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Essay

P.A. Spews

TheA

aliin Lie'

Just Pike The Nazis

A parallel lies in trying to sway public
perception disingenuously and systematically.

he Palestinian Authority's anti-
Jewish indoctrination of P.A.
schoolkids harkens to Nazi
Germany's use of the "Big Lie" to blame the
Jews for all the world's ills.
from the political, economic and/or military
In both cases, government propaganda
consequences of the lie. It thus becomes
— whether sanctioned by the Berlin of
vitally important for the State to use all of its
Adolf Hitler's era or by Ramallah under
powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the
P.A. President Mahmoud Abbas — proved
mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by exten-
to reinforce already held beliefs among the
sion, the truth is the greatest enemy of the
masses.
State."
The Nazis deployed brain-
The PA., in its textbooks, music
washing to obscure the outrage
videos, mosques, news media,
of the Holocaust and the intent
cultural activities, summer camps
to annihilate European Jewry.
and sports tournaments, has
The P.A. spreads lies to discred-
turned legions of highly impres-
it Israel as the Palestinians eye
sionable youth against Jews — and
a state encroaching into, if not
has swept those with a desire
encompassing, the Jewish state.
to become "martyrs" for Allah
A parallel lies in trying to
toward lives that endanger Jews.
sway public perception disin-
genuously and systematically.
Notable Finding:
Robert Sklar
It's a haunting parallel.
Germans
who grew up in the
Contrib uting
The PA., representing
1930s
as
the
Third Reich built a
Edit or
Palestinian-controlled areas of
political juggernaut are far more
the West Bank, is doing itself
likely than their younger compa-
no favors and delaying any chance of a last-
triots to hold derisive attitudes toward Jews,
ing peace by such deception.
a new study of anti-Semitism in Germany
Joseph Goebbels, master propagandist of
released June 15 found.
the Nazi regime and overseer of its cultural
American and Swiss researchers discov-
life for 12 years, conceived the "Big Lie
ered that anti-Semitic feelings run deep
As he put it, according to Jewish Virtual
among Germans raised in regions of the
Library: "If you tell a lie big enough and keep Rhineland known for Jew-hatred even before
repeating it, people will eventually come to
Hitler assumed power, the Associated Press
believe it. The lie can be maintained only for
reported.
such time as the State can shield the people
"It's not just that Nazi schooling worked,

that if you subject people to a totalitarian
regime during their formative years, it will
influence the way their mind works:' Hans-
Joachim Voth of the University of Zurich,
one of the study's authors, told AR "The
striking thing is that it doesn't go away after-
ware
An anti-Semitic upbringing made Nazi
propaganda even more effective and endur-
ing, the research found.
"It tells you that indoctrination can work,"
Voth told AR "It can last to a surprising
extent, but the way it works has to be com-
patible to something people already believe'

11;cmliesfiran risinnrreir•

Apply that deduction to how the P.A. and its
anti-Jewish vitriol are influencing genera-
tions of youth — a menace that could take at
least two generations to vanquish. Infusing
kids to hate Jews means it will take years to
change such a strident culture of disdain,
which dates back to the Palestinians' Grand
Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin al-Husseini,
seeking to woo Hitler to extend his anti-
Jewish fury to the Arab world in 1941.
While the Palestine Liberation
Organization, umbrella negotiating agency
for the PA., claims it has recognized Israel as
an independent state (although not a Jewish
state) since 1988, as a harbinger to the 1990s
Oslo Accords, the P.A. continues to consider

all of Israel as "occupied Palestine" — as part
of what one day would be "Palestine' from
the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea,
according to Israel-based Palestinian Media
Watch (PMW). Under this scenario, Israel
would become extinct.
To drive home this point, PMW reports
how young boys at the Al Karameh First
Elementary School for Boys, which falls
under the P.A. Ministry of Education, are
met with a wall painting of a map labeled
"Palestine' The map includes the P.A. areas
and all of Israel. The Palestinian flag is fly-
ing from the center of the map, symbolizing
future political sovereignty over what is now
Israel.
Further illustrating the institutionalised
nature of P.A. incitement against Israel, P.A.
TV, the official broadcast station, teaches that
Jews are intrinsically evil and that this con-
flict is part of Islam, not just a dispute over
land, PMW reports.
For example, the children's TV program
The Best Home recently showed a young
girl reciting a poem calling Jews "barbaric
monkeys:' "the most evil among creations"
and those "who murdered Allah's pious
prophets" The girl declares she's not afraid of
the Jews' "barbarity" because Jerusalem will
"vomit out" the impure Jews.
Clearly, the P.A. version of the Nazi-
perfected "Big Lie" not only infects young
minds, but also creates an illusion that won't
be easy to dispel when a peace agreement of
some sort is eventually reached with Israel
— the Jewish state.

❑

Guest Column

l'he NY Times Double Standard

nexplicable and unconscionable.
Those are among the adjectives
that come to mind relating to the
recent New York Times editorial on the
United Nations report claiming that both
Hamas and Israel may be guilty of com-
mitting war crimes in last year's Gaza
conflict.
Anyone who has followed the Times
over the years knows that the paper has
hardly had a good word to publish about
Israel. But its editorial appears to be a
new low for the paper.
Here is what the Times wrote in
response to the U.N. report:
"It is unrealistic to expect Hamas,
which the United States and other coun-
tries consider a terrorist group [note:
the Times implies it may not be such], to
comply with international law or police
itself. But Israel has a duty and should
have the desire to adjust its military pol-

I

32

July 9 • 2015

icies to avoid civilian casualties and hold
those who failed to do so accountable."
It is inexplicable and unconscionable
for any newspaper, let alone one that is
arguably among the most powerful – if
not the most powerful – in the country
to simply accept that Hamas
is a terrorist organization,
and we cannot expect it to
stop murdering not only
Israeli soldiers, but also
women and children as well.
It is inexplicable and
unconscionable that the
paper would not demand that
Hamas reject terror, halt the
firing of rockets into Israel,
stop rebuilding tunnels to be
used in future terror attacks
and turn instead to actions
that might lead to a peace.
No, the Times says, we can't expect

that of Hamas so the paper just gives it
a pass. But, at the same time, it places
the entire onus on Israel and ignores
the fact that Israel is probably the first
country in the history of the world that,
while at war, warned the civilian popu-
lation – the Palestinians –
through fliers and cell phone
calls of coming attacks,
thereby alerting its enemy,
Hamas.
Indeed, General Martin
Dempsey, the chairman of
the Joint Chiefs of Staff, dur-
ing an appearance in New
York at the Carnegie Council
for Ethics in International
Affairs, differed with his boss,
President Barack Obama,
when he said, "I actually do
think that Israel went to extraordinary
lengths to limit collateral damage and

civilian casualties."
The Jerusalem Post headlined its
story on the U.N. report accordingly:
"New York Times: Onus on Israel, not
Hamas, to prosecute Gaza war crimes."
Talk about a double standard.
Indeed, in a letter published – surpris-
ingly – in the Times, a writer, Lloyd S.
Lowy, of New York, stated:
"I cannot imagine a more clear dem-
onstration of the double standard the
Times and much of the world applies to
Israel."
In the process, the paper also did
not squander the opportunity to criti-
cize Israel Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu for dismissing the report and
for refusing to cooperate with the U.N.
investigation.
The editorial is reminiscent of an inci-
dent in 1997 when a Times reader com-

Double Standard on page 33