World Jewish News

Taiwan's opposition apologised for an election advertisement that compared President Chen Shui-bian to Hitler after it was

Taiwan's opposition apologised for an election advertisement that compared President Chen Shui-bian to Hitler after it was condemned by the island's small Jewish community.
Hitler's photograph featured prominently in five full-page newspaper advertisements for the Kuomintang-led (KMT) opposition that called on voters to end Chen's "dictatorship" on the March 20 polling day.
Chen's Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and Jewish leaders criticised the ad, which took the island's election campaign to a new level of bitter personal attacks.
The KMT apologised to the Jewish community over the ad, which refers to Chen by his nickname A-Bian, but said it would not apologise to the president, although it would drop the Hitler photograph and modify the wording if it ran the ad again.
"We are sorry if the ad touches the wounds and sorrows of the Jewish people," said Chou Shou-tsun, a KMT spokesman.
"We were only trying to emphasize a certain aspect in A-Bian's personality. In the ad, we did not mention the Jewish people nor the Holocaust, but still, we apologise.
"But we are certainly not going to apologise to Chen Shui-bian."
Taiwan's only rabbi, Dr Ephraim Einhorn, had called on the KMT to apologise to the president saying he was "shocked and disturbed" that he could be compared to a man who ordered the murders of six million Jews.
"I am sick to my innermost being. It's a terrible thing to have done," he said.
"To have the legitimately elected president of the country compared to, or associated with, the monster of all ages is something that I find terribly, terribly difficult to come to terms with."

Источник: www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_asiapacific/view/75107/1/.html