JOURNALfor the STUDYof ANTISEMITISM

2011] CONFLUENT IDEOLOGIES—NAZISM AND ISLAMISM 299
any way in favor of the Arabs. They did not want to offend the British,
whom they wanted to keep neutral. What started out as a rejection by Germany
would turn into a mutually exploitive relationship. By 1937, Adolph
Eichmann’s visit to the Middle East indicated a serious interest in exploring
the relationship; by 1939, there was evidence that the Germans had secretly
funded the Mufti’s Arab Revolt. The cool reception the initial Arab courting
got from the Nazis was changing into something hotter and more
mutual. The British Mandate system estimated that 60% of Palestinians
who owned radios listened to Radio Bari. Radio Bari, an Italian station, was
broadcast all over the world. The Mufti (Palestine) and Gailani (Iraq) and
others broadcast over 5,000 broadcasts of vicious antisemitic and anti-British/American
propaganda on Radio Bari.
After presenting information of the deepening confluence of Palestinian
and Nazi interests and resources, Mallmann and Cüppers, in an unusual
criticism, charge an American historian with being “erroneous” and “inconsistent”
when he claims that “The Arab cause in Palestine . . . was not
among the interests of National Socialist Germany.” 10
If the German Mediterranean strategy had been successful, there is no
reason to believe that the future of the Jews there would have been any
different from their fate in the conquered nations in Europe. In 1941, the
Mufti escaped the British, who were chasing him around the Middle East.
and took up residence in Berlin. His meeting with Adolph Hitler is the consummation
of the Mufti and Arab love affair with Hitler. They agreed to
share the German solution to the “Jewish question.” This period brought
explicit plans for the destruction of the Jews worldwide. One quote states:
“The Jews could be enclosed and isolated in their Zionist state and
destroyed there root and branch.” 11 This antisemitic genocidal statement is
echoed in modern times by Hassan Nasrallah, the head of Hezbollah, when
he says, “If they [Jews] all gather in Israel, it will save us the trouble of
going after them world wide.” 12
An unbelievable criticism of Nazi Palestine is that the Mufti was actually
a marginal power at the time and never had the power attributed to him.
These critics ignore the facts. Yasser Arafat became a disciple of the Mufti
when he was 17 years old. At the Mufti’s funeral in 1974, Arafat called him
“our Hero.” The U.S. government was threatened by the Muslim Brotherhood
at the end of WW II. The Brotherhood basically said that if the Mufti
were prosecuted for war crimes, the United States would be the target of
10. Mallmann and Cüppers, Nazi Palestine, 133.
11. Mallmann and Cüppers, Nazi Palestine, 54.
12. Deborah Passner, “Hassan Nasrallah: In His Own Words,” Committee for
Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA), July 26, 2006.