April 19, 2012, 4:09 PM
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Hatred of Jews is the central animating feature of the political and strategic reality of the Middle East. It is hatred of Jews that dictates the legal regimes, foreign policies, military aspirations, cultural mores, educational themes and even public health policies of our neighbors from Ramallah to Tehran.
Despite the centrality of Jew-hatred in all aspects of public life in the Arab and Muslim world, our neighbors' unrelenting and irrational abhorrence for Israel and the Jewish people remains a dirty secret that you aren't supposed to mention in polite company. From Washington to Brussels, talk of the policy implications of Arab and Muslim Jew-hatred is prohibited.
Omar Abu-Sneina, a convicted terrorist murderer, is one of the thousand Palestinian terrorists that Israel released from prison in order to secure the release of Israeli hostage IDF Sgt.- Maj. Gilad Schalit. Originally from Hebron, Abu-Sneina was released to Hamas-controlled Gaza.
This week the IDF announced that since his release Abu-Sneina has returned to the terror business. The Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) intercepted a computer memory card he sent his family in Hebron with instructions for how his fellow terrorists should go about kidnapping and holding IDF soldiers hostage. The instructions demonstrate how for Abu-Sneina, Israelis don't even deserve to be treated like animals.
Among other things, he discussed how to hide a hostage. As he put it, "Avoid hiding [the captive soldier] in desolate places, tunnels or forests, unless the aforementioned [captive] is a corpse or a severed head. If the aforementioned is a live human, that must be visited at least once a week and provided with food and drink, it is best to hide him in a house, an agricultural farm, a workplace, etc."
Abu-Sneina's coldblooded cruelty and rejection of the inherent value of the lives of Israelis is not simply a function of the fact that he is a terrorist. It is a reflection of the values of Palestinian society. Those values are continuously expressed and reinforced by Fatah- and Hamas-controlled media outlets, cultural and educational institutions and religious authorities. The ubiquitousness of Jew-hatred in the daily lives of Palestinians is so overwhelming it is difficult to imagine any facet of Palestinian life that isn't inundated by it.
Take grammar lessons. According to a translation provided by Palestinian Media Watch, the Palestinian Authority's Arabic language matriculation examinations for high school students include questions such as "Punctuate the underlined phrase: Do not view the occupier as human." And "Punctuate the underlined phrase: We shall die in order that our land may live."
THIS WEEK, a Palestinian court sentenced Muhammad Abu Shahala to death for selling a home in Hebron near the Cave of the Patriarchs to Jews. Shahala was arrested shortly after several Jewish families moved into the house last month. He was reportedly tortured and quickly tried and sentenced to die by a PA court.
The PA was established in May 1994. The first law it adopted defined selling land to Jews as a capital offense. Shortly thereafter scores of Arab land sellers began turning up dead in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria in both judicial and extrajudicial killings.
Leaders of the Jewish community of Hebron wrote a letter to international leaders this week asking them to intervene with PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and demand that he cancel Shahala's sentence. They addressed the letter to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, President of the European Council Herman Van Rompuy, the director-general of the International Red Cross, Yves Daccord, as well as Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and President Shimon Peres. In it they wrote, "It is appalling to think that property sales should be defined as a 'capital crime' punishable by death.
"The very fact that such a 'law' exists within the framework of the PA legal system points to a barbaric and perverse type of justice, reminiscent of practices implemented during the dark ages."
They went on to make the reasonable comparison between the PA's law prohibiting land sales to Jews to Nazi Germany's Nuremburg laws that constrained and finally outlawed trade between Jews and Germans. The letter concluded with the question, "Is the Palestinian Authority a reincarnation of the Third Reich?"
The Palestinians of course are far from unique in their obsession with hating Jews. Their hemorrhage of hatred, their obsessive need to reject any move towards peaceful coexistence with Israel, or what the renowned late Palestinian poet Yousuf Al Khatib referred to picturesquely as "the Jewish filth of Europe," is matched in every Arab land. And of course, it is the primary obsession of the Iranian regime.
The parallels between Nazi laws and the laws of the PA and the Arab states that outlaw all cooperation with Israel and make such cooperation a capital offense are obvious and straightforward. Yet generally speaking, anyone who points out this fact is automatically dismissed as an alarmist or an extremist. Given the PA's relative military weakness when compared with Israel and the Arab world's current lack of interest in waging active war against Israel, noting their inarguable ideological affinity with the Nazis is considered socially and even intellectually unacceptable. The fact that they lack the ability to implement their ideology renders it improper to mention it.
The social prohibition on drawing parallels between the threats facing Israel today and those that faced the Jewish people 70 years ago is not limited to the discourse on the Arab world's conflict with Israel. It also extends to polite society's discourse on Iran's nuclear program, which the Iranian regime has repeatedly made clear is aimed at destroying Israel.
In his address to the nation at the annual Holocaust Remembrance Day ceremony at Yad Vashem on Wednesday evening, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu took aim at that taboo when he attacked those who accuse him of belittling the Holocaust by comparing the annihilation of European Jewry to the threat posed by Iran's nuclear weapons program.
Netanyahu said, "I know there are also those who believe that the unique evil of the Holocaust should never be invoked in discussing other threats facing the Jewish people. To do so, they argue, is to belittle the Holocaust and to offend its victims.
"I totally disagree. On the contrary. To cower from speaking the uncomfortable truth - that today like then, there are those who want to destroy millions of Jewish people - that is to belittle the Holocaust, that is to offend its victims and that is to ignore the lessons.
"Not only does the prime minister of Israel have the right, when speaking of these existential dangers, to invoke the memory of a third of our nation which was annihilated. It is his duty."
NETANYAHU IS right, of course. Unfortunately for Israel, raising the Holocaust in the context of a discussion about contemporary threats to the Jewish people is the rhetorical equivalent of dropping a nuclear bomb. Just as no one is allowed to use a nuclear bomb, no one is allowed to mention the Holocaust. And that means that there is ultimately no way to speak about the violent hatred that animates our enemies in every aspect of their policy making. From the seemingly anodyne issue of property sales to the existential issue of nuclear weapons programs, the Jew-hatred that lies at the foundation of their actions is out of bounds for discussion.
Actually, the situation is both better and worse than that. Netanyahu's rhetorical boldness in drawing the parallel between Iran and the Nazis is arguably the only reason that the EU and the Obama administration have taken any actions against Iran. No, as their feckless negotiations with the mullahs, their foot-dragging in implementing economic sanctions, and their outspoken opposition to military action against Iran make clear, they do not really mind the prospect of Iran acquiring the ability to wipe out the Jewish state. The only reason they have adopted sanctions at all is because Netanyahu's Holocaust rhetoric made them fear that Israel would attack Iran's nuclear installations if they didn't.
On the other hand, when it comes to their direct dealings with Jew-haters, Westerners not only fail to confront them about their prejudice. They enable it. For instance, at a townhall meeting during her visit to Tunisia last month, Hillary Clinton was asked how US leaders can be trusted when during elections, "most of the candidates from both sides run towards the Zionist lobbies to get their support."
Rather than reject the anti-Jewish premise of the question - that Jews exert inordinate control over US politics or that there is something wrong with candidates expressing support for Israel - Clinton treated the question as legitimate.
She said, "A lot of things are said in political campaigns that should not bear a lot of attention."
Clinton even congratulated her anti-Jewish questioner, saying, "I think it's a fair question because I... sometimes am a little surprised that people around the world pay more attention to what is said in our political campaigns than most Americans."
Similarly, a report on the behind the scenes goings on at last weekend's nuclear negotiations with Iran published by Al-Monitor described the friendly discussion that took place at a dinner Friday night between EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton and Iranian chief negotiator Saeed Jalili. According to a European diplomat, the conversation was aimed at breaking the ice. And it included a discussion of "political party funding in the US."
It is hard to imagine that such a discussion involved anything other than a group tongue-clucking session directed against the inordinate impact of "Jewish money" on US electoral politics. That is, it is all but impossible to imagine that the discussion involved anything other than Ashton attempting to build a rapport with her Iranian counterpart based on shared hatred or contempt for Jews.
The fact that the West refuses to consider the policy implications of the most powerful force in Arab and Iranian policy-making and political life does not mean that Israeli policy-makers should necessarily expand their discussion of the topic - although it would probably not hurt for them to do so. What it means is that the general policy debate in the West about the nature of Middle Eastern politics is completely divorced from reality.
Because the Americans and the Europeans refuse to acknowledge the elephant of Jew-hatred in the middle of the room, they cannot be trusted to make reasoned or rational policy decisions. And since they cannot be trusted to act rationally, Israel cannot rely on the Americans or the Europeans as allies or partners when it confronts threats from its Jew-obsessed neighbors.
Originally published in The Jerusalem Post.
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Dear Caroline,
You did a great job on this one, and any attempt at peace talks without demanding the Arabs stop their promoting Jew hatred, will only end with extreme persecution. Which Jews have experienced every time. The deal is always new, new people praised. But Jews are killed with the world looking on, and never blaming the Arabs for their hatred and actions. Hopefully your journalism will shock Israel into taking care of itself. God bless the Jews and God bless you. and Latma. Ivan
"raising the Holocaust in the context of a discussion about contemporary threats to the Jewish people is the rhetorical equivalent of dropping a nuclear bomb." -
There are many reasons for this phenomenon. "The Germans can never forgive the Jews for Auschwitz" - thus Henryk Broder quoted the Israeli psychoanalyst Zvi Rex (in Tagesspiegel, 24 November 1998). If we substitute "the so-called enlightened world" for "the Germans" one reason becomes clearer. Add to this the West's perennial cowardice, anti-Semitism and dominant Marxist agenda, in its multiple Protean forms, and other reasons come to the fore. I would, however, argue that the central cause for the western nations' ubiquitous contempt for and dislike of Israel is Israel's own contemptible pusillanimity. The world respects pride, principle and strength. Israel has done everything to get rid of both its national dignity and value orientation and nearly everything to divest itself of its strength.
The real reason the US and the EU won't acknowledge Jew-hatred in the Arab world is because they would then have to acknowledge the Jew-hatred in their own establishments and governments.Their own complicity in the dehumanization of the Jewish people would shine too much of a light on their own bigotry and racism.
Caroline, excellent as always. It is certainly noble of the Jewish community in Hebron to request clemency on behalf of Muhammad Abu Shahala. Unfortunately Shahala is not the first Palestinian to suffer this fate and certainly won't be the last. Jews have been blamed for everything from the Black Plague to dolphin spies. The Jewish Left would like us to believe that if we only acted less Jewish, people would begin to like us. Sorry to disillusion them, but Jew hatred is alive and well and doing better than ever. Ultimately we cannot depend on anyone but ourselves and with G-d's help we shall triumph as we always have. Shabbat shalom and blessings.
By informing us of the reality of the condition of Israel's neighbors and not the lies and cover-up that paints evil as good,something the majority of Israel and the West have been doing for too long,you bring to light the enormous gulf between the evil darkness and the light,the Israel of God.
'Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness; Who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!'
Isaiah 5:20
Even after the insane decision by the perverse and spineless leadership in Jerusalem to punish fellow Jews and reward this evil with Gush Katif the terminal Israeli insanity of rewarding evil continues with the house in Hebron near the Cave of the Patriarchs and the Migron insanity of the perverse court and filthy,treacherous,spineless politicians.
Israel should have led in breaking,crushing defeating the forces of evil Islam instead of submitting to their Road Map lie of peace.
By submitting to the international community of lying politicians,perverts and degenerants Israel yielded to evil.
Now,instead of being crushed,shamed and defeated Israel's enemies are emboldened to carry out their plan because of Jerusalem's weakness,appeasement and capitulation to please their diabolical Western overlords of deception,lies and Sheol.
By religiously following the EVIL agenda of the West Israel has lost all deterrence and insured a catastrophic major war like no other before in history and not peace.
The 1st lesson in the pursuit of peace Israel decided to bypass because they chose to follow amoral America's shortcut to disaster.
You can't make peace with evil you have to destroy it before it destroys you.
Before Senator Santorum withdrew from his Presidential race to become the Republican nominee, I made a sizable donation to the campaign and handed over at a fundraiser a few suggestions of approaches and comments he might consider. One of them was that though the USA produce bunker buster bombs for Israelis to have for use in destroying those threatening nuclear sites Iran has, that the actual explosive "insides" of the bombs come as a result of manufacture by Israelis. All would be combined somewhere into the needed bombs--it does not matter where. This allows Israel to accept responsibility for outcome and for USA to be a useful ally out of the "fallout" and reproach for the destruction. What do you think of the suggestion? I never heard back from Mr. Santorum, but his campaign committee did deposit my $5,000 check.
Excellent article; but another reason the elephant is ignored by the Western world is that Middle-Eastern Jew-hatred is Islamic. Jew-hatred is a sacred tenent of Islam, it is written into the Koran. This puts Western multiculturism into a bind as it has made it forbidden to challenge the beliefs of those perceived as minority or persecuted groups (the fact that Muslims are both the majority and the oppressors of minorities in the ME doesn't change that perception).
Furthermore, the West needs Arab oil and wants to claw back some the considerable wealth that has made its way from West to Middle East over the last century, so they dare not upset the Arabs they are trying to schmooze by appearing critical of a Koranic precept.
The other side of the antisemitic elephant in the room that nobody talks about, there is the tendency to surrender and decide there is no point in talking about it. There is a point and you are talking very ably about it.
Israel has a knack for missing opportunities to destroy threats against it. Lebanon, Gaza, and now Iran.
I fear that, once reelected, an unfettered Obama will prove to be extremely dangerous for Israel's security. An Iranian nuke is a fait accompli after November. Wouldn't be surprised to see American troops force an Israeli return to the 1949 lines either (the Jew-hater Samantha Powers' plan). The unthinkable is plausible should Obama be returned.
Bottom line: it's now or never for Israel.
Caroline,
This article should be required reading for every political leader, anyone who votes for them and anyone who thinks they are entitled to an opinion about Middle Eastern politics. Without a proper understanding of the Nazi ideology motivating Israel's enemies, it is impossible to appreciate the truth about what is happening in the region. As always, your research and analysis are excellent. Thank you for your efforts to expose the fanatic hatred that motivates the Palestinian leadership as well as a majority of Palestinians.
Caroline, I think that the Muslim world is even less restrained than the Nazis were in their Jew hatred. At least the Germans made an attempt to keep "the final solution" from getting out. That was why they put the death camps in remote areas etc. Today, the Muslims scream their Jew hatred to the world. Everyone hears them, they just inore them either because of their own Jewish indifference, leftist politics or because they deem the Muslim world an "underdog".
Pellucid, as usual.
For an unusual, and quite probably accurate, view of the early rise of anti-Semitism in the Mediterranean basin, see this Irish historian's tour de force condemnation of the brutal and very early incursions of Arabian pirates there. The relatively quick destruction of many thriving cultures was total. Hard to believe that Egypt was ever a 'breadbasket', or that literacy was widespread in 600AD.
Even what it didn't destroy, Arab "culture" managed to infect with a poisonous, opportunistic virus. We can't uproot it if we can't even recognize it as foreign.
http://www.amazon.com/Mohammed-Charlemagne-Revisited-History-Controversy/dp/0578094185/ref=tmm_pap_title_0
1,500 million Muslims cannot compete with 7.6 million Israeli Jews.
This nagging reminder of Muslim scientific and technological irrelevance is intolerable and must be eliminated at all costs.
The moon worshippers still claim Judea and Samaria. These folks are Arabs...there is no such thing as a person who is a "Palestinian". Show me a "Palestinian" coin or state. The only one is Israel...and God's claim trumps those savages who are bent on the destruction of Israel!
Israel should act in a forceful and swift way to help those arabs condemned to death by the palestinian terror regime, by seizing them and bringing them into safety under the nose of those hangmen.There is no other way to deal with such lunatics who strive for jewish blood and for the blood of anyone siding with Israel.Concerning Iran, it only rest on our shoulders to stop that iranian charade and give them what they desserve.The western world does not care for Istrael's fate, Israel is only an interval a period in what the westerners see as the historical trend the slow or fast, cruel or subreptice disappearance of the jewish people.
The elephant in the room is Islam . Caroline you have your comfort zone and you won't talk about Islam. Shame really because you are such an honest writer.
Dear Caroline and friends,
Abu-Sneina would have been a rising star at home in Hitler's Germany. You are certainly correct that the American and European governments cannot be trusted. They are completely unreliable. Even if conservatives were to gain control in the next elections, for at least the next couple of decades current social trends based on the same fascist world-view of the early 1920s and 1930s most likely will proceed on their own momentum.
I think "Independent Patriot" (see above) highlights a spiritual truth - people prefer to pretend that they have no moral failures (known as sin once upon a time). People would rather look a Righteous God in the face and tell Him He is mistaken than admit that they themselves are impure.
Jamie MacPherson
P.S. Have you read Gene Edward Veith Jr's "Modern Fascism - the Threat to the Judeo-Christian Worldview"? He shows that fascism must forever abhor Jews, Israelis and Israel because they brought mono-theism, transcendent moral law, and a transcendent Law-Giver to the world. He "renders invaluable service by clearly singling out and defining fascism, the complex core of ideas that exalts the nation-state or race, disregards the individual and the individual's rights, employs thought control and strict regimentation, and disregards moral objectivity, sweeping everything and everyone in its wake" (from the publisher's foreword).
Had Dr. Veith lived 80 years ago in Germany, he would have spent his energy raising his voice against Hitler and his foolish ideas.
Perversely, a bountiful contemporary font of Jew-hatred is easily found among American... Jews!
I recently saw a truly bizarre column in The Forward which identified American Evangelical Christians as a major force for racism, bigotry and, of course, Islamophobia because of their frequently stated support for Israel and for Israel's right to defend itself.
It was this support for Israel, and only this support for Israel, that was cited as evidence of this bigotry.
Talk about "self-loathing!"
Palestinians are now claiming Moses and Jesus were Palestinians.
Why not educate the world to Jewish history? Don't let the terrorist write Israel's history.
danielpipes.org/comments/195173
danielpipes.org/comments/195225
Time to educate the world.
I made a translation into Dutch from this very good article:
http://ejbron.wordpress.com/2012/05/01/caroline-glick-de-olifant-van-de-jodenhaat/
E.J. Bron (www.ejbron.wordpress.com)