Commentary
In The Art of War, Sun Tzu assures his readers that, “If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat.”
That saying rings true in the current conflict between Israel and Hamas.
Too many responses to the conflict are rooted in the myth that Hamas’ acts of terror are motivated by land, politics, and grievances against Israel.
But that myth reflects a catastrophic ignorance of the violent anti-Semitism that motivates groups like Hamas.
This genocidal hatred of the Jews predates the creation of the State of Israel.
We see such anti-Semitism in Haj Amin al-Husseini, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem.
In 1920, more than two decades before the establishment of Israel, he incited anti-Semitic riots in which five Jews were killed and over 200 injured.
He was attracted to the Nazis’ anti-Semitic policies, and after Hitler’s rise to power, he met with the German consul-general in Palestine to share their common cause in defeating the British and killing Jews.
In 1937, he met with SS staff, including the Holocaust architect, Adolf Eichmann. Al-Husseini then met with Italian dictator, Benito Mussolini, whose foreign ministry gave him a large amount of money to be used for opposing the British.
November 1941 saw al-Husseini cement his reputation as “Hitler’s Mufti.” He visited Germany, meeting the Nazi secretary of state and the Nazi foreign minister.
On Nov. 28, 1941, he met with Hitler himself. Al-Husseini thanked Hitler for his support for the Arab and Palestinian cause. He declared that the Arab Muslims were Nazi Germany’s “natural friends” because of their common hatred for the Jews.
Hitler and al-Husseini mutually pledged themselves to killing Jews.
Permanent Representative of Israel to the United Nations Gilad Erdan holds up a 1941 picture of Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin al-Husseini, with Adolf Hiter in New York City on Nov. 29, 2023. David Dee Delgado/Getty Images
As al-Husseini himself explained, his “fundamental condition” for allying Muslims to Nazi Germany “was a free hand to eradicate every last Jew from Palestine and the Arab world.”
He claimed that, when he asked Hitler for help in eliminating Jews using the Nazi’s scientific methods, he was told by Hitler that “The Jews are yours.”
To show his support for Hitler and his hatred for Jewish people, al-Husseini recruited thousands of Muslims to serve in the Waffen SS. The Mufti’s recruits were responsible for killing 90 percent of Bosnia’s Jews, as well as many Christians and Gypsies.
Continuing Historical Animosity
In seeking moral clarity about the conflict in Israel, we must remember that this anti-Semitism existed well before the establishment of the modern State of Israel.When Hamas launched its terrorist attacks on Oct. 7, it was continuing the history of genocidal hatred practiced by the Grand Mufti and many others in the region.
Posters of some of those kidnapped by Hamas are displayed on a pole outside of New York University (NYU) as tensions between supporters of Palestine and Israel increase on college campuses across the nation, in New York City, on Oct. 30, 2023. Spencer Platt/Getty Images
Article 7 quotes the declaration of the Prophet Mohammed that, “The Day of Judgement will not come about until Moslems fight the Jews (killing the Jews), when the Jew will hide behind stones and trees. The stones and trees will say O Moslems, O Abdulla, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him.”
The conflict in Israel is complicated and cannot be reduced to any one cause.
However, we cannot understand the conflict without understanding that anti-Semitism is a critical factor.
Just as the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem allied himself to Hitler in the hope of a Jewish genocide, Hamas has made it clear that they are just as anti-Semitic as the Mufti.
To make sense of the conflict, we have to face the unpleasant truth that Hamas is not only concerned with politics or control of land. Their ultimate aim is genocide and the death of all Jews in the world.
Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
