Arab Anti-Semitism
November 17, 2001

Last Saturday was the 63rd anniversary of Kristallnacht. Kristallnacht means the night of broken glass. It refers to the systematic destruction in Germany of synagogues, Jewish schools, Jewish owned shops and homes by gangs of Nazi storm troopers. Kristalnacht was the harbinger of the Holocaust that wiped out 1/3 of world Jewry and decimated the flourishing and dynamic Jewish communities of Western and Eastern Europe.

Until recently, I was certain that I lived in a post Holocaust world that had learned its lesson about the depths of human depravity to which anti-Semitism can lead. Every major city in America and Europe has a Holocaust museum or monument whose purpose is to enable humanity to see and never forget how anti-Jewish hatred leads to genocide. Of course, I knew that residual anti-Jewish hatred still existed, and that from time to time some miscreant would mouth anti-Semitic utterances. But I was certain that world opinion, educated to know the dangers of a pervasive and public display of venom against Jews, would never tolerate it again. Two recent events have shaken this certainty.

The first was United Nations Conference on Racism held this August in Durban, South Africa. This Conference on Racism turned out to be an international festival of raw Jew-hatred. It had one theme: the Jews are incorrigible haters of all that is good, they secretly plot to destroy nations and are responsible for all of society’s ills. An Anti- Defamation League representative wrote that nothing in his experience as an American Jew growing up in the second half of the 20th century prepared him for what he experienced in Durban. Various Arab and Moslem groups passed out anti-Israel T- shirts and openly exhibited anti-Semitic literature. They sold posters showing Jews with hooked noses, blood dripping from their fangs, surrounded by pots of money. It was anti-Semitism on the order of the most vicious Nazi propaganda. The past had come calling.
The second event that showed that the world is again safe for anti-Semites is the bombing of the World’s Trade Center and the anti-Israel and anti-Jewish sentiment that it exposed. In Kuwait, it was stated as a fact that rabbis told their followers to take their money out of the stock market before September 11th. Elsewhere in the Middle East, it was reported in the news that the “4,000" Israelis who worked at the Twin Towers were told not to go to work that day by Mossad, Israel’s spy agency. With the Arab and Moslem media spreading those ideas it is no surprise that 48% of Pakistanis stated in a poll that it was Israel that attacked the World Trade Center. A plurality of Egyptians agree.

Even more disturbing because of the stature of the source, are the words of the Iman of the Islamic Cultural Center of New York City. He is also the sole representative in the United States of Cairo’s al Azhar University, the most prominent center of Islamic learning in the world. He said in an interview, only Jews were capable of destroying the World Trade Center. Then he added, “if that fact had become known to the American people, they would have done to the Jews what Hitler did.”

For a long time nobody took the anti-Semitism being expressed in the Arab and Moslem world seriously. It was attributed to resentments stemming from the hostilities between Israel and the Arabs rather than to any deep-seated prejudice. Jews were being overly sensitive if they saw in it something grave. But what we learned from September 11th is that words lead to deeds. America now knows that it made a huge mistake in dismissing Osama Bin Laden’s rantings against the United States. We are making an equally big mistake if we dismiss Arab and Moslem anti-Semitism as nothing to be concerned about. We should take it deadly serious especially since there is a force of one billion Moslems in the world who are being bombarded with this hatred.

What kinds of things are being said in the Arab and Moslem press and by Arab and Moslem leaders. Do you remember Pope John Paul II’s visit to Syria in May of this year and his meeting with the Syrian President, Bashar Al Assad? In his speech of welcome, Assad spoke about the “treacherous Jewish mentality” and accused the Jews of both torturing and killing Jesus and of committing treachery against Mohamed. He urged Christians and Moslems to make common cause against the Jews. This is what the President of a major Arab country said on a public occasion in front of the head of the Catholic Church. And not only did the Pope say nothing, but the world was silent.
The world was also silent when the editor of a prestigious Egyptian weekly, wrote: “A Jew is a Jew and hasn’t changed for thousands of years. He is base, contemptible, scorns all moral values and sucks blood for a pittance. The Merchant of Venice is no different from the arch-executioners of Palestinians in refugee camps. Both are similar models of inhuman depravity.”

Another Egyptian newspaper carried an in-depth investigative report that revealed that the Jews control the world’s media as well as political decision–making in the capitals of the world foremost among them Washington, London, Berlin and Paris.

In addition to reviving this old Czarist canard that Jews control the world, Arabs have revived the old blood libel. A few years ago, the Syrian Defense Minister wrote a book titled, The Matzah of Zion, in which he claimed Jews murder Arab children to knead their blood into matzahs for Passover. In a similar vein, the wife of Yasir Arafat told then First Lady, Hillary Clinton, during a State Visit to the Holy Land, that Israel was poisoning Palestinian water supplies. In a variation on the theme, a Palestinian newspaper recently stated: “In a new step to kill more children, the occupation forces of Israel threw large quantities of poisoned candies in front of two schools last night.” A medic who collected pieces of these unwrapped candies, felt the rubber gloves on his hands melting. He also had trouble breathing and felt dizziness. It seems that no libels against Jews are too awful or too incredible to find credence in much of the Arab/Muslim world.

It was not always this way. It has been correctly pointed out that in the past, Jews living under Islam experienced far more tolerance than Jews in Christian Europe. But the current rancorous expressions of anti-Semitism in Moslem lands indicate – that was then and now is different. The situation has radically changed. And this change has to be taken seriously. The world must speak up and speak out. It is not just the job of Israel and Jewish defense organizations to do so. The United States and the European Union must not allow Yasser Arafat, Hosni Mubarak, Bashar al Sadat and other Arab leaders to think they can promote or tolerate anti-Semitism in their societies with impunity. The western democracies have to made it absolutely clear that anti- Jewish hatred in Arab and Moslem lands will be no more tolerated then it would be accepted in Austria or Germany.

The danger is real. Arab anti-Semitism, if allowed to flourish, raises the prospect of violence against Jews around the world that is too terrible to contemplate. Furthermore, history has shown that anti-Semites target Jews first but never the Jews alone. Like the canary used by miners to detect noxious gasses in mines, anti- Semitism points to a deadly pathology. If unchecked, it will unleash powerful and destructive forces as we begin this new century.

The Torah says, uveearta harah meekeerbecha - “you shall root out the evil from your midst.” America and its allies are demonstrating the will to undertake this mission regarding the scourge of terrorism. They need to be just as vigorous in combating anti- Semitism. Holocaust museums and monuments erected throughout the world are a reminder of what, God forbid, could happen if past lessons are not heeded.