On November 13 CNN anchor Christiane Amanpour compared Kristallnacht to President Trump’s term.
CNN anchor Christiane Amanpour’s comparison of US President Donald Trump to Kristallnacht is an affront to the memory of the Holocaust, and she must apologize, top Israeli officials said.
Diaspora Affairs Minister Omer Yankelevitch said on Sunday that the US news network “should be a partner in the global effort to fight antisemitism and not fuel the fire.”
“Using the memory of the Holocaust for cheap headlines or a political agenda is concerning and distorts the historical and moral truth,” Yankelevich said.
Amanpour, CNN’s international anchor, said in a segment last week that Kristallnacht was a significant turning point in the process “that led to genocide against a whole identity.”
“That tower of burning books led to an assault on fact, knowledge, history and truth,” Amanpour said, as images of book-burnings played next to her.
“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,” she said.
Never before in the history of U.S. news networks did a journalist distort the Holocaust for political purposes as Amanpour just did on on CNN & PBS.
No, @camanpour, the Nazi genocide was not “an attack on fact, knowledge, history & truth.“
They murdered 6 million Jews. Say it. pic.twitter.com/Cwkzj1lUBK
— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) November 14, 2020
Israeli Consul-General in Atlanta Anat Sultan-Dadon wrote a letter to CNN executive vice president Rick Davis, obtained by The Jerusalem Post on the condition that it not be quoted. The letter, sent two days after Amanpour’s remarks, explained that the Nazis murdered at least 90 Jews on Kristallnacht. They also arrested over 30,000 Jews and deported them to concentration camps. The night of Kristallnacht was the opening chapter of the Holocaust.
The consul-general expressed outrage at Amanpour’s use of the Holocaust for political means, and said it disrespects those who perished.
Amanpour’s statements set off an immediate backlash on Twitter.
Former Israeli consul-general in New York Danny Dayan tweeted that “the foolish comparison Amanpour made between Kristallnacht and Trump must bring about her immediate dismissal from CNN. There is no immunity for Holocaust deniers.”
ההשוואה הנואלת שערכה @camanpour בין ליל הבדולח לשנות טראמפ היתה צריכה להביא לפיטוריה המיידיים מ @CNN. אין חסינות בפני הכחשת שואה.
pic.twitter.com/eVOzE5HSgV— דני דיין (@dandayan) November 14, 2020
White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany called Amanpour’s remarks “despicable,” and said the CNN anchor “must apologize for trivializing the Holocaust & the tragic genocide of millions of Jews.
“They must also apologize for slandering the most pro-Israel President in history,” she said.
As reported by The Jerusalem Post