Putting the “Banana” in “Banana Boat Song”

Everyone knows that the Jews had high-ranking positions in the Third Reich, right?

Huh? Welcome to the mind of Harry Belafonte, which this week came up with a quote that offends Jews, blacks, and I can only assume, any Nazis out there:

Earlier this week, in an interview with Cybercast News Service, Belafonte used a Nazi analogy to attack black officials in the Bush administration. “Hitler had a lot of Jews high up in the hierarchy of the Third Reich,” he said.

Belafonte went on to “regret” the statement.

“I do regret the sentence was not structured more accurately,” Belafonte told the ‘Post’ in a telephone interview from the United States. “I, too, agree that Jews weren’t ‘high up’.”

He added, however, that “Jews did have a role, some did, in the demise and brutal treatment of the Jewish people.” He pointed to the book Hitler’s Jewish Soldiers as just one example supporting his statement. The book, recently profiled in the ‘Post’, tells of part-Jewish soldiers who fought for the Wehrmacht.

“Was it rampant? Absolutely not,” he said. “But, these things happen and people are not exempt from their behavior.” He added, “Let’s not be dishonest about all of us. The more we know the truth, the better we’ll be [at] improving humanity.”

Speaking of the truth, who is the tally-man and what does he do when he “tallys me bananas”?

“The point was not to attack Jews,” Belafonte said of his controversial comment. He was surprised by the reaction his comments provoked, though he stated that “sometimes the Jewish people have laid claim to such a high and pure morality” that they take great exception to facts which challenge that claim, despite that theirs “is a DNA that sits within the entire human family.” But, he said, “I can understand why Jewish leaders would be prone to protect the image of George Bush and his administration.”

He continued that the administration fully supports Israel “even when there are questions of the humanitarian, the moral, and the political [motivation] of things that are done to Palestinians.” Belafonte defended his comparison between Hitler and the Bush administration, which disturbed Jewish leaders, as “not inappropriate” given that current White House policies “detaining suspects without charges, creating an atmosphere of fear” are “very much similar to the things that were done when Hitler was on the rise.” He condemned those who didn’t raise their voices in pre-war Germany, and explained his statements as an attempt to raise his voice now.

Belafonte is married to a Russian Jewess, making his four children Jewish. Plus, the article notes that he’s been honored by many a Jewish organization, and once sang “Hava Nagila” for Moshe Dayan.

Funny, I pictured him singing a different tune for Moshe:

“Daaaaaay-an! Daaaaay-aaaay-yan! Eyepatch come and I wanna go home…”

(Article via JPost)