The expulsion that backfired: When Iraq kicked out its Jews

EDWIN BLACK

At first, the Jews deluded themselves that the hardship would pass; loyal citizens, the community had dwelled in Iraq for 2,600 years

Bent on destroying Israel, and gripped by vicious anti-Semitism, Baghdad ‘pauperized’ its Jews and forced them to leave for the nascent Jewish state in 1951-2. It believed Israel would collapse under the strain. But the immigrants ultimately helped Israel thrive, and it was Iraq that suffered
Immigrants from Iraq and Kurdistan exit their plane on arrival in Israel, having flown via Tehran, late spring 1951. Planes were arriving several times a day in this period, according to the original Government Press Office photo captions (Teddy Brauner, GPO)

Ater Adolf Hitler’s defeat in May 1945, many Nazis melted away from the Reich, smuggled out by such organizations as the infamous Odessa group and the lesser-known Catholic lay network Intermarium, as well as the CIA and KGB. They ensured the continuation of the Nazi legacy in the postwar Arab world.

Egypt was a prime destination for German Nazi relocation in the Arab world. Dr. Aribert Heim was notoriously known as “Dr. Death” for his grotesque pseudo-medical experiments on Jewish prisoners in the Sachsenhausen, Buchenwald, and Mauthausen concentration camps. He was fond of surgical procedures including organ removals without anesthesia, injecting gasoline into prisoners to observe the manner of death, and decapitating Jews with healthy teeth so he could cook the skulls clean to make desk decorations. Dr. Heim converted to Islam and became “Uncle Tarek” Hussein Farid in Cairo, Egypt, where he lived a happy life as a medical doctor for the Egyptian police.

Two of Goebbels’s Nazi propagandists, Alfred Zingler and Dr. Johann von Leers, became Mahmoud Saleh and Omar Amin respectively, working in the Egyptian Information Department. In 1955, Zingler and von Leers helped establish the virulently anti-Semitic Institute for the Study of Zionism in Cairo. Hans Appler, another Goebbels propagandist, became Saleh Shafar who, in 1955, became an expert for an Egyptian unit specializing in anti-Jewish and anti-Zionist hate propaganda. Erich Altern, a Gestapo agent, Himmler coordinator in Poland, and expert in Jewish affairs, became Ali Bella, working as a military instructor in training camps for Palestinian terrorists. A German newspaper estimated there were fully 2,000 Nazis working openly and under state protection in Egypt.

Franz Bartel, an assistant Gestapo chief in Katowice, Poland, became El Hussein and a member of Egypt’s Ministry of Information. Hans Becher, a Gestapo agent in Vienna, became a police instructor in Cairo. Wilhelm Boerner, a brutal Mauthausen guard, became Ali Ben Keshir, working in the Egyptian Interior Ministry and as an instructor for a Palestinian terrorist group.

Egyptian society was so enamored with the Nazi war against the Jews that a young army officer felt compelled to write a postwar letter to Hitler via the Cairo weekly, Al Musawwar, as though Hitler were still alive. “My dear Hitler,” the officer wrote. “I congratulate you from the bottom of my heart. Even if you appear to have been defeated, in reality you are the victor. You succeeded in creating dissensions between Churchill, the old man, and his allies, the Sons of Satan … Germany will be reborn in spite of the Western and Eastern powers … The West, as well as the East, will pay for her rehabilitation—whether they like it or not. Both sides will invest a great deal of money and effort in Germany in order to have her on their side, which is of great benefit to Germany … As for the past, I think you made mistakes, like too many battlefronts and the shortsightedness of [Foreign Minister Joachim von] Ribbentrop vis-a vis the experienced British diplomacy … We will not be surprised if you appear again in Germany or if a new Hitler rises up in your wake.” The letter was signed “with affection” by Col. Anwar Sadat, later president of Egypt and the first Arab leader to sign a peace treaty with Israel.

Nazism enraptures Iraq; the Farhud follows

Egypt was hardly alone in reinventing the Nazi war against the Jews. German Nazis also took up postwar positions of influence in Syria, Lebanon, and Iran. But Iraq, long a Nazi Arab stronghold, was arguably among the most agitated in the Arab world.

Fritz Grobba (Courtesy)

From the moment Hitler took power in 1933, Iraq had distinguished itself throughout the Arab world as a top Nazi ally. The nexus was continually stoked by resident gestapo agents such as Fritz Grobba. Grobba employed such tactics as dispensing lots of cash among politicians and deploying seductive German women among ranking members of the army. From 1933, Radio Berlin began broadcasting hate messages in Arabic including fallacious reports about non-existent Jewish outrages in Palestine. Grobba, cultivated many Iraqis as surrogate Nazis. Iraqi Arab Hitler-style youth marched in Nuremburg torch light parades hosted by their Berlin counterparts. German was taught in Iraqi schools. When World War II broke out in 1939, Nazism became a fervent cause among many Iraqis.

Read more: The expulsion that backfired: When Iraq kicked out its Jews

Obama – The Anti-Israel President

  David Horowitz

Glasgow University Palestine Society Under Investigation After Facebook Post Justifying Tel Aviv Terror Attack

   Lea Speyer

Glasgow University Palestine Society is facing an investigation by the school after justifying a terror attack in Israel that left four people killed and several others wounded. Photo: Facebook.

An anti-Israel student group at the University of Glasgow (GU) in Scotland is under investigation after publicly justifying Wednesday’s bloody terror attack in Tel Aviv, The Algemeiner has learned.

The Glasgow University Palestine Society (GUPS) released a statement on its Facebook page on Thursday concerning the attack, which killed four people — two men and two women — and wounded 16.

In the posting, the student group refused to label the Palestinian perpetrators as terrorists and criticized governments and the international media for being too quick and willing to label such violent incidents in Israel as terror, writing:

Yesterday evening, a few assailants shot people at a Tel Aviv café. Jerusalem Post already reported that they were from the hills of Al Khalil. We know the code: terror. CNN already calls it a ‘terror attack’ in the headline despite noting in the same article that ‘information about a motive wasn’t immediately available.

And Netanyahu is quoted condemning the ‘murder in the heart of Tel Aviv’, and proclaiming that ‘we will do whatever is necessary to attack the attackers and defend those who need defending’…The US State Department has already condemned the ‘terror’ in the ‘strongest possible terms’, but Israel’s UN Ambassador Danny Dannon [sic] is already complaining about lack of condemnation…

These same bodies, the group said, are also guilty of ignoring “terror” against Palestinians:

When someone condemns ‘our’ terror, they are out of their minds. And most of it, the daily terror afflicted [sic] upon Palestinians, will never even be registered by CNN.

Concluding the post, GUPS justified the actions of the terrorists behind the Tel Aviv attack and seemingly all terrorism against Israel, writing:

As stated so many times: when you oppress a people, suppress their basic human rights and freedom of movement, steal their land and natural resources, demolish their homes, murder their families, enforce discriminatory and apartheid laws upon them, do not bring to justice those who attack them – then this is the outcome. End these despicable practices of brutal military occupation NOW!!

Responding to the GUPS post, Lea Balint, GU’s Jewish Society president, told The Algemeiner on Friday, “It’s hard not to view such comments as hostile to Jews. GUPS not only justifies violence against Israelis, but they also display a constant urge to comment on Jewish affairs and Judaism in a less-than-fortunate manner.”

“We have never cared about their criticism of Israel, but we are very concerned when they express admiration for perpetrators of violence against Jews, when they justify violence against Jews, when they downplay antisemitism, and when they engage in antisemitism themselves. Unfortunately, we’ve had plenty of examples of each of these over the past years,” she said.

Balint said Jewish students at GU are “unlike any other minority at the school in having to put up with a student society constantly commenting negatively on its religion and culture, and which would have to stomach the promotion of violence against itself as a legitimate and even progressive political position to hold.”

A spokesperson for GU told The Algemeiner on Friday, “The University of Glasgow has a zero tolerance policy on all forms of racism, including antisemitism. All students are made aware of, and must adhere to a code of conduct which enshrines our values of mutual respect and tolerance. Any allegation that these values have been breached is taken extremely seriously. We can confirm that we are currently investigating a complaint which has been made in respect of a Facebook posting.”

Anti-Israel activity at GU is not unusual. In November 2014, the school faced significant criticism after Yiftah Curiel — a spokesman at the London-based Israeli Embassy — was evacuated by campus security from an event he was speaking at after coming under physical threat. Curiel was removed from the room because security personnel at the scene did not have authority to remove the protesters by force, who interrupted the event by shouting anti-Israel slurs.

In March 2015, anti-Israel students organized a protest against then-Israeli ambassador to the UK, Daniel Taub, who was invited to speak on campus amidst a reported impending academic agreement between GU and Hebrew University. GUPS condemned GU for opening its doors to Taub, telling the campus newspaper that it did not welcome “dealings with any institutions which attempt to legitimize the occupation of Palestinian territories.”

Izraelskie samochody i palestyńskie osiołki

Malgorzata Koraszewska