The anti-Semitic article which appeared last week in the official Syrian newspaper,Tishrin, reminded me of a conversation I had 25 years ago with my friend, Issam Sartawi, the PLOleader who became the pioneer of Israeli-Palestinian peace. During one of our first secretmeetings he told me that a leader of a French anti-Semitic outfit had come to visit him andoffered to help the PLO. “I threw him out,” Sartawi said, “I told him: You anti-Semites are thegreatest collaborators of the Zionists.”
Sartawi was an extremely logical person. He knew that Zionism came into being as a reaction toanti-Semitism, that the Russian pogroms had brought the first Zionists to Palestine, thatthe Holocaust has given an immense push to the effort to set up the Jewish State. Sartawi wasmurdered by the Abu-Nidal gang before he could see how a new wave of Russian anti-Semitismpushed another million Jews towards Israel.
Not by accident, modern Zionism was born in Vienna. Theodor Herzl, the founder, wrote hishistory-making booklet, Der Judenstaat, in the very year in which Karl Lueger became themayor of Vienna – the first modern politician to be elected on a platform of pureanti-Semitism. Lueger is the spiritual father of Joerg Haider, as he was the spiritual fatherof a young Viennese drifter named Adolf Hitler.
Anti-Semitism, together with racism and the extreme form of German nationalism, was born inAustria. There was a reason for that: Some 150 years ago, Austria was a far-flung empire, whichreigned over many peoples, including Poles, Czechs, Slovaks, Hungarians, Slovenes,Croats, Bosniaks, Italians and others. The German-Austrians were a minority in their ownstate, and even in their capital, Vienna, a quarter of the inhabitants were Czechs and Poles.In order to justify their imperialism, the German-Austrians invented theories proving thatthe German race was superior to all others and that the Slavs, and of course the Jews, wereinferior.
Joerg Haider, who likes to present himself as the voice of the future, is nothing but ananachronistic remnant of an empire that died 82 years ago.
Sartawi poured his wrath on those Arabs which support anti-Semitism, believing that “theenemy of my enemy is my friend”. The anti-Semites hate the Jews, the Jews are taking Palestineaway from the Arabs, ergo: the anti-Semites are our friends. The same goes for theHolocaust-deniers: the memory of the Holocaust provides Israel with sympathy, money andpolitical support, ergo: the Holocaust-deniers help the Arabs.
This looks logical but is pure nonsense. In many cases, the enemy of my enemy is worse than myenemy. According to the Nazi racial theory, the Arabs, being Semites, most definitely belongto the inferior races. Hitler treated the Palestinian leader, Hadj Amin al-Husseini, GrandMufti of Jerusalem, with disdain and refused to help him in any way (contrary to legendsbelieved by many Israelis, that have been disproved by the Israeli historian, Tsvi Peleg.) IfAdolf Hitler had never lived, probably the State of Israel would not have been come into beingat the time it did.
The Tishrin article is not only profoundly immoral, it is also stupid from the point of view ofSyrian, and indeed Arab, interests. It strengthens the Israeli right-wing, which opposesthe withdrawal from the Syrian heights. It mobilizes the Jews the world over against Syria andblemished the image of Syria in the eyes of all the non-Jews whose conscience is troubled by theHolocaust. If it was published so as to punish Israel for Ehud Barak’s tactics, Syria isshooting itself in the leg.
Many Arabs believe that the memory of the Holocaust is being manipulated by Zionistpropaganda. That may be true. But, as Prof. Eduard Said, the most important Arab intellectualin the United States, has pointed out, Arabs need to study the history of the Holocaust if theywant to understand Israel. More and more Arab intellectuals accept this.
It seems that Zionist propaganda does not like this to happen. When Yassir Arafat was invitedto the Holocaust museum in Washington, American Jewish leaders objected strenuously andprevented the visit. Some days ago, Israel opposed the idea of inviting the PalestinianAuthority to the Stockholm conference on the Holocaust. Obviously, some people in Israelprefer to go on identifying the Arabs with the Holocaust-deniers. Anti-Semitism, theybelieve, still is Israel’s biggest ally.
The rise of Joerg Haider in Austria will encourage the extreme, anti-Semitic right all overEurope. That, in turn, will cause many Jews in Europe to start thinking about immigration toIsrael. Even the most fanatic enemy of Israel in the Arab world would not be happy about that,would he?
The Palestinians like to say that they are “the victims of the victims”, meaning the Jewsfleeing from Nazi Germany to Palestine. If so, Joerg Haider is their biggest enemy.