The Everlasting Hatred (19 page)

The fact that the plunder of Jewish people directly led to the explosive growth and popularity of Islam among the Arabs is supported by Islamic historian Ali Dashti, who writes, “The immediate step which secured the economic base and strengthened the prestige of the Muslims was their seizure of the property of the Jews at Yathrib.”
¹⁴⁹

The betrayal and killing of the Jews at Medina, the massacres of the Nadhir and Kainuka tribes, and the dispossession of property by Muslims set up what Joan Peters rightly calls “the precedent of prey”—a pattern that would be repeated again and again. The agrarian and merchant Jews lucky enough to escape death would
be plundered and exploited by the nomadic Arabs. Islam not only gave them an excuse for such oppression,
it commanded it
.

“It is likely that among the Jewish refugees fleeing from Arabia were numbers of Jews whose ‘Palestinian'—or Judean—ancestors had fled from the Romans,” writes Peters. The “Judeans,” Peters continues,

… returned to seventh-century Palestine, joining their Jewish brethren who had never left. Ironically, the Jewish refugees return coincided with the introduction of the Arab conquerors from the desert; the very invaders who had forced themselves in and the Jews out of their homes in Arabia would now plunder Judah-Palestine in the identical pattern. And the Jews who inhabited many towns of “Palestine” uninterruptedly would one day in the twentieth century be forced out as the Arabian Jews had been—by slaughter or expropriation and terrorizing. The towns would then, in the later twentieth century, be touted as “purely Arab Palestinian areas since time immemorial,” just as the Arabian Peninsula had come to be perceived as “purely Arab,” when in fact the holy Arab Muslim city of Medina had been originally settled by Jews.
¹⁵⁰

If you think over this correction of history, it is truly remarkable. Talk about myths. The Arab Muslims have spun the mother of all myths with their claim that “Palestine has always been Arab— from time immemorial.”

All over the world today—from Georgia to Azerbaijan to Serbia to India to Sudan and Eritrea—long-forgotten ethnic tensions resulting from historical injustices and memories are on the rise. Is it any wonder, given the enormity of the atrocities against the Jews, that Israelis would be just a little suspicious of today's experts who are quick to say, “The past is the past”? No wonder
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says, “It isn't the size of Israel that bothers the Muslims; it is the existence of Israel.”

Until this vital history is fully explored in a truthful and open way, there is no hope of rectifying the Middle East's historical injustices. “The Medina Legacy” established a pattern of institutionalized Islamic anti-Semitism that is at the very root of today's Middle East crisis. Without addressing that reality, there is no hope of understanding, let alone settling, the conflict. And the current idiotic handicap of “political correctness” that has been placed on all things Islamic only hinders the crucial historical facts from being discovered and understood.

“The power struggle between Israel and the Arabs is a long-term historical trial. Victory or defeat are for us questions of existence or annihilation, the outcome of an irreconcilable hatred.”

—A
L
R
IYADH
S
AUD
, S
AUDI
A
RABIAN
L
EADER

“The war is open until Israel ceases to exist and until the last Jew in the world is eliminated.”

—H
AMAS
L
EADER
¹⁵¹

What began as rivalry between brothers degenerated into a family feud. Then it evolved into an everlasting, irreconcilable enmity.

There were some cases of reconciliation between the Arabs and Jews of Arabia in the centuries just before the birth of Mohammad. The Jews were not loved, but they were accepted. Some Arabs who lived by Jewish communities even converted to Judaism.

Joan Peters notes concerning this period, “It was the Prophet Mohammad himself who attempted to negate the positive image of the Jew that had been prevalent earlier.”
¹⁵²

Hatred of Jews in Islam is justified as a religious cause. Islam literally resurrected the ancient enmities and jealousies of the
sons of Ishmael, Esau, and Keturah toward the Jews and enshrined that malevolence into a basic doctrine of their religion.

Though the information in this chapter may be a bit overloaded with facts, it is absolutely essential to understand if we are to see through the double-speak and outright fabrications set forth by Muslims in negotiations over Palestine with Western diplomats.

Beginning with Mohammad and continuing to this day, Islam contains an inherently anti-Jewish character. Despite myths to the contrary, this characteristic has meant centuries of horror for all non-Muslims (especially Jews)—or
dhimmis
, as they are called—unfortunate enough to be forced to live in an Arab land.

It should be noted that the historic anti-Jewish attitude of Islam has multiplied a hundred-fold since the birth of the modern Jewish state of Israel in 1948.

Before Mohammad and Islam, endemic hatred for Jews was largely confined to the Arabs and the Arabian Peninsula. But after hatred for the Jews became enshrined in the Koran and the sacred traditions of Islam, wherever Islam has spread, hatred for the Jews has spread with it.

Here is a graphic illustration. Muslims in Indonesia are not Arabs, neither have they had much contact with Jews, nor have they a natural relationship to “Palestine.” But they hate Jews because it's part of their religion and faith.

The same can be said of the Muslims of Afghanistan, Pakistan, Chechnya, and so on. They are not Arab, but they caught their hatred of the Jew like a super-contagious disease.

The Muslim religion actually froze the seventh-century Arab culture of Mecca and Medina in time and raised it to the level of
“divine revelation” on how all people should live for all time. The modern concept of “Jihad” primarily has to do with forcing this culture upon the whole world—either by conversion or conquest.

In a profound, almost mystical sense, Mohammad is the product of seventh-century Arab culture, and Islam is an expression of his perceptions of that culture. In addition, a major part of his character was marked by hatred for the Jews; Mohammad never forgave them for rejecting him and his claim of being God's prophet. Without question, that hatred is woven into the Koran.

A modern example of just how profoundly Arab society today is tied to the seventh-century is provided by the return of the Ayatollah Khomeini to Iran in 1979. As soon as he took over, he ripped the people away from the twentieth-century advancements they had incorporated into their lives, and he dragged the country back to seventh-century Arab culture. Thousands who did not comply were executed. Others escaped with only the clothes on their backs. And once again, the Jewish community experienced an all-too-familiar pattern: Those who had settled in Iran during the Shah's tolerant reign fled for their lives.

To the Muslim fundamentalist, everything about Western culture is evil. Not because everything about Western culture is sinful in a moral sense, but because it is different from Arab culture. This is why they hate democracy—there is no precedent for it in Arab culture and in the Koran from which that culture sprang.

Islam is nothing less than a religious-cultural imperialism that is determined to subject the entire planet to Islamic rule. This is why Mohammad divided the world into two spheres:

Dar al-Islam—The land of peace

Dar al-harb—The land of war

Mohammad believed that the Muslim is in a perpetual state of
Jihad
—”holy war”—with all countries in the Dar al-harb sphere. The true follower of Mohammad believes that Allah has willed Muslims to subject Islamic culture and law upon the whole world—either by conversion or by the sword.

Islam believes this doctrine is especially applicable to all of the Middle East, which Muslims claim as the center of their world. Furthermore, they believe that any land that has been captured and held by Muslim forces in the past is sacred. But the myths built around Jerusalem and Palestine makes this area second only to Mecca and Medina as a most holy place.

A remnant of Jews has always continued to dwell in Jerusalem and Palestine in spite of the dangers and difficulties. But when Jews began to return there in growing numbers at the end of the nineteenth century, Muslims were greatly alarmed.

And when the Jews declared a state in Palestine in 1948, the Islamic world called it
Al Nabka
—”the catastrophe.” The continuing presence of the Jews in Jerusalem is now regarded as the ultimate blasphemy to Muslims. It is viewed as a desecration of the “Third Holiest Place in Islam”—an insult to Allah that must be removed and cleansed at any cost.

As we noted earlier, Israel's victories over the “armies of Allah” in five major wars have even placed faith in the Koran in jeopardy, for it promises the forces of Islam victory in “holy wars.” Some devout Muslims fervently believe this is something that must be avenged for the sake of the Koran's veracity. Nothing can cleanse this insult to Allah but an ultimate military defeat of Israel.

Islam views the possession of land in a way very different from other religions. As noted above, once Islamic culture is established in a land, it is considered sanctified to Allah. It becomes
Dar al-Islam
—the land of peace. When an invader takes it away,
all Muslims are obligated to take it back for Allah, no matter what the sacrifice or how long it takes.

This is why the Muslim forces fought the Christian crusaders of Europe for three centuries over “the Holy Land.” But now since 1948, the Jew has invaded, and the ancient enmity toward all Israelites makes this “occupation” an utterly intolerable sacrilege. Muslims call Israel “a cancer in the heart of Islam that must be removed.”

Western civilization just does not understand this basic thinking of Islam. Western media particularly doesn't have a clue as to what motivates the Muslim—or what strategies he will use to attain what he views as his duty to Allah. This is why so many in the press swallow Muslim propaganda “hook, line and sinker.” As we will see, the modern Arab myths spun about the “legitimate rights of the Palestinian refugees” and “Israel's occupation of Palestinian territory” are based on monstrous distortions of history.

As Mohammad taught: “War is deception.” And he set the example for negotiating peace with your enemy until you are strong enough to annihilate him.” Remember “the Quraysh Model.” This was the ten-year peace treaty Mohammad signed with the Quraysh tribe of Mecca, which he broke within a year and destroyed them. This is how he conquered Mecca and made it the holiest site in Islam—through treachery.

Mohammad's death in A.D. 632 was unexpected and sudden, leaving Islam with no plan of succession. The fact that Mohammad had no male heir made the problem much more difficult. This left inevitable problems that later resulted in major conflicts within the Muslim religion.

My purpose here is not to trace the details of this phase of Islam, but rather to note that these internal conflicts resulted in
the formation of the Shi'ite and Sunni sects. Basically the Shi'ites believed the
Khaliph Rasul Allah
, or the “successor of the Messenger of God,” had to be in the bloodline of Mohammad.

The Sunni sect held the majority opinion. They believed that any worthy member of the faithful was eligible, though some of these added that it was preferable that he should be of the Quraysh tribe.