REVIVING HITLER'S BIG LIE

Reviving Hitler's "Big Lie" to Vilify the Jewish State - Daniel Pipes (New York Sun)
"If today's Arab anti-Israeli and anti-Jewish propaganda strongly resembles that of the Third Reich, there is a good reason." So writes an associate of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, Joel Fishman, in "The Big Lie and the Media War Against Israel" (Jewish Political Studies Review, Spring 2007), an insightful new piece of historical research.

Fishman begins by noting today's topsy-turvy situation: Because Israel defends its citizens against terrorism, conventional warfare, and weapons of mass destruction, it is perceived as a dangerous predator. How did such an insane inversion of reality - the Middle East's only fully free and democratic country being seen as the leading global menace - come to be?

SEE ALSO: Hamas: Extermination of Jews is for Benefit of Humanity (IRIS blog)

The striking parallels between Islamist ideology and Nazism are rarely explored:

The extermination of Jews is Allah’s will and is for the benefit of all humanity, according to an article in the Hamas paper, Al-Risalah. The author of the article, Kan'an Ubayd, explains that the suicide operations carried out by Hamas are being committed solely to fulfill Allah’s wishes. Furthermore, Allah demanded this action, because “the extermination of the Jews is good for the inhabitants of the worlds.”

The killing of innocent Jews by terrorist attacks is portrayed as Allah’s plan for the benefit of humanity.

It should be noted that Hamas’s justification for the extermination of Jews, both as God's will and for the benefit of humanity, echoes Hitler's words in Mein Kampf:

“In this case the only salvation remaining was war… If the Jew with the help of his Marxist creed is victorious over the peoples of this world, then his crown will be the funeral wreath of humanity… Thus I believe today that I am acting according to the will of the almighty Creator: when I defend myself against the Jew, I am fighting for the work of the Lord.” (Mein Kampf)

In another parallel to the Nazi genocide of Jews, the writer says he wants to be sure that “everyone will know” that these murderous actions are “not of [Hamas’s] own accord” – an echo of the Nazi war criminals’ repeated justification of their actions with the defense that they were only following orders.

The fact that these orders are said to be divine in nature makes Hamas’s justification for the murder of Jews even more ominous.