New York has finally woken up! Or, should I say, The New York Times has finally woken up! At long last, Manhattan has begun receiving broadcasts from the Middle East, and someone is apparently listening.
First of all, it is a bit strange that this esteemed newspaper is calling on Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to step down, considering that according to the paper's own archive, the Palestinian leader himself has been threatening to resign for years in protest over something or other. But just as Abbas has been "serving" as Palestinian president for 13 years, his resignations carry little significance. For eight years, Abbas has been holding on to his presidency without any legitimacy – the last time he was democratically elected was in 2005. So all things considered, it's a little bit of a stretch to demand that this pretend president step down because of some anti-Semitic remarks about the Holocaust.
One could even advocate for Abbas. His anti-Semitic remarks, accusing the Jews of being themselves responsible for the Holocaust, are more or less the conventional wisdom among Marxist scholars. In Israel, too, there are respected researchers who have adopted and disseminated the narrative that the massacre of the Jews in Hebron in 1929 was the result of societal and economic factors, and not just anti-Semitic hatred.
And so what did Abbas have to say about the Holocaust? "The Jewish problem that was common in all of the states of Europe against the Jews was not due to their religion, but rather due to their social role that was connected to usury, and banks, and so forth."
Abbas is a fossil. A constant reminder of how the Israeli-Palestinian conflict began. He has internalized the anti-Semitic formulas that were apparently acceptable at the distinguished Soviet university where he earned his doctorate – widely considered a work of Holocaust denial.
Abbas bridges the gap between communist and Nazi ideology, as can be seen in a telegram sent by SS chief Heinrich Himmler to the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Hajj Amin al-Husseini, ahead of his alternative protest rally in Berlin in 1943, on the 26th anniversary of the Balfour Declaration:
"TO THE GRAND MUFTI AMIN EL HUSSEINI, BERLIN
FROM ITS BEGINNING THE NATIONAL SOCIALIST MOVEMENT OF GREATER GERMANY HAS INSCRIBED THE STRUGGLE AGAINST WORLD JEWRY ON ITS BANNER. THEREFORE IT HAS ALWAYS FOLLOWED WITH SPECIAL SYMPATHY THE STRUGGLE OF THE FREEDOM–LOVING ARABS, FOREMOST IN PALESTINE, AGAINST THE JEWISH INTRUDERS. THE RECOGNITION OF THIS ENEMY AND OUR COMMON STRUGGLE AGAINST HIM FORM THE FIRM FOUNDATION OF THE NATURAL ALLIANCE BETWEEN NATIONAL-SOCIALIST GREATER GERMANY AND THE FREEDOM-LOVING MUSLIMS OF THE WHOLE WORLD. ON THE ANNIVERSARY OF THE WRETCHED BALFOUR DECLARATION I SEND YOU IN THIS SPIRIT MY HEARTFELT GREETINGS AND WISHES FOR THE SUCCESSFUL PURSUIT OF YOUR STRUGGLE UNTIL ITS ASSURED FINAL VICTORY.
SIGNED, REICHSFUEHRER-SS HEINRICH HIMMLER"
It appears there is a great deal of continuity between Himmler, al-Husseini and the current Palestinian leadership, and that the ones who need to spend a little time on self-reflection are the members of The New York Times editorial board.
