Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center
at the Center for Special Studies (C.S.S)
24.8.06
Jews are silent. Again.
By Hadassa Ben-Itto 1
In the welter of criticism directed at the war in Lebanon, one question has
not been asked: why has there been nothing about the intolerable hate
propaganda swamping the Arab-Muslim world, led - again - by The Protocols of
the Elders of Zion ?
Now that the second Lebanon war is over we hear from all sides that we "fell
asleep on sentry duty," that we underestimated the strength of the enemy,
that we were unprepared and too self-confident, that we committed sins of
hubris and made false promises to our friends overseas and to the citizens
of Israel, that we deluded ourselves into thinking that the existence of the
State of Israel guaranteed the future of the Jewish people. Demands come
from all sides to appoint a commission of inquiry. "Off with their heads!"
people cry.
Were I to be called before such a committee, I would testify that for years
one subject has been neglected and never mentioned, although it is no less
relevant to the current war than other subjects endlessly harped on. Indeed,
we did fall asleep: we never developed an effective strategy to deal with a
lethal weapon of another sort, one as dangerous as missiles and rockets.
We keep asking ourselves how the entire Muslim world, including the parts of
it not involved in the conflict with the Palestinians, and which do not seem
to be the least interested in the Palestinian fate, were so successfully
seduced into taking a stand against us, not only leaders but the man on the
street as well. Why do thousands run rampant through the streets calling for
our destruction? Is it only in defense of Arab honor? And why are they
joined by all the human rights organizations, whose original agendas were
not supposed to include a struggle against Jews and the State of Israel?
An American diplomat once said to me, "I don't believe this is happening to
the Jews again. You haven't learned your lesson. If you had carefully read
Mein Kampf you would know what's waiting for you. The writing is on the wall
again but you don't even look at it. Wars don't begin in the battlefield.
Read the UNESCO Charter that says, 'Wars start in the minds of men.'"
For the last hundred years a dangerous lie has been spreading throughout the
world. It accuses us of being responsible for every catastrophe visited upon
humanity, and is based on the claim that the very existence of Jews
endangers world peace. It is the famous "Jewish conspiracy" whose goal is to
dominate the world, carefully detailed in The Protocols of the Elders of
Zion , of which millions of copies are distributed in every conceivable
language.
Not only do we not read The Protocols , the book has not even been
translated into Hebrew.
Since the Second World War we have not bothered to pinpoint the methodical
poisoning of the minds of hundreds of millions of Muslims with the message
that the Jews are a danger to their existence. The facts are out there for
all to see, they look at us from the pages of newspapers, from studies and
from books. We have seen it all and done nothing. We have become tired of
dealing with Jew haters, fatigued from denying the libels. We became
complacent and did not correctly evaluate the danger or look for ways of
coping with it.
Entire nations, hundreds of millions of people, cannot be enlisted to take
part in a struggle to destroy the Jews and Israel unless they have been
subjected to a methodical, long-term propaganda campaign. We Jews failed to
realize the use made of The Protocols to incite the pogroms in Russia at the
beginning of the 20 th century; nor did we realize how the Nazis used them
as a basis for the theory that as long as there were Jews in the world, they
would carry out their plan to take over the globe, thus endangering the Nazi
plan to achieve the same end.
Since the Second World War, Muslims have picked up the torch from the Nazis,
with the avowed objective of destroying us, as a people and as a state. And
that is stated openly, in public speeches given by heads of member states in
the United Nations , in charters such as that of the Hamas and in sermons in
the mosques.
The original version of the Protocols has not changed, but each of the
thousands of editions, regardless of language, is prefaced by an explanation
of how the Jews are currently implementing their plan, here and now. Thus
new editions with new prefaces are necessary after each current event like
the attack on the World Trade Center or the war in Iraq : read the
newspapers, they say, the Jews are responsible for it all. The Arabic
editions, whether published in Iran , Syria or Egypt , are distributed to
Muslim communities in the West, prominently displayed at book fairs and sold
at discount prices in stores on main streets.
In recent years, television series in Egypt , Syria and Qatar , one after
another, were based on The Protocols and broadcast to the entire Muslim
world during Ramadan, in the evening, when the entire family gathers to
break the fast and turns on the TV. These are popular soap operas targeting
all ages, including adolescents, which revive the criminal Jewish conspiracy
theory to take over the world.
All this is happening here and now, as we look on.
The Muslim world believes the libel, even if there are a few intellectuals
who might be willing to admit that perhaps The Protocols are a forgery. In a
large hospital in the United States , I recently met a doctor of Lebanese
extraction from a well-known Christian town. I asked him if he was familiar
with The Protocols of the Elders of Zion and he answered that he had a copy
in his library, knew it well and believed every word. It's part of our
culture, he said without blinking, in excellent American English.
The Arabic editions contain introductions which are completely delusional,
wild and slanderous. They describe all events in world history as facets of
the devilish Jewish plot and are accompanied by horrific cartoons
(permissible, apparently, as long as they do not make fun of Muslims). There
is no lack of similar editions in the West, but there special editions are
printed for more intelligent audiences, such as the 2004 edition printed in
the United States and sold in respectable bookstores in large cities.
I am looking at one such edition. It has a glossy red and white cover and is
sold by Amazon for $7.95. It contains not only the original Protocols but
also many documents based on the conspiracy theory. It "delves deeply" into
what it calls "the Jewish problem," giving the Jews credit for being smart,
intelligent, Nobel Prize winners, definitely a people worthy of respect,
but, precisely for that reason, dangerous to the world. It even deals with
existing proof of the Protocols being a forgery. Thus the London Times ,
which was the first to expose the forgery in 1921, becomes part of the
Jewish conspiracy. Others who exposed it, including a Russian princess and a
French theologian, are presented as having criminal records.
The Jewish "intelligence service," which systematically monitors
manifestations of anti-Semitism, is not to blame. There are university
departments and research institutes, there are conferences, publications,
even websites that monitor what is printed in the Arab countries. But with
the exception of a few "obsessed" individuals, there is no real awareness of
the danger and there is no strategic plan to deal with it.
Today, the political correctness guiding public discourse bans statements
made against anyone except Jews, even if they are true. Thus it is not all
Muslims, not the Qu'ran, the commentator adds, every time he informs the
world about another terrorist attack carried out by Muslims. If today a
libel similar to The Protocols were disseminated about Muslims, or about any
ethnic minority marked by its descent or non-Caucasian skin color, the
streets would burn as they did because of a few pathetic cartoons in a
marginal Danish newspaper.
When the president of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, publicly announces that he
intends to destroy Israel, we don't ask ourselves why, in addition to
missiles and nuclear weapons, he orders The Protocols of the Elders of Zion
to be printed and distributed, or why his emissaries dare exhibit an English
edition of the Protocols at the Iranian stall at the international book fair
in Frankfurt.
And the Jewish People remain silent. For a hundred years. Even now.
Jews do not burn embassies, we do not incite thousands to march in the
streets. But that does not mean that there are no alternatives. Indeed,
alternatives exist.
The conspiracy against the Jewish people must be dramatically exposed,
because it disseminates a vicious libel whose objective is to prepare the
ground again for the annihilation of the Jews.
We can flood the courts of the world with lawsuits against those who spread
the lie, because today most countries have laws that prohibit incitement
against religious, national or ethnic groups.
The struggle must be taken up in all its forms: legal, political, public,
through the media, globally, in every possible way, to make our voice heard,
loud and clear: ENOUGH, STOP THE LIBEL, STOP THE LIES!
_____
1 The article was originally published in Haaretz in Hebrew on August 22,
2006. Hadassa Ben-Itto is a former judge and the author of THE LIE THAT
WOULDN'T DIE ; The Protocols of the Elders of Zion . The article was
translated by Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center at the Center
for Special Studies (C.S.S).
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