Israel: Always the Individual Jew in Macrocosm


Recent scholarship by Yossef Bodansky and Arieh Stav clarifies an issue of monumental importance for Israel: In the prevailing Islamic view, the Jewish State is always the individual Jew writ large. Here, the Jewish State must be despised because of this connection, because of the allegedly innate "evil" of the individual Jew. This is a far cry from what is believed so firmly ( and foolishly) by Israel's Jewish supporters of the "Peace Process," that is, that Jews are despised only to the extent that they are Zionists. Detached from the correct view identified by Bodansky and Stav, these deluded supporters now prepare themselves and their country for oblivion.

In the authoritative view of Israel's enemies - a view expressed in every single Arab state - the Israeli is despicable not because he is an "occupier" or because he favors "expansionist" policies (these traits are seen as merely epiphenomenal) but because he is a Jew. Period! End of story. As early as 1982, in an article published in al-Ahram, Dr. Lufti Abd al-Azim wrote: "The first thing that we have to make clear is that no distinction must be made between the Jew and the Israeli....The Jew is a Jew, through the millennia....in spurning all moral values, devouring the living and drinking his blood for the sake of a few coins. The Jew, the Merchant of Venice, does not differ from the killer of Deir Yasin or the killer of the camps. They are equal examples of human degradation. Let us therefore put aside such distinctions, and talk about Jews."

In a current Egyptian textbook of "Arab Islamic history" (a textbook of a country "at peace" with Israel), new teachers are informed: "The Jews are always the same, every time and everywhere. They will not live save in darkness. They contrive their evils clandestinely. They fight only when they are hidden, because they are cowards....The Prophet enlightened us about the right way to treat them, and succeeded finally in crushing the plots they had planned. We today must follow this way and purify Palestine from their filth."

Ayatollah Khomeini, in the Foreword to his book on Islamic Government, remarked: "The Islamic Movement was afflicted by the Jews from its very beginnings, when they began their hostile activity....This has continued to the present day. On the "Zionist Problem," Dr. Yahya al-Rakhawi wrote on July 19th, 1982, in al-Ahram: "....we are all - once again - face to face with the Jewish Problem, not just the Zionist Problem; and we must reassess all those studies which make a distinction between `The Jew' and `The Israeli'....and we must redefine the meaning of the word "Jew," so that we do not imagine that we are speaking of a divinely revealed religion or a minority persecuted by mankind." Later, al-Rakhawi concludes: "...we cannot help but see before us the figure of the great man Hitler, may G-d have mercy on him, who was the wisest of those who confronted this problem....and who, out of compassion for humanity, tried to exterminate every Jew, but despaired of curing this cancerous growth on the body of mankind."

Such Islamic sentiments are not confined to singular commentators. They are also an integral part of Hamas and PLO. According to the Charter of Hamas: "Peace initiatives, the so-called peaceful solutions, and the international conferences to resolve the Palestinian problem, are all contrary to the beliefs of the Islamic Resistance Movement. For renouncing any part of Palestine means renouncing part of the religion; the nationalism of the Islamic Resistance Movement is part of its faith, the movement educates its members to adhere to its principles and to raise the banner of Allah over their homeland as they fight their Jihad....There is no solution to the Palestinian problem except by Jihad....In order to face the usurpation of Palestine by the Jews, we have no escape from raising the banner of Jihad....We must imprint on the minds of generations of Muslims that the Palestinian problem is a religious one, to be dealt with on this premise...."I swear by that (sic) who holds in His Hands the Soul of Muhammad! I indeed wish to go to war for the sake of Allah! I will assault and kill! assault and kill, assault and kill...."

Regarding the formal relationship between Hamas and PLO, the Hamas Charter instructs: "The PLO is among the closest to the Hamas, for it constitutes a father, a brother, a relative, a friend. Can a Muslim turn away from his father, his brother, his relative or his friend? Our homeland is one, our calamity is one, our destiny is one and our enemy is common to both of us...." Finally, on the primacy of hatred toward Jews, not Israel -the Hamas Charter states: "Israel, by virtue of its being Jewish and of having a Jewish population, defies Islam and the Muslims. Let the eyes of the cowards not fall asleep."

There must be no mistake about it. For Israel's enemies, which include its "Palestinian partners in peace," the Jewish State is despised because it is Jewish. For them, Israel is always the individual Jew in macrocosm.