Cutting through the bullshit.

Saturday 15 August 2009

They all hate us anyhow

On 29 July, Ibrahim ibn Yusuf over at The hasbara buster did a post on Dershowitz’s latest antics, effectively blaming Amin El Hussayni, Grand Mufti of Jerusalem during the British Mandate, for the Final Solution. Ever since my last post on 30 July, I’ve been kicking myself for deferring reading that post until I’d finished my own, because apropos of Israeli street naming conventions, I would have learned

...Avraham Stern was a Jewish leader, and in 1941 he offered the Nazis to enter the war on Germany's side (see here for a facsimile of the proposal). The Palestinians can't be demonized for doing what the Jews also tried to do (although the Zionist defense for this is that Stern has been repudiated in Israel, this is yet another lie: streets in all major Israeli cities are named after this frustrated Nazi collaborator).

Ibrahim’s post makes two central points: that leaders of the Zionist movement were also cosying up to the Nazis during World War II and that Dershowitz has been characteristically cavalier with the facts. He claims that the Mufti ‘personally stopped 4,000 children, accompanied by 500 adults, from leaving Europe and had them sent to Auschwitz and gassed’. Ibrahim points out that Raoul Hilberg’s magisterial study of the Holocaust, The destruction of the European Jews, recounts a similar incident, but those 4500 people all safely emigrated to Palestine. It is unsurprising that Dershowitz would want to conclude from the Mufti’s objection to their emigration that his goal was the eradication of the Jews. A more obvious motivation would be to inhibit further Jewish colonisation of Palestine.

Since then, Ibrahim has been doing some research in the archives of the Palestine Post, where he’s discovered evidence refuting a number of myths about Zionist terrorism in 1947-48.

In the discussion of lenin’s post on the topic, I learned a lot about the Mufti. It appears that the post of Grand Mufti was probably invented by Herbert Samuels, the British High Commissioner, in 1921. Mohammad Amin al Husayni did not actually possess the qualifications in Islamic jurisprudence the post required. Although there was an election, I haven’t found much about the body that carried it out, but it appears to have been a college of Islamic jurists appointed by the Mandatory authorities. Al-Husayni came in fourth of the four candidates, but Samuels selected him anyway, suggesting that he was in the colonial administration’s pocket. His stay in Berlin was not in an official capacity – he was on the lam from the British and the Axis powers offered him sanctuary. He was apparently deeply sympathetic to the Final Solution and aspired to carry out his own upon his triumphant return to Jerusalem after the British defeat in WWII. But there is no evidence that he exercised any influence over any particulars, much less instigated it.

Dershowitz refers repeatedly to the Mufti’s ‘followers’ as if the entire population of Palestine were Nazi sympathisers. While he doubtless had followers within the various organisations he founded and led, there is no evidence that he enjoyed mass support. In any case, as Grand Mufti, al-Husayni was a colonial appointee, not the elected representative of the Palestinian people. And in that capacity, his role was to administer the al-Aqsa Mosque and other Muslim shrines in Jerusalem, not to articulate foreign policy or forge alliances.

But what if he was? What if the Grand Mufti really did represent the Palestinians and faithfully articulated their desire to rid the world of Jews? By what reasoning does that justify their ethnic cleansing, and only theirs? If the rationale is that all members of a population perceived to express support for an atrocity are complicit and the appropriate punishment for their complicity is forcible, permanent exile, then where would that leave the American Jews, 74% of whom admitted to the ADL in April that they approved of ‘the military action that Israel took in Gaza’? Perhaps Dershowitz doesn’t intend this principle to apply so generally. Maybe it only applies in cases of genocide, but where would that leave the American Jews, who applauded the massacre of Deir Yassin when they read of it in the NY Times? Or maybe it’s just support for the Shoah, which is absolutely uniquely evil in every respect, that is to attract collective punishment on this basis? Even then, we are still left with the question Dershowitz set out to answer, why is it the Palestinians alone who deserve this fate? Surely there was support for Judeocide among populations outside of Palestine during World War II? So how did it come to pass that the Germans weren’t forced into Poland and Denmark to make way for the Jewish national home?

The answer is obvious. Either in the wet noodle-sharp juridical reasoning of Harvard Law Professors, supporting the Holocaust deserves to attract a more severe penalty than carrying it out, or the Germans, as a civilised European nation, were exempt, while the Palestinians were just Arabs. In other words, it makes perfect sense if you’re a shameless racist shit.

In reality, of course, it has nothing to do with the Holocaust. Whatever hasbaristic spin you put on it, the Zionists had determined that they wanted to establish a Jewish state in Palestine. When their best efforts failed to secure a Jewish majority, they created one by expelling the Arabs.

4 comments:

  1. You might as well mention Israel's refusal to acknowledge the Armenian genocide, which in fact makes it complicit with the Turkish state's continued denial of the mass killings. Should the Israelis pay reparations to the Armenians?

    But Ernie, the monster of Zionism is mutating again, and these days it is the Biblical connection of the Jews to Israel that is being stressed, rather than their suffering under the Nazis. This past week the governor of Texas, not an insignificant player in the American political landscape, said in Jerusalem "I'm a big believer that this country was given to the people of Israel a long time ago, by God, and that's ordained." He was given an award by the Israelis. Nauseating.

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  2. Thanks for your comment, Ibrahim.

    I'm not sure how the Armenian genocide fits into this. Have you come across some evidence that Zionists supported it at the time, as al-Husayni is alleged to have the Judeocide?

    The biblical connection doesn't strike me anything new. That's why Israel is in Palestine and not, say, Antarctica. As Ilan Pappe represents the Zionist position, 'There is no god, but he gave us this land', or words to that effect.

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  3. Religious brainwashing is an old card. The dedication with which it is put forward makes more sense of one realizes the assertion that 'things were ever thus' only reflects long practice in duping people en masse. The religion card and race card are interchangeable at will : nor must they follow rules of logic. It is, in fact, virtually guaranteed that they will be violated flagrantly and with enthusiasm!

    I happened upon a site devoted to countering bullying...and was immediately struck by the correlation to international affairs.

    Psychological Harassment Information Association

    Bullying Tactics and Strategies Revealed

    Indirect Communication Indirect Threats
    Conditioning your mind Negatively or Positively
    Rejection Hurts The Never Ending Test
    Intrusive Thoughts (Degrading Themes)
    Ambiguities - Self Doubt and Uncertainties
    Metaphorical Speech – Hidden Threats
    Responsibility and Vulnerability
    Ideation used to Manipulate Victims
    Credibility and Psychological Warfare
    Covert Type Investigations
    Fear of Fear and Attacks to the Honor
    View on Reality Manipulation

    It's part of http://opitslinkfest.blogspot.com/2009/08/aug-23-blogroaming.html
    Much more related info at the post
    http://opitslinkfest.blogspot.com/2009/07/perception-alteration.html

    The drivel about Ahmadinejad is best countered by his interview with Peter Jennings about Holocaust Denial...which it is; but about the holocaust denial by Israel regarding the one they are inflicting on Palestinians.YouTube is such a fount of information.

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  4. I've just deleted a comment that appeared to consist of links to adverts.

    Please note: NO ADVERTS!

    Anything I can identify as advertising will be deleted.

    ReplyDelete