[iwar] [fc:Resurrecting.an.ancient.face.of.evil]

From: Fred Cohen (fc@all.net)
Date: 2001-10-22 15:16:22
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From: Fred Cohen <fc@all.net>
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Date: Mon, 22 Oct 2001 15:16:22 -0700 (PDT)
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Subject: [iwar] [fc:Resurrecting.an.ancient.face.of.evil]
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  October 22, 2001
Resurrecting an ancient face of evil
The Holocaust had begun to feel like ancient history, but the urgent
new focus on the Middle East reminds us all how virulent anti-Semitism
lives as a force in the world.
Just as the Nazis forged a militant fanatical hatred of Jews, Islamic
fanatics have forged a modern theory of hatred, illustrated by similar
Nazi-like depictions of Jews.
In "Peace: The Arabian Caricature: A Study of Anti-Semitic Imagery,"
Arieh Stav, director of the Ariel Center for Policy Research in Tel
Aviv, documents the vicious anti-Semitic cartoons that proliferate in
the Arab world with public and official endorsement. Historically,
these caricatures are not unique to the Arab world, but what this book
makes clear is that in the Middle East today they are commonplace,
generating stereotypes of evil, fusing anti-Semitism with
anti-Zionism.
In the present crisis, the portrait of the Jew in the Middle East
emerges as an ugly and perverse mix of theological, moral, racial,
social and political negatives. If you think these images are pushed
only by the usual suspects, such as Syria and Iraq, think again. They
proliferate across the spectrum of our so-called allies in the
coalition, including Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. These
caricatures are all the more powerful because they're graphically
dramatic and symbolic in countries where many people cannot read.
Jews were forced to wear a yellow patch with a six-pointed star in
"sophisticated" Europe, identifying them as vermin that had to be
exterminated. In the Middle East, the Jews of Israel are caricatured
as snakes and cockroaches, to be similarly annihilated.
Eastern European Jews were frequently described in metaphors of
disease, to be eliminated lest they infect the larger society. Jews in
the Middle East are described as a cancer in the body of the Arab
world, a malignant tumor that must be surgically removed.
Stav's book, written two years ago, illustrates how popular cartoons
generate violent attitudes toward Israel in general and Jews in
particular. Just as in Germany, where Jews over the years sometimes
earned reprieve from prejudice, Jews have enjoyed occasional
protection from Muslim rulers in the past. But it's naive to think
that anti-Semitism isn't a driving force of modern Islamist terrorism.

One of the stubborn rumors that circulated among Muslims immediately
after Sept. 11 (and among certain other Israel-bashers) was that the
airplane attacks were initiated by Mossad, the Israeli secret service.
The rumor was accompanied by the kind of lie that lent both
specificity and credibility, that 4,000 Jews who worked in the World
Trade Center were warned not to show up for work, and escaped the
catastrophe.
The rumor was quickly squelched in this country when many of the dead
and missing were identified as Jews. But the rumor has the legs of
"unshakable truth" for Muslims in the streets of Cairo, Jerusalem,
Riyadh, even London. More than half a century ago, anti-Semitism was
indelibly imbedded in the psyche of the Third Reich, which led
inexorably to the Holocaust. But in recent years, the Germans have
worked tirelessly to document that terrible past and its government
has spoken out boldly about the threat of Islamist terrorism. Many
Germans are humiliated that they unwittingly gave shelter to several
of the terrorists who flew the death planes.
When Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder returned home after meeting George
Bush in Washington this month after surveying the destruction of the
terrorists, he suggested that Germany is now prepared to enter a new
phase in its post-World War II history, to send its army abroad "in
defense of freedom and human rights." This is not likely to thrill
millions of Europeans, but it shows where German sentiment lies.
He expressed the "unreserved solidarity" of his government behind the
United States. He has endured criticism from the Green Party's
pacifist wing and part of his coalition, which has demanded a pause in
the bombing of Afghanistan.
Many of the Greens, however, including Joschka Fischer, the German
foreign secretary, remain mindful not only of the free world's
vulnerability to the terrorists if they are not stopped, but of the
terrible treatment women, children and minorities suffer daily at the
hands of the Taliban.
These Germans have learned from their country's history and
rediscovered a conscious awareness that both words and deeds are
needed to fight against evil. They remind us all that this is no time
to be a passive bystander.
Contact Suzanne Fields
Š2001 Tribune Media Services

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