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Last update - 16:07 07/04/2008
The jihad against the Jews
By Bradley Burston
Tags: anti-Semitism, Hamas, Burston

The jihad has a problem with the Jews.

Not just a problem with Israel. Not just the occupation. Not just the policies of the Israeli government, the actions of the Israel Defense Forces, the support by Washington and the West for Israel's embargo against Hamas-ruled Gaza.

Islamists don't care who knows it anymore. They hate the Jews. And, not to put too fine a point on it, they want the Jews dead.

Some of it one has grown to expect. "Today there is no room for he who says that we should only fight the Jews in Palestine," Osama Bin Laden's second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahri said after Israel's incursion into Gaza last month. "Let us strike their interests everywhere, just like they gathered against us from everywhere."

Some of it is becoming better known. In a groundbreaking article in The New York Times this week, Steven Erlanger details, among other elements of Gaza life, the tides of Jew-hate washing over the Strip with the Hamas seal of approval.

There is imam and legislator Sheik Yunus al-Astal, who, citing a Koranic verse indicating that "suffering by fire is the Jews' destiny in this world and the next," concludes that "we are sure that the holocaust is still to come upon the Jews."

There is imam and legislator Marwan M. Abu Ras, chairman of the Palestinian Scholars League and a religious authority who anchors Hamas policies in Koranic sanction, branding Jews "the brothers of apes and pigs."

This dovetails nicely with programming decisions taken by Hezbollah's Al Manar Television, which broadcast a Syrian-produced mini-series that showed a Jew killing a Christian child to obtain blood for baking Passover matza.

And then there is the case of the much anticipated, widely feared new film by Dutch lawmaker Geert Wilders, "Fitna." Officials across Europe and throughout the Muslim world have braced for the possibility of violent protests, demonstrations on the model of those sparked by Danish cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed, which protesters saw as a grave insult to Islam.

But the initial reaction has been muted, despite, or because of, an emphasis on footage such as Islamic clerics voicing virulent attacks against Jews, urging that Jews be killed and even beheaded, clips of a little girl quoting Allah in the Koran terming Jews "apes and swines," and of demonstrators promising "another Holocaust" and praising Adolf Hitler.

It is worth noting that, in an initial response to the release of the film on the Internet at the end of last week, the attorney representing the umbrella group for Dutch Muslims said that at first glance, "Fitna" does not constitute an insult to their religion.

One has to wonder, why not? Are calls to kill Jews as Jews not considered an insult?

And while we're asking questions, it would be worth inquiring of Hamas officials that if, as they often declare, their conflict is with Zionists and not Jews, their charter cannot be amended to remove references to the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, statements that Jews have "control of the world media [and use their] wealth to stir revolutions."

There will be those who will counter that critics of Israel are often mistakenly and/or derisively termed anti-Semitic. That is too often true. But it is no justification for letting true Jew hate slide.

Quite clearly, there are those for whom the existence of the Jews is intolerable. That they feel free to spread the message - and teach it to children - must be condemned as intolerable by the rest of us, Jew or not.

Previous blogs:

Ten ways Israel keeps Hamas afloat
Macho U.S. Jews, pantywaist Israel
Ten Commandments for Arab and Jew at war
To the Westerner who 'understands' the terrorist
Nine immoral solutions for Gaza - a guide
Bookmark to del.icio.us  
 
Meeting Carter
Noam Shalit: The fact that Carter isn't pro-Israel may be beneficial.
Family pressure
Shin Bet admits using relatives to pressure jailed Palestinians.
  1.   JIHAD IS NOT IMPORTANT. ALLAH (C.C) TRULY HOLDS YOUR ENDS. 14:57  |  ATİLLA KARAGÖZOĞLU 01/04/08
  2.   Plenty of virulent Muslim haters out there too 17:50  |  newageblues 01/04/08
  3.   The Jihad against the Jews 18:09  |  Joan Zia Kahn 01/04/08
  4.   Fundamentalists as usual : Islamists 18:39  |  Michel 01/04/08
  5.   Islam is a anti semetic 20:27  |  indrajaya 01/04/08
  6.   No justification 20:56  |  Aaron Levitt 01/04/08
  7.   I used to hate all the Jews (1) 21:12  |  Bandar Michaels 01/04/08
  8.   To Bandar #7: You still hate them... 23:20  |  Vladio 01/04/08
  9.   Mr. Leavitt 23:22  |  Donald A. Rosenberg, 01/04/08
  10.   It`s called blaming someone else for your own problems. 00:09  |  Gilad 02/04/08
  11.   Aaron Levitt #6 Try To Heed Your Own Advice 00:26  |  Tim R 02/04/08
  12.   Caught between Arabs and Nazis 02:45  |  Simeon ben Jacob 02/04/08
  13.   Jihad 03:59  |  Sean 02/04/08
  14.   Sean #13 On Jihad 05:09  |  Tim R 02/04/08
  15.   Racism 05:14  |  Hasan 02/04/08
  16.   I Buy ARCO Gasoline 07:26  |  Yosemite 02/04/08
  17.   I also received the email with the FITNA: 08:54  |  S 02/04/08
  18.   A Light unto the nations 11:40  |  Joseph 02/04/08
  19.   15# Hasan 11:52  |  Israeli4Peace 02/04/08
  20.   I SUPPORT PEACE, I SUPPORT BOTH PEOPLE DREAMS, I SUPPORT HONESTY 11:58  |  ... 02/04/08
  21.   NO HUMAN IS PIG. NO HUMAN IS ORPAN. NO HUMAN IS FOREVER STUPID 11:58  |  ... 02/04/08
  22.   ARE YOU FOR PEACE OR PROPAGANDA ! MR. BURSTON 12:00  |  ... 02/04/08
  23.   FITNA 2: REVOLUTION 12:01  |  indrajaya 02/04/08
  24.   THE PROBLEM IS PALESTINE IDIOTS, IT IS NOT MUSLIMS 12:05  |  ATİLLA KARAGÖZOĞLU 02/04/08
  25.   Bradley misstates the case, as he has been doing lately 12:09  |  Natallie Durson 02/04/08
  26.   #7 Bandar Michaels 12:15  |  Sarah 02/04/08
  27.   Aaron Levitt 12:22  |  Sarah 02/04/08
  28.   #25 Natallie Durson 12:27  |  Sarah 02/04/08
  29.   Error in Article. Note to Author 12:28  |  Sadiq M 02/04/08
  30.   Is Western Society afraid of Muslim parity. 12:29  |  Stephen. 02/04/08
  31.   Moslems are not seen as White 12:30  |  FOX 02/04/08
  32.   Maybe read what`s written beneath ... 12:33  |  Edith 02/04/08
  33.   DENIAL OF JEWISH RIGHT TO ISRAEL IS BLASPHEMY ACCORDING TO QUR`AN 12:38  |  TrueMuslim 02/04/08
  34.   Natalie particularly incoherent today 12:40  |  FOX 02/04/08
  35.   ATILLA ADMIT IT: YOU ARE A SABBATEAN JEW ! 12:44  |  Yaakov Kerido 02/04/08
  36.   Natalie, So moving us all to Alaska is the only way?? 12:46  |  Meir Gush Etzion 02/04/08
  37.   Bloodthirsty beliefs 12:50  |  arun 02/04/08
  38.   FITNA 2: REVOLUTION 12:55  |  indrajaya 02/04/08
  39.   The Jewish people need more critical self-reflection...... 13:06  |  Swiss (Dino) 02/04/08
  40.   PALESTENIANS-ISLAM-MUSLIM-JIHAD ARE ONE & THE SAME INSTITUITION 13:07  |  Yitzak Ben Shlomo 02/04/08
  41.   Completely untrue, Bradley 13:13  |  Clickfool 02/04/08
  42.   So? 13:22  |  TimothyL 02/04/08
  43.   Helpful Natallie 13:28  |  Ilya 02/04/08
  44.   To Yaakov -ABOUT ATILLA - ASK HIM 13:29  |  YITZAK BEN SHLOMO 02/04/08
  45.   Where have you been, Bradley? 13:52  |  Shalom Freedman 02/04/08
  46.   A shonda for the goyim, oy! 13:56  |  Adonis Tate 02/04/08
  47.   Well put.... 14:01  |  Purple Canary 02/04/08
  48.   Again, the Jihadists can only swim, as long as Israel...... 14:04  |  Swiss (Dino) 02/04/08
  49.   Most Muslim Anti-Semitism Depends On... 14:04  |  Yosemite 02/04/08
  50.   Aaron Levitt 14:09  |  Purple Canary 02/04/08
  51.   #39 The Swiss Dinosaur teaching again 14:15  |  Hastaroth 02/04/08
  52.   #25 To DURSON NATALLIE 14:18  |  Vladimir 02/04/08
  53.   Re: #25 Natallie WHAT??? 14:21  |  Yosemite 02/04/08
  54.   Wrong Direction 14:23  |  An Arab Neighbor 02/04/08
  55.   Nazillie Dur d`oreille is a Reeve Aleutian agent 14:23  |  Hastaroth 02/04/08
  56.   # 49 Hastaroth 14:39  |  Swiss (Dino) 02/04/08
  57.   Zionist against the Arabs 14:40  |  Dav 02/04/08
  58.   Atilla....the problem is more then Palestinians 14:45  |  Lynn 02/04/08
  59.   Sadly Dino, you are not a genius #46 14:50  |  FOX 02/04/08
  60.   #29 Sadiq M 15:15  |  Franco 02/04/08
  61.   They hate the Jews 15:59  |  Walter 02/04/08
  62.   Jihad 16:56  |  Oetis 02/04/08
  63.   To Mr Bradley Burston...your friend Mashaal asking for help 17:28  |  The Dumbite Kid 02/04/08
  64.   So, ATTILA (1) tell all of us who is going to do Allah´s work 17:29  |  Karl 02/04/08
  65.   Joan Zia Kahn - the video 17:34  |  samos 02/04/08
  66.   To Oetis 17:38  |  American Christian 02/04/08
  67.   The rise of Nazism, the worst antisemitism 18:09  |  Ethel 02/04/08
  68.   Koran´s Call for Peace Tolerance and Human Rights 18:20  |  Karl 02/04/08
  69.   STAND UP EVERYONE ! I AM LEAVING TO HOME. GOOD NIGHT :) 18:36  |  ATİLLA KARAGÖZOĞLU 02/04/08
  70.   Iran 18:44  |  Ethel 02/04/08
  71.   Thanks to 3 books, hate prevails and millions die 19:06  |  The killing fields