A Comparative Analysis: Jewish Response to Nazism and Fundamental Islam by Jerrold L. Sobel
Times change, circumstances are nuanced, players are substituted, but like fashion, history has a tendency of repeating itself. However, unlike shoes or dresses, reiterative history can be disastrous to a country and its people. Point in hand, the circumstances and attitude of many Jews today regarding “peace” talks between Israel and the Palestinian Arabs and those of their brethren 80 years ago at the dawn of the Holocaust.
Few will argue that 1933 and the rise of Hitler to the Chancellorship of Germany was a pivotal moment in Jewish history. However, not many are familiar with the dynamics of that time and how a united effort might have nipped Hitler in the bud.
Upon his ascendency, persecution of Germany’s Jews immediately began. As the outrages increased, a storm of protest echoed across Europe and the United States. Ordinary Jews and their Christian supporters began boycotting German goods in an attempt to sink an already Depression era, fragile German economy. Nonetheless, then as today, a schism soon arose in the Jewish community between Jewish leadership on both sides of the Atlantic seeking a tempered response to the Nazis, and the rank and file which sort to confront the nascent German leader head on.
As the turpitude against the Jews escalated throughout Germany the American Jewish Congress approved a program of protests and marches that would culminate in a massive demonstration at Madison Square Garden on March 27, 1933.
Rabbi, Stephen Wise, was President of the American Jewish Congress. Along with Supreme Court Justices Brandeis and Frankfurter, he was an esteemed leader of the Jewish community. On the one hand Wise wished to placate his outraged membership which called for marches, boycotts, and demonstrations; on the other he was too timid for such action. Seeking a way out of his dilemma, He meekly signed a joint letter of protest and took the advice of his friend Justice Brandeis not to bother Roosevelt about a boycott.
In defiance of Wise, the plebeian members of the AJC marched anyway. Soon afterward, the preeminent leadership of the other mainstream Jewish groups disassociated themselves from this grass root movement and ended any effective, organized American protest against Hitler.
Sound familiar? Is this not happening today? The players have changed. The names are different, so are the dates but the substance remains the same. Faced with a vitriolic, dehumanizing foe whose intentions are widely proclaimed, most mainstream Jewish leadership remains insouciant to the danger a Palestinian state would hold for the Jews of Israel.
Just this past June, Abraham Foxman, Rabbi Rick Jacobs, and David Harris condemned recent statements by senior Israeli officials about the impossibility of a two state solution calling them irresponsible, claiming they undermine the credibility of the government.
This is similar to when Jewish leadership failed to recognize what Hitler spelled out for them in Mein Kampf. Today’s elitist organizations fail to perceive the Muslim manifestos as the root of Jewish hatred, not statehood or settlements.
Hitler rambled in Mein Kampf: “The Jew uses every possible means to undermine the racial foundations of a subjugated people.”….”The personification of the devil as the symbol of all evil assumes the living shape of the Jew. “ And on and on.
Equally ribald but on a much larger scale, the resurgent Muslim world’s animus towards Jews has its underpinnings in their foundational scriptures the Koran and Hadith which contain passages such as:
“ And well ye knew those amongst you (Jews) who transgressed in the matter of the Sabbath: We said to them: “Be ye apes, despised and rejected.”
This and countless other incendiary, epithetic denunciations of Jews and Christians is replete in both these holy books. Analogous to hatred spewing from the pages of Mein Kampf, disdain for every religion and for those that believe in no religion at all exude from these Islamic scriptures.
Likewise akin to Mein Kampf, the wanton hatred is not hidden. To those willing to open their eyes, it’s easily recognizable. This age old conflict is ecclesiastical from the Muslim viewpoint. It began subsequent to the Treaty of Hudabiyyah, and continues today. Hudabiyyah is often unabashedly referenced by PA negotiators during this latest round of talks.
Once again, the theocratic nature of this conflict is not conjectural, it’s repeated at the highest levels of Fatah governance.
“ Our war with the descendants of the apes and pigs“(i.e., Jews) is a war of religion and faith. Long Live Fatah!” This non too mundane statement was uttered by the moderator at a Fatah event on January 12, 2012. He unambiguously highlights the thinking of the PA and Fatah. And defines the conflict with Israel for what it is, an uncompromising religious war mandated by Islam. It may not be what certain Jews and their supporters on the left wish to hear. Or for that matter it may not be what Prime Minister Netanyahu; (if he’s really buying into this charade) wishes to hear, but it’s what every facet of the PA government and their supporters are saying. Lest we forget, compared to the other recalcitrant terrorists, these are supposedly the “moderates.”
In a 2010 survey, more than 98% of Palestinian Arabs proclaimed religion as an integral part of their lives. The current PA Mufti, Muhammad Hussein, no less execrable than his forebear and Hitlerian disciple, Hajj Amin al- Husseini had this to say last year:
“Palestine in its entirety is a revolution….continuing today and until the End of Days. The reliable Hadith…says: “The Hour of Resurrection will not come until you fight the Jews. The Jew will hide behind stones or trees. Then the stones or trees will call: ‘Oh Muslim, servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him.”
There doesn’t seem to be too much wiggle room here, particularly since a 2011 poll taken by project Israel reports 73% Palestinian Arabs surveyed believe the Islamic Hadith that preaches it is Islamic destiny to kill Jews wherever they are. A further 68% stated they justify suicide bombings and the murdering of civilians to defend Islam.
Joel Fishman an historian and fellow at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs states: “The intensity of Palestinian incitement and hatred of Israel is pervasive. It includes the naming of public buildings, sports facilities, and streets after Palestinian terrorists who have murdered Israeli civilians. The public discourse, which encompasses the educational system, teaching materials such as textbooks and maps, television, billboards, and the media of popular culture (such as websites and crossword puzzles), conveys a message of hatred. It honors Palestinian “martyrs,” killed while perpetrating terror attacks against Israeli civilians and exhorts the youth to emulate such “exemplary role models.”
Taking this short history of the past 80 years into account, what can we come away with?
Not wishing to rock the boat and possibly be accused of dual loyalty, upper class, socially elitist Jewish leadership in America failed millions of their co-coreligionists in Europe by not organizing and demanding support and concrete action from the Roosevelt Administration.
Equally abhorrent, today with the concurrence of many Jews, there is a President and Secretary of State which either lack the sagacity or the inclination to recognize the danger that a Palestinian state would bode for the Jews of Israel.
Whereas the aforementioned, radical pro-Nazi Palestinian Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Hajj Amin al- Husseini sought gas chambers to eliminate the Jewish presence in Palestine. Backed by generational endemic hatred and the wherewithal of modern technology, a political mistake such as creating a terrorist entity within their midst could have equal catastrophic consequences for the Jews of Israel.
During a march in Gaza earlier this year, PA Chairman, Mahmoud Abbas said Husseini was a great man whose ways should be emulated by all PA Arabs, and was worthy of great praise. Yet disingenuously, Obama and his Secretary of State, John Kerry dissimulate any knowledge of this.
To conclude: The facts are unmistakable.
Mein Kampf, written by a psychotic anti-Semite laid the foundation of Nazi ideology which ultimately led to the death of 6 million Jews over a 12 year period of time.
The Koran and accompanying Islamic liturgy is replete with anti-Jewish and Christian invective. Its teachings should unquestionably be recognized as the least common denominator of this dispute, not refugees, Jerusalem, borders, statehood, or any other prevaricate distraction.
Jewish leadership both here and in Israel, as in the past, is fragmented and seeks the path of least resistance; appeasement and acquiescence. They are succumbing to the pressure of creating a Palestinian Arab state from the body of Israel, and condescendingly cajole and pressure the Israeli government to do so.
Continuing a policy of unrequited concessions, Benjamin Netanyahu appears to be following a pattern of kowtowing to this Administration’s demands. Acquiescence to American cajolement for the release of 104 convicted killers as a starting point for the division of his country can’t be good for the Jews of Israel or for generations hence.
Finally, Obama: Armed with loyalty from left wing leadership and an insensate 70% plurality of the Jewish vote; scandals be damned, is free to pursue his obsession of dividing Israel into two states.
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