The Yad Vashem chairman recently released a statement defending the Israeli Holocaust museum's decision no longer to display a photograph of an infamous meeting in 1941 between Grand Mufti of Jerusalem Haj Amin al-Husseini and Adolf Hitler.

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The chairman argued that being forced to include the contested photograph is "tantamount to partaking in the debate on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict."

In fact, the move, which glosses over the role that the mufti played in recruiting troops for the Nazis and personally helping to spread Nazi ideology throughout the Middle East and North Africa, prevents museum visitors from viewing a primary source with deep historical and present-day relevance.

Throughout Hitler's rise to power, the mufti remained a leading figure in the Arab world, and his vehement anti-Semitism and contribution to organized war crimes against Jews have been and will remain significant facts in Holocaust history.

The mufti is best known for directly forming and training Arab refugees and Arab-Europeans in Waffen-SS (combat) divisions. He was tasked in 1943 by the SS with recruiting Bosnian Muslims in an effort to establish the "Mountain division."

In Himmler's Bosnian Division, author George Lepre explains the significance of the Nazis' securing of a religious authority like al-Husseini in their expansion efforts, since local Muslim leaders prohibited Muslims from working alongside the Nazis. Due to the mufti's commitment to the program and robust propaganda efforts, an estimated 27,000 recruits signed up.

In addition to his endeavor to recruit Arabs into Axis armies, al-Husseini wholeheartedly supported Hitler's master plan for Jews and had personal knowledge of how Nazi concentration camps operated. In a series of photographs sold at a Jerusalem auction in 2017, the mufti is seen alongside a handful of other global leaders at the Trebbin concentration camp in 1942. This serves as proof that the mufti understood the fate of Jews in Europe and hoped to emulate that path for Jews in the Arab world.

While recruiting for the Waffen-SS and visiting concentration camps certainly aided Hitler's wartime agenda, the mufti's most profound contribution to Nazism was in the propaganda realm. He spearheaded efforts to politicize Islam through radio interviews, pamphlets and newspapers that ultimately helped facilitate the emergence of a new Islamic anti-Semitism.

In his constant broadcasts on the Arabic-language Nazi network Radio Zeesen, he manipulated texts from the Quran to attack Jews as enemies of Islam. Between April 1939 and April 1945, Radio Zeesen broadcast in Arabic every day and al-Husseini was its key clerical voice.

The radio segments were professionally broadcast daily in various Arabic dialects to amass the widest range of listeners possible. The program severed as a significant tool for the mufti to propagate this new Islamic-based anti-Semitic narrative. By providing a religious justification for Jew-hatred, he was able to secure the Muslim supporters that the Nazi Party otherwise would have struggled to acquire.

In addition to Radio Zeesen, anti-Semitic Islamic literature spread like wildfire throughout Arabic-speaking communities. The manifesto Islam and Jewry combined anti-Jewish motifs in the Quran with modern European anti-Semitic tropes in a form that can be characterized as "Islamic anti-Semitism."

As Matthias Küntzel explains in Nazi Propaganda in the Middle East and its Repercussions in the Postwar Period, the text exaggerated and highlighted classically minimal episodes of anti-Jewish moments in the Quran to appear to be central themes in the religious text. This propaganda disseminated among Muslims helped fuel the Jew-hatred on which Hitler would eventually capitalize.

The Egyptian-based publisher of Islam and Jewry, Mohamad Ali al-Taher, was an associate of the mufti's and has been linked to facilitating relations between the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood and German agents. Radio Zeesen and Islam and Jewry, which allegedly was written in part by the mufti, helped catalyze the rampant Jew-hatred in Egypt and fed into the Muslim Brotherhood's vigor to annihilate the Jewish state.

In late 1945, on the anniversary of the 1917 Balfour Declaration, a wave of gruesome anti-Jewish pogroms swept Cairo. Several Jewish institutions were burned down, including the Ashkenazi synagogue in the Muski Quarter, and more than 100 Jews were wounded. By this point, the extent of the mufti's war crimes was public knowledge. The mobs who perpetuated the pogroms chanted slogans defending him and vowed to murder every Jew if he were to be captured.

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The Muslim Brotherhood's ability to garner a massive mob to conduct such pogroms that year indicates that the Nazi ideology fueled and coordinated in part by al-Husseini had had a serious impact.

After the end of WWII, Jew-hatred remained so robust in Egypt that the country became a makeshift safe haven for Nazis. Collaborators like Johann von Leers, a senior SS official nicknamed "Hitler's number one anti-Semite" for his work in Joseph Goebbels's Propaganda Ministry sought refuge there.

In fact, the Mufti himself facilitated Leer's entry into Egypt, where he would oversee anti-Israel propaganda as head of the Institute for the Study of Zionism. The author of dozens of books and articles published between 1932-1944, Leers was one of the most prolific anti-Semitic writers in Hitler's Third Reich. According to recently declassified CIA documents, the work that Leers began in Germany and continued in Egypt irrefutably links to the decades of violent Arab-Israeli relations that would dominate the region for years to come.

Some scholars argue that the mufti was more concerned with achieving power or gaining a foreign ally than with exterminating Jews. Whether or not these alternative motivations played a part in his thinking is irrelevant, however. He unquestionably emerged as the leading non-European aide for the Nazis and played a vital role in recruiting and training the SS soldiers whose main ambition was to secure Hitler's reign by systematically murdering Jews.

Therefore, the marginalization of his contributions to the Nazi wartime efforts is ludicrous and sets a dangerous precedent. Erasing him from Yad Vashem's exhibit also minimizes the history of how Nazi ideology was imported into the Muslim and Arab world, where it festers in many corners of that world to this very day.

Ellie Cohanim is former Deputy Special Envoy to Combat Anti-Semitism at the U.S. State Department and a senior adviser to the Combat Anti-Semitism Movement. Follow her on Twitter at @EllieCohanim. Maya Carlin is an analyst at Center for Security Policy. Follow her on Twitter at @MayaRCarlin.

Reprinted with permission from JNS.org.

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Bad actors are lining up to fill the vacuum in Afghanistan created by the US withdrawal. Iran, Qatar, Russia and China are eager to secure talks and partnerships with the Islamist militant regime that violently overtook the country in a matter of weeks. In the days leading up to the US military withdrawal, officials from Tehran, Beijing and Moscow participated in meetings or planned future discussions with key figures in the Taliban and the Afghan government. Despite their ideological differences, Iran and Qatar share radical Islamist views and have supported extremist movements in the past. Moscow and Beijing may have different long-term objectives for Afghanistan; however, both are keen on undermining the US power projection and propping up their respective economies.

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Experienced in using soft power to export its interests and ideology, Tehran's ability to manipulate the fall of Afghanistan is imminent. Historically, Iran's modus operandi centers on using proxy warfare to establish Shia safe havens in destabilizing countries. Tehran's leadership could be eyeing Afghanistan as the perfect arena to train and employ the thousands of able-bodied men desperately seeking an income as a way to form organized and loyal militias, similar to their tactics in Iraq, Syria and Lebanon. Another outcome of Iran's engagement in Afghanistan is for the regime to gain stronger alliances with other regional players, including China and Russia. In March, China granted Iran $400 billion in investments in exchange for oil over a 25-year timeframe. Chinese-Iranian cooperation is likely to expand as both countries wish to gain a foothold, in some capacity, in Afghanistan.

China's prerogative in Afghanistan is to fill the void left by the US troop withdrawal vis-à-vis the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Under the guise of the BRI, China has taken over strategic ports in Asia and Africa in an effort to undermine security and the economic sanctity of the international order. Beijing's agenda to implement the BRI in Iran is to connect China with landlocked Central Asian states as a gateway to expand its footprint throughout the Middle East. Afghanistan is home to the world' largest supply of natural reserves, including iron, gas, gold, cooper and lithium. As the world's largest exporter, China aims to monopolize the global mineral reserve. The fall of the Afghan government is an opportune moment for the PRC as they can now achiever greater economic aims by working to include the country as a regional connecter in its neocolonialist enterprise.

Similar to Beijing, Moscow views the fall of the Afghan government and rise of the Taliban as a moment to manipulate. Russia will prioritize maintaining the security of its borders while simultaneously gaining a military footprint in the Middle East. Although China and Russia are not always aligned, minimizing the American presence around the world is a shared ambition. Moscow and Beijing will likely work together in the form of international forums that exclude the US position.

The rise of the Taliban is also a big success for Qatar. Propping up and supporting far-right Islamist movements has been a staple for Doha. In fact, prior to the Gulf reconciliation that stemmed from the 2021 Riyadh agreement, Doha was largely isolated from its neighbors due to the strong material and popular support it provided the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas. Similar to Iran, Qatar should have no issue aligning with the Taliban and perhaps creating a new regional bloc.

The chaotic fall of Kabul and swift takeover of Afghanistan signals a shift in the previously US-led global order. In addition to the immediate pitfalls of America's hasty withdrawal, including lives lost and the resurgence of a radical Islamist regime, long-term consequences of this wide-scale failure will haunt the US for years to come.

Reprinted with permission from JNS.org.

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Headlines in 2019 that read "British Jews are worried about Corbyn and the Labour Party" and "Jeremy Corbyn's anti-Semitism problem" have found new light within American polity. The existential threat that former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn posed to his country's Jewish population should have served as a warning to Jews across the West. Evolving progressive "think" does not make room for the Jewish plight.

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Once the political home for many British Jews, the Labour Party took on a new form after the election of Jeremy Corbyn in 2015. Corbyn's rise to leadership was accompanied by a plethora of antisemitic controversies. In 2009, he referred to Hamas and Hezbollah, designated terror organizations by the United States and the European Union, as "our friends." Two years later, Corbyn blamed the "Zionist lobby" for encouraging the deportation efforts of Sheikh Raed Salah from the United Kingdom.

Salah is well-known for his Jew-hatred, perpetuating the age-old blood libel canard in a sermon and alleging that the Israeli secret service was behind the 9/11 attacks. A few months later, Corbyn publically supported a mural depicting a group of Jewish bankers with elongated noses playing a game of monopoly atop the back of naked workers.

In addition to these public controversies, Corbyn fueled a rising tolerance of anti-Semitism within the Labour Party. By 2020, a prominent British human-rights group, the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), completed a thorough investigation into the party and disclosed their findings. In a nutshell, their analysis "pointed to a culture within the party which, at best, did not do enough to prevent anti-Semitism and, at worst, could be seen to accept it."

Corbyn's Labour Party systematically condoned Jew-hatred by refusing to adapt the working definition of anti-Semitism created by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA). The IHRA definition has been implemented by 31 member states of the organization, including the United States. In 2018, the Labour Party established a new anti-Semitism code that excluded a myriad of examples of anti-Semitism. Under the Labour Party's guidelines, Jews were not protected from being accused of having "dual loyalties," a common trope used to undermine a Jewish person's loyalty to their country.

The party eventually adopted the full working definition after severe pushback, but not with Corbyn's help. The former party leader initially proposed including a longer statement that would have enabled critics to refer to "the foundation of the State of Israel as a racist endeavor," but was shot down by the Labour Party's executive.

Fortunately, Labour was largely defeated in the 2019 general election. However, the antisemitic legacy of his leadership persists in politics across the West. The recent Israeli conflict with Hamas in the Gaza Strip and the subsequent rise in antisemitic language used by politicians in the United States demonstrate how "Corbynism," or institutionalized anti-Semitism, has seeped into the mainstream dialogue. When Reps. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) joined eight of their colleagues on the House floor on May 13 to condemn America's Israel policy, they referred to it as an "apartheid state" and accused it of carrying out "ethnic cleansing" against Palestinians.

All three Democratic congresswomen have been criticized for perpetuating antisemitic tropes in the past. However, their recent remarks came amid an ongoing violent conflict in the Middle East that began when Hamas, a U.S.-designated terror group, launched hundreds of rockets targeting Israeli cities.

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The Middle East conflict led to an explosion of anti-Semitism in America, ranging from physical attacks targeting Jews to the vandalizing of synagogues and Jewish-owned businesses. According to the Anti-Defamation League, the conflict resulted in a sharp uptick in incidents across the United States. In response to the growing number of assaults against Jews, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, a staunch critic of Israel and ally of "The Squad," suggested progressives should "tone down" calling Israel an apartheid state.

In 2019, British Jews feared the growing tolerance of anti-Semitism within their country's political sphere under Corbyn. Today, Jews in the United States are witnessing some progressive circles embrace compliance with antisemitic rhetoric. It should not be radical or controversial to defend Jews or the existence of a Jewish state, and those who spew antisemitic rhetoric and age-old tropes should be constrained from contributing to the dialogue.

Reprinted with permission from JNS.org

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Although Iran and Turkey have corroborated more recently, the two authoritarian led states often find themselves on conflicting sides of regional clashes. In Syria, for example, Iran and Russia remain the leading foreign supports of President Bashar Assad's forces, while Ankara supports opposition fighters including some radical elements. Turkish forces are responsible for the killings of dozens of Iranian-back militia members earlier this year in Idlib. In March, Ankara accused two Iranian intelligence officers of murdering dissident Masoud Mlavi Vardanjani in late 2019.

Despite these glaring areas of contention, Turkey and Iran are currently emboldening their partnership. In late August, a Hamas leadership delegation met with President Erdogan in Instanbul. Hamas, a US designated terrorist organization largely funded by Iran, violently seized control of the Gaza strip in 2007. On Monday the Hamas representative in Tehran, Khaled Al-Qaddoumi, announced the need for a strengthened alliance between Turkey, Iran and Qatar. Al-Qaddoumi reiterated that he hopes the three countries "move towards more proper and strategic steps in favor of the unity of the Muslim Ummah and facing the common enemy."

On Wednesday, The Arab League member states gathered and officially condemned Ankara and Tehran's interference in Arab countries. The Secretary General of the Arab League Ahmed Abu Al Ghait, emphasized Iran and Turkey's "growing bullying and hostility" across the region and stressed the need for a unified Arab front to counter their mounting aggressions. Member states pointed to the Turkish-Iranian joint attacks in Northern Iraq, denouncing them as violations of international laws and sovereignty of states.

A similar denouncement was made in late August during a summit between Iraq, Jordan and Egypt. This highly touted gathering focused on improving ties among the three countries and supporting Baghdad's newly instated Prime Minister, Mustafa Al-Kadhimi, in his mission to limit foreign intervention in his country. This potential new alliance would severely limit Iran's malign influence in the region, especially if it were to expand to the Gulf and include Saudi Arabia.

Iranian regime officials are aware that a strong opposition alliance would hinder their regional efforts and limit their ability to infiltrate sovereign neighbors. Similarly, Turkey has been testing its fellow NATO-member Greece, along with Cyprus, Egypt and the UAE with aggressive threats in recent months. Erdogan and Rouhani understand that in order for them to continue on the path of violating international law and rules of sovereignty, they must unite and counter those who threaten these ambitions.

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Multiple videos of the explosion show a giant cloud of smoke rising from the coastline followed by a large blast and shock waves. Buildings and structures miles away from the blast center were knocked down, foundations collapsed and windows were shattered. Lebanon's interior minister Mohammed Fahmi indicated that the blast was caused by the detonation of over 2,700 tons of ammonium nitrate which had been stored at the dock since its confiscation in 2014.

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The head of Beirut port and customs authority reported that they urged the judiciary on numerous occasions to sell or export the chemical, but that the judiciary failed to comply. Lebanon's Supreme Defense Council promised that those found responsible for the explosion would face "maximum punishment."

While the current focus is naturally on the loss of life and locating missing persons, there are growing concerns about the explosion's consequences on the already dismal food security issues in the country. Lebanon's economy is dependent on services; it imports a lot and produces close to nothing. According to the US Department of Agriculture, 80% of the country's wheat supply is imported. Tragically, 85% of Lebanon's grain product was stored in the now-destroyed silo towers.

Lebanon's economic crisis is entrenched in decades of systemic corruption and poor governance by the country's political-financial elite. Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed Shiite group, has extensive military operations in the country. Since the end of Lebanon's civil war, Hezbollah re-positioned itself as the country's 'Islamic Resistance' force, pledging to end Israel's occupation. The International Institute for Strategic Studies reported in 2017 that the militia group has over "ten thousand active fighters, some twenty thousand reserves, with an arsenal of small arms, tanks, drones and long-range rockets."

In addition to its military operations, Hezbollah developed active political and social arms in Lebanon. Since 2005, party members have held cabinet positions in the Lebanese parliament. Hezbollah's grip on Beirut extends to the shadow economy it controls. According to a recent report issued by the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, Hezbollah seizes between $500 million and $1 billion annually from Lebanon's economy.

Iran's stronghold on Lebanon's economy has not gone unnoticed. The people of Lebanon, including disenchanted Shiites, took to the streets of Beirut in late 2019, protesting government corruption and foreign intervention in their polity. The protests were initially sparked by economic instability but anti-Iranian sentiment quickly evolved. The protests attracted widespread support as many Lebanese were dissatisfied with the conduct of Shiite political parties in the country as they are funded, radicalized and monitored by Iran.

Lebanon is not the only country in the Middle East struggling under the grip of Tehran's proxies. Iraq's crumbling economy and pervasive government corruption parallel Lebanon's situation in many respects. In fact, the Lebanese anti-Iran protests in late 2019 triggered waves of organized demonstrations in Baghdad. Iranian militias responded more violently to Iraqi protests, however, killing more than 800 demonstrators and wounding many more. This bloodshed, orchestrated by Tehran and its regional proxies, has only increased anti-Iranian sentiment in the country.

Iraq's new prime minister, Mustafa Al-Kadhimi, does provide a glimmer of hope for the future of the country's sovereignty. Al-Kadhimi's platform prioritizes removing foreign influence, including unwanted Iranian intervention, from Baghdad's government. However, Iran has resisted the prime minister's efforts and continues to use its local proxies to export the regime's goals and interests.

Kataib-Hezbollah, an Iranian-supported militia on the ground in Iraq, is preventing Iraq from acquiring the financial support it needs to prevent its already murky economic crisis from deepening further. For months, Kataib-Hezbollah has consistently launched rockets at the US Embassy and other diplomatic sites in Baghdad's fortified Green Zone.

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The United States has made countering Iranian-backed militias, including Kataib-Hezbollah, a top agenda item for any US-Iraq official talks. If the prime minister fails to follow through on cutting off these militias, the US cannot consider Baghdad to be a true ally and will likely cut off all funding to Iraq's Ministry of Defense and Ministry of Interior. If the US cuts off financial support, Iraq's already weak economy may be in shambles.

The people of Lebanon and Iraq are paying the price of unwanted Iranian influence. In order to achieve true sovereignty, these countries must disassociate with the rogue regime that has forced them into such a decline.

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Turkey's cross-border operation took place in Haftanin, about nine miles from the Turkey-Iraq border. This campaign, dubbed "Operation Claw-Tiger," targeted 150 suspected Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) positions, following a bombing campaign two days earlier targeting Sinjar and the Qandil mountains. Iranian forces simultaneously launched attacks against Iranian Kurdish groups in Northern Iraq.

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These attacks took place in the Haji Omaran district which borders Iran. The Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps rationalized them as necessary measures against "armed anti-revolutionary groups" that are threatening the regime.

On June 15, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif made an unannounced trip to Ankara. According to Iranian state media, Zarif said that his trip to Turkey was essential to discuss "bilateral issues and to discuss the resumption of economic relations, energy cooperation, and regional issues."

Turkish airstrikes targeting northern Iraq began the day Zarif departed from the country, making one wonder if these attacks were addressed or planned in this meeting.

The Iraqi Foreign Ministry issued statements condemning both Iran and Turkey for their ongoing operations in the country. It also summoned the Turkish ambassador and demanded his country ceases provocative military acts on Iraqi soil immediately. The statement addressed "the necessity of the Turkish side's commitment to stop the bombing and withdrawal of its forces from Iraqi territories."

Iranian Ambassador Iraj Masjedi was similarly rebuked for the IRGC's attacks which resulted in property damages.

Baghdad's response to these ongoing military operations will play a critical role in the future of the countries' relations with their neighbors. Iraq's new prime minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi entered into office amid a turbulent period, following nation-wide anti-government protests and a growing economic crisis.

In his premiership, al-Kadhimi pledged to protect Iraqi soil from non-state actors and those who compromise the countries' sovereignty. Early this year, the Iraqi parliament issued a statement declaring the necessity of eliminating all foreign forces from the country. In recent US -Iraq strategic talks, Washington pledged to reduce its forces from the country and to discuss with the Government of Iraq "the status of remaining forces as both countries turn their focus towards developing a bilateral security relationship based on strong mutual interests."

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Al-Kadhimi has also made demobilizing Iranian-backed militias a central focus of his platform. The prime minister has expressed his intention to prioritize the passing of legislation which would prohibit Iraqi political organizations from conveying loyalty to non-state groups. If passed, this law would directly impact the Iranian-linked Popular Mobilization Units from gaining a foothold in Baghdad's political scene.

While al-Kadhimi grapples with Baghdad's domestic and regional position, Turkey is continuing its ongoing military operations across the region, covering Syria, Libya and the Eastern Mediterranean. By carrying out these unprecedented coordinated attacks on Iraqi soil, Tehran and Ankara are testing al-Kadhimi's resolve to keep foreign entities out.

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