The Different Flavors Of Anti-Semitism In The Middle-East

At The Volokh Conspiracy, David Bernstein writes about the different varieties of the Anti-Semitic experience:

A transcript of a very informative lecture by Matthias Kuentzel. A short synopsis can't do the lecture justice, but the basic point is that while there was always anti-Jewish sentiment in the Muslim world, it also was based on the notion of Jews as an inferior group that Mohammed had defeated militarily. Anti-Semitic visions of powerful Jews being behind the world's problesm, and plotting to control the world, found most prominently in the Hamas charter, entered the Muslim world via the Muslim Brotherhood, who in turn took those ideas from the Nazis, which spent significant effort and money propagating them in the Middle East. This all started well before the creation of the State of Israel, belying the notion that the Israel-Palestinian conflict caused modern Muslim anti-Semitism. Thanks to Scholars for Peace in the Middle East for the pointer.

I wonder if in addition to the ingrained Muslim hatred of Jews as an inferior conquered people there might also be the fact that Mohammed approached Jews expecting to draw them to Islam--and them rejected him, somewhat similar to what happened between Jews and Martin Luther:

Luther initially preached tolerance towards the Jewish people, convinced that the reason they had never converted to Christianity was that they were discriminated against, or had never heard the Gospel of Christ. However, after his overtures to Jews failed to convince Jewish people to adopt Christianity, he began preaching that the Jews were set in evil, anti-Christian ways, and needed to be expelled from German politics. In his On the Jews and Their Lies, he repeatedly quotes the words of Jesus in Matthew 12:34, where Jesus called them "a brood of vipers and children of the devil"

In any case, Bernstein reiterates how this is different from the current version of Islamic Anti-Semitism:

..But there is nothing in Islam or Islamic history to explain the virulent, Protocols-style "the Jews are out to dominate the world" style of anti-Semitism that is currently prevalent in the Islamic world, unless you go to Western influences, primarily Naziism (though Soviet propaganda, not mentioned by Kuentzel, didn't help).

Nor can this be explained as a mere outgrowth of Arab nationalism regarding Zionism. Arabs aren't too fond of other ethnic groups with which they have or have had territorial conflicts, including Kurds, Africans, Persians, Europeans, and so forth. But you don't see the kind of nonsense you find in the Hamas charter directed at such groups.

Bernstein sees the Islamists borrowing not only the Jews taking over the world theme but also learning from the Nazis about how powerful Anti-Semitism is as a tool for rallying the masses. He concludes with a point on how the Arab-Israeli conflict in general ties in with all this:

That's not to say that the Arab-Israeli conflict doesn't foment anti-Semitism in the Arab world. But to acknowledge that doesn't detract from a complementary point, which is that the Arab-Israeli conflict would be less severe but for the widespread notion in the Arab/Muslim world that that conflict isn't about "Palestine," per se, but about resistance from Arabs and Muslims to a Jewish-Zionist plot to take over the entire Middle East, and ultimately dominate the world.

I was under the impression that the idea of the whole conflict being about 'Palestine' was in fact firmly rooted in the Muslim psyche--and propaganda, leading to the same idea being implanted in Condoleezz's mindset, as is evident from her public statements.

[Hat tip: Instapundit]

Technorati Tag: Israel and Anti-Semitism and Anti-Zionism.