I’ve never been a big fan of the OnFaith series that Newsweek does because the commentaries usually seem a bit obvious to me, but while I was in Dublin I was pointed to this inflammatory piece by Arun Gadhi, Mohandas’s grandson, now president and co-founder of the M. K. Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence, at the University of Rochester in New York. 
Arun Gandhi wrote:
Jewish Identity Can't Depend on Violence Jewish identity in the past has been locked into the holocaust experience — a German burden that the Jews have not been able to shed. It is a very good example of a community can overplay a historic experience to the point that it begins to repulse friends. The holocaust was the result of the warped mind of an individual who was able to influence his followers into doing something dreadful. But, it seems to me the Jews today not only want the Germans to feel guilty but the whole world must regret what happened to the Jews. The world did feel sorry for the episode but when an individual or a nation refuses to forgive and move on the regret turns into anger. The Jewish identity in the future appears bleak. Any nation that remains anchored to the past is unable to move ahead and, especially a nation that believes its survival can only be ensured by weapons and bombs. In Tel Aviv in 2004 I had the opportunity to speak to some Members of Parliament and Peace activists all of whom argued that the wall and the military build-up was necessary to protect the nation and the people. In other words, I asked, you believe that you can create a snake pit — with many deadly snakes in it — and expect to live in the pit secure and alive? What do you mean? they countered. Well, with your superior weapons and armaments and your attitude towards your neighbors would it not be right to say that you are creating a snake pit? How can anyone live peacefully in such an atmosphere? Would it not be better to befriend those who hate you? Can you not reach out and share your technological advancement with your neighbors and build a relationship? Apparently, in the modern world, so determined to live by the bomb, this is an alien concept. You don't befriend anyone, you dominate them. We have created a culture of violence (Israel and the Jews are the biggest players) and that Culture of Violence is eventually going to destroy humanity.
Wanna guess how many comments there are on that post? Well over 400. And no, most of them aren’t full of joy and good tidings, if you know what I mean.
So, Gandhi obviously wrote a lame little retraction:
My Apology for My Poorly Worded Post I am writing to correct some regrettable mis-impressions I have given in my comments on my blog this week. While I stand behind my criticisms of the use of violence by recent Israeli governments — and I have criticized the governments of the U.S., India and China in much the same way — I want to correct statements that I made with insufficient care, and that have inflicted unnecessary hurt and caused anger. I do not believe and should not have implied that the policies of the Israeli government are reflective of the views of all Jewish people. Indeed, many are as concerned as I am by the use of violence for state purposes, by Israel and many other governments. I do believe that when a people hold on to historic grievances too firmly it can lead to bitterness and the loss of support from those who would be friends. But as I have noted in previous writings, the suffering of the Jewish people, particularly in the Holocaust, was historic in its proportions. While we must strive for a future of peace that rejects violence, it is also important not to forget the past, lest we fail to learn from it. Having learned from it, we can then find the path to peace and rejection of violence through forgiveness.
When I was in Israel for my junior year abroad I wrote a paper about Mohandas Gandhi’s general distaste for Israel. He was trying to make nice with Pakistan, which meant making nice with Islam, which meant he couldn’t be buddy-buddy with Israel. I have a certain level of respect for that, and I believed the writers and biographers who claimed that Gandhi sympathized with the Jews on an ideological level, but I have to say if that’s true he did a lousy job of making sure that message came through in his family and teachings. Or maybe his grandson is just kind of a moron. Either way, I’m so sick if the confusion between “Israel” and “the Jews” that I could spit.