Barry Rubin: I Hate Israel! I Hate America! I’m a Muslim! I’ve Got it All! Let Me Be Your Leader!

I Hate Israel! I Hate America! I’m a Muslim! I’ve Got it All! Let Me Be Your Leader!

By Barry Rubin

Scene: A nightclub in Morocco.


Abdul: “I’m sorry, sir, this is a private room.”


German official [from the Nazi-controlled DeutschBank]: “You dare not keep me out of here!”


Rick: “Your cash is good at the bar.”


German official: “What! Do you know who I am?”


Rick: ‘I do. You’re lucky the bar’s open to you.”


–“Casablanca,” (1942)


First it was Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and the Iranian revolution.

Hey, he said in effect, Yes, I’m a Persian, Yes, I’m a Shia, but I hate Israel and want to destroy it! And besides we’re all Muslims. So let me lead the Middle East. I know the way to kick the Americans out of the Middle East, too. By force! And the blood spilled and behold, Iran was popular for a while. But the Arabs and Sunni eventually found other heroes, and some became frightened of Iran’s power.


Then there was Saddam Hussein and his Iraqi dictatorship.

Continue reading I Hate Israel! I Hate America! I’m a Muslim! I’ve Got it All! Let Me Be Your Leader!


Barry Rubin is director of the Global Research in International Affairs (GLORIA) Center and editor of the Middle East Review of International Affairs (MERIA) Journal. His latest books are The Israel-Arab Reader (seventh edition), The Long War for Freedom: The Arab Struggle for Democracy in the Middle East (Wiley), and The Truth About Syria (Palgrave-Macmillan). His latest book is Israel: An Introduction, to be published by Yale University Press in January 2012. You can read more of Barry Rubin's posts at Rubin Reports, and now on his new blog, Rubin Reports, on Pajamas Media

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