Arab Antisemitism

Increasingly harsh rhetoric continues
to endanger the peace process.

JAMES D. BESSER

Washington Correspondent

hen Egyptian Foreign
Minister Amr Moussa
met with Jewish leaders in
Washington recently, the
topic was supposed to be the Mideast
peace process.
But the Egyptian official was pum-
meled on a different subject: the anti-
semitism and Holocaust denial, that
continue to spew from the govern-
ment-controlled media in his country.
Moussa blandly promised the prob-
lem will be resolved when Israel and
the Palestinians reach a final accord.
But his Jewish interrogators — and
a growing number of Israelis — aren't
so sure. Across the political spectrum,
Jewish leaders say the antisemitic surge
casts doubt on the motives of Israel's
negotiating partners and on the
underlying cultures that will ultimate-
ly determine whether peace treaties are
worth the paper they're written on.
Syria responded to new rounds of
talks in January with a barrage of
Holocaust denial, ravaging support for
the peace process in Israel, where vot-
ers must approve any deal giving Syria
the Golan Heights.
Recently, a delegation of Americans
for Peace Now leaders raised the issue
of antisemitism in Palestinian text-
books with Yasser Arafat; his response
was "deeply disappointing," said APN
political director Mark Rosenblum.
"It's an ongoing, serious problem,"
said Rosenblum. "Anyone who mini-
mizes the degree of anti-Jewish and
anti-Israel sentiment is sticking his
head in sand."
Arab antisemitism, he said, "mar-
ginalizes those in Israel who are fight-
ing for peace."
Even in Egypt and Jordan, coun-
tries that have made peace with Israel,
antisemitism and Holocaust denial are
on the- rise.
And the rising chorus of anti-
semitism is undercutting support in
Congress for a strong U.S. role in the
,
peace process.
"It must be condemned," said
Henry Siegman, director of the
Mideast program of the Council on

Foreign Relations and a strong peace
process supporter.
"I recently wrote this in the Arabic
press; the leaders of these countries
have to have their feet held to the
fire. I pointed out in the article that
not a single political leader or clergy-
man in the Arab world has said a
word condemning it."
But the anger generated by the
venomous rhetoric, he -said, "should
not be allowed to take the peace
process hostage."

Modern Adoption

The motives behind the recent rise
in Arab antisemitism are hard to sort
out; what's painfully evident are the
consequences.
Daniel Pipes, a Mideast scholar
who was one of the first to write
about antisemitism in the Arab
world, said Jew-hatred came late to
Islam.
"The antisemitism found in the
Christian world historically was not
seen in Islam," he said. "Jews and
Judaism were an affront to the very
truth of Christianity; that was not
true of Islam."
But with the birth of modern
Israel, suddenly "Jews became a chal-
lenge," he said.
Arab leaders found the language
of Christian antisemitism useful for ,
distracting populations from their
economic woes and their failure to
deliver on promises to wipe out the
upstart Jewish state. By the late
1950s, European-style antisemitism
had taken root in Arab countries.
Anti-Jewish animus, sowed by
governments to serve political pur-
poses, played into the powerful feel-
ing of victimization in the Arab
world; traditional views of Jewish
world domination provided conve-
nient explanations for Arabic weak-
ness in the face of an Israel that was
seen as almost demonically strong.
Since the start of the Madrid
peace process in 1991, bitter anti-
semitism has served another func-
tion: helping Arab governments
defuse popular resentment about
their decision to negotiate agree-
ments with Israel. ❑

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