Jews Provoked the Holocaust, Palestinian Leaders Say (Again)

Rafael Medoff / JNS.org

President Mahmoud Abbas

Palestinian Arab leaders can’t seem to make up their minds about the Holocaust. Sometimes they say it never happened. Sometimes they say it did happen, but Israel’s behavior is even worse. And sometimes—such as last week—they say the Jews themselves provoked the Holocaust.

Yasser Abu Sido, a senior official of the Palestinian Authority’s ruling party, Fatah, said on an Egyptian television program on Feb. 23 that “Hitler had obvious reasons” for perpetrating the Holocaust.

The Jews’ own provocative behavior was the reason, according to Abu Sido. “They planned to take control of Germany. They started to bring down Germany in terms of the economy and moral values.” That was why “Hitler reacted by making the Jews go on the streets and lick the sidewalks. They know this very well.”

Abu Sido’s blame-the-Jews approach to the Holocaust echoes words spoken repeatedly by P.A. chairman Mahmoud Abbas.

In an April 30, 2018 speech to the Palestinian National Council, Abbas explained the “reasons” why Jews were massacred throughout history, from the pogroms of the Middle Ages to the Holocaust. He began by dismissing the idea that antisemitism had anything to do with it. “Why did this happen? They say ‘it is because we are Jews,’ but that must be false,” he said, because “there were Jews in Arab countries. Why wasn’t there ever one incident against Jews [there] because they’re Jews? Not even once.” (An obvious falsehood.)

The real reason for the Holocaust, Abbas said, was the Jews’ own “social behavior, [charging] interest and financial matters.” Those Jewish actions are what provoked the Nazis, he claimed.

Just last year, the P.A. chairman repeated that perspective in a speech to Fatah’s Revolutionary Council (on Aug. 24, 2023). “They say that Hitler killed the Jews because they were Jews and that Europe hated the Jews because they were Jews. Not true,” Abbas asserted. “[The Nazis] fought [the Jews] because of their social role, and not their religion… The [Nazis] fought against these people because of their role in society, which had to do with usury, money and so on and so forth.”

Somehow, that train of thought coexists peacefully in Abbas’s mind alongside the view he articulated in his infamous PhD dissertation-turned-book, “The Other Side: The Secret Relationship Between Nazism and Zionism,” published in 1984. There he argued that fewer than one million Jews were killed by the Nazis, and they were the victims of a secret partnership between David Ben-Gurion and Adolf Hitler. Asked about the book by a Lebanese television interviewer in 2013, Abbas insisted that he stands by what he wrote, and even has written “seventy more books that I still haven’t published” on the topic.

It’s bad enough that mainstream P.A. leaders such as Abbas and Abu Sido believe such crazy things. But what is at stake is more than just a grotesque distortion of history; their rhetoric can help set the stage for further atrocities—because the logic behind the Holocaust comments by Abbas and Abu Sido is remarkably similar to the position that they and their P.A. colleagues have taken regarding the Oct. 7 pogrom.

Abbas and other P.A. leaders have characterized Oct. 7 as a “response to the occupation.” They have said the attack “did not happen in a vacuum.” They have portrayed Gaza as a “prison” from which Hamas was trying to “break free.” Every such justification is another way of saying that Israel’s own behavior was to blame for provoking the attack.

In a sense, Abbas is being consistent: The Jews provoked the pogroms of the Middle Ages. The Jews provoked the Holocaust. And the Jews provoked the murders, gang-rapes and beheadings of Oct. 7. That’s the common thread in all of his thinking on these subjects.

Blaming the Jews for their persecutors’ actions is not just adding insult to the injuries that the pogromists inflicted. It incites further violence by justifying whatever Arab terrorists do to Jews in the future. Such an extreme and irrational perspective—which is promulgated by P.A. leaders, disseminated by the P.A.-controlled media and taught in the P.A.’s schools—may be the single greatest threat to hopes for Arab-Israeli peace.

Originally published by The Jewish Journal.

Mass exodus threatened by chief rabbi if haredim are forced into military service

YAKI ADAMKER

“The yeshivas and kollels hold up the world. The state exists on Torah study, and without the Torah, the army would not have succeeded.”
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SEPHARDI CHIEF RABBI Yitzhak Yosef speaks at a Shas Party election rally at the Yazdim Synagogue in Jerusalem last year. / (photo credit: OLIVIER FITOUSSI/FLASH90)

Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef, the Chief Rabbi of Israel, has sparked controversy with his recent remarks on the compulsory drafting of haredim into the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). During his weekly lesson in Jerusalem on Saturday night, Yosef declared, “If they force us to join the army, we will all move abroad,” signaling a potential mass departure that could shake the very foundations of the state.

Emphasizing the critical role of Torah study in Israel’s success and survival, Yosef argued, “The yeshivas and kollels are what hold up the world. The state exists on Torah study, and without the Torah, there would have been no success for the army.” He recalled the military’s achievements on October 7, attributing them to divine protection afforded by Torah learning rather than military prowess alone.

Yosef’s comments come amid a growing storm over the drafting of haredim, a subject that has long been a point of contention within Israeli society. “What would we do without the world of yeshivas and kollels? They hold up the world,” Yosef stated, challenging the secular community’s understanding of the military’s achievements. “No one told me it’s thanks to the pilots, the bombings, or the planes,” he added, highlighting a perceived underappreciation for the spiritual contributions to national security.

The Chief Rabbi’s stern message did not stop at criticisms but extended to a direct threat of collective action. “We will buy tickets; there is no such thing as forcing us into the army. The state stands on this,” he asserted, implying a profound and widespread willingness among the haredim to relocate rather than compromise on their religious convictions.

Ultra-Orthodox Jews block a road during a protest outside the city of Bnei Brak, March 3, 2024 (credit: ITAI RON/FLASH90)

This is not the first time such sentiments have been expressed within the haredi community. Yosef’s late father, former Chief Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, voiced a similar stance in 2013, suggesting that the haredim would leave Israel if forced into military service. “We will have to, God forbid, leave the Land of Israel to move abroad,” he had said, echoing a sentiment that has persisted among haredim for years.

Responses to the Rabbi’s statement have come out

The Religious Zionist party responded to these announcements in a post on X (formerly Twitter), saying, “Conscripting into the army: a great mitzvah! After two thousand years of exile, we will never leave our country. A public that is willing to pay with its life for the Land of Israel will not give it up under any conditions.”

Rabbi David Stav, Chair of the Tzohar Rabbinical Organization, responded to the Sephardic Chief Rabbi’s statements, saying:

“During this time of continued pain and tragedy for the people of Israel, where nearly every day we are witness to more and more of our children falling in defense of this land, every focus must be on defending and supporting service in our military.  Any statement that encourages avoiding IDF service is a despicable moral stain and disgrace of God’s name.”

“The threat of leaving Israel specifically to avoid defending our nation is particularly reprehensible and completely contradicts the spirit of Halacha,” he said.  “One would expect that someone who sits atop the Israeli Chief Rabbinate would encourage IDF service as opposed to dodging service to the extent of actually leaving the country.

Plant, fruit analysis from Goliath’s biblical city sheds light on Philistine rituals

JUDY SIEGEL-ITZKOVICH

In the systematic excavation project of the temple area in the lower city of Gath, a team from Bar-Ilan University has overseen the reconstruction of the plants used in Philistine rituals.
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Temple offerings – miniature as well as food serving vessels, and a shell of marine mollusc, Tonna galea found in one of the temples / (photo credit: AREN MAEIR)

The mysterious culture of the Philistines that flourished during the Iron Age (1200-604 BCE) profoundly affected the southern Levant’s cultural history, agronomy, and dietary customs. More than a quarter century of excavations at Tell es-Safi/Gath in central Israel, identified as the biblical Gath of the Philistines and the home of Goliath, has provided a unique window into the world of this ancient civilization.

In the systematic excavation project of the temple area in the lower city of Gath, a team from Bar-Ilan University (BIU) in Ramat Gan – led by archaeology Prof. Aren Maeir and archaeobotany Prof. Ehud Weiss – has overseen the reconstruction of the plants used in Philistine rituals.

“Our findings challenge previous understanding of Philistine ritual practices, offering a fresh perspective on their cultural practices, and the connections between Philistine culture and broader Mediterranean religious traditions,” Weiss said.

While many aspects of Philistine culture are well-documented, the specifics of Philistine religious practices and gods have long remained shrouded in mystery. The study by Maeir, Weiss, Dr. Suembikya Frumin, Maria Eniukhina, and Amit Dagan in Nature’s prestigious Scientific Reports entitled “Plant-Related Philistine Ritual Practices at Biblical Gath” contributes valuable new data to our understanding of the Philistines’ ritual practices, the team said.

Photograph of Chaste tree fruits produced using stereoscopic light microscope (credit: Dr. Suembikya Frumin)

The discovery of numerous plants in two temples unearthed at the site unraveled unprecedented insights into Philistine cultic rituals and beliefs – the food ingredients in their temple, the timing of ceremonies, and plants for temple decoration. Freshwater, agriculture, and the cyclical birth, death, and rebirth of a plant are recognized and venerated as transformative, and even magical, in the oldest myths, such as the Gilgamesh epic, the tale of Aqhat, and the worship of deities such as Tammuz, Ishtar, and Baal, they wrote. There is evidence of cultural connections between specific cultic traditions and certain plants.

Seasons affect Philistine religious practices

The fact that the wild plants in the assemblages are widespread in the Shephelah may also show that the Philistines used any fresh plants that could be used for decoration.

Frumin, the study’s lead researcher under Weiss’s supervision, studied Philistine plant use in their temples as part of her doctoral project. The team delved into the plant assemblages discovered within the temples’ precincts, uncovering a wealth of information regarding the significance of various plant species in Philistine religious rituals. Through meticulous examination and quantitative and qualitative analysis of the types of plants used, the timing of their harvest, modes of offering, and potential symbolic significance, the researchers pieced together a clearer picture of the Philistine approach to spirituality.

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