Amin al-Husseini and Jewish Redemption
Summary: Amin al-Husseini (1897- 1997) invented modern-day Islamic antisemitism - not just hatred of Jews, but terrorism and killing of innocent Jews. He also planned together with the Nazis the genocide of all of Palestine’s Jews. He was one of the founding members of Muslim Brotherhood and highjacked the Palestinian people to the Brotherhood’s vision of a Pan-Islamic state. Ironically, his success in mobilizing Arab opposition to a Jewish state permitted the exact opposite of everything he intended to occur.
The major part of this chapter will focus on the life of Amin al-Husseini, including his activities in Nazi Germany. Finally, we will examine a number of ideas connected to this period, some of which are related to Hitler and al-Husseini. These include the following:
1.Present-day Jewish redemption appears not to be overtly messianic. Nevertheless, as in the time of the king Cyrus, the involvement of God can be seen through the events of history.
2.The Yishuv, the Jewish community in Palestine, was razor thin close to total extermination due to the planning of genocide by al-Husseini.
3.A major upheaval in the world in the form of a Gog and Magog-type conflict was seen by the prophets as a prelude to a messianic redemption. World conflicts have also been the case for the present redemption.
4.As is the case for Christianity, Islamic hatred of Jews is due to competing views of a utopian future.
5.Islamic antisemitism and its rejectionism of peace with the Jewish state have been directly responsible for Israel’s territorial expansion and power.
The British take over Palestine
First, some history about this period.
In October 1914, the Ottoman Empire allied itself with Germany and entered what would be World War 1 on the side of the Central Powers against Great Britain, France, the Russian Empire and Italy. Anticipating its defeat, Great Britain and France, with the agreement of the Russian Empire and Italy, negotiated a secret Sykes-Picot agreement to determine their relative spheres of influence when the 400-year Ottoman Empire would be partitioned.
The beginning of the end of the Ottoman Empire came about when the British-led Egyptian Expeditionary Force under the command of General Edmund Allenby captured Beersheba in October 1917. The British had failed to take over Gaza from their base in Egypt, and they decided to attack Beersheba. This was not anticipated by the Turks, as the British had planted information they were going to attack Gaza again. It was a desperate bid by the British. Many of their soldiers were cavalry on horseback. If they had failed to capture the fortress in Beersheba and provide water to their horses, their animals would have died of thirst. Initially, the British were unable to make progress against the 2,000 Turkish defendants. Allenby then decided on another desperate ploy. Mounted Australian cavalry charged the defendants with open bayonets in the face of artillery and machine gun fire. However, the Turks were unable to accurately direct their fire at such close quarters. With hand-to-hand fighting, the cavalry successfully overran the city with surprisingly few casualties. The route to Jerusalem was now open. The Turks retreated and Jerusalem was captured six weeks later without a shot being fired. Within a year, Turkey had capitulated after defeat of their forces at the Battle of Megiddo.
This unlikely victory at the Battle of Beersheba would have major implications for the course of Jewish history. In the weeks between the capture of Beersheba and Jerusalem, the British foreign secretary, Arthur James Balfour, issued the British Jewish leader Lord Rothschild a letter containing the "Balfour Declaration" in which the British government promised support for the establishment of a Jewish state. This declaration read as follows:
“His Majesty’s Government view with favor the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country.”
This declaration was the result of heavy lobbying by the Zionist leader Chaim Weitzman and the English politician Sir Herbert Samuels. Sir Herbert Samuels was a member of the Anglo-Jewish elite, a Zionist, and a cabinet member for Lloyd George’s liberal party. Theodor Herzl had lobbied unsuccessfully for seven years attempting to interest the world powers in a Jewish protectorate in Palestine. These two individuals pulled it off, not with the Turks but with the British, and not just a protectorate but plans towards a state.
Why did the British issue this declaration? They hoped it would rally global Jewish support to the Allies, and that Jewish settlement in Palestine would help protect the approaches to the Suez Canal. Many British Christians also believed that the establishment of a state in Palestine would presage the arrival of the Christian Messianic era.
The Declaration was endorsed by the Allied powers, was included in the British mandate over Palestine, and was formally approved by the newly created League of Nations in July 1922.
Initially, the British genuinely attempted to fulfill the provisions of their mandate. Partition plans under discussion would have provided self-determination for Jews and for the Palestinians. Nevertheless, they would eventually renege on their commitment to the Jews. Even shortly after it was issued, there were those in the British military who sought to undermine it. By the 1930’s, immigration to Palestine had become critical for the Jews with the rise of the German Nazi party and Nazi persecution. However, the Middle East had now become an important arena for the Allies and they were doing their upmost to prevent the Arabs from joining the Axis powers. Thus it was that when increased immigration was most needed, the keys were locked. The White Paper of 1939 issued by the British government effectively reversed the Balfour Declaration by severely restricting Jewish immigration to Palestine.1 It would only be when the British left Palestine and the State of Israel was declared in May 1948 that immigration would again be unrestricted.
Al-Husseini’s campaign against the Jews and British in Palestine
Amin al-Husseini was born to an influential Palestinian family that traced its roots to the grandson of Muhammad. His brother was mufti of Jerusalem, his father had served as mufti, and his cousin was then mayor of Jerusalem.
Al-Husseini attended schools in Jerusalem and Cairo and briefly attended Al-Azhar University, the most prestigious university for Sunni Islamic learning.However, he did not complete his degree and never qualified as an Islamic cleric or scholar. During the First World War he enlisted and was an artillery officer in the Turkish Army. After the defeat of the Turks, he returned to Jerusalem and worked as a clerk in the office to the Arab advisor to the British military governor and then as a teacher. The Balfour Declaration had been issued shortly before Al-Husseini’s return to Jerusalem and this radicalized many Palestinians, including al-Husseini, who rejected the authority of the British to issue such a declaration. Al-Husseini began mobilizing political followers and supporters using his naturally endowed political skills.
Many of the controversies surrounding al-Hussein are due to the fact that he did not publish and most of his scheming was done in secret. Even the British, for whom he began working, could never be quite sure how involved he was in civil disturbances. His ideologies, therefore, have to be gleaned in large measure from his activities. These often becomes colored by who is writing the history (and I include myself in this) and their stand on the Israel-Arab conflict.
Al-Husseini’s first anti-Jewish activities were in April 1920 during the annual celebration of the Muslim festival of Nebi Musa that celebrates the birth of Moses when he organized rioting in Jerusalem during which 5 Jews and 4 Arabs were killed and many Jews injured. The British held al-Husseini responsible for this pogrom and sought his arrest. However, he escaped to Trans-Jordan before being arrested. He was sentenced in absentia to 10 years in prison.
The Jews in Palestine had been ecstatic about Sir Herbert Samuel’s appointment as Palestine’s first high commissioner and viewed his arrival in Jerusalem in almost messianic terms. On his first Sabbath in Palestine, he went to the Hurva Synagogue in the Old City of Jerusalem and was invited to read the weekly portion from the prophets. This was from the prophet Isaiah and describes his prophecy regarding the redemption of the Jewish people (Isaiah 40:1-26). His reading brought the congregation to tears. However, their love affair with Sir Herbert Samuel became tempered when he appointed al-Husseini as mufti of Jerusalem when this position became available on the death of his older brother. Sir Herbert Samuels had already pardoned those involved in the previous anti-Jewish riots. In the elections for this position Al-Husseini had not been a strong candidate, but Sir Herbert Samuels experienced strong pressure from the Arabists in the British Foreign Office to appoint him. The thought was that it would be helpful to coopt an extreme Palestinian to work with them. There was also a desire to balance influential positions between his family and the Nashashibi family, both of whom dominated Palestinian politics. His appointment as mufti of Jerusalem gave al-Husseini control of the religious life of the city. In May 1922, Sir Herbert Samuels also supported his appointment as president of the Supreme Muslim Council. This body was newly created by the British to administer the Islamic religious courts, mosques, schools, Muslim social services and the Muslim Religious Trust, the Waqf. In effect, in his efforts to be impartial, Sir Herbert Samuel had appointed a radical who hated Jews and the British alike as the religious and political leader of the Palestinians. Even though on the payroll of the British administration, his organizational skills for terror would soon become apparent,
Anti-Jewish and anti-British rioting broke out again in May 1921 shortly after al-Husseini had been appointed as mufti. The excuse of the Arabs was the increasing Jewish population in Palestine. This rioting resulted in the death of 47 Jews and the wounding of 146. Sir Herbert Samuels temporarily suspended Jewish immigration, leading al-Husseini to the conclusion that violence paid off and the Jews to the conclusion that the British were committed to a policy of appeasement.2Anti-Jewish violence broke out again in August 1929 with rioting in Jerusalem, Hebron, Safed, Jaffa, and Haifa, and lead to the deaths of 135 Jews and 136 Arabs. An official enquiry did not hold al-Husseini responsible for initiating the riots, although it did hold him partly responsible for the disturbances. Others thought he had been aware of the campaign from early on.
An anti-Jewish and anti-British riot in which he was clearly involved was the so-called Arab Revolt that began in 1936. The Arab Higher Committee of which the mufti was a leader, again called for a strike because of continuing Jewish immigration, and this was followed by violence in which Jewish properties and farms were attacked throughout the country. Syrian and Iraqi volunteers began arriving in Palestine.3 The Arab Higher Committee was finally outlawed and al-Husseini was sought by the British police. However, he was tipped off and escaped to Lebanon where he reconstituted the committee. The violence continued until May 1939.
Now living outside Palestine, he was involved in a short-lived pro-German coup in Iraq in 1941, which the British crushed by sending in troops and planes. Following this, the mufti incited a pogrom in Baghdad that was responsible for the death of 110 Jews.4 He sought refuge in neighboring Persia, but remained there for only four months as the pro-Nazi Shah was forced to abdicate when Great Britain and Russia brought in troops in favor of his young son. Despite being pursued by the British he managed to escape to Turkey and then to Italy, an ally of Germany.
Al-Husseini in Germany
Al-Husseini’s activities in Germany are controversial. The debates center on the questions - how much did he know about the Final Solution, did he visit Nazi concentrations camps, and was he instrumental in furthering the Final Solution? The question does have modern-day implications. The Palestinians is that they were made to suffer unfairly from the consequences of European anti-Semitism and the Holocaust and European Jews coming to Palestine. This has a different nuance, however, if the leader of the Palestinian people, Amin al-Husseini, was actually involved in the Final Solution in Europe.
Almost all historians are in agreement that al-Husseini was very familiar with the Final Solution, that he approved of it, and that his diplomatic activities were responsible for the death of some thousandsof Jews in the death camps. However, there is no consensus as to his influence on the Holocaust, and whether he even visited concentration camps. Many historians feel that the Germans needed no encouragement or assistance in carrying out their Final Solution. Nevertheless, there are historians who disagree with this. After the war, Great Britain, France and Yugoslavia considered pushing for al-Husseini’s indictment in the Nuremberg trials, but the Allies were reluctant to prosecute him for fear of upsetting the Arab nations.
Al-Husseini had been making overtures to Germany from the late 1930’s. In this, he was reflecting a general Arab sympathy across the Middle East for Nazis aims. The forces of German Field Marshall Erwin Rommel’s were also advancing within Egypt, and with Britain alone in confronting Germany it seemed but a matter of time before Germany would control the entire Middle East.
Al-Husseini was treated royally when he arrived in Italy and he was met warmly by Mussolini in his office in the Palazzo Venetia. Mussolini was supportive in his opposition to a Jewish state and the extermination of Jews. He is quoted as saying:
“We have here in Italy 45,000 Jews, but none will be left. They are our enemies, and there will be no place for them in Europe.”5
From Italy, al-Husseini made his way to Berlin where he was welcomed equally warmly by the Germans. Soon after his arrival, in November 1941, he met with Adolf Hitler and his hopes were fully met. Hitler was obviously prepared to overlook his prior writings in Mein Kamp about the racial inferiority of Arabs. Although he was not prepared to provide al-Husseini with a public statement supporting the elimination of a Jewish homeland, he was able to reassure him that Germany had no territorial claims on Arab lands and that he fully supported the elimination of the Jews of Palestine. Hitler explained to him:
“Germany has resolved, step by step, to ask one European nation after the other to solve its Jewish problem, and at the proper time, direct a similar appeal to non-European nations as well.” When Germany had defeated Russian and broken through the Caucasus into the Middle East, it would have no further imperial goals of its own and would support Arab liberation. But Hitler did have one goal. “Germany’s objective would then be solely the destruction of the Jewish element residing in the Arab sphere under the protection of British power.”6
Al-Husseini was appointed as a propogandist for the Axis Powers and he made regular radio broadcasts directed at Arab public opinion. He was paid extremely well for this. He was provided with a chauffeured Mercedes limousine, and accommodation in fancy homes and luxurious hotel suites.
His extreme anti-Semitic views are evident from his broadcasts. In a broadcast on Radio Berlin in November 1943 he would say:
“The overwhelming egoism which lies in the character of the Jew, their unworthy belief that they are God’s chosen nation and their assertion that all was created for them and that other people are animals makes them incapable of being trusted ..… They cannot mix with any other nation but live as parasites among the nations, suck out their blood, embezzle their property, corrupt their morals ….. The divine anger and curse that the Holy Qur’an mentions with reference to the Jews is because of this unique character of the Jews.”7
In March 1944 he broadcast on Radio Berlin:
“Arabs, rise as one man and fight for your sacred rights. Kill the Jews wherever you find them. This pleases God, history and religion. This saves your honor. God is with you.”8
Throughout his four years in Germany, he had close working relationships with Nazi leaders, including Joachim von Ribbentrop, Hitler’s foreign minister, Heinrich Himmler, the architect and administrator of the Final Solution, and Adolf Eichmann, another of the organizers of the Final Solution. The decision to carry out the extermination of European Jewry was made two months after al-Husseini arrived in Germany, although this could be coincidental.91 Von Ribbentrop established a division within the Foreign Ministry, the “Anti-Jewish Action Abroad,” which was designed to help in the “physical elimination of Jewry … thereby to deprive the race of its biological reserves”. Al-Husseini was one of its advisors.10
In their book, Dalin and Rothman mention that one of Adolf Eichmann’s senior deputies. Dieter Wasliceny, (who was subsequently executed as a war criminal), testified at the Nuremberg trialsthat al-Husseini “was one of Eichmann’s best friends and had constantly incited him to accelerate the extermination measures. I heard him say that, accompanied by Eichmann, he had visited incognito the gas chamber of Auschwitz.”11 Eichmann denied this at his trial in Israel in 1961. Nevertheless, the Jerusalem court accepted this conversation and found as proven the assertion that al-Husseini had aimed to implement the Final Solution.12 Others, however, regard the evidence as uncorroborated.13
Dalin and Rothman also describe that in June 1944 Dieter Wasliceny told a Hungarian Jewish leader that “The importance of the mufti’s role must not be disregarded … The mufti had repeatedly suggested to the various authorities with whom he was maintaining contact, above all to Hitler, Ribbentrop and Himmler, the extermination of European Jewry.”14
These authors also report that Bartley Crum, a member of the Anglo-American Committee on Palestine, was able to see relevant archives while at the Nuremberg trials:
“An Army intelligence officer, at three o’clock one afternoon, made it possible for me to enter a room and sit down at a table upon which was a thick file of documents. I opened the file and began to read. The record of the ex-Mufti’s intrigues was fantastic. The file showed clearly that he climaxed a record of Fascism, anti-British intrigues and anti-Semitism by helping spearhead the extermination of European Jewry.”15
Husseini was also responsible for the deaths of some thousands of Jews as a result of his blocking proposed exchanges due to his fear that those released would subsequently settle in Palestine. The following is an example of a letter he sent to the Hungarian foreign minister on learning about a transfer of 900 Jewish children and 100 adults. This letter is, of course, directing the Jews to Polish concentration camps:
“I ask your Excellency to permit me to draw your attention to the necessity of preventing the Jews from leaving your country for Palestine, and if there are reasons which make their removal necessary, it would be indispensable and infinitely preferable to send them to other countries where they find themselves under active control, for example, in Poland, thus avoiding danger and preventing damage.”16
By 1942, the Germans and al-Husseini were planning the liquidation of Palestine’s Jewry.17 A special Einsatzgruppe Egypt SS squad was formed and stood by in Athens, anticipating the victory of Erwin Rommel. This unit was to be attached to Rommel’s Afrika Korps and would be led by SS Obersturmbannfuhreer Walther Rauff, one of Eichmann’s trusted deputies.18 In addition, on a number of occasions, al-Husseini urged Himmler and other Nazi leaders to bomb Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and other Jewish military targets, but these requests were rejected by Hermann Goring, head of the German air force for logistic reasons.18
Islamic anti-Semitism
There are multiple statements about Jews in the Qur’an. In the early days of his mission, Muhammad anticipated that the Jews in Mecca would join his new religion, and a few of these statements are positive:
2.122] “O children of Israel, call to mind My favor which I bestowed on you and that I made you excel the nations.
“For it is they who are nearest to the true faith” (Sur IXII:13).
On the other hand, by the time he reached Medina, he appreciated that the Jews would provide him no support and his approach to them was antagonistic, especially those who conspired against him. From this time on, his comments about Jews became for more negative. For example:
[2.88] And they say: Our hearts are covered. Nay, Allah has cursed them on account of their unbelief; so little it is that they believe.
[5.51] O you who believe! do not take the Jews and the Christians for friends; they are friends of each other; and whoever amongst you takes them for a friend, then surely he is one of them; surely Allah does not guide the unjust people.
[5.60] Say: Shall I inform you of (him who is) worse than this in retribution from Allah? (Worse is he) whom Allah has cursed and brought His wrath upon, and of whom He made apes and swine, and he who served the Shaitan; these are worse in place and more erring from the straight path.
“And He brought down those of the People of the Book who supported them from their fortresses and cast terror in their hearts; some you slew, some you made captive. And He bequeathed upon you their lands, their habitations, and their possessions, and a land you never trod. God is powerful over everything” (33:26)
By the time of Muhammad’s death, all Jews had been expelled from the Arabian Peninsula. However, after his death when the Bedouin emerged from the desert for conquest, they were confronted with the fact that much of the population of their new Islamic empire was Christian or Jewish. They also needed the talent of these people to run their empire. The solution that was devised was the Pact of Umar which provided protection or dhimmi status to Christians and Jews on payment of a tax, provided they recognized the superiority of Muslims and their religion.19 This pact included restrictions on their building of houses of worship and the regulation that their house of worship be lower in height than nearby mosques. They also had to show deference to Muslims by not striking them or by riding an animal in the Muslim way. These and the other regulations were enforced with varying degrees of strictness depending on the historic period and the country in question. Despite this, the Jews generally preferred living in Muslim than in Christian countries, since the latter provided them with no official protection.
Because of the generally cordial relationships between Muslims and Jews in the early days of the Islamic empire, not a lot was written about the Jewish people. An exception is this well-known hadith that was also incorporated into Hamas’ charter:
“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.”
Al-Husseini was a founding member of the Muslim Brotherhood and together they formulated the anti-Jewish views of Radical Islam. This organization was formed by Al-Banna (1906-1949) in 1928 when he was only 22, and his movement spread rapidly throughout Egypt and beyond. He believed in a new world order in which Islam would not only be a personal religion, but the Qur’an and Sunnah (the practices of Muhammad) would become the basis of the constitution of the state. He rejected Arab nationalism in favor of a Pan-Islamic state in which the artificial boundaries between the states created by the Great Powers would be eliminated. His organization involved itself in propagating its message, teaching the illiterate, and organizing social welfare programs in public health. Within a decade, the Muslim Brotherhood had mushroomed to about 50,000 active members. It did not advocate for revolution in Egypt but aimed for a gradual moral reform, although it did have a secret military wing.Its enemies were s Zionism and the British colonial governments throughout the Muslim world. They also advocated for the replacement of the current political leaders in the Arab world whom they felt had been corrupted by Western values. Al-Banna was assassinated by the Egyptian secret police.
Sayyid Qutb (1906-1966) is another early figure from the Muslim Brotherhood who was influential in developing the major doctrines of Radical Islam. He also was intensely anti-Semitic. Christian antisemitism infiltrating into the Arab world in 1840 with the Damascus Blood Libel and was maintained by the wide circulation of the pamphlet “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.” This forgery first published in Czarist Russia in 1903 and describes a conspiracy to take over the world by a group of powerful, malign and satanic Jewish elders or leaders. It has been a popular book in the Muslim world and Sayyib Qutb was influenced by it. In an infamous 1950s essay “Our Struggle with the Jews” he wrote:
“Jewish wickedness, deception and plotting keep the Muslim world in a state of estrangement from the teachings of the Qur’an, thereby depriving it of the real sources of knowledge and power .... their history reveals the sort of mercilessness, [moral] shirking and ungratefulness for Divine guidance as does this one … The Jews perpetrated the worst sins of disobedience [against Allah], behaving in the most disgustingly aggressive manner and sinning in the ugliest way. Everywhere the Jews have been they have committed unprecedented abominations. From such creatures who kill, massacre and defame prophets, one can only expect the spilling of human blood and any dirty means which would further their machinations and evilness.”20
As well as one of the founding fathers of the Moslem Brotherhood, al-Husseini was also the leader of the Muslim Brotherhood in Palestine, and he held strongly to the Pan-Islamic ideology of this movement. Until 1920, his efforts were focused on creating a Greater Syria, and Palestine would have been a southern province.21 This project collapsed after the French defeated Arab forces in the Battle of Maysalum in July 1920, and then entered Damascus and overthrew Faisal in accord with the Sykes-Picot agreement. Also, in August 1928, an assembly convened by the French in Syria was rapidly adjourned when calls were made for a reunification with Palestine. Al-Husseini was among those calling for a unified monarchial state under the son of Ibn Saud.21
Al-Husseini’s political activities in Nazi Germany were intended not only to gain German support for the extermination of the Jews of Palestine, but also their support for establishing an Islamic state. It is reasonable to assume that he thought of himself as an appropriate caliph for this caliphate.
Al-Husseini may also have held the apocalyptic belief that the establishment of his caliphate would bring closer the Day of Judgement and the pleasures of the World to Come. There is no documented evidence that al-Husseini believed this, but ideas regarding the negative influence of Jews at the End of Days were certainly in existence then and continue to our day.
There is no doubt that a major driving force for anti-Jewish sentiment in much of the Muslim world today is its apocalyptic literature. These books are popular in the Islamic world and many have become best sellers. The literature supporting this already existed in the first and second centuries of the Islamic period when its basic outlines were formulated, although it was then in relation to the historical events of that time.
In this literature, there will firstly be the appearance of Gog and Magog who will do nothing but kill and who are finally defeated by God.22 An AntiChrist (Dajjal), who is Jewish, appears at the head of an army and attempts to seduce Muslims. He finally arrives in Jerusalem where there remains a remnant of Muslims who have not been seduced. At this stage, Jesus returns to earth and ushers in the Messianic age. In this Islamic literature, Jesus is a Muslim rather than Christian and he converts all Christians to Islam.23 In some traditions, the saving messianic figure is the Mahdi. Either of these figures defeats the AntiChrist. Proceeding this End of Days scenario are Greater Signs of the Hour such as major warfare, and Lesser Signs of the Hour such as natural disasters. Finally, there is the resurrection and End of Day.
Modern Islamic apocalyptic literature elaborates on this, but from the perspective of current events. Much of this literature was written subsequent to Israel’s 1948 War of Independence and the Six Day War. This material is highly antisemitic and uses ideas from The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. Its background is an attempt to dealing with the issue – how is it that Islam is not on top, when from its history and literature it should be? Islam has been turning inwards because of its inability to turn outwards.
Reading this apocalyptic material, one can appreciate the extreme hatred towards Jews in the Muslim world. Two examples:
“I speak to Muslims especially and to the entire world [additionally]: that this is the dark and definitive Zionist page [of history], shedding blood, killing its sons, propagating corruption in every area of the world, the sweeping plague of drugs and immorality – both what is open and what is concealed. The [the Jews] have tyrannized and fornicated until there has not remained any holiness in the laws of God upon the earth that they have not profaned.”24
“At a glance at The Protocols of the Elders of Zion … You are amazed at how these [Zionists] began to plan corrupting the entire world, all of its nations and peoples, and how they used knowledge, progress, nudity, vilification of morals and values, and how they made all of these into implements for their goals that they attained, using all monstrous lies and deception, breaking of treaties, and biting the hand that is extended to help them, and destruction of countries, killing of the sons of nations that work for their benefit. In short, they have surrounded themselves with all of the implements that make them into a terrifying and frightening race to all who deal with them.”25
There is difficult to locate apocalyptic literature from the Shiite world, but it undoubtedly exists and it is generally agreed that the leadership of the Iranian government is following an apocalyptic agenda. It believes in the killing of all Zionists who stand in their way, perhaps even genocide of all Israeli Jews, and the eventual supremacy of their branch of Islam. Because of its political power and its desire to have nuclear weaponry, it is a formidable threat to the Jewish people and to world peace.
God and the redemption
(i). Appreciating the hand of God in Israel’s redemption:
A passage in Jeremiah is the subject of discussion in the Talmud:
“Therefore, behold days are coming, says God (YHVH), and it should no longer be said: ‘As God lives Who brought up the children of Israel from the land of Egypt,’ but ‘As God lives, Who brought up the children of Israel from the northland and from all the lands where He had driven them’ and I will restore them to their land where He had driven them” (Jeremiah 16:14-15)
What did Jeremiah mean when he said that “the Exodus from Egypt will no longer be said?” Did he mean that the Exodus from Egypt would no longer be celebrated at all, or that the Exodus from Egypt would still be recited but be eclipsed by the next redemption.26 According to the opinion of one sage, mention of redemption from foreign dominion in the messianic age will become primary while the Exodus from Egypt will become secondary. In actuality, the Exodus from Egypt has always remained primary. It is still possible, nevertheless, to see the hand of God shuffling the events of history. This was so during the Babylonian redemption, and it is also the case with the current establishment of the Jewish state.27 Three events, in particular, stand out because of their tremendous influence.
The cavalry charge at the Battle of Beersheba would be the last cavalry charge in the history of warfare. This makes immanent sense, since riders on horses do poorly against directed machine gun fire. However, in this case, the Turkish machine gunners were unable to direct their fire rapidly enough before they found the bayonets of the cavalry on top of them. This defeat of the Ottomans would allow the Allies to take over the Middle East during the First World War and provide Britain to opportunity to further a Jewish state. Theodor Herzl was correct, of course, that It needed the approval of the Great Powers to permit the formation of a Jewish state, but it was never in the interests of the Ottoman Empire to allow it to happen. Two individuals, Sir Herbert Samuel and Chaim Weitzman, managed to persuade the British that it was in their interest, and not only did the British issue the Balfour Declaration, but they adhered to it for sufficient time to permit enough Jews in Palestine to form the basis of what would become a viable state before they realized that it was really not in their interests.
Another seminal event for the formation of the Jewish state was the defeat of Field Marshall Erwin Rommel’s Afrikakorps at the Battle of El Alamein during the Second World War. The fate of the Middle East hung in the balance between Oct to November 1942. A German victory would have been the end of the hopes for a Jewish state and the destruction of much of the remnant of the Jewish people.28 The Germans would have been able to advance into Palestine. The mufti and his Nazi friendswould have followed soon after and would have called upon the SS waiting patiently in Greece. The Jews in Palestine had plans to fight the Germans in this eventuality, but it is hard to see how any resistance would have been effective. The Jews of Palestine would have been annihilated and no one would have lifted a finger to save them.
(ii). Major upheavals in the world order and redemption:
Prophets such as Ezekial and Zecharia realized that in order for Jewish redemption to proceed there needed to be an upheaval in the world order. They called this the Battle of Gog and Magog. Similarly, the State of Israel could not have come into place in its present form without two world wars and the elimination of East European Jewry.
A major component of the Nazi aims was the destruction of European Jewry. This has been documented by Lucy Dawidowicz in her book The War against the Jews:
“The author [the historian Lucy Dawidowicz in her book “The War against the Jews”] contends that Adolf Hitler pursued his policies to eliminate Jewish populations throughout Europe even to the detriment of pragmatic wartime actions such as moving troops and securing supply lines. As an example, Dawidowicz notes that Hitler delayed railcars providing supplies to front line troops in the Soviet Union so that Jews could be deported by rail from the USSR to death camps. She uses records of "one-way" rail tickets as additional documentation of those sent to camps.”29
This theory could even explain why Hitler initiated Operation Barbarossa. Hitler’s invasion of the USSR in June 1941, when he abrogated his treaty with Joseph Stalin, was the largest military operation in the history of the world, and it lasted 4 years before Hitler was forced to retreat. Its alleged purpose was to provide more living room in the east for the German people, to eliminate the threat of Communism, and to destroy the Slavic people and “Bolshevik Jews.” However, the elimination of East Europe’s Jewry must have been high on Hitler’s list of priorities. Before the war, the USSR had Europe’s second highest population of Jews – 2.8 million in the combination of the Russian Soviet Federation Socialist Republic, the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic and the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic versus 3.3 million Jews in Poland. In fact, the German Schutzstaffel (SS) did succeed in destroying much of East European Jewry.
Hitler’s obsessional pursuit of Jews would also explain his enthusiasm for an alliance with the mufti and their planning together the destruction of the center of Jewish hope in Palestine. In actuality, the pursuit of Russian Jewry’s destruction eliminated the possibility of destroying the Jewish home, since Rommel had insufficient troops, equipment and fuel to achieve a victory against the British at the Battle of Al-Alamein.
This does, of course, leave open the question as to why God thought it necessary to destroy six million Jews and East European centers of Jewish life in order to establish the Jewish state. I cannot answer this question and will not even attempt to do so.
(iii). Competing views of a utopian future.
Al-Husseini clearly hated Jews and he approved of Hitler’s program for the genocide of Jews in Europe and in Palestine. But why? Did he feel like Hitler that Judaism needed to be extirpated from the world? There is nothing in the Qur’an or early Islamic literature to support such a program. It could be that his hatred for Jews grew as he remained in Germany, being surrounded as he was by Hitler’s henchmen. But his hatred of Jews predated his staying in Germany. A generous excuse could be that he supported Hitler’s program in Europe primarily because he did not want Hitler’s Jews to make their way to Palestine. This was also why he did his utmost to stop the emigration of Jews from Europe, even though these Jews were now destined for Hitler’s death camps as a result of his intervention.
I have raised this theory in relation to Christianity and I will raise it again with respect to al-Husseini - that anti-Jewish hatred is based in the main on opposing messianic ideas. Al-Husseini saw Zionism as a threat to the ideas of Pan-Islamism, in that a Jewish state would have been geographically in the center of his future pan-Islamic empire. This was a threat to Islam itself. , As Muhammad had ruled in the 7th century, in a situation such as this there is an obligation to get rid of Jews.
Moreover, the theologies of Judaism and Islam are at odds with each other. Both claim to be revealed religions and containing the perfect transmission of God’s words. But if this is the case for the Qur’an, then it cannot be for the Torah. If it is the case for the Torah, then it cannot be for the Qur’an. Moreover, the utopia of Judaism needs to be attained by perfecting this world. Islam is not theologically equipped to do this, and its utopia, like that of Christianity, can only be in the World to Come.
(iv). Islamic antisemitism and its rejectionism of peace have been directly responsible for Israel’s territorial expansion and power.
Ironically, Amin al-Husseini is not only the one most responsible for the conflict between Palestinians and Jews, but also the person most responsible for the territorial expansion and might of the State of Israel. Al-Husseini spent most of his life opposing the existence of a Jewish state. Yet it was his very success in mobilizing the opposition of the Islamic world to Jewish state that permitted the exact opposite of everything he intended to actually occur.
Palestine at the end of the 19th century was a barren and fairly empty land. It was never the intention of the early Zionist pioneers to forcibly take over Arab lands, and their settlements were on land bought from Arab landowners. Some of this was marginal land. There were Palestinian leaders prepared to come to an accommodation with the Zionists in some form of partition plan as devised by the British and United Nations. However, these people, although influential, such as the Nashashibi family, were either neutralized politically or murdered by al-Husseini. If these partition plans had been adopted, there would have been no 1948 War of Independence and the State of Israel would have been a truncated entity. Similarly, if the ideas of al-Husseini and his protégé Yasser Arafat had not been adopted by the surrounding Arab States, there would have been no Six Day War and no Greater Israel. Arab resistance has caused much travail and sorrow for Jews and Arabs alike, but it has also permitted Israel to considerably expand its borders and grow in its military might. This also was part of the Divine plan.
References
1.This policy of restricted immigration was maintained by the British even after the Second World War. The British foreign secretary Ernest Bevin had no love for the Jews and he brought Jewish immigration almost to a halt.
2.Appeasement in Icon of Evil. Hitler’s Mufti and the Rise of Radical Islam by David G. Dalin and John F. Rothman, p26. Transaction Publishers, 2009.
3.The Mufti, the Arab Revolt of 1936-1938, and the Jews of Palestine, ibid, p33.
4.On the Road to Berlin, April-November 1941, ibid, p44.
5.On the Road to Berlin, April-November 1941, ibid, p46, quoting Daniel Carpi, The Axis of Anti-Semitism, p9, Quebec, Canada. La Compagnie de Publication, Dawn Publishing Company, Ltd, 1985.
6.Wikipedia, Amin al-Husseini, quoting Christopher Browning (22 October 2015. Bibi’s self-serving, Palestinian-blaming version of Nazi history is just plain wrong. Foreign Policy).
7.Hitlers Voice to the Arabs: The Mufti and Nazi Radio Broadcasts to the Middle East in Icon of Evil. Hitler’s Mufti and the Rise of Radical Islam by David G. Dalin and John F. Rothman, p54. Transaction Publishers, 2009. (Quoted from Elias Cooper in Forgotten Palestinian. The Nazi Mufti, p26, American Zionist LXVIII, no 4 (March-April 1978, 5-37).
8.Wikipedia, Amin al-Husseini. (Their reference Aliyah: The People of Israel by Howard Morley Sachar, p231. World Publishing Company.1961).
9.Escaping Indictment at Nuremberg in Icon of Evil. Hitler’s Mufti and the Rise of Radical Islam by David G. Dalin and John F. Rothman, p62. Transaction Publishers, 2009.
10.The Mufti’s Relationships with German Leaders, ibid, p49. (Referenced to Michael Bloch, Ribbentrop: A Biography, p401-402, New York, Crown, 1992).
11.The Mufti’s Relationships with German Leaders, ibid, p51. (Referenced to Peter Z. Malkin and Harry Stein, Eichmann in My Hands, p38. New York, Warner Books, 1990).
12.Wikipedia, Amin al-Husseini(quoting Moshe Pearlman, The capture and trial of Adolf Eichmann, Wedenfield and Nicolson, 1963).
13.Ibid, Rafael Medoff "'The Mufti's Nazi Years Re-examined" in The Journal of Israeli History. Journal of Israeli History. 17. pp. 317–333. 1996. Semites and Anti-Semites: An Inquiry into Conflict and Prejudice by Bernard Lewis.1999. and Eichmann before Jerusalem by Bettina Strangneth, p43-44. London: The Bodley Head. 2004.
14.Escaping Indictment at Nuremberg in Icon of Evil. Hitler’s Mufti and the Rise of Radical Islam by David G. Dalin and John F. Rothman, p61. Transaction Publishers, 2009. (Quoting Joseph B. Schechtman, the Mufti and the Fuhrer: The Rise and Fall of Haj Amin al-Husseini, p159, New York, Thomas Yoseloff, 1965).
15.Escaping Indictment at Nuremberg in Icon of Evil. Hitler’s Mufti and the Rise of Radical Islam by David G. Dalin and John F. Rothman, p62. Transaction Publishers, 2009. (Quoting Bartley C. Crum. Behind the Silken Curtain, 109-110. Simon & Schuster, New York. 1947).
16.Wikipedia Amin al-Husseini (quoting from Joseph B. Schechtman. The Mufti and the Fuehrer: The Rise and Fall of Haj Amin al-Husseini, p154-155. New York, Thomas Yoseloff, 1965).
17.Exterminating the Jews of Palestine in Icon of Evil. Hitler’s Mufti and the Rise of Radical Islam by David G. Dalin and John F. Rothman, p60. Transaction Publishers, 2009 (quoting Thomas Krumensackeer “Nazis planned Holocaust for Palestine Historians. Washington Post, Reuters, April 7, 2006).
18.Ibid, p60.
19. This pact is traditionally attributed to Caliph Umar ibn Khattab, although this is doubted by some and alternatively attributed to 9th century Islamic scholars or the Umayyad Caliph Umar II.
20.Sayyib Qutb, Our Struggle with the Jews (Saudia Arabia, 1970). Quoted in Gabriel Schoenfeld The Return of Anti-Semitism, p41. San Francisco, Encounter Books. 2004.
21.Wikipedia. Amin al-Husseini. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amin_al-Husseini)
22.Prophetic Apocalyptic Traditions in Contemporary Muslim Apocalyptic Literature by David Cook, p10. Syracuse University Press, New York, 2005. The source in the Qur’an is 18:94 and 21:96.
23. Ibid, p9.
24. Assimilation of the Anti-Semitic Conspiracy Theory, ibid, p24, (quoting Muhammud ‘Izzat ‘Arif. Nihayat al-Yahud, p14. Cairo. Dar al-I’tisam. 1996).
25. Ibid, p25 (quoting Muhammad ‘Amaluhu. Mawdu’iyyat al-Islam fir muwajahat al-Sihyawniyya, p160-161. Tripoli. Manshurat Kulliyat al-Da’wa al-Islamiyya. 1992).
26. TB Berachot 12b and 13a. There is an assumption by Ben Zoma quoted in the Talmud that the next redemption will be messianic. The Talmud explains further that future redemptive events will push the memory of the Exodus into second place.
27. See for example the first verse in the Book of Ezra: “And in the first year of Cyrus, the king of Persia, at the completion of the world of God from the mouth of Jeremiah, God aroused the spirit of Cyrus, the king of Persia, and he issued a proclamation throughout his kingdom …. “
28. The Mufti’s Reflection: What is Germany Had Conquered Palestine and Britain? Icon of Evil. Hitler’s Mufti and the Rise of Radical Islam by David G. Dalin and John F. Rothman, p69. Transaction Publishers, 2009. This is an interesting and imaginative chapter on what could have been if Germany had postponed his invasion of Russia and Germany had provided Rommel with enough men, ammunition and fuel to win the Battle of El Alamein.
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