Mideast Dispatch Archive: Abu Mazen (Mahmoud Abbas) and the Holocaust (continued)
Mideast Dispatch Archive: Abu Mazen (Mahmoud Abbas) and the Holocaust (continued) Mideast Dispatch Archive Abu Mazen (Mahmoud Abbas) and the Holocaust (continued) January 11, 2005 UPDATE: ABU MAZEN (MAHMOUD ABBAS) AND HOLOCAUST DENIAL [Note by Tom Gross] The mountain of praise that has been heaped on Mahmoud Abbas (better known in the Middle East by his nom de guerre Abu Mazen) in recent days in much of the mainstream media has contained some glaring omission of fact and highly insidious information. See, for example, The New York Times’ lead editorial today, or Rashid Khalidi’s piece that runs across the top of the comment page in today’s Financial Times. (For those who don’t know, Khalidi holds the Edward Said Chair of Arab studies at Columbia University, New York, and his provocative opinions, which essentially delegitimize the state of Israel, have helped contribute to the fraught atmosphere on campus there.) Abu Mazen, as the new Palestinian president, may yet turn out to be a statesman willing to genuinely recognize Israel’s right to exist in peace as a Jewish state. But in order to reach this goal, diplomats, journalists and others should not simply ignore his long history of Holocaust denial, links to terrorism and his continuing encouragement for groups like Yasser Arafat’s Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, the organization which has carried out as many deadly attacks on Israeli civilians in the last four years as Hamas. In order to supplement the mainstream media and provide a more rounded picture of the new Palestinian President, I attach below a dispatch first sent out on this list in June 2003 during Abu Mazen’s term as Palestinian Prime Minister. Child victims of the the Holocaust, twins who were experimented upon ABU MAZEN AND THE HOLOCAUST From: Tom Gross Subject: Abu Mazen and the Holocaust Date: June 8, 2003 Abu Mazen and the Holocaust [Note by Tom Gross] From speaking to recipients of this email list in a number of European countries, Australia, and South America, it has become apparent that very few people outside Israel and the U.S. have heard anything at all about the long history of Holocaust denial of Abu Mazen, the new Palestinian prime minister. A number of people, including journalists from major European newspapers, have told me that the passing reference made to Abu Mazen’s Holocaust denial in the dispatch Road map 2: “This little sliver of land called Israel” (May 25, 2003) was the only time they have heard about this aspect of Abu Mazen’s character. Abu Mazen may yet turn out to be a peacemaker willing to genuinely recognize Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state. But in order to reach this desired goal, it is necessary for European diplomats, journalists and others not to simply ignore Abu Mazen’s long history of Holocaust denial. Abu Mazen’s record does not amount to a single pernicious reference, like those of Jean Marie Le Pen, leader of the French (neo-Fascist) National Front (“the gas chambers were a footnote of history”), or Joerg Haider, leader of the misnamed Austrian Freedom party. Abu Mazen has spent years “researching” and writing on this subject, and produced an entire body of work, with horrifying claims that go well beyond anything Le Pen or Haider have said in public. Given this, it is strange, especially in Europe, that the world’s most prominent prime ministerial Holocaust denier is being treated with such great respect and moral authority. Why hasn’t Abbas’s main champion in Europe, German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer, asked him to specifically retract his statements of Holocaust denial? The willingness of European politicians (and also many Israeli and American ones) to simply ignore Abu Mazen’s record, will not, I believe, help bring the Palestinian and Israeli people closer to peaceful coexistence. When negotiating with Abu Mazen, politicians should ask what kind of a man would choose to write his entire PhD thesis (at Moscow’s Oriental College) on the subject and follow it up with a book in 1983, “The Other Side: The Secret Relationship Between Nazism and the Zionist Movement,” which denies the Holocaust occurred. Abu Mazen has never specifically repudiated his book, which purports to refute “the fantastic lie that six million Jews were killed” in the Holocaust. Abu Mazen has written that the German gas chambers were never used to kill Jews, but only to disinfect them and to burn bodies of others to prevent the flow of disease (quoting a “scientific study” to that effect by French Holocaust-denier Robert Faurisson), and to the extent that Jews did die in World War Two (Abu Mazen cites a figure of 890,000 dead), he says this was a joint effort between Jewish leaders and the Nazis. Abu Mazen claimed that Hitler did not decide to kill the Jews until David Ben-Gurion provoked him into doing so when he [Ben-Gurion] “declared war on the Nazis” in 1942. These were not some throwaway lines, but the result of three years spent studying a pseudo-academic science. (Just in case anybody on this list needs reminding, these claims are complete nonsense.) Surely in relation to someone who lies so easily and deeply, we need to be a bit cautious as to his ability to be trusted and tell the truth. Those few European papers that have made reference to it have done so only in brief passing (for example, the London Daily Telegraph editorial, June 5, 2003 “For a man who once questioned the Holocaust...”) Most media have not only failed to mention it, but described Abu Mazen instead only in positive terms. * For example, a March 19 Associated Press report called him “urbane” and insisted that he was “known as a moderate and a pragmatist”. Another AP report simply referred to him as “a veteran negotiator.” * The official BBC News Profile of Abbas (Abu Mazen) states: “A highly intellectual man, Abbas studied law in Egypt before doing a Ph.D. in Moscow. He is the author of several books.” * The New York Times stated Abbas is “a lawyer and historian ... He holds a doctorate in history from the Moscow Oriental College; his topic was Zionism.” In an in-depth impartial “media survey” (“World media survey: Peace Hopes Rise After Nomination Of ‘Moderate’ Abbas,” published March 13, 2003) summarizing media reports and commentary about Abu Mazen from Brazil, Argentina, Indonesia, Morocco, Syria, Germany, Russia, Hungary, China, and elsewhere, I found not a single reference to his doctoral thesis, his book, or his links to the Munich Olympic massacre. A few “right-wing” papers not included in this survey have written about these matters (for example, The Wall Street Journal on May 1, 2003). Why not others? The fact that U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell wishes to merely characterize Abu Mazen as a “gentleman” doesn’t mean the media should not be a little more thorough in its reporting. Meanwhile a number of publications continue to take every opportunity to slander the Israeli prime minister with a mix of selective reporting, distortions and half-truths. Profiles of Ariel Sharon on the BBC website focus on his wealth and housing purchases. Yet I have not seen a single news report outside Israel refer to the enormous wealth Abu Mazen accrued for himself using aid money from the European Union and others as Yasser Arafat’s deputy during the Oslo years, or references to his magnificent villa on the Gaza coastline. Of course in order to reach peace, and to see to what extent Abu Mazen can be trusted, one should not simply ignore his record. To do so would be to repeat the same mistakes made with Yasser Arafat when the Clinton administration and the Israeli left placed themselves in a complete state of denial about who they were dealing with. Had they kept their eyes open, and insisted that Arafat actually abide by the commitments he had signed up to in the Oslo agreements before continuing to hand him over territory year after year during the 1990s, we might have today had a state of Israel and Palestine living alongside one another in peace. It is important to highlight this truth about Abu Mazen not to spoil the chances for peace but to help us all get there. -- Tom Gross Ed Seiller of Louisville, Kentucky, stands amid a pile of Holocaust victims as he speaks to 200 German civilians who were forced to see what was done to the Jews SUMMARIES I attach six articles below, with summaries first for those who don’t have time to read them in full: 1. “Arafat’s ‘pragmatic’ protege,” (By Michael Freund, Jerusalem Post, April 2, 2003). “It was in February of 2000 that Israel’s government, then headed by Ehud Barak, was up in arms over the Austrian President’s decision to include Joerg Haider’s neo-Nazi Freedom Party in that country’s newly-formed governing coalition. Knesset Speaker Avraham Burg called it “a blemish on the Austrian nation”, saying it was regrettable that “the Austrian people refuse to recognize the terrible tragedy that the racist Nazi ideology inflicted on humanity.” But now, just three years later, after Yasser Arafat appointed Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian version of Joerg Haider, to serve as Prime Minister, the voices of indignation have suddenly fallen silent... Why was Joerg Haider denounced for minimizing the mass murder of Jews, while Abu Mazen is not? And why was the late President of Croatia, Franjo Tudjman, barred from visiting Israel for writing an anti-Semitic World War Two history book entitled Wilderness of Historical Reality, while Abu Mazen is hailed as a “moderate” for holding similar views?” 2. Two pieces by Rafael Medoff, which appeared in various Jewish publications on the Internet. (Medoff is visiting scholar at the State University of New York. His latest book is “A Race Against Death: Peter Bergson, America and the Holocaust,” co-written with David S. Wyman.) “The Japanese publisher Bungei Shunju shut down one of its magazines for printing an article denying the Holocaust. International pressure compelled Croatian President Franjo Tudjman to publicly retract statements in his book doubting that the Holocaust had taken place. Austrian Freedom Party leader Joerg Haider was ostracized by the international community for his remarks praising members of the SS, as was French politician Jean Marie Le Pen, for questioning the existence of the gas chambers and belittling the significance of the Holocaust. Abbas’ book asserts: “The historian and author Raoul Hilberg thinks that the figure does not exceed 890,000. Many scholars have debated the figure of six million and reached stunning conclusions – fixing the number of Jewish victims at only a few hundred thousand.” Bestowing the title “historian” upon Mahmoud Abbas, as the New York Times recently did in a profile, awards his writings a stature they do not deserve, and deals a grievous insult to every genuine historian.” “... In most Western countries, Holocaust-deniers have been treated as pariahs. In Canada and many European countries, Holocaust-denial is a criminal offense. In New Zealand, Canterbury University recently issued an apology for having accepting a master’s thesis denying the Holocaust, while the French minister of education revoked a doctoral degree that was awarded to a Holocaust-denier by the University of Nantes. A Polish university professor who denied the Holocaust was suspended from his position.” 3. “Right-wingers to protest Abu Mazen – Holocaust denier”, Ynet (Internet edition of Yedioth Ahronot, Israel’s highest circulation newspaper, April 27, 2003). Ynet reports that a group of “right wing extremists” have presented Jerusalem police with a request to hold a protest rally on Holocaust Remembrance day at “Yad Vashem” in Jerusalem against Prime Minister Sharon’s plans to conduct negotiations with new Palestinian Prime Minister, Abu Mazen. The right-wingers plan to protest the planned negotiations with the “Holocaust denier” Abu Mazen. The protesters will carry banners, which read: “negotiations with Abu Mazen a blow to the memory of those murdered in the Holocaust.” [T.G. adds: Why on earth should it be left to “right wing extremists” to protest Holocaust denial?] 4. MEMRI, Inquiry and Analysis – Arab Anti-Semitism, May 30, 2002: No. 95. This is a more detailed account of Abu Mazen’s version of “the truth” published last year by the ever-reliable MEMRI. FULL ARTICLES ARAFAT’S ‘PRAGMATIC’ PROTEGE Arafat’s ‘pragmatic’ protege By Michael Freund The Jerusalem Post April 2, 2003 What a difference a few years can make. It was in February of 2000 that Israel’s government, then headed by Ehud Barak, was up in arms over the Austrian President’s decision to include Joerg Haider’s neo-Nazi Freedom Party in that country’s newly-formed governing coalition. Haider’s inclusion, Barak said, should “infuriate all the citizens of the free world”. He promptly recalled Israel’s ambassador to Vienna, and convened a session of the cabinet, which issued a statement expressing “deep concern” over the Austrian move. Knesset Speaker Avraham Burg also blasted the decision, calling it “a blemish on the Austrian nation”, and saying it was regrettable that “the Austrian people refuse to recognize the terrible tragedy that the racist Nazi ideology inflicted on humanity.” But now, just three years later, after Yasser Arafat appointed Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian version of Joerg Haider, to serve as Prime Minister, the voices of indignation have suddenly fallen silent. Haider, of course, came under fire after making a series of foul remarks in which he downplayed the evil of the Nazi regime, defending those who took part in its crimes even as he sought to minimize the lethal nature of the Holocaust. As a result, Haider was roundly and justifiably condemned, and deemed unfit to serve in a position of power. Curiously, the same logic has yet to be applied to Abbas, also known as Abu Mazen, even though his views on the Holocaust are even more odious and offensive. As a doctoral candidate at Moscow’s Oriental College in 1982, Abu Mazen composed a thesis accusing the Jews of exaggerating the Holocaust for ulterior motives. “The Zionist movement’s stake in inflating the number of murdered in the war was aimed at ensuring great gains,” he said, asserting that “this led it to confirm the number [6 million] to establish it in world opinion, and by so doing to arouse more pangs of conscience and sympathy for Zionism in general.” In his paper, later published under the title, “The Other Side: The Secret Relationship between Nazism and the Zionist Movement”, the Palestinian leader sought to deny the German use of gas chambers as instruments of death, and suggested that the number of Jews killed was less than one million. He also went to great lengths to compare Zionism with Nazism, and accused Jewish leaders of conspiring with Hitler to annihilate European Jewry. “The Zionist movement,” Abu Mazen wrote, “led a broad campaign of incitement against the Jews living under Nazi rule, in order to arouse the government’s hatred of them, to fuel vengeance against them, and to expand the mass extermination.” Even Joerg Haider, in the ugliest of his demagogic outbursts, never made such horrifying claims. But despite professing such outrageous views, which he has never publicly retracted, Abu Mazen has nevertheless been hailed by the media and politicians alike, particularly since he was selected last month for the post of Palestinian prime minister. A March 19 AP story called him “urbane” and insisted that he was “known as a moderate and a pragmatist”. “He is a responsible man,” ex-Foreign Minister Shimon Peres told Israel Radio on March 9. “He has the seriousness required of the job, as well as clear positions and intentions.” US Secretary of State Colin Powell also praised Abu Mazen’s nomination, as did the usual European suspects. And this is truly astonishing, for Abu Mazen’s record is far more egregious than Haider’s. Whereas the Austrian politician made inflammatory remarks regarding the past, Abu Mazen went one step further, threatening physical violence against Jews and Israel on more than one occasion. In a March 4, 1990 interview with the London-based newspaper al-Sharq al-Awsat, Abu Mazen warned that Jews making aliyah from the former Soviet Union would be subjected to terror attacks if they made their homes in Judea, Samaria and Gaza. “No one can check the behavior of the Palestinian citizen in the occupied territories. No one can guarantee the results of this provocation,” he said. In June 1996, shortly after Benjamin Netanyahu was elected prime minister, Abu Mazen threatened that any change in Israel’s policy toward Oslo would cause the Palestinians to take up arms. “Any digression by Binyamin Netanyahu from the peace process,” he said, “will cause a return to the state of war which existed before September 1993” (The Jerusalem Post, June 14, 1996). More recently, on January 26, 2003, Abu Mazen was asked by the Chinese news agency Xinhua about the prospects of halting terrorist attacks against Israel. His response was far from principled: “That depends on how Israel acts,” he said. “The Israeli side should stop its aggression against the Palestinians first.” Similarly, on March 3, Abu Mazen again stressed his belief in the use of violence. In an interview with al-Sharq al-Awsat, he sought to clarify statements attributed to him in which he allegedly called for an end to anti-Israel terror. “On the basis of the talks held in Cairo [between the Palestinian Authority and terrorist groups such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad], we agreed upon the freezing of Palestinian military operations for one year... We did not say, however, that we are giving up the armed struggle... The Intifada must continue.” Thanks, but that is hardly the type of “pragmatism” which the Middle East needs right now. Indeed, the obvious question which comes to mind is: Why was Joerg Haider denounced for minimizing the mass murder of Jews, while Abu Mazen is not? And why was the late President of Croatia, Franjo Tudjman, barred from visiting Israel for writing an anti-Semitic World War Two history book entitled Wilderness of Historical Reality, while Abu Mazen is hailed as a “moderate” for holding similar views? The answer, it would appear, is that not all Holocaust-deniers are created equal, as one standard is applied to the likes of Haider and Tudjman, while an entirely different one is used for Abu Mazen. Even more disturbing, however, is the willingness of many Israeli and American leaders to overlook Abu Mazen’s brazen calls for violence and his support for terror, all in the vain hope that he will prove more accommodating than his mentor, Yasser Arafat. Such delusions, however, only serve to cloud their judgment, causing them to see Abu Mazen not for what he is, but for what they wish him to be. So let’s stop fooling ourselves. Abu Mazen is no “moderate”. Anyone who denies the Holocaust, equates Zionism with Nazism and advocates the use of violence against Jews is certainly not deserving of such a label. Instead, let’s call him what he really is – just another petty anti-Semitic thug. And, more importantly, let’s start treating him as such. (The writer served as Deputy Director of Communications & Policy Planning in the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office under Benjamin Netanyahu). TWO PIECES BY RAFAEL MENDOFF Two pieces by Rafael Medoff, which appered in various Jewish publications on the Internet. [Medoff is visiting scholar at the State University of New York. His latest book is “A Race Against Death: Peter Bergson, America and the Holocaust,” co-written with David S. Wyman.] *** The Japanese publisher Bungei Shunju shut down one of its magazines for printing an article denying the Holocaust. International pressure compelled Croatian President Franjo Tudjman to publicly retract statements in his book doubting that the Holocaust had taken place. Austrian Freedom Party leader Jorg Haider was ostraciz… truncated (23,573 more characters in archive)