Netanyah's comparison to Milosevic is a falsification of history

I have nothing to do with flattery. And I say my attitude whether they actually like only two people or nothing.

But I believe that at a moment when pictures from Gaza are shaking the conscience of the world, at a moment when feelings often exceed reason, there is a comparison that is not only wrong but totally unreasonable: the comparison between Benjamin Netanyh and Slobodan Milosevqi. This comparison is not only wrong, but for us Albanians who have experienced Milosevic's terror in the vicinity is the falsification of history. This is no excuse but rather the brutal relativism of a genocide regime that began four wars without being attacked by anyone.

Milosevic was not the leader involved in a complex territorial conflict. He was the idealologist of an ethnic cleansing project through which he attacked Slovenians, Croats and then Bosniaks, then to Albanians without being provoked, without being attacked or threatened by anyone. Milosevic's Serbia was never occupied by any of the new states that emerged from the former Yugoslavia. Serbia decided to be fair itself.

Kosovo Albanians never threw missiles on Belgrade, did not kill women and children in Kragujevc, did not burn down churches, called for the extermination of the Serbian people. In addition, after all they experienced: centuries of persecution, persecution, mass murder, sexual assaults, mass deportations, Albanians even then wanted and still want to be good neighbors and that's all. Albanians then seek and continue to seek peace and integration into Europe. Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo never wanted the destruction and extermination of Serbia. Rather, they have sought recognition, respect, and cooperation.

This is not the same in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The so-called “political representative” of Palestinians, including Hamas' representatives, do not seek state, peace or equality. They demand the disappearance of Israel's country by map. The call “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” is not called for equality but is a threat to deleting an entire state from the map. And if there's any doubt about that anyone can reflect on a marked historical fact: Jordan was also part of Palestine's British mandate. However, no one promotes efforts to free Jordan. Why? Because the issue is not history or borders, but the reality of the very existence of Israel and the Jewish people.

Comparison with Milosevich is not only analically wrong. He whites the crimes of a genocide regime and turns history into an emotional market where everyone writes whatever is best for him. This comparison positions crimes committed by Serbs against Albanians as a trivial “delic” in relation to events in Gaza. And, it is an insult to the victims of Recak, Meya, Krusa, Drenica and hundreds of other villages erased from the Serbian military and paramilitary sites.

This does not mean that Netanyah's policy should not be criticized. No country, not even Israel, is above international law. Civil victims are common wounds in every country. But criticism should not require comparisons that distort the truth. Moreover, these comparisons are slowly becoming contemporary calls for antisemitism.

This is refined antisemitism, dressed in human rights clothing, but that vocal is only selective when the aggressor happens to be Jewish, but not even when he is Muslim, Arab, Persian, or Turkish. It is futile to relate this problem because silence against the killing of fellow Muslims is noisy because in the eyes of such critics, Muslim suffering is invisible, except where it can be instrumentalized to attack Israel and the Jews. This double standard is not justice or empathy. It's moral and ideological hypocrisy. If one victim is worth more than the other on the grounds of the attacker's nationality, we are no longer lawyers and promoters of human rights but lawyers of selected propaganda.

If we really are concerned about Palestinian justice, and this is a legitimate issue that deserves to be treated honestly, then we should not be less sensitive to any such victim elsewhere. And we shouldn't do that by insulting the victims of other genocides like the one in Kosovo.

I'm not sure who benefits from comparisons relating Milosevic's crimes. They do nothing to help Palestinians, Israelis or Albanians. They are only further recipes for hatred, for staining the memory of the past, and for dividing the world into friends and enemies on the basis of an ideology rather than a human being.

History requires caution, and justice requires equality. Without them, we risk replacing the truth with anger and selective compassion.