Spotlight on modern loathing
02/23/2012 14:08 By BENJAMIN WEINTHAL
Jerusalem Post Excerpt:
Robert Wistrich warns that anti-Semitism will grow as long as West ignores Islamists.
Dr. Robert S. Wistrich is, arguably, the worlds leading academic authority on anti-Semitism. He heads the Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Antisemitism at the Hebrew University.
The center employs a multidisciplinary approach to the study and research of Jew-hatred.
Intelligence in the field of a scholarly understanding of contemporary anti-Semitism demands that Wistrichs books and articles be read. He has published prolifically on the topic of what fuels the loathing of Israel and Jews. His latest book A Lethal Obsession: Anti-Semitism from Antiquity to the Global Jihad has been showered with accolades and is widely considered to be the definitive account of the long, vile history of hatred of Jews.
In an interview spanning many topics, Wistrich delves into the manifestations of modern anti- Semitism in Europe and across the Atlantic in the United States. He offers powerful explanatory models to help readers fathom the outbreaks of hate directed at Jews not only in the West but in the transformations unfolding in Muslim countries and in the Islamic Republic of Iran.
The German translation of his famous and oftquoted book Muslim Anti-Semitism: An Actual Danger is now available in the Federal Republic with a new afterword from Wistrich. The book contains an important introduction by Dr. Clemens Heni, a Berlin-based expert on anti-Semitism, who splendidly and masterfully translated Wistrichs book. Given the rising level of Islamic-inspired anti-Semitism, the book remains the sine qua non of knowledge about one of the worlds most lethal forms of loathing.
In connection with Iran you recently wrote that the constant efforts to deny, relativize or invert the Holocaust especially against Israel are a conscious (or unconscious) invitation to repeat it. Can you expand on what you mean?
In the Iranian case, around 2005, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad began to publicly proclaim his compulsive insistence that the Holocaust was a myth, and he has never let up since then. His consistent denial of the Holocaust went hand-inhand with brazen threats to wipe Israel off the map. He has called Israel a rotting branch and hammered away at the need for a world without Zionism. It is striking that while the world is finally paying close attention to Irans relentless drive for nuclear weapons, it is largely ignoring Iranian state-sponsored anti- Semitism and Holocaust denial. But the two issues are interrelated precisely because of Irans repeated calls to annihilate Israel.
It is amazing to note the degree to which this Iranian Shiite annihilationist ideology with its apocalyptic religious underpinning is being glossed over. My point is that this state-sanctioned determination to wipe Israel off the face of the earth means exactly what it says. The will to exterminate is the crucial point here.
This is what happened with Hitler from January 1939 onwards when he incessantly repeated his intention to destroy European Jewry exactly as Ahmadinejad does today regarding Israel.
What other parallels exist between the lethal anti-Semitism of the Hitler movement and Iranian genocidal anti- Semitism?
The most important parallel that accompanies the genocidal objective is the culture of hatred deliberately nourished by a totalitarian state apparatus.
When Irans president constantly states that Israel is close to the endpoint of its existence it is clear he actively envisages the demise of the Jewish nation-state. If Iran had a nuclear weapon and succeeded, God forbid, in using it against such a small country like Israel, that would amount to a second genocide of the Jewish people. We must also remember that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is not alone. As in the case of Nazi Germany, there is a religious-driven leadership that shares these goals and aspirations. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the spiritual guide of Iran, has frequently referred to Israel as a cancer that has to be cut out. This is Nazi language.
So the Iranian regime both denies the original Holocaust and at the same time would like to ensure its repetition by fanatical Muslim believers.
As in the case of Hitler, Iran also has territorial and hegemonial ambitions. Step 1 is to control the Persian Gulf. Step 2 is to dominate the Middle East. And step 3 would be to establish a world-wide Islamic caliphate. If you look at Nazi Germany, the stages were not so different. Goal No.
1 was to unite the German-speaking peoples in central Europe. Goal No. 2 was to establish European hegemony and living space in the East. And goal No. 3 was world conquest.
There are, of course, some important differences. Nazi Germany developed the worlds best-trained and efficient army, which Iran obviously does not have. It fought in the name of Vaterland [fatherland], Volk [the people] and Führer. Iran is waging jihad in the name of Allah. But the Iranian leadership is even less of a rational actor than Hitler was. On this point I disagree with the recent assessment of the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in the US, General Martin Dempsey. Neither the worldview of the ayatollahs nor their behavior can be termed rational, even from their own standpoint. Belief in the imminent coming of the hidden Imam to save the world does not easily translate into a cool cost-benefit analysis.
How do you assess the so-called Arab Spring or upheavals, particularly within the context of Islamic-animated anti-Semitism?
2011 was undoubtedly a triumphal year for Islamism and especially for the Muslim Brotherhood. The Muslim Brothers, who are on the verge of achieving state power in Egypt, have always been deeply anti-Western, viscerally hostile to Israel and openly anti-Semitic points usually downplayed in Western commentary on the Arab Spring a spring which has already been turning into a chilling and bloody winter.
The most obvious example of this descent into hell is Syria. Iran is doing everything possible to prop up its strategic ally, the Assad regime. It is deeply distressing to observe the tepid reaction of the [US President Barack] Obama administration regarding Syria and the unspeakable cynicism of Russia and China. Israels own government has also said virtually nothing. I understand the caution, but I am not happy about this posture. I do not see why the Israeli government could not say publicly that it supports the aspirations of the Syrian people for freedom and democracy, even if the real prospects of that happening in Syria are remote. True, the Muslim Brotherhood might one day come to power within a broad coalition, but it will never achieve the same kind of dominance in Syria as in Egypt. Moreover, the Syrian opposition will not be tied to Iran, which is surely good for us.
In coverage of the Arab Spring, the Western media has paid very little attention to manifestations of anti-Semitism.
Yet it struck me that the three rulers who were overthrown in North Africa [former president Hosni] Mubarak in Egypt, [former ruler Muammar] Gaddafi in Libya and [former president Zine El Abidine] Ben-Ali in Tunisia were all branded as Jews once they became hate symbols. It is worth noting that Ben-Ali before his overthrow had encouraged French Jews to visit and invest in Tunisia. Mubarak, of course, cooperated with Israel on security matters when it suited him, though he allowed a repulsive anti-Semitism to flourish in Egypt as a kind of safety valve.
Under Mubarak, demonization of Jews existed just as it had under [presidents Gamal Abdel] Nasser and [Anwar] Sadat.
We could say that anti-Semitism is still the daily bread of the media in Egypt, along with anti-Western conspiracy theories.
Mubarak claimed that he could not control it. That was nonsense, but as in other Arab countries, hatred of Israel and the Jews was a very convenient outlet for allowing the frustrated Muslim masses to let off steam. That has not yet disappeared.
The branding of Gaddafi as a Jew came to the forefront once he began his all-out assault on his own people.
While it is true that the issue of Israel was marginalized at the beginning of the Arab revolutions, we are now back where we started. Anti-Semitism is still a common currency in the Arab world and it needs to be highlighted more than it is.
02/23/2012 14:08 By BENJAMIN WEINTHAL
Jerusalem Post Excerpt:
Robert Wistrich warns that anti-Semitism will grow as long as West ignores Islamists.
Dr. Robert S. Wistrich is, arguably, the worlds leading academic authority on anti-Semitism. He heads the Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Antisemitism at the Hebrew University.
The center employs a multidisciplinary approach to the study and research of Jew-hatred.
Intelligence in the field of a scholarly understanding of contemporary anti-Semitism demands that Wistrichs books and articles be read. He has published prolifically on the topic of what fuels the loathing of Israel and Jews. His latest book A Lethal Obsession: Anti-Semitism from Antiquity to the Global Jihad has been showered with accolades and is widely considered to be the definitive account of the long, vile history of hatred of Jews.
In an interview spanning many topics, Wistrich delves into the manifestations of modern anti- Semitism in Europe and across the Atlantic in the United States. He offers powerful explanatory models to help readers fathom the outbreaks of hate directed at Jews not only in the West but in the transformations unfolding in Muslim countries and in the Islamic Republic of Iran.
The German translation of his famous and oftquoted book Muslim Anti-Semitism: An Actual Danger is now available in the Federal Republic with a new afterword from Wistrich. The book contains an important introduction by Dr. Clemens Heni, a Berlin-based expert on anti-Semitism, who splendidly and masterfully translated Wistrichs book. Given the rising level of Islamic-inspired anti-Semitism, the book remains the sine qua non of knowledge about one of the worlds most lethal forms of loathing.
In connection with Iran you recently wrote that the constant efforts to deny, relativize or invert the Holocaust especially against Israel are a conscious (or unconscious) invitation to repeat it. Can you expand on what you mean?
In the Iranian case, around 2005, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad began to publicly proclaim his compulsive insistence that the Holocaust was a myth, and he has never let up since then. His consistent denial of the Holocaust went hand-inhand with brazen threats to wipe Israel off the map. He has called Israel a rotting branch and hammered away at the need for a world without Zionism. It is striking that while the world is finally paying close attention to Irans relentless drive for nuclear weapons, it is largely ignoring Iranian state-sponsored anti- Semitism and Holocaust denial. But the two issues are interrelated precisely because of Irans repeated calls to annihilate Israel.
It is amazing to note the degree to which this Iranian Shiite annihilationist ideology with its apocalyptic religious underpinning is being glossed over. My point is that this state-sanctioned determination to wipe Israel off the face of the earth means exactly what it says. The will to exterminate is the crucial point here.
This is what happened with Hitler from January 1939 onwards when he incessantly repeated his intention to destroy European Jewry exactly as Ahmadinejad does today regarding Israel.
What other parallels exist between the lethal anti-Semitism of the Hitler movement and Iranian genocidal anti- Semitism?
The most important parallel that accompanies the genocidal objective is the culture of hatred deliberately nourished by a totalitarian state apparatus.
When Irans president constantly states that Israel is close to the endpoint of its existence it is clear he actively envisages the demise of the Jewish nation-state. If Iran had a nuclear weapon and succeeded, God forbid, in using it against such a small country like Israel, that would amount to a second genocide of the Jewish people. We must also remember that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is not alone. As in the case of Nazi Germany, there is a religious-driven leadership that shares these goals and aspirations. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the spiritual guide of Iran, has frequently referred to Israel as a cancer that has to be cut out. This is Nazi language.
So the Iranian regime both denies the original Holocaust and at the same time would like to ensure its repetition by fanatical Muslim believers.
As in the case of Hitler, Iran also has territorial and hegemonial ambitions. Step 1 is to control the Persian Gulf. Step 2 is to dominate the Middle East. And step 3 would be to establish a world-wide Islamic caliphate. If you look at Nazi Germany, the stages were not so different. Goal No.
1 was to unite the German-speaking peoples in central Europe. Goal No. 2 was to establish European hegemony and living space in the East. And goal No. 3 was world conquest.
There are, of course, some important differences. Nazi Germany developed the worlds best-trained and efficient army, which Iran obviously does not have. It fought in the name of Vaterland [fatherland], Volk [the people] and Führer. Iran is waging jihad in the name of Allah. But the Iranian leadership is even less of a rational actor than Hitler was. On this point I disagree with the recent assessment of the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in the US, General Martin Dempsey. Neither the worldview of the ayatollahs nor their behavior can be termed rational, even from their own standpoint. Belief in the imminent coming of the hidden Imam to save the world does not easily translate into a cool cost-benefit analysis.
How do you assess the so-called Arab Spring or upheavals, particularly within the context of Islamic-animated anti-Semitism?
2011 was undoubtedly a triumphal year for Islamism and especially for the Muslim Brotherhood. The Muslim Brothers, who are on the verge of achieving state power in Egypt, have always been deeply anti-Western, viscerally hostile to Israel and openly anti-Semitic points usually downplayed in Western commentary on the Arab Spring a spring which has already been turning into a chilling and bloody winter.
The most obvious example of this descent into hell is Syria. Iran is doing everything possible to prop up its strategic ally, the Assad regime. It is deeply distressing to observe the tepid reaction of the [US President Barack] Obama administration regarding Syria and the unspeakable cynicism of Russia and China. Israels own government has also said virtually nothing. I understand the caution, but I am not happy about this posture. I do not see why the Israeli government could not say publicly that it supports the aspirations of the Syrian people for freedom and democracy, even if the real prospects of that happening in Syria are remote. True, the Muslim Brotherhood might one day come to power within a broad coalition, but it will never achieve the same kind of dominance in Syria as in Egypt. Moreover, the Syrian opposition will not be tied to Iran, which is surely good for us.
In coverage of the Arab Spring, the Western media has paid very little attention to manifestations of anti-Semitism.
Yet it struck me that the three rulers who were overthrown in North Africa [former president Hosni] Mubarak in Egypt, [former ruler Muammar] Gaddafi in Libya and [former president Zine El Abidine] Ben-Ali in Tunisia were all branded as Jews once they became hate symbols. It is worth noting that Ben-Ali before his overthrow had encouraged French Jews to visit and invest in Tunisia. Mubarak, of course, cooperated with Israel on security matters when it suited him, though he allowed a repulsive anti-Semitism to flourish in Egypt as a kind of safety valve.
Under Mubarak, demonization of Jews existed just as it had under [presidents Gamal Abdel] Nasser and [Anwar] Sadat.
We could say that anti-Semitism is still the daily bread of the media in Egypt, along with anti-Western conspiracy theories.
Mubarak claimed that he could not control it. That was nonsense, but as in other Arab countries, hatred of Israel and the Jews was a very convenient outlet for allowing the frustrated Muslim masses to let off steam. That has not yet disappeared.
The branding of Gaddafi as a Jew came to the forefront once he began his all-out assault on his own people.
While it is true that the issue of Israel was marginalized at the beginning of the Arab revolutions, we are now back where we started. Anti-Semitism is still a common currency in the Arab world and it needs to be highlighted more than it is.
