This Week in History and its (unfortunate) Relevancy to Today On 19th April 1943 the Waffen SS entered the Warsaw ghetto comprised exclusively of Jews. Although armed with only had two machine-guns, just over a dozen rifles and a few hundred pistols, the Jews opened fire on the soldiers. They also attacked them with grenades and petrol bombs. The Germans had substantial losses and the commander ordered a retreat. He then ordered the buildings in the ghetto to be set on fire. As people fled from the fires they were rounded up and deported to Treblinka, usually for immediate extermination. The ghetto fighters continued the battle from the cellars and attics of the area. On May 8th, the Germans began using poison gas in the last defended bunker. About a hundred men and women escaped into the underground sewers but the rest were killed by the gas. It is believed that only those one-hundred escaping Jews survived the 1943 ghetto rising, leaving tens of thousands dead. Sixty-One years later... The Israelis have essentially created another Bophuthatswana for Palestinians, one of the most densely populated and poorest places in the Middle-East. For those who take ANY criticism of the Israeli government as a sign of anti-semetism I would like to point out two things. First, this is, again, not a defense of the stupidity of groups like Hamas whose leadership is comprised of thugs who indefensibly continue to use violence against innocent people to accomplish their political aims. However, once again, as is unreported in America to any extent and bought hook, line and sinker by most of the American public there are TWO SIDES TO THIS STORY, the rarely told Palestinians' story. Second, for those of you who think that way, let me put this as diplomatically as it deserves. Bite me.