Killing Israelis – Music to the ears of NYT and CNN

Jack Engelhard

Jack Engelhard’s classic international bestselling novel Indecent Proposal, which later became a worldwide hit movie, has been republished to meet readers’ demands. His other major works include Compulsive: A Novel, his award-winning post-Holocaust Montreal memoir Escape from Mount Moriah, plus Slot Attendant: A Novel About A Novelist. His website: www.jackengelhard.com

It keeps getting better for The New York Times and for killers everywhere.

This morning’s paper offers a cheerful report about Palestinians who’ve put their “anger” to music – soundtracks to harmonize their knifing spree.

The Times, always in tune with the Palestinians and their “anger,” sings along with what it calls “political songs as a way to make the Palestinian people get up and resist.” Plainly, killing Jews is music to the ears of Palestinian “teenagers” and to the reporters and editors ofThe New York Times.

A group of these Palestinian “teenagers” – burly men of rock-throwing age – have compiled a list of their top 10 knifings accompanied by bloodcurdling lyrics, so let’s dance, says the Times…let’s rock, says the Times, let’s roll, says the Times, let’s glorify the knifing, the stabbing, the firebombing of any and all Israelis, says the Times.

Clap hands with Times’ reporters Jodi Rudoren and Rami Nazzal who call it “inspirational,” namely, say, such hits as “Stab, Stab,” not to mention the ever popular “Stab the Zionist and say god is great.” Not quite Gershwin.

Other melodies like that have the full support of the Times, which quotes this satisfied Palestinian customer:

“The thrumming score has helped PUMP HIM UP for near-daily demonstrations where he hurls rocks at Israeli soldiers.”

Beautiful, in the eyes of The New York Times.

Wonderful, in the eyes of The New York Times.

Good going, says the Times.

More, more Jewish blood, says the Times.

That is the way to bring up kids. Rocks,knives, guns, stab, hate, kill – terrific way to inspire the next generation.

This is “the paper of record,” my son, read by millions, so do not be astonished that the world is going to hell in a handbasket.

Do not be amazed that no Jew, or Christian, can feel safe anywhere and that no Arab can be trusted any place.

The news media have turned the world upside down, yes, sweet is bitter, bitter is sweet, day is night, night is day.

Lest we forget CNN, “The Most Trusted Name In News.” 

Okay, now TRUST this headline from last night:

“Palestinians Shot Boarding Kids’ Bus.”

Oh those poor Palestinians…oh but wait, because here’s the real story. These were Hamas terrorists preparing to shoot up Jewish kids on the bus.

Truth? Honesty? Integrity? Are you kidding?

Guess what? He’s right. Hamas warlord Ismail Haniyeh says that the Palestinian Arabs have won the media war as to the current Palestinian Arab temper tantrum. He says so sneeringly, menacingly and pridefully. He’s got the proof. He’s got the evidence. He’s got the news media in his pocket.

His pride. Our shame.

In the newsroom thriller “The Bathsheba Deadline” the question arises as to whether to use the courtesy title Mr. for Mahmoud Abbas, hence Mr. Abbas. Everybody else says yes. Editor Jay Garfield says no. Garfield says that the minute you give even the slightest honor to such evil men you dishonor the entire world and launch chaos.

“But,” someone says, “The Times used Mr. for Arafat and even for Adolph Hitler.”

“Precisely my point.”

New York-based author and bestselling novelist Jack Engelhard writes a regular column for Arutz Sheva. He is the author of the international classic “Indecent Proposal” now followed by the newsroom thriller “The Bathsheba Deadline.” Engelhard is the recipient of the Ben Hecht Award for Excellence in Journalism. Website: www.jackengelhard.com

Netanyahu outfoxes the media: The world now knows Jerusalem’s Mufti was Nazi war criminal

Mufti inspecting Nazi troops

In correcting Netanyahu’s ‘history lesson’, what has been made clear is the 1st ‘Palestinian’ leader, Jerusalem’s Mufti, Haj Amin al-Husseini, started the lies  [still being used today] as an excuse to murder Jews with impunity, and as a Nazi war criminal, the many similarities seen in Palestinian culture now make sense.

By CAROLINE B. GLICK

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is crazy like a fox.

Netanyahu’s assertion on Tuesday before the World Zionist Congress that the founder of the Palestinian people, Haj Amin al-Husseini, convinced Adolf Hitler to eradicate rather than expel the Jews of Europe was an overstatement of Husseini’s role.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivers an address to the World Zionist Congress. – Photo: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM)

No, the Holocaust was not Husseini’s idea.

But he was a partner in perpetrating and promoting it. He also made it inevitable.

As I detailed in my book The Israeli Solution: A One-State Plan for Peace in the Middle East, during the course of Husseini’s meeting with Hitler in Berlin in November 1941, Hitler told the Arab leader of his plan to eradicate European Jewry.

Husseini told Hitler that he would support the Nazis, and rally the Arab world to their side, if Hitler agreed to two conditions: that Hitler support his bid to rule over a postwar Arab state comprised of present-day Iraq, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon and Israel; and that Hitler support the genocide of Middle Eastern Jewry.

As both the official Nazi record and Husseini’s summary of the meeting in his diary report, Hitler accepted Husseini’s demands.

And it makes sense that he did.

Husseini proved his loyalty to the Nazis long before he arrived in Berlin. His romance with them began with Hitler’s election victory in 1933. From then on, Husseini’s followers in Mandatory Palestine greeted one another with the Nazi salute. Swastikas festooned their towns. The Nazis began directly funding Husseini’s terror war against the Jews of Israel and British Mandatory officials in 1937.

In 1937, the British forced Husseini to flee the country. In 1941, he organized and incited a pro-Nazi military coup in Iraq. The British were forced to invade Iraq in response to the coup.

Husseini then fled to Rome where he met with Mussolini and went on the Berlin, where he remained for the duration of the war.

As the grand mufti of Jerusalem, Husseini invented and shaped the Palestinian national ethos in a manner that aligned with his pathological hatred of the Jews. Rather than providing the Palestinian Arabs with a positive vision of a future state that would safeguard and cultivate them as a distinct Arab nation, he shaped Palestinian society as a wholly negative phenomenon. It was seeded in a hybrid hatred of Jews that fused Koranic hostility to Jews with racism-based annihilationist European anti-Semitism rooted in The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, which Husseini translated and published in Arabic.

The goal of Husseini’s nationalist drive was not to form a Palestinian Arab state, but to prevent the establishment of a Jewish state and to annihilate all aspects of the Jewish national liberation movement through a campaign a terror and political warfare.

Husseini’s goal of leading an Arab state that encompassed Iraq and the entire Levant shows that the founding father of the Palestinian national project did not view “Palestine” as a distinct territorial entity.

After Hitler agreed to both of Husseini’s conditions, Husseini began his active collaboration in the Nazi war effort. He participated in the Holocaust directly. In 1943, he formed the SS Handschar Division comprised of Bosnian Muslims. His troops exterminated 90 percent of Bosnia’s 14,000-member Jewish community.

Husseini used his position as well to scuttle British attempts to trade German prisoners of war for Jews. In one such documented episode, in 1943 Husseini appealed to SS commander Heinrich Himmler to cancel a deal to exchange 4,500 Jewish children and 500 Jewish adults from Hungary, Slovakia, Romania and Bulgaria to cancel the deal and send the Jews to Auschwitz.

Himmler bowed to his appeal. The Jews were sent to the gas chambers.

Husseini contributed to the Holocaust indirectly.

Palestinian Leader Farouk Qaddumi: We Supported the Nazis in WWII

Beginning shortly after his meeting with Hitler and extending through the end of the war, Husseini broadcast regular programs to the Arab world on Nazi short wave radio in Arabic. In those broadcasts he engendered support for the Nazis and the extermination of world Jewry. Using the mix of Islamic Jew-hatred and European annihilationist anti-Semitism he had developed in Jerusalem, Husseini cultivated a culture of support for the annihilation of Jews and the destruction of the Jewish (then nascent) state in the Land of Israel. That culture, bred through those broadcasts heard regularly by millions throughout the entire Arab world, still holds today.

Husseini was indicted as a war criminal in Nuremberg. Rather than try him, the allies allowed him to flee to Egypt in 1946. There he was greeted as a war hero by King Farouk.

It is true that Hitler didn’t need Husseini to convince him to annihilate European Jewry. By the time Husseini arrived in Germany, the Nazis had already murdered a million Jews.

But Netanyahu’s claim that Husseini made it impossible for Hitler to suffice with expelling the Jews from Europe is true. The only place that wanted the Jews of Europe was the nascent Jewish state in the Land of Israel.

Through his terror war against the Jews and the British Mandatory authorities, and through his incitement of pro-Nazi sentiment in Egypt, Iraq and the Levant, Husseini convinced the British to betray their legal obligation to allow free Jewish immigration to the Land of Israel and so closed off the Jews’ last avenue of escape from Nazi-dominated Europe.

As Netanyahu said, Husseini is revered and glorified by the Palestinians. Yasser Arafat claimed that he was Husseini’s political heir and blood relative as a means of legitimizing his claim to leadership over the Palestinians.

Hamas as well has invoked Husseini as its ideological founding father.

History in hand, it is time to return to Netanyahu, and his overstatement of Husseini’s role in the Holocaust.

From the time of Husseini till today, propaganda and terror have been the Palestinians’ weapons of choice in their war against the Jews. Internally lies are spread of nonexistent Jewish plots and imaginary acts of aggression, to incite and solicit the murder of Jews. Propaganda and lies are then used to glorify the murderers as heroes and martyrs.

Externally, the Palestinians spread lies about Palestinian victimhood at the hands of bloodthirsty Jewish settlers and security forces who seek to drive the Arabs from their homes. By casting themselves as victims to the outside world, the Palestinians ensure that Israeli responses to their acts of aggression are perceived as acts of aggression, which they are fully justified in attempting to defy through murderous rampages against Jews.

The Palestinians recognize that for their terror to be acceptable to the West, they must portray themselves as guileless victims. Hence, they repeatedly insist the absurd claim that terrorists who deliberately kill Jews by running them over, are really merely victims involved in traffic accidents. The Palestinian teenage girl who this week sought to infiltrate the community of Yitzhar with a carving knife, suffers from “sleepwalking.”

These ridiculous lies are only credible in a world devoid of any historical knowledge of the Palestinians’ 95-year history of aggression against the Jews. And so the Palestinians have invented a false history of their war against Israel in which thousands of years of Jewish history is blotted out, and thousands of years of Palestinian history have been invented out of whole cloth.

In this revised version of events, Husseini has been erased from history. His role in the Holocaust has been deleted. The fact that the goal of the Palestinian national movement from its inception has been to annihilate the Jewish state and that the annihilation of Israel remains its goal still today has similarly been washed out of the history books and the news pages.

To maintain this fictional account of current and historical events, the Palestinians depend on the collaboration of the Western media.

And with each passing year, that collaboration has grown more open, expansive and shameless.

Western reporting on the events of the day now are almost entirely devoid of any relationship to reality.

Consider just a few recent examples. CNN’s report of the Palestinian arson assault on Joseph’s Tomb in Nablus on October 16 contained no mention of the fact that the fire at the holy Jewish site was set by Palestinians. In the same report, the network stated, “In the past month, eight Israelis died in 30 attacks involving knives and other weapons.”

As if fires set themselves and angry knives wander the streets.

MSNBC’s reporter Ayman Mohyeldin was caught lying two weeks ago as he claimed that the knife-wielding Palestinian terrorist in the Old City of Jerusalem who was lunging toward security personnel as they killed him, was an unarmed, innocent bystander. As Mohyeldin spewed his lies, the video of the assault that clearly showed the terrorist wielding a knife was being broadcast to his viewers.

That embarrassment didn’t stop MSNBC from maintaining the myth of Israeli aggression, however.

The next week, the network posted a graphic of British Mandatory Palestine from 1946 which it claimed was the State of Palestine in 1946. The graphic them purported to show how the Jews stole ever more Palestinian land in the years that followed. Although the network was forced to broadcast a retraction, the lie that Palestine once existed had already been told.

Then of course there was The New York Times with its stunning “background” piece purporting to provide its readers with historical context regarding the competing Israeli and Palestinian claims regarding the Temple Mount. The Times reported as fact the false claim that there is a debate among respected academics regarding whether the Jewish temples were actually located on the Temple Mount.

In other words, the Times unabashedly participated in the Palestinian project of rewriting history in a manner that erases Jewish history from the Jewish homeland.

Netanyahu recognizes that the media have sided with the Palestinians in their war to destroy Israel through a mix of terror and propaganda.

He knows that the only stories they will report on are stories with an anti-Israel angle. It is reasonable then to assume that he decided to use their embrace of every possible angle of attack as a means to get the truth out about the nature of the war.

By exaggerating Husseini’s importance in the Holocaust, Netanyahu gave the media a means of attacking him. But by doing so, he forced the Times to report on the Palestinians’ founding father’s role in destroying European Jewry and his desire to carry out the Final Solution in the Middle East. They would have ignored the issue if Netanyahu had not exaggerated his actual role.

Due to his “gaffe,” every Western media outlet reported on Husseini’s actions. Some even mentioned that in his PhD dissertation, current Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas said the Holocaust was both a myth and a joint Zionist-Nazi project. For most Westerners, this is the first they’ve heard of the fact that the Palestinian’s George Washington was a Nazi war criminal.

Like I said, crazy as a fox.

Facebook Finally Moves Against Hamas in West Bank

Facebook has shut down Hamas’ accounts and groups on the social media site amid worsening unrest as Palestinian youths target Israelis in a wave of attacks.

“Facebook has closed, over the past two days, a large number of pages run by and close to the Hamas movement’s media in the occupied West Bank,” the Islamist group said in a statement issued Wednesday.

Hamas said the closures came after a “wide-ranging and organized complaint campaign” that it said was supported by direct pressure applied by the Israeli Telecommunications and Foreign ministries on Facebook’s administration.

The statement added that the closed Facebook pages had “played a key large role in supporting the Al-Quds intifada,” in reference to the spate of protests, riots and violent attacks against Israelis in the West Bank and Israel proper since early October.

“Today and yesterday, [Hamas] pages [based] in Ramallah, Galilee, Nablus, Bethlehem, Qalqilya, Salfit, Tubas and Jenin were closed, as well as the page of Muslim Youth League in the West Bank,” Hamas announced.

It added that Facebook also “launched a campaign against Islamic Bloc pages [based] in West Bank universities, closing the Bloc’s An-Najah, Galilee and Palestine Polytechnic pages.”

“At the same time as the closure of these pages, Facebook has closed and frozen the accounts of dozens of publishers and administrators who run [them].”

Hamas also announced that the page of its official spokesperson, Husam Badran, had been shut down.

A number of Facebook pages close to the Palestinian group have been shut down, including Nabdh Adh-Dhuffah [Pulse of the West Bank] and Kulluna Muqawama [We are All Resistance].

“Before this [Facebook] closed one of the most prominent interactive pages supporting the resistance — Sharik [Participate], which is part of Shabakat Quds Al-Ikhbariya [Quds News Network],” Hamas said.

The social media restrictions on Hamas come amid worsening violence in the West Bank and Israel proper that has left 9 Israelis and 48 Palestinians dead, with many fearing the unrest could portend a third intifada, or uprising.

Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh on October 9 threw his support behind a new Palestinian uprising against the Israelis, saying it is “the only path that will lead to liberation.”

On October 21, a senior Hamas official called on the party’s Palestinian rivals, the Fatah Movement that controls the West Bank, to join the “popular uprising.”

American Jews Must Confront the Obama Administration on Israel

It is now evident that, by and large, the Jewish establishment has adopted a policy of deafening silence in relation to condemning or protesting against the virulent one-sided political attacks and sins of omission by the Obama administration concerning our barbaric adversaries.

 It is only the outspoken Zionist Organization of America and minor fringe groups that have been directly speaking out against the Obama administration’s intensified anti-Israel rhetoric.

Until now, I had a nagging suspicion that the failure of American Jewish leaders to confront the biased Obama administration attacks on Israel was not merely a reasoned strategic approach. But aware of their devotion to Israel and having witnessed their former stalwart defense of Jewish interests, I was reluctant to conclude that fear was their primary consideration.

But the ongoing silence by the Jewish establishment in relation to the current disgraceful behavior of the Obama administration, its secretary of state, and State Department spokesmen, is incomprehensible.

Today Israeli Jews are confronted by frenzied psychotic young Arabs who have been brainwashed into believing that murdering innocent Jews will deliver them directly to paradise and transform them into glorious martyrs. This barbarism, inculcated by hideous indoctrination from kindergarten and subsequently nurtured in the mosques and throughout Palestinian social media, is creating monsters. It is publicly sanctified by Abbas, who has whipped up a frenzy on the insanely false allegation that Israel is bent on destroying Al-Aqsa mosque and building a Jewish temple on its ruins.

The demonic madness is fortified by the heroic profile the Palestinian Authority adopts in relation to the killing sprees and which Abbas refuses to condemn. The perpetrators are also aware that if they survive, the P.A. will pay them generous salaries in prison and provide pensions for their families.

Under such circumstances, one would surely expect leaders of the civilized world to condemn these Arab murders of innocents. But aside from lip service condemning “violence,” world leaders and global organizations have, at best, adopted a sickening morally relativist position in which Jewish victims are equated with their murderers.

Until now, the United States took pride in defending Israel and proclaiming its shared values and common democratic Judeo-Christian heritage. Even though there were occasional policy differences between the countries, Israel considered itself a true ally of the U.S., irrespective of whether a Democrat or Republican occupied the Oval Office.

Since Barack Obama was elected president, in his obsession to build bridges between the U.S. and Islam, he sought to demonstrate that there is daylight between Israel and America. His Third World outlook also led to his abandoning long-term U.S. allies and groveling to Islamic fundamentalist terrorist states like Iran, mistakenly believing that by appeasing them, they will become more moderate.

Over the past month, we have witnessed the climax of the U.S. political abandonment of Israel. Obama, who repeatedly condemned Netanyahu for remarks made in the heat of an election, even after he had clarified and withdrawn them, has emboldened the Palestinian extremists by failing to utter a single condemnation of Mahmoud Abbas for his vicious ongoing incitement and calls for Jewish blood.

Worse still was Secretary of State John Kerry, frequently referred to as an unguided missile, who made a series of inexcusable demented remarks. He refused to apportion the blame for the killings, and even hinted that the Israelis had brought the violence upon themselves. He related to “violence on both sides.” Both sides?

He claimed that the Palestinian killings had been ignited by Palestinian “frustration” over the failure to negotiate a two-state solution and the “massive increase of settlements over the course of the last few years.” This bears no relevance to the facts, as settlement building in the last few years has been dramatically reduced. The frenzied killers are unquestionably motivated by the incitement and lies being promoted insisting that Jews plan to destroy Al-Aqsa.

Kerry also demanded that the status quo at the Temple Mount be upheld “in word and deed,” knowing fully well that this has constantly been the policy of the Netanyahu government. Such ambiguous statements gives credence to the Palestinian lies.

State Department spokesman John Kirby even accused Israel of violating the status quo on the Temple Mount – and thus effectively also fanning the inflammatory Al Aqsa frenzy and called on “both leaders” to combat the incitement which leads to a “cycle of violence.” He was subsequently forced to retract, but the damage could not be undone. He also stated that the U.S. had “seen some reports of security activity that could indicate the potential excessive use of force” against the psychotic killers.

To top off these outrageous outbursts, Obama made a statement assiduously avoiding use of the term terrorist and patronizingly endorsed Israel’s right to “protect its citizens from knife attacks” from “random violence (sic).” He then spat in our faces by effectively blaming both Netanyahu and Abbas for the incitement.

For Israel’s one true ally to descend to such Orwellian depths as to place the Israelis in the same category as religious fanatics operating a killing spree is utterly contemptible, encourages the barbarians to accelerate their murderous activity and thus assumes a share of responsibility for the innocent Jews murdered in the days to come.

To compound matters, the White House critiques also serve as a green light for Europe to pressure Israel into making further unilateral concessions which would undermine its security.

Under diplomatic constraints, Netanyahu has instructed ministers not to respond to the shameful remarks by the administration and its spokesmen.

But such restraints do not apply to American Jewish leaders. In the face of such a reprehensible attitude by the Obama administration to Israel at a time when psychotic murderers have been programmed to kill Jews in the streets, one would have expected the American Jewish community’s leadership to condemn their government and launch public protests.

American Jews continuously stress that in the U.S. they can speak out as Jews without fear. Yet when it comes to criticizing Obama, despite the fact that the majority of the nation and both houses of Congress support Israel, a deafening silence envelops the Jewish leadership.

I make these remarks in my capacity as a former Diaspora Jewish leader rather than an Israeli. I was head of the Australian Jewish community and chairman of the Governing Board of the World Jewish Congress, and have personally experienced the enormous pressures which can be exerted against a leader to be politically correct and avoid confronting his government when it adopts positions which lack moral compass and harm the interests of the Jewish people.

But there is a time when leaders must speak out or be damned. The U.S. refuses to pressure Abbas to cease calling for the murder of Jews and instead engages in moral equivalency, holding victims and perpetrators equally responsible for the violence. No American administration has ever behaved in such an appalling manner toward Israel.

Yet the sole response of the Jewish establishment, as manifested by the major Jewish religious movements in conjunction with the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, is to observe a “Sabbath of Jewish Solidarity.” This reflects the solidarity of American Jews with Israel during these difficult times, but it is certainly is not an acceptable response to the administration’s lies and distortions.

Unless American leaders speak up now, they will be justly accused of following in the footsteps of the American Jewish leader the late Rabbi Stephen Wise, who in 1944, under pressure from Roosevelt, remained silent when Jews were being murdered by the Nazis.

It would be outrageous if a response is being withheld out of a desperate desire to maintain consensus at the lowest common denominator. Likewise, if the motivation is not to distress deluded Jewish liberal contributors or a concern about coveted access to the White House, these factors are simply irrelevant under the current circumstances.

Principled Jewish supporters of Israel must speak out and protest now, even if this means dividing the community.

If Jews remain silent in the face of the libels directed against the Jewish state by the administration, aside from failing to provide an example for their children, they will be betraying their responsibility as Jewish leaders.

Isi Leibler may be contacted at ileibler@leibler.com

This article was originally published by The Jerusalem Post and Israel Hayom. 

Mr. Stanley Goldstein z”l, Owner of Bencraft Hatters

It is with great sadness that we report the passing of Mr. Shloime Elimelech Goldstein, owner of the renowned hat store chain Bencraft Hatters.

He was 83.

Stanley was known to frum Jews around New York and the world as the owner of the Bencraft hat store in Brooklyn’s Williamsburg area that was established in 1949 by his father, Ben Goldstein.

Stanley joined the business in 1954, which soon expanded to a second location on 13th Avenue in Boro Park, Brooklyn.

Chassidim of all types have been purchasing their hats from Goldstein for generations, which were sold with his unique personality and charm.

“He was a very charming, personable and generous person,” Bencraft employee Yitzi Feigenson told COLlive.com. “He had a smile that really struck you. He was a true gentleman.”

A resident of Kew Gardens Hills, Queens, Goldstein, along with his son Steven, are generous supporters of a number of causes.

“He was a legend,” said long-time employee in the Boro Park store Asher Bitton. “He was a ba’al Tzedaka to so many people and organizations. People had no idea of the extent of his kindess.”

The levaya will take place tomorrow, Friday at 11:00 am at Sinai Chapels, 162-05 Horace Harding Expy, Fresh Meadows, NY 11365.

Chutzpah: After Holocaust remark, White House warns Netanyahu against incitement

The sheer madness and chutzpah of the White House ... read the following  then read below:

Comments made by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier in the week, which implicated the former grand mufti of Jerusalem in the decision to proceed with the Holocaust, amount to inflammatory rhetoric stoking tensions on the ground between Israel and the Palestinians, the White House said on Thursday.

In a speech on Tuesday, Netanyahu said that Palestinian Haj Amin al-Husseini was directly responsible for encouraging Adolf Hitler not just to expel Jews from Europe, but to exterminate them. Netanyahu has since clarified that he had no intention of absolving Hitler for responsibility for the Holocaust.

White House press secretary Josh Earnest told reporters the Obama administration has no doubt who was responsible for the genocide, which involved the systematic murder of six million Jews.

"The inflammatory rhetoric needs to stop," Earnest said. 

On Wednesday, the State Department declined to characterize Netanyahu's specific remarks as incitement, but added: "Scholarly evidence does not support that position," referring to the prime minister's historical account.

Earnest's comments come just hours after Netanyahu met with Secretary of State John Kerry in Berlin to discuss the violence across Israel and the West Bank in recent weeks.

The Holocaust:
The Mufti and the Führer

(November 1941)

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Holocaust: Table of Contents | Concentration Camps | Jewish Persecution

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In 1941, Haj Amin al-Husseini fled to Germany and met with Adolf Hitler, Heinrich Himmler, Joachim Von Ribbentropand other Nazi leaders. He wanted to persuade them to extend the Nazis’ anti-Jewish program to the Arab world.

The Mufti sent Hitler 15 drafts of declarations he wantedGermany and Italy to make concerning the Middle East. One called on the two countries to declare the illegality of the Jewish home in Palestine. Furthermore, “they accord to Palestine and to other Arab countries the right to solve the problem of the Jewish elements in Palestine and other Arab countries, in accordance with the interest of the Arabs and, by the same method, that the question is now being settled in the Axis countries.”¹

In November 1941, the Mufti met with Hitler, who told him the Jews were his foremost enemy. The Nazi dictator rebuffed the Mufti's requests for a declaration in support of the Arabs, however, telling him the time was not right. The Mufti offered Hitler his “thanks for the sympathy which he had always shown for the Arab and especially Palestinian cause, and to which he had given clear expression in his public speeches....The Arabs were Germany's natural friends because they had the same enemies as had Germany, namely....the Jews....” Hitler replied:

Germany stood for uncompromising war against the Jews. That naturally included active opposition to the Jewish national home in Palestine....Germany would furnish positive and practical aid to the Arabs involved in the same struggle....Germany's objective [is]...solely the destruction of the Jewish element residing in the Arab sphere....In that hour the Mufti would be the most authoritative spokesman for the Arab world. The Mufti thanked Hitler profusely.²

In 1945, Yugoslavia sought to indict the Mufti as a war criminal for his role in recruiting 20,000 Muslim volunteers for theSS, who participated in the killing of Jews in Croatia and Hungary. He escaped from French detention in 1946, however, and continued his fight against the Jews from Cairo and later Beirut. He died in 1974.

Read more about the conversation between Hitler and the Mufti, CLICK HERE.

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Sources:
¹ “Grand Mufti Plotted To Do Away With All Jews In Mideast,” Response, (Fall 1991), pp. 2-3.
² Record of the Conversation Between the Fuhrer and the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem on November 28, 1941, in the Presence of Reich Foreign Minister and Minister Grobba in Berlin, Documents on German Foreign Policy, 1918-1945, Series D, Vol. XIII, London, 1964, p. 881ff in Walter Lacquer and Barry Rubin, The Israel-Arab Reader, (NY: Facts on File, 1984), pp. 79-84.

Coping with terrorism through faith

Terrorism tries to sow panic and cause the public to give up. Israelis are finished with delusions of peace, so terrorism will not achieve its goal, but a rational, gradual, and realistic means of teaching the Torah view must be proposed.

Rabbi Eliezer Melamed

The writer is Head of Yeshivat Har Bracha and a prolific author on Jewish Law, whose works include the series on Jewish law "Pininei Halacha" and a popular weekly column "Revivim" in the Besheva newspaper. His books "The Laws of Prayer" "The Laws of Passover" and "Nation, Land, Army" are presently being translated into English. Other articles by Rabbi Melamed can be viewed at: www.yhb.org.il/1

The War on Arab Terror

People are very worried about the Arab terror raging in the streets. This is the goal of terrorism - attacking a few people and sowing panic among the public at large, causing them to surrender their assets and interests in hopes of gaining peace and quiet.

Even in the recent weeks in which terror has raised its evil head, more people were killed in traffic accidents, many of which could have been avoided. Despite this, the fear of terror is far greater than that of road accidents, because the terrible evil of acts of murder captures the mind and arouses fear and horror.

The Effect of Terrorism on the Left and Right

The goal of terrorism is to weaken our hold on the country; in practice however, its influence branches in different directions, according to the state of mind and moral fiber of those attacked.

There are some Jews who weren’t interested in living in Israel in the first place and fled here only because of the Holocaust and other troubles in the Diaspora. Terror petrifies and paralyzes many of them. They would be willing to accept any withdrawal or humiliation, just as long as the fear of terrorism is removed.

There are some Jews who go a step further – their hearts are drawn in a sick manner to the figure of the killer, striving to understand and justify the motives for his wickedness, hoping that perhaps in this way they will find a solution to the situation. In an effort to do so, they are forced to skew their moral viewpoint, as one can hear by listening to the Leftists.

And then there are Jews with a healthy moral consciousness for whom justice is imperative, those who are not willing or able to surrender to terrorism. The exact opposite – it spawns within them a reverse reaction, and a strong will to fight back.

The Division between Right and Left

In order to analyze the issue properly, it is important to first define the basic essentials. In practice, the dividing line between Jews for whom terrorism overpowers and compels them to concessions on land and rights, and those who terrorism triggers a desire to fight back is based on one’s attitude towards the Land of Israel.

Those Tending to the Left

Jews who tend to the Left never really wanted to immigrate to Israel in the first place, and only when the troubles in the Diaspora were about to drown them, did they decide to go. Some chose to immigrate to Israel and not move abroad to America or other foreign countries; some had no choice but to immigrate to Israel because no other country agreed to accept them. Consequently, the Holocaust for them is the supreme justification for the existence of the State of Israel. Their descendants live in Israel because they got used to the country and their friends and family are here as well. The majority of them have a certain connection to the Bible, the People and the Land, but they wouldn’t weep if fate somehow brought them to a Western country. For them, annual visits to Israel would suffice.

These are the Jews willing fall for any “peace” proposal. Even for the slightest chance of quiet they are willing to give up parts of the homeland. In exchange for a temporary lull in the international arena, they are willing to give up the basic fundamentals of sovereignty and Jewish identity.

Those Tending to the Right

Those tending to the right view immigration to Israel and the blossoming of its wilderness as a process of Redemption for the People and Land of Israel, based on the mitzvot of the Torah and Prophetic visions, or at very least, based on a national and historic mandate. True, most of them immigrated to Israel only after the troubles in the Diaspora increased dramatically. But after being forced to flee, they saw in the settling of the Land a phase of Redemption. The supreme justification of Israel's existence for them are the mitzvot of the Torah, or at very least, a national historic right.

These people are willing to sacrifice and pay the price in order to secure Israeli sovereignty in Judea and Samaria. Only in a situation of absolute duress would they be prepared to withdraw; short of such circumstances, they would prefer suffering international condemnation and terrorism, and not retreat. Arab terror spurs them to fight back, and expand Jewish presence in the area.

Those in the Middle

The majority of the public is somewhere in the middle; they understand both the Right and the Left. Ideally, they prefer the approach of the Right, but for increased security would be inclined to lean to the Left. When such people are successfully deceived into thinking that withdrawals will bring peace, they are tempted to support the retreat. When they fail to be deceived, they will oppose withdrawals and violation of sovereignty.

A Cautious Assessment: Terrorism Will Fail

Presently, it appears that most of Israeli public leans to the Right - unfortunately, not thanks to a deepening of Jewish identity, but mainly because reality has refused to toe the line to the delusions of peace. Consequently, chances are the current wave of terror will not achieve its goal – on the contrary, it will strengthen Jewish identity and harm the Arabs who rise up against us.

The Security Question and Its Roots

It is interesting that when the two sides debate, they often gear themselves with security, economic, social and moral claims, without being aware of the roots of their arguments. When it comes down to it, those who are more firmly connected to the Torah, People, and Land of Israel find realistic arguments for settling the Land, while those who are not will find realistic claims for withdrawal.

The Path to Security

Invariably, over the long term, people who only worried about not dying faced greater harm than those who made an effort to live. For example, Jews in Europe were extremely worried for their lives. They felt the growing anti-Semitism, and tried to do anything to survive. However, since their main concern was how not to die, they feared making aliyah to Israel, because someone whose main desire is not to die is afraid to face reality and have the courage to do what it takes to increase his chances of survival. Therefore, when the Jews in Europe heard about Arab terrorism in Israel before WWII, they were afraid and remained in the Diaspora, and ultimately were harmed sevenfold.

In contrast, a person who wants to live and sees the meaning in his life dares to act even under risk and self-sacrifice to fulfill his life’s purpose. And if his actions are carried out within the framework of rational considerations, he is able to survive longer.

The same is true concerning illnesses: a person who is always worried about getting sick is usually more ill. In contrast, a person whose life is full of content is usually healthier.

When the primary desire of the Left is that the State of Israel not be harmed, it brings upon the country far more economic, social and securityproblems than the Right, who are not willing to give up on our national identity.

The Problem of the Faith-based Right

Recent years have proven that the Right was correct. Withdrawals did not increase security, rather, the exact opposite. The Arab world did not soften their views towards us, but instead became more radical. The Western world also stepped-up its delusional demands of us, despite all the concessions we already made.

Representatives of the faith-based Right foresaw all of this. So why is it that the public at large does not accept the positions of the faith-based Right? Why is the public still willing to listen to the nonsense of all the commentators and experts from academia and graduates of the intelligence community, chattering incessantly in the media? After all, it has been proven time and again how they embroiled governments in complicated and dangerous concessions, and have never been able to predict the future.

It appears the reason is that often, the faith-based Right proposes implausible suggestions based on wishful thinking and beliefs rather than on reality. The public fears that these irrational positions are liable to endanger their existence. Who knows? Faith-based leaders might suddenly decide to destroy the mosques on the Temple Mount and provoke a world war. Or maybe they’ll apply sovereignty over territories in Judea and Samaria while giving full citizenship to the Arabs living there. Or alternatively, maybe they will come out with a program of immediate deportation of most of the Arabs, causing the entire world to rise up against the State of Israel.

The various commentators indeed are always mistaken because they fail to understand the meaning of national identity and faith and therefore do not understand the motives of the enemy or the source of strength of the People of Israel. However, the information they provide is factual and solid, and their arguments are drawn from the here and now, without relying on miracles. Consequently, the public is willing to listen to them even though they do not trust their suggestions.

In such a situation, the public prefers the leadership of Prime Minister Netanyahu. Although he concerns himself mainly with survival, and only occasionally credits us with little flickers of faith, national achievements, and settling the land, nevertheless, his considerations are rational and based on solid reality, free of the grave errors of the failed commentators.

A Proposal for a Gradual, Faith-Based Approach

This situation can be improved if we present a comprehensive and idealistic vision as written in the Torah and the Prophets, while at the same time offering a gradual way of achieving it, taking into maximal consideration reality – including Israeli public opinion and that of the international community, and the powers they represent.

For example, concerning the Temple Mount, a suggestion can be made that from now on, every preacher who incites and speaks out against Israel or the Jews, and any Muslim who disturbs those ascending the Temple Mount by screaming or other actions will not be permitted to go up the Temple Mount. This is a proportionate measure whose reasoning can be understood by any normal person anywhere.

Similarly, with regard to the continuation of settlement in Judea and Samaria: It is possible to expand the existing communities on state-owned land without depriving any Arab who has property rights. In this way, friction will be reduced in all respects – settlement will be regulated by law without any complaints of discrimination and dispossession, and all the positive energy of the "settlers" will be directed to completely legal areas of the State of Israel, without an attempt to seize land that is not regulated or privately owned.

It is also possible to gradually apply Israeli sovereignty over Jewish communities and uninhabited areas in Judea and Samaria, while proposing regional autonomy to the local Arab leadership.

It is certainly possible to demand loyalty from Israeli Arab citizens.

This gradual process does not demand conceding any rights of the Jewish people, but only exercises our rights incrementally, in the sense of: "I will drive them out from before you gradually, until you have grown in number and can take possession of the land” (Exodus 23:30).

Learning Logic from Within the Torah

To be able to put across this kind of leadership and approach, Torah must be learned in a more complete and truthful way, so that its practical logic will shine forth "as the sun in the afternoon". Today, many people fulfill the mitzvot for mystical reasons, while declaring that although practical considerations indicate the opposite, faith trumps logic and nature. Many even take pride in this, because in their view, the absolute believer must ignore practical considerations.

They are, however, gravely mistaken and damage the cause of Torah, for even though the roots of Torah and the Jewish faith are in the Heavens,  the entire revelation of the Torah is logical and practical halakha (Jewish law).

This article appears in the ‘Besheva’ newspaper, and was translated from Hebrew. Other interesting and informative articles by Rabbi Melamed and his highly acclaimed series of Jewish law and thought “Peninei Halakha” can be found at: http://en.yhb.org.il/