outrageous” his Polish counterpart Mateusz Morawiecki’s remark Saturday that Jewish perpetrators were also responsible for the Holocaust. 
 
 “The Polish prime minister’s remarks here in Munich are outrageous,” said Netanyahu, who is also in Germany for a security conference. 
 
 “There is a problem here of an inability to understand history and a lack of sensitivity to the tragedy of our people. I intend to speak with him forthwith,” Netanyahu said in a statement from Munich. 
 
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 Addressing the Munich Security Conference earlier, Morawiecki was rejecting criticism of a new law that criminalizes mentions of Polish state complicity in the Holocaust, when he was asked by an Israeli journalist if sharing his family’s history of persecution in Poland would be outlawed under the new legislation. 
 
 “Of course it’s not going to be punishable, [it’s] not going to be seen as criminal to say that there were Polish perpetrators, as there were Jewish perpetrators, as there were Russian perpetrators, as there were Ukrainian; not only German perpetrators,” Morawiecki told Yedioth Ahronoth’s Ronen Bergman. 
 
 צפו | ראש ממשלת פולין בתשובה לשאלתו של @ronenbergman: "בשואה היו פושעים פולנים, כמו שהיו פושעים יהודים" • @DorGlick עם הפרטים המלאים והתיעוד >> https://t.co/eFLSq9LWO8 pic.twitter.com/ZCV6j8faw7 — חדשות עשר (@news10) February 17, 2018 
 
 Morawiecki’s was harshly criticized by opposition lawmakers. 
 
 “Poland’s Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki talks like the last of the Holocaust deniers. The blood of millions of Jews cries out from the ground in Poland over the distortion of history and escape from blame,” tweeted party leader Avi Gabbay. 
 
 “Jews were murdered in the Holocaust and Poles took an active part in their murder. The Israeli government must be here for the millions murdered and strongly condemn the Polish prime minister’s words,” he said. 
 
 Tzipi Livni, a Zionist Union MK and former foreign minister who was in the audience, said it was “moving to hear Ronen Bergman asking/attacking the Polish prime minister over the law that forbids mentioning the participation of the Polish nation in the Holocaust, as [Bergman] told his family story and received applause from the audience.” 
 
 Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid, one of the most vocal Israeli critics of the Polish law, said Morawiecki’s statement is “anti-Semitism of the oldest kind.” 
 
 “The perpetrators are not the victims. The Jewish state will not allow the murdered to be blamed for their own murder,” he said, while calling on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to recall Israel’s ambassador to Warsaw. 
 
 The Polish Prime Minister’s statement is antisemitism of the oldest kind. The perpetrators are not the victims. The Jewish state will not allow the murdered to be blamed for their own murder. I again call upon the Prime Minister to immediately recall our Ambassador to Israel. — יאיר לפיד (@yairlapid) February 17, 2018 
 
 Zionist Union MK Ksenia Svetlova said Morawiecki’s remark “shows his true face.” 
 
 “It should be remembered that according to the most conservative estimate 200,000 Jews in Poland were murdered by Poles,” she tweeted, adding that “the crisis with Poland is only getting worse and there is no room here for compromises.” 
 
 “If we don’t stand up for the truth, no will do it for us.” 
 
 Fellow Zionist Union MK Itzik Shmuli also criticized the Polish prime minister, saying the next phase in his “pathetic project” would be “blaming the Jews for their own Holocaust.” 
 
 probably the next step of Morawiecki’s pathetic project to erasing the crimes of the Polish is going to be blaming the Jews for their own Holocaust and presenting the Nazis as victims of the circumstances.He would have to sue the 6M victims Jews+my state????????before it will happen! https://t.co/wKmDv470Tq — איציק שמולי (@ishmuli) February 17, 2018 
 
 In response to Bergman’s question, Morawiecki said the new law aimed to prevent falsely attributing Nazi crimes in Poland under Nazi occupation to Polish government policy at the time. He said that last year Polish embassies had to respond 260 times to statements referring to “Polish death camps.” 
 
 He said the Polish people generally aided their “Jewish brothers and sisters” during the war, and that the lines between Holocaust victims and perpetrators were becoming increasingly blurred. 
 
 The legislation prescribes prison time for using phrases such as “Polish death camps” to refer to the killing sites Nazi Germany operated in occupied Poland during World War II. Its provisions run wider, however: 
 
 “Whoever accuses, publicly and against the facts, the Polish nation, or the Polish state, of being responsible or complicit in the Nazi crimes committed by the Third German Reich… or other crimes against peace and humanity, or war crimes, or otherwise grossly diminishes the actual perpetrators thereof, shall be subject to a fine or a penalty of imprisonment of up to three years,” a translation of a key paragraph of the bill reads. 
 
 The legislation sparked outrage in Israel, with some lawmakers accusing the Polish government of outright Holocaust denial. 
 
 The dispute has elicited bitter recriminations on both sides. Some Israelis have accused the mostly Catholic Poles of being driven by anti-Semitism and of trying to deny the Holocaust. Poles believe that they are being defamed by being linked to German crimes, of which they were one of the largest group of victims. 
 
 Israel, along with several international Holocaust organizations and many critics in Poland, argues that the law could have a chilling effect on debating history, harming freedom of expression and leading to a whitewashing of Poland’s wartime history. 
 
 Netanyahu has pilloried the law as “distortion of the truth, the rewriting of history, and the denial of the Holocaust.” 
 
 Amid the dispute some Polish commentators, including in government-controlled media, have made strong anti-Jewish remarks. 
 
 In one instance, the head of a state-run channel suggested referring to Auschwitz as a “Jewish death camp,” in response to an outcry over use of the term “Polish death camp” to describe the Nazi killing site in German-occupied Poland. 
 
 Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
– Unusually for an Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu has had to clarify his position on who he thinks caused the Holocaust. In a Facebook post, Netanyahu backtracked from earlier remarks suggesting the extermination of European Jews was a Palestinian's idea, reports i24. "The decision to move from a policy of deporting Jews to the Final Solution was made by the Nazis and was not dependent on outside influence," said Netanyahu, though he stressed that Grand Mufti of Jerusalem Haj Amin al-Husseini supported the Holocaust and collaborated with the Nazis. "My remarks were intended to illustrate the murderous approach of the Mufti to the Jews in his lengthy contacts with the Nazi leadership," Netanyahu wrote. "The interpretation of my remarks as though I absolved the Nazis of even one ounce of responsibility for the Holocaust is absurd." The Israeli leader's Oct. 20 remarks were widely condemned by historians and the New York Times finds it odd that he waited until Friday afternoon, when the controversy had almost completely died down, to clarify them. (Netanyahu's remarks caused Germany to issue a statement saying the Holocaust was indeed Hitler's fault.)