Netanyahu in a speech he gave last week to
delegates of the Zionist World Congress in Jerusalem, invented the following
dialogue that he claimed took place between the Palestinian Mufti, Haj Amin
al-Husseini and Adolf Hitler during their 1941 meeting in Berlin in:
"He flew to Berlin.
Hitler didn’t want to exterminate the Jews at the time, he wanted to expel the
Jews. And Haj Amin al-Husseini went to Hitler and said, 'If you expel them,
they'll all come here.' 'So what should I do with them?' he asked. He said,
'Burn them'."
What accusation can be worse than to have
instilled Auschwitz in Hitler’s mind? Propaganda must be simple and I just love
the idea of Hitler – in typical Hitler manner - sitting there and asking the
Mufti advice or even instructions: “so what should I do?” In his desire to
blame Palestinians, Netanyahu almost whitewashed Hitler. The world has stopped
listening to his ranting about Iran as the perpetrator of the next Holocaust
and now it’s the Palestinians who are and always have been out to annihilate
the Jews.
Does Netanyahu believe the bullshit he utters? Did the
former President of Iran, Ahmedinejad, believe his claim that the Holocaust is
a myth? Did promoters of the “Protocols of the Elders of Zion” believe them to
be true or was political expediency behind their emergence and re-emergence?
Netanyahu has form. He has form as a liar
and as an inciter to hatred. This is what Israelis evidently want or at least
are willing to accept. Otherwise, he would not be prime minister. But Diaspora
Jews must also carry some of the blame. 60 per cent of the 525 delegates represent
Diaspora Jewry and they sat and listened to Netanyahu’s speech. They should
have booed him off the stage. Instead they stood in line for a photo
opportunity with him.
I always enjoy your blogs even if I disagree with some of the things you write.
ReplyDeleteAmin al Husseini did not invent the Holocaust.
ReplyDeleteBut since you write about inciters of hatred, it is worth noting the following:
al Hussieni was an enthusuastic admirer of Nazi Germany ("Großdeutschland als Freund Nummer 1") and of Hitler ("Allah im Himmel und Hitler auf Erden").
During World War II he collaborated with both Italy and Germany by making propagandistic radio broadcasts and by helping the Nazis recruit Bosnian Muslims for the Waffen-SS. He produced pseudoscientific proof of the "Jüdische Weltverschwörung".
There is no doubt that al Husseini's hatred was not limited to Zionism, but extended to Jews as such. His frequent, close contacts with leaders of the Nazi regime cannot have left al Husseini in any doubt as to the fate which awaited Jews whose emigration was prevented by his efforts. His many comments (e,g, ”Our fundamental condition for cooperating with Nazi Germany was a free hand to eradicate every last Jew from Palestine and the Arab world.”) show that he was not only delighted that Jews were prevented from emigrating to Palestine, but was very pleased by the Nazis' Final Solution'.
al Husseini´s private secretary, for a while, was one Yassir Arafat.
ReplyDeleteNetanyahu may have been off the mark, but we live in a small world, small indeed.
Netanhayu is not the first politician to exaggerate to make his point and he will not be the last.
ReplyDeleteNetanhayu is not the first Israeli leader forcefully to have reminded the world of Al Husseini's pedigree as an extreme anti-semite and made the link to contemporary Palestinian and Arab leadership. I dare say he will not the last to point out the heritage of implacable enmity that the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem has provided for his people.
Netanyahu was shrewd in what and how he chose to speak.
The context is important here. Jerusalem and other parts of Israel (including in the West Bank) have been for the last 7 weeks or so the subject of knife attacks and killings against Israeli civilians and also soldiers, both on and off duty. Many people have been killed or severely injured, both the victims and the perpetrators.The spark to these apparent "lone wolf" attacks were erroneous statements by Abbas and other Palestinian leaders and clerics that Israel was seeking to change the status quo regarding the rights of worship and access to the Temple Mount. Netanyahu, King Abdullah of Jordan, Kerry and others have implored Abbas to correct and to defuse the current wave of personal attacks - which he has chosen not to do. The attacks and killings continue.
A couple of week or so ago, Abbas sought to turn the PR screw harder in the western media by presenting an argument to UNESCO that the Western Wall (Judaism's holiest shrine) was not part of the Second Jewish Temple and could not have been since there was academic evidence (of course, false) that Jewish temples were not locate there. UNESCO threw out these claim. However, the western media reported these claims in full, including a lengthy background piece in the New York Times that reported these false claims as fact. Netanhayu must have despaired.
OK, he must have said to himself, I will remind the world yet again of the former Grand Mufti's bloodthirsty anti-semitism,activities and direct association with Hitler. And also to remind the world again of the direct line from Al Husseini via Aarfat to Abbas. This, he seems to be saying, is what he and Israel have to deal with.
The master stroke from Netanyahu was to "compel" the world's media including the New York Times to publish all of this history in full over many column inches - including that photo of Al Husseini sitting at the feet of Hitler in Berlin in the early 1940's. He did this by overstating the case regarding the culpability of Al Hussein as the architect of the Final Solution. He accepted the inevitable slap on the wrist which he knew would come from Angela Merkel; but felt it was a price worth paying. Angela understood his strategy and wasn't too offended.
The Israeli electorate have continued to support Netanyahu at the ballot box for a very long time (something quite remarkable given the assertive and combustible nature of Israeli politics) and the Jews of the diaspora present in Israel for that recent World Zionist Conference at which Netanhyau made those exaggerated claims recognised the history and the tragedy of the history of the Jews during and since the Final Solution and did not worry too much about theatrical licence.
Michael
Michael
We need people like you who make others think
ReplyDeletebut sometimes I wonder if they understand.
??
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