It takes a lot to shock me, but some of Deborah Lipstadt's commentary in the 1/20/07 edition of the Washington Post, “Jimmy Carter's Jewish Problem” left me stunned and outraged.

Now, no one should be surprised that a right-wing extremist would try to say that anyone who criticizes the policies of Israeli governments is “anti-Semitic” or has a “Jewish Problem.” This is standard Karl Rove-style spin meant to demonize people whose points of views do not follow the far-right line.

What really stunned me was that she actually tried to exploit the Holocaust in order to justify Israel's mistreatment of the Palestinians. The Holocaust is completely irrelevant to this. The Palestinians had nothing to do with the Holocaust. The heinous nature of the Holocaust in no way excuses any other injustice.

More importantly, cynically exploiting the Holocaust in a misleading fashion insults the memories of the people killed. Misusing a horrific genocide as a cheezy political ploy is reprehensible.

Many of the people killed in the Holocaust were killed because they were queer. As a queer man, mocking the Holocaust in the way that Lipstadt did in her commentary is a horribly, homophobic, personal insult. It is just as insulting to all people in communities targeted by the Holocaust who actually care about what happened.

I also am offended by the Washington Post's decision to print this outrage. They should have at least strong enough editorial standards not to publish commentaries that mock the deaths of people killed in the Holocaust. I know that the Post is a very rightist, Republican paper, but just how low are they willing to sink?

This is hardly the first example of outrageous homohatred by the corporate media, and I bet it won't be the last.