When you look at all accusations levelled against Israel since 1948, they all ignore one simple fact. It is a fact that is not addressed, instead it is bypassed and obscured by a whole list of supposed grievances and deflections, with buzz words such as justice and human rights and prejudicial allegations of genocide, colonialism and apartheid. The simple fact is this, Muslim nations do not want a single Jew to survive in the Middle East. Deluded westerners are happy to help, now that their rediscovered antisemitism seems to be guilt-free and Western nations are quite content to book their seats for the funeral of the Jewish Nation, crocodile tears at the ready, as they were in 1948, when few believed that the newly create State of Israel would survive longer than a week, after five Arab armies invaded.
Islamicists have always been quite open about this. Thanks to the double-dealings of the British after World War One, Egyptian Muslim theologian Muhammad Rashid Rida was the first to develop extreme antisemitic ideas, declaring that if the Jews establish their State, not a single Muslim would remain there. He also believed that it was Jewish money that did for the Germans in the War and that Jews also controlled both Communism and Freemasonry. So, nothing new there! He also saw the Jews in an anticipated end-time scenario, convincing many Muslims that the only good Jew is a dead one, quoting writings such as:
“The Jews will fight you and you will be led to dominate them until the rock cries out, ‘O Muslim! There is a Jew hiding behind me, kill him!’”
This quote, and many of Rida’s ideas, also appear in the founding charter of Hamas in 1988. And we all know where that led. Let’s backtrack a bit and observe the outcome of Rida’s (and others) antisemitism. Massacres of Jews in Muslim countries increased. Fez in 1912, pogroms in Algeria in the 1930s and massive attacks on Jews in Libya and Iraq in the 1940s, the most infamous being the Farhud massacre in Baghdad in June 1941, with 180 Jews killed and 900 homes destroyed.
Then there were the riots and massacres in Palestine itself in the 1920s and 1930s. Chief instigator here was the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Amin al-Husseini. An ally of the British in the 1920 Mandate period, he was a virulent antisemite, instigating riots against the Jews from 1920 onwards. He also joined Hitler in Nazi Germany, with a promise to help them wipe out the Jews in Palestine, if they had won the war. Before his death, al-Husseini also became a mentor to one Yasser Arafat.
So, if we return to the Islamist desire to remove all Jews from the Middle East (“From the River to the Sea”), we can see a consistent line here from Rida in the 1920, through to the Grand Mufti and Yasser Arafat and on to Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran and the rest of the “bad actors” in modern times. There is a single theme here and it is a consistent one. If anyone tells you that the motivation behind it is the wellbeing of Palestinians, then you have bought the same lie that pervades with those who blindly attend the endless procession of Pro-Palestinian marches, sit-ins, boycotts and disruptions. It is not love and care for Palestinians, even if they believe it is, even if they are moved by selective compassion. For those who organize these events, the single motivation is death to the Jews, antisemitism at its purest, either by intent or proxy.
Israelis know this. They always have done. This is why virtually everyone has to serve in the IDF. It is not a social experiment or a character-building exercise, it is an absolute necessity, to counter the hatred that surrounds this tiny nation. That is also why there is such a high number of personal bomb shelters. They expect to be attacked, that is why defence is so important to them. By contrast the leaders of Gaza build no shelters for their population, because they want to be attacked. They are not surrounded by a nation that wants to destroy them, instead their neighbour just wants to be left in peace! It has always been so, but the World promotes the gross falsehood of a nation that is colonialist, expansionist and only intent on genocide of nations that surround it. The world is so blinkered!
This is also helps to explain the actions of Israel, both in 1947-1948 at its creation and in the current day, with the war against Hamas and Iran (and its other proxies). Losing these wars has a different consequence for each party. To the Arab nations it’s simply a loss of face and a bunch of excuses. If Israel were to lose just one war … then that’s the end of Israel! A big difference. So, if Israel has to make big decisions in their conduct of war, their intention is not genocide, it is to prevent another genocide, as a people most used to being at the receiving end of others’ intentions! Unfortunately, most commentators and armchair critics only see the narrow view, rather than the big gruesome picture, when they pour vitriol on Israel’s actions.
Israel does not want war, it wants to be left in peace. Why would it want war, anyway? It is a successful democracy with a (mostly) content population, even the 20% Arab Muslims who live within its borders. It is surrounded mainly by unsuccessful Muslim states with leaderships that care little about their people. Ongoing war against Israel is a convenient distraction from their own failings.
This brings up an important point because that could be taken as a very good definition of antisemitism itself. Antisemites have always used their hatred to hold up a mirror to their own inadequacies. Currently the three major “justifications” for Arab Muslim hatred for Israel are ‘colonialism’, ‘apartheid’ and ‘genocide’, all three of which are practiced quite freely by Iran in particular, unless you want to believe their twisted propaganda. But there’s also another important point to make about the antisemitism that is currently running riot throughout our Western culture. The rise in Jew hatred has always been a litmus test of the health of a nation. Its rise has always been an indicator of a sickness in society, a mirror, as I said before, of their own failings and inadequacies. Sadly, it is there for all to see. It is time we examined ourselves!
