Forward.com

Likening liberals to those who appeased Nazi Germany in the run-up to World War II, conservative radio talk show host Dennis Prager told 400 Jewish Republican leaders, “They’d still be gassing Jews” if liberals and peace activists had their way.

“The left does not understand that Auschwitz was not liberated by peace activists,” Prager said during a reception honoring GOP governors at the Republican National Convention. “They’d still be gassing Jews if we listened to peace activists,” he said. “Gandhi said to the Jews, ‘Do not resist Hitler.’ Gandhi did a lot of great work in India. You know why? Because when you advocate peaceful resistance against the British, it works. Peaceful resistance against evil does not work.”

Asked later whether some would perceive his remarks as insensitive, Prager called it “inconceivable” that anybody could be offended.

Told that some people might be sensitive about comparisons involving appeasement and the Holocaust, he said, “That’s fine with me, so what?”

At a September 2 event — which was hosted by the Republican Jewish Coalition and attracted a who’s who of Jewish Republicans, several governors, state lawmakers, major donors and Sallai Meridor, Israel’s ambassador to the United States — a Jewish leader called the comparison inappropriate.

“The Holocaust is a unique episode in world history and is an issue that should not be used for contrast and comparison with other political or nonpolitical events,” he said. “I think it lessens the memory of those who were murdered in the Holocaust.”

Meridor, who Prager introduced, declined to be drawn into the issue.

“I’m not going to comment on any particular statement,” said Meridor, who also attended the previous week’s Democratic National Convention in Denver.

In 2006, President Bush appointed Prager, host of a nationally syndicated Los Angeles-based radio show, to the United States Holocaust Memorial Council, which oversees the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

The comments, which drew strong applause, came as Prager decried liberals as being full of good intentions but lacking wisdom.

“Many of our fellow Jews are very, very idealistic, especially our kids in universities,” Prager said. “We want a nice world, a kind world, but they lack the wisdom to discern the difference between good and evil.

“I dare say that the American military has brought more goodness on earth than all the political scientists and peace activists.”

Prager said he saw nothing wrong with his comments. “Peace activists have done nothing good I’m aware of compared to the U.S. military,” he said. “More peace has been achieved by the U.S. military than all pacifists and peace activists in history.”

He then repeated that “Auschwitz was liberated by military people, not by poets and not by peace activists.”

“If one is no longer allowed to say that, we are in a very scary period,” he added.