It's all a matter of perspective

This kind of thing puts any little kerfuffle I experience into perspective (via Norm's blog):

"Iran once again upset Jewish organizations and raised Western ire by questioning the Holocaust. This time, Iran proposed sending a team of investigators to conduct on-site inspections of Nazi concentration camps, in advance of a Tehran-sponsored conference to debate the "real scale of the Holocaust."

Norm's take? Brilliant as always:

"If there were a genuine interest in historical research on the Iranians' part, then that should obviously be encouraged. It would help to counter the lies currently being sponsored by President Ahmadinejad."

"But there are reasons for thinking that the team to be sent to Europe 'to investigate the true scale of the Holocaust' is not a serious proposition. If they really want to investigate the matter they could start by examining the voluminous extant scholarship and take it from there. A visit to Auschwitz undertaken in bad faith is not likely to produce robust research findings. In circumstances suggesting that this is an ideologically-driven move, one can see why the authorities might want to deny the Iranian team access."

"The Poles, after all, have some basis for knowing what happened on Polish soil during the war: not only Auschwitz-Birkenau, but also Chelmno, Maidanek, Belzec, Sobibor and Treblinka were located there. And as Auschwitz is a memorial site, its custodians are not bound to allow access to those they have grounds for thinking want this only to abuse it - to mock the dead by denying what befell them."

Yesterday at Speaker's Corner, there was a muslim guy, up on his ladder, and as we got into earshot I heard him respond sharply to a man in the crowd near him - "that's typical Jewish thinking, typically Jewish thinking". I felt sordid, was relieved to agree to "ah, let's go".