Coming of Age
“There is an important difference between damage and conquest. Israel’s security problem is not only the threat of damage but the danger of conquest by Arab forces. Conquest would mean the death of the state and no doubt of large numbers of our people. Missiles, rockets and artillery can inflict damage, but not conquer. To seize territory one needs ground forces—-“. [Benjamin Netanyahu, former Israeli ambassador to the UN, Washington Post, January 8, 1983]
Many attempts have been made to comprehend the complexity of current Iran, Hamas, and Hezbollah countries. Terror, savagery and cruelty reigns beyond our understanding. One professor, points to it having occurred in two relatively unkown villages in Germany.
The 766 page “The Legacy of Islamic Anti-Semitism: From Sacred Texts to Solemn History”, Edited by Andrew G. Bostom with a Foreword by Ibn Warraq serves admirably in providing a response. As opposed to common beliefs, it debunks the conventional wisdom, which continues to assert that Muslim animosity toward Jews is entirely a 20th century phenomenon fuelled principally by the Arab-Israeli conflict, but in fact, dates back to the beginnings of Islam.
Primary sources and seminal analyses translated in the subject book for the first time into English e.g. Hartwig Hirschfeld’s mid-1880s essays on Muhammad’s subjugation of the Jews of Medina and George Vajda’s elegant, comprehensive study of the Hadith – detail the sacralized rationale for Islam’s anti-Jewish bigotry.
Is Islamic anti-Semitism a modern phenomenon? Certain Western scholars have tried to argue that, first, Islamic anti-Semitism—that is, hatred of Jews—is only a recent non learned from the Nazis and after the 1940s, and, second, that Jews lived safely under Muslim for centuries, especially during the Golden Age of Muslim Spain. Both assertions are unsupported by the evidence.
While the West has recognized its own shameful part in the slave trade and anti-Semitic persecution in Islamic lands, they remain in constant denial. Until Islamic countries acknowledge the realities of anti-Jewish persecution in their history, there is no hope of combating the continuing hatred of Jews in modern times.”[Pages 21-25]
Chapter 1 is authored by Editor Andrew G. Bostom and titled, “Islamic Anti-Semitism – Jew Hatred in Islam”. Page 33 reads,” The uncomfortable examination of Islamic doctrines and history is required in order to understand the enduring phenomenon of Muslim Jew hatred, which dates back to the origins of Islam. We can no longer view Muslim Jew hatred as a “borrowed phenomenon”, seen exclusively, or even primarily, through the prism of Nazism and the Holocaust, the tragic legacy of Judeophobic Christian traditions, or “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion” from Czarist Russia.
Chapter 69, the last chapter is titled, “The Modern Rhetoric of Anti-Semitic Jihad Genocide.” It includes selected statements from all the Islamic leaders.
As of now the question in need of asking is why did Hamas need to attack now and what is next? According to Al Jazeera, Hamas’s move was triggered by 3 factors. First, the policies of the far-right Israeli government enabling settler violence in the ‘occupied’ West Bank and Jerusalem led to a sense of desperation among Palestinians and growing demands for a reaction.
At the same time, the rising tensions in the West bank caused by these policies necessitated the shift of Israeli forces away from the south and into the north to guard the ‘settlements’. This gave Hamas both a justification and an opportunity to attack.
Second, the Hamas leadership felt compelled to act due to the acceleration of Arab-Israeli normalization. In recent years, this process further diminished the significance of the Palestinian issue for Arab leaders who became les keen on pressuring Israel on this matter.
Third, Hamas was emboldened after it managed to repair its ties with Iran.
Did the omission by Israel to implement the Two-State Solution have anything to do with the Hamas’s attempt to annihilate Israel? Even Biden raised this issue in his speech following the declaration of a new Speaker of the House. Israel needs to counter this ill founded and grossly untrue belief, given that Israel is the only nation having Indigenous rights to the Land of Israel. There are many readily available documents and Op-Ed’s on this subject. A few readily come to mind:
Algemeiner, September 11, 2016: “We never Left: The Jew’s Continuous Presence in the Land of Israel by Lee S. Bender and Jerome R. Verlin.
Arutz 7, Dec.20, 2022: “Jewish History Matters “by Rachel Nueuwirth.
Israel Rising, Jan 7, 2017:” So-called Palestinians have no history in Israel, except as terrorists” by Richard Mather, which is remarkable for its statistics in support of the historical record concerning the Land of Israel. His opening remarks speak volumes. “Until it is acknowledged by the UN and other bodies that the Jewish people and not the Arabs are the indigenous inhabitants of Eretz Israel, it is going to be difficult to break the impasse of anti-Jewish prejudice that is the real——“
Another important source on the given subject is Sabina Citron’s, “The Indictment: The Arab-Israel Conflict in Historical Perspective”. What makes it so relevant is Ms. Citron’s background being a Holocaust survivor. While the book was published in 2006, its contents resemble much of what is applicable today.
“The Indictment” covers the subject of the Arab-Israeli conflict in great depth. This book is not only comprehensive but is inclusive of contemporary material. In reference to “a democratic Palestinian state,” she laughingly remarks, “The idea that the lawless hoodlums running amok in Gaza, threatening even each other in total anarchy, are material for a lawful society is not sustained by reality. She observes that the creation of a Palestinian state would do nothing to bring peace to the Middle East, while not addressing the psychological impact of such an enclave on Israel. When castigating Israeli governments for failure to protect its citizens as opposed to facilitating its own destruction , she provides a warning that unless moral clarity becomes the order of the day, not only Israel but the entire civilized world will find itself at the barricades. Her warning bears close resemblance to the tireless efforts of Zev Jabotinsky prior to World War 2.
Citron analyses the insistence of the entire world that Israel hand over its land to Arabs to attain peace and demonstrates how this surrender of property will endanger Israel’s ability to defend itself in the event of war. She quotes a Christian Arab: “the demands on Israel right now are demands for the nation to commit political, military and cultural suicide.” Shades of Biden and Blinken; who repeatedly demand Israel to bring closure to the infamous “Two-State Solution”.
Citron engages the falsehoods of Arab propaganda, their distortions of Jewish and Arab history; also explains why these people and nations fear terrorism on their own soil, but are not concerned when it occurs in Israel. She concludes that it is clear that anti-Semitism is more brazen than ever, when viewed by the mindless murders committed by terrorist bombers against Israel.
Sabina Citron has organized and consolidated a vast bank of information using known sources. Her summing up of the situation speaks volumes;”The Arab-Israeli conflict is not about reasonable agreements with responsible people. It is not even about ‘refugees’, nor about compromise on land —-It is abundantly clear that the Arabs do not want a peace accord with Israel, but rather to dismantle Israel piece by piece—It is about genocide, not peace.”