The Two Faces of Hate

The following is a guest post from one of the More Hummus, Please members.

The Two Faces of Hate
R. Parsons, 9/11/2011


When it comes to phobic behavior toward Israel there are basically two distinct forms of the malady; rabid, bald-faced anti-Semitism and the more polite and less honest “come, let us reason together” approach. Iran, Hezbollah, and Hamas characterize the former. The International Solidarity and BDS Movements typify the latter. But hostility toward Israel was already active, even before it's founding

One individual, who stands out for presetting the region for war against the new Israel, was Haj Amin al-Husseini, a pan-Arabist quoted as saying, “kill all Jews wherever you find them.” From 1921 to 1948, al-Husseini was Grand Mufti of Jerusalem. Before, during, and after this time he violently opposed a national home for the Jewish people and fomented large vitriolic anti-Jewish riots in 1929 and 1936.

Bridging the time between the First and Second World Wars and to a lesser extent the period after the rebirth of Israel, he opposed every attempt at making a reasonable accommodation to the new Jewish state. In fact, he was the kind of guy Hitler appreciated - literally and vice-versa.

During the Second World War he recruited 20,000 Muslims for the Waffen SS, who participated in the murder of Jews in Bosnia and Croatia. He met with both Hitler and Mussolini, expressing his solidarity with fascism and his vehement opposition to Jews immigrating to Israel. He set up organizations for the young men based on the Hitler Youth and shared the Nazi obsession with genocide. He made Arabic broadcasts to the Middle East, promoting the Nazi program. Active, entrenched, and violently anti-Semitic atmosphere that permeated the region just before Israel was founded during the British Mandate period can be largely credited to his influence.

Since that time Israel has had to deal with the al-Husseini mentality. Whether it comes in the form of clearly hateful or seemingly reasoned opposition to Israel, the disease is the same. The fact that the BDS movement insists on calling Israel apartheid, a priori, when it is anything but, is the best litmus of the al-Husseini connection. The three conditions of BDS - boycott, divestment and sanction - are quite simply a formula for the destruction of Israel.

BDS is not a movement for peace and justice. It is a tool of those driving the same kind of hate as the murderers who blow up busses and launch missiles from Gaza or Lebanon in a seemingly more acceptable, less violent, form. However it presents, it is a toxic stew that serves only those with bad intentions toward Israel and a fundamental dishonesty about the peace process.