Rosh Hashanah 2009 - South African Jewish Board of Deputies

JEWISH AFFAIRS ROSH HASHANAH 2009Despite its length, On the Contrary makes easy,indeed ideal, bedside reading. Written in a clear andconcise style, it is unquestionably a monumentalwork of great significance and contains a mine ofuseful information. The book sheds a new light onmany figures, some of whom have become householdnames in this country and who, together with TonyLeon have helped to shape modern South Africa. Ihave no hesitation in commending it to anyoneinterested in South African politics and history.A J Leon, On the Contrary - Leading the Opposition in aDemocratic South Africa, Jonathan Ball, 2009, 766pp.ICON OF EVIL: HITLER’S MUFTI AND THE RISEOF RADICAL AL ISLAM*Gary SelikowThis revealing book outlines the life and career ofMufti Haj Al Husseini, a close collaborator of Hitlerand a violent hater of Jews and Zionism. It exploreshis legacy of hate and terror that permeates theIslamic jihad’s profound hatred of Jews and Israel upto and including today.The extent of the Mufti’s role in genocide againstJews and his collaboration with Nazi Germany haslong been suppressed but is now being exposed bybooks such as this one as well as Chuck Morse’s TheNazi Connection to Islamic Terrorism: Adolf Hitlerand Haj Amin al-Husseini.Amin Al Husseini was born in 1895. His hatredof Jews was nurtured at the Sheik Rashid RidaIslamic School in Cairo. Reading The Protocols ofthe Elders of Zion, which was being distributed byBritish officers among themselves and to the Arabsof Palestine, was a great influence in his ideologicaldevelopment.Al-Husseini took it upon himself to raise thebanner of jihad against the Jews. In April 1920, heorganised the pogrom that took place against theJews in Jerusalem. Posters were displayed across thecity with the slogan: “Kill the Jews, there is nopunishment for killing Jews”. Jews were attackedand killed and Jewish women raped. This was knownamong the Arabs as the First Intifada and caneffectively be used the date of the beginning of theArab jihad against Jews in the Land of Israel (ratherthan the War of Independence 28 years later).As the author explains: “The riots were the firstof many violent Islamic uprisings against the Jews inPalestine that would take place over the next eightand more decades, throughout the Twentieth Centuryand into the 21 st . In personally inciting the violentintifada of 1920, al-Husseini established a precedent,for the use of violence and terror that futuregenerations of radical Islam would emulate in theirfuture wars against the Jews and the West”.After further Arab pogroms against Jews in Jaffa,Gary Selikow is a researcher and media activist. Hisreviews of books of Jewish and Middle East interestappear regularly online and elsewhere.in which 47 Jews were murdered and hundreds moreinjured, the British blamed the attacks on what theytermed Arab anger over Jewish immigration.Immigration of Jews into Palestine was suspended,which convinced the Mufti that terror paid.The 1929 pogroms in Jerusalem, Safed andHebron were also a result of the Mufti’s perfidiouspropaganda, including allegations that the Jews wereabout to take control of the Temple Mount and thewide dissemination of The Protocols of the Elders ofZion.The so-called “Arab Revolt” (or Third Intifada)of 1936-1939 resulted in numerous attacks on Jewishhomes and farms, and the killing of hundreds ofJewish men, women and children. Despite this, anti-Israel propagandists accuse the Zionists of terroragainst the Arabs during this period.In 1941, the Mufti assisted in a Nazi-backed plotto overthrow the British government in Iraq. Whenthe plot failed, he fled to Iran and then to NaziGermany, where he formed a close friendship withAdolph Hitler and attended Nazi rallies as his honoredguest. At his meeting with Hitler, the Mufti pledgedthe allegiance of the Arabs to and cooperation withGermany, and thanked the latter for it support of thePalestinian Arab cause. He further assured Hitlerthat the Arabs were Germany’s natural friends asthey shared the same enemies, the Jews and theBritish. Hitler responded in strong and unequivocalterms, reiterating his violently anti-Jewish stand andunflinching support for the radical Arab cause. Hepledged to liquidate the Jews of Palestine once theannihilation of the Jews in Europe had beencompleted.al-Husseini personally visited Nazi death camps,including Auschwitz, and urged the Nazis to speedup their Final Solution. In 1943, he personallyinfluenced Reich Foreign Minister Ribbentrop toprevent four thousand Jewish children being sent toIsrael, instead diverting them to Hitler’s death campswhere they perished. He formed close alliances withseveral Nazi leaders and was promised by NaziForeign Minister Joachim Von Ribbentrop that noJew would be allowed to enter Palestine. Heinrich57