“I agree with you Edward that we all need to do some soul searching. Of that there is no doubt. Please don’t misunderstand my position as one who would negate a positive and cooperative approach. I do sympathise with the Jews in how the West and Russia in particular were abhorrent toward Jews. Christian history is a rather shameful one. Islamic history, in fact, shines in this respect. Muslims and Jews have always co-existed peacefully as a rule. There have been periods of strife. The latest emanated from the fact that Zionists threw millions of Muslims out of Palestine. This was followed by attacks against Jews across the region. Just as the Jewish exodus from Europe did, this too was welcomed by the zionists, and even welcomed as a positive consequence for the cause of zionism. Zionist collaboration with the Nazis was not surprising. Zionist policy of ethnic cleansing and colony making on others’ land was also not surprising. After all, they came from Europe where this approach was commonplace. The whole German-Western European wars were related to this. It was not about fighting the ‘evil’ Nazis. It was about who gets the colonies, and keeping Germany out of the game. We all know this. The demonisation of Germany served that purpose. Regardless, having read your condemnation of Muslims (muchof which is debatable), I would like you to acknowledge one important moral point here: the Arabs and Turks and other non-Westerners who were supporting Germany in that period did so from the outside. Arabs were not being deliberately exterminated by the Nazis. Their enemies were being attacked by the Germans. This would naturally look like ‘help’, especially by those who could not possibly have known what atrocities were being conducted. After all, wasn’t this the reason (or excuse?) that the Western Alllies gave for not coming to the aid of Jews earlier? If They didn’t ‘know’, then for sure, the Arabs didn’t know. What they did know is that the zionists who were consuming Palestine bit by it throughout the 1930s were being attacked by Hitler and his people. Compare this position of Arabs vis-a-vis the Nazis to that of the Zionists who did know what was going on. Surely, the zionist collaboration with the Nazis cannot be compared to the vague support that Arabs might have expressed for Germany, the Mufti of Jerusalem included. Can we agree on that?”
The above was written as a response to the following comment:
“What we need across the board is what Zsolt Hermann and David Prosser propose above — for both Israel and the Arab world. We all must soul-search, and no one has lily white history here. However Mr. Parsi, lets be honest here. Those Zionists saw the Nazi writing on the wall. At the stage where the Nazis were merely expelling and not whole sale murdering, these sought to at least direct that expulsion to their own homeland which unlike France, etc., would be a place of true refuge and dignity. On the other hand, compare this to the collaboration with the Nazis of the Arab world of that period — all the way through the 40s, as characterized by the following from Wikipedia: “In 1932, Hitler was given the name Abu Ali in Syria, and Muhammad Haidar in Egypt.[15] Adolf Hitler was celebrated in large parts of the Arab world, and some newspapers even likened him to the Prophet. Erwin Rommel was almost as popular as Hitler. Arabs Shouting of “Heil Rommel” was a common greeting in Arab countries. Many Arabs thought the Germans would free them from the rule of the old colonial powers France and Britain. After France’s defeat to Nazi Germany in 1940, some Arabs were chanting against the French and British around the streets of Damascus: “No more Monsieur, no more Mister, Allah’s in Heaven and Hitler’s on earth.”[16] Posters with Arabic sayings: “In heaven God is your ruler, on earth Hitler” were frequently displayed in shops in the towns of Syria.[17] One of the principal founder of ba’athist thought and the Ba’ath Party, Zaki al-Arsuzi, stated that Fascism and Nazism had greatly influenced ba’athist ideology.[18] An associate of al-Arsuzi wrote: “We were racists. We admired the Nazis. We were immersed in reading Nazi literature and books that were the source of the Nazi spirit…We were the first who thought of a translation of Mein Kampf. Anyone who lived in Damascus at that time was witness to the Arab inclination toward Nazism. Michel Aflaq a founder of the Ba’athist philosophy admired Hitler and the Nazis for standing up to Britain and America. This admiration would combine aspects of Nazism into Ba’athism.” Cooperation: The two most noted Arab politicians who actively collaborated with the Nazi were Grand Mufti of Jerusalem (al Quds) Haj Amin al-Husseini[19] [20] and the Iraqi prime minister Rashid Ali al-Gaylani.[21][22] The British forced the Mufti into exile for his role in the 1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine. The ex-Mufti had agents in the Kingdom of Iraq, the French Mandate of Syria and in Mandatory Palestine. In 1941, the Mufti actively supported the Iraqi Golden Square coup d’état led by Rashid Ali al-Gaylani.[15] After the Golden Square Iraqi regime was overthrown by pro-British forces, Rashid Ali, the Mufti, and others Iraqi veterans took refuge in Europe, where they supported Axis interests. They were particularly successful in the recruiting several tens-of-thousands of Muslims for German Schutzstaffel (SS) units, and as propagandists for the Arabic-speaking world. The range of collaborative activity was wide. For instance, Anwar Sadat, who later became president of Egypt, was a willing co-operator in Nazi Germany’s espionage according to his own memoirs.[14] Adolf Hitler met with Haj Amin al-Husseini on 28 November 1941. The official German notes of that meeting record contains numerous references to combatting Jews both inside and outside Europe.””
Story link: http://www.jpost.com/Jewish-World/Jewish-Features/We-are-still-in-Egypt-308165#comment-850984823
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