Nazi Propaganda for the Arab World (19 page)

On April i8, in another dispatch to Welles and Hull, Kirk summarized themes of Axis Arabic broadcasts during the past six months. In this and in subsequent dispatches, he demonstrated a remarkable ability to convey the Axis messages in their own terms. Kirk correctly pointed out that the broadcasts focused on Middle Eastern themes but also followed "the line taken in Axis transmissions in German, Italian, English and French" that were "being monitored in the United States." German propaganda broadcasts, he wrote, attempted to convince the Arabs of the following: the Axis countries had "a natural sympathy with the Arabs and their great civilization, the only one comparable with the civilization introduced by the New Order in Europe, which is now being suppressed by `British Imperialism; `Bolshevik barbarity,' and `Jewish greed' and more recently American materialism."' Indeed, "one of the main German war aims" was "to release Arab countries from the oppressive grip ofAnglo-Bolshe- vik Imperialism." It was necessary for "the Arab countries to aid their liberators by uniting against the common enemy." They could do so with confidence because "the Allies `despise but fear' the Arabs and each day German victory and the breakup of the British Empire were becoming more certain." In the scramble that would "follow this imminent British collapse" when "Americans, Russians and Jews" would "try to seize the countries now held by Britain, the Arabs may find themselves with new masters if they do not move quickly." They could never be Britain's friends because "her promises are false." Britain had "destroyed Arab unity and murdered Arab patriots; she has handed Palestine over to the Jews and loosed the Communists over Iran and Iraq." The Arabs remembered "the generous promises made by Britain in the last war." Those promises were broken, and "British oppression" continued into the current period.32

Kirk noted the blend of secular and religious appeals in the Axis broadcasts. They told listeners that "before Islam" the Arabs had been "divided against themselves. When Mohammed united them they overthrew the Persians, Romans and Jews as they can now overthrow the British, Russians and Americans." Now they would "be led by their great leaders the Mufti [ Haj Amin el-Husseini] and Rashid Ali [Kilani] who are continually exchanging congratulatory messages with Hitler and Mussolini." These two leaders were "fighting for Arab freedom" and frequently discussed the future of Arab countries with the Axis leaders. The Axis sympathy for the Arabs was understandable given the Arab contributions to civilization and culture. It was only necessary "for the British criminals to be annihilated for Islam to share the world with the Axis." As horrible as it seemed to any devout believer and to the Axis radio commentators, there were "Mohammedans willing to sell themselves to Britain and, by so doing, prove false to Islam." They included "`Rabbi' Abdullah [King Abdullah], the buffoon of Transjordan; the traitor Nuri el-Said of Iraq and the Sheikh Tajeddine of Syria." They would fall with their masters. An Axis victory in the Middle East would be "a bad day for traitors when the victorious and righteous liberators of Islam arrive" assisted by "a wide-spread revolt throughout the entire Near East" by the Arabs.33

The subjects most frequently treated in Axis broadcasts from November 1941 to April 1942 included the Jews, Bolshevism, and events in individual Arab countries as well as in Turkey and Iran. In these months and for the remainder of the war, the broadcasts also commented on selected political events of the day concerning both the course of the war and political news in the Middle East. Axis radio also, as Kirk put it, attacked the Jews "ad nauseam." Axis Arabic radio broadcasts reported that the Jews, backed by Britain and the United States, were "the arch-enemies of Islam." They controlled American finance and forced Roosevelt to pursue a policy of aggression. Roosevelt and Churchill, though criminals themselves, were "playthings in the hands of the Jewish fiends who are destroying civilization." It was known that "the White House `is full of Jews' and most eminent figures among the Allies in the Near East are Jews." The Zionist leader Chaim Weizmann was an "aspirant to the throne of Palestine." He was "determined that Palestine, Syria and Transjordan will be united as a pure Jewish centre that will control the whole of the Middle East and, eventually, the world." America and Britain supported this plan. The Arabs, who had "lost their lands and wealth to the rapacious Jewish settlers in Palestine and their liberty to the British, will now be deported to suffer famine and discomfort in lands even more barren than those palmed off on them in Palestine." Five million Jews were soon to be brought to Palestine. The Jews promised to raise an army of 20,000 men "ostensibly to assist the Allies, but in reality to wipe out the Arabs should the Germans advance." In fact, both before and during the war and the Holocaust, Britain severely restricted Jewish immigration to Pales- tine.34 The Anglo-Egyptian Treaty of 1936, officially (but seldom) known as the Treaty of Alliance between His Majesty, in Respect of the United Kingdom, and His Majesty the King of Egypt, required the United Kingdom to withdraw all troops from Egypt except those necessary to protect the Suez Canal and its surroundings, that is, all but 10,000 troops plus auxiliary personnel. The United Kingdom would also supply and train Egypt's army and assist in its defense in case of war.

Nazi propagandists understood the value of connecting a particular name and face to an otherwise impersonal international Jewish conspiracy. In their propaganda aimed at Germans and Europeans, Felix Frankfurter, Henry Mor- genthau, Bernard Baruch, Samuel Rosenman, and Herbert Lehmann were the names and faces, literally the poster images of the NewYork-Washington, D.C., branch of the world Jewish conspiracy that preoccupied the Nazi imagination. In the Arabic-language propaganda, the name and face of Chaim Weizmann, president of the World Zionist Congress, became the name and face of the Zionist dimension of the plot. A British chemist, Weizmann had worked with British Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour to fashion the Balfour Declaration of 1917, according to which Britain would "view with favor the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people." During World War II and the Holocaust, he was one of the Jewish leaders who tried and failed to convince the British to allow more Jewish immigration to Palestine and who were equally unsuccessful in convincing the British or Americans to bomb the extermination camp at Auschwitz. He was one of the founders of Hebrew University in Jerusalem and later served as president of Israel. The Nazis depicted Weizmann as the key Zionist power broker who was able to make the Allies obey his every command.

The blend of Islamist and secular messages was equally apparent in Axis anti-Bolshevik propaganda. It offered "fantastic accounts of Russian losses and failures on the Eastern Front" and took pleasure in contrasting "Germany's profound respect for all religions, especially the noble and high-minded Islamic one, with the barbaric atheism of the Communists." Here Axis radio introduced a recurring, and false, assertion, namely that the Communists' hatred was "especially concentrated on Moslems-4,000,000 Moslems having been butchered in Russia and many mosques destroyed. The figure of four million murdered Moslems was frequently repeated on Axis radio. All Islamic ideas and traditions" were "contrary to Bolshevism and to British capitalism, and yet Britain can ruthlessly expose the Arab countries to the ravages of Russian soldiery and the British are too weak to control them." England was "now completely under the control of Russia and, in return for Russian help, not only Iran but Iraq and other Arab countries unnamed will be handed over to the brutal Bolsheviks." American and British aid to the Soviet Union would be no more helpful than it was to other countries now occupied by Nazi Germany, for example, Poland, France, Norway, Yugoslavia, and Greece. British and Russian reports on German losses on the Eastern Front were "wildly inaccurate." Germany was "winning easily, strengthened by the force of her desire to save the Arab countries from Communism." It was also "necessary for the Arabs to rise up against Communism."35

Axis radio depicted an Arab and Muslim world suffering from "British cruelty and exploitation." "In spite of the fact that Egypt is the oldest civilization, the British see the Egyptians as a backward race needing foreign control." The broadcasts, as summarized by Kirk, denounced Egyptian politicians, such as Prime Minister Nahas Pasha, who supported Britain and denounced the arrest of Ali Maher Pasha as "proof of the British stranglehold on the new government." Iran was "second only to Egypt in the suffering that has been inflicted by ruthless British Imperialism and now that she is being ravaged by Godless Communists she is fast becoming Victim No. i. Iran is a mutilated body trampled on by the feet of the British and the Russians who struggle to double-cross each other." Soon all of Iran would be in the Bolsheviks' grip, and that would offer further proof of "the British collapse." Moreover, according to the broadcasts, Iran's cabinet following the overthrow of the Kilani government in May 1941 was "full of Jews and Jewish greed is devouring the country." Economic difficulties in Iran as well as in Egypt were due to British and Russian policies.36 In Iraq, the current prime minister, Nuri el Said, was an "arch-traitor" who would "meet the same fate as Nashashibi [Palestinian leader opposed to the Husseini clan] who was killed by an Arab patriot in a rising against the British and Jews." In Iraq and elsewhere, "Jewish greed" was "exploiting the populace and rousing indignation." The Jews were "looting the country."37 Axis radio praised Saudi Arabia as one Arab country "that appears still to be reasonably free from the evils brought on innocent Arabs by the British" and applauded what it called King Ibn Saud's "contempt for Britain."38 Britain was the cause of riots, pillage, and famine in Syria. There too, Jews were "exploiting the suffering people" and were "flocking into the country." The Jews planned to separate Lebanon from Syria and unite it "with Palestine as an area for Jewish exploitation." Charles de Gaulle, the leader of the Free French forces, had written to Chaim Weizmann to promise his support to the Jews at the expense of the Arabs in Syria.39 As for Turkey, it was menaced by Britain and Russia. Only cooperation with the Axis could save it "from eventual Russian occupation condoned by Britain." Germany, on the other hand, had a policy of "Turkey for the Turks." Although the British had forced Afghanistan to expel German and Italian nationals, "her relations with the Axis remain cordial because of the deep friendliness existing between this country and the Axis countries." If Afghanistan does not revolt against the British, it would surely"fall victim to Communist frightfulness."4o

Kirk reported that Axis radio painted a grim picture of life in Palestine. It was "swimming in a pool of blood." Its people lived "in an atmosphere of shame and misery" and were "ruled by a reign of terror dominated by the brutal British and the dirty Jews." The British violated the Arab "holy places," spread famine and poverty, and brutally ruled the Arabs, whom they would soon deport. The Jews were intending to combine Palestine with Syria and Transjordan in a "huge Jewish Home." Britain's main aim in the Middle East was "to annihilate the Arabs entirely and to aid in this purpose large numbers of Jews are being enlisted in a Palestine army." (The idea that the Jews were going to participate in the annihilation of the Arabs was a Middle Eastern counterpart to the Nazi assertion that Jews were fighting World War II in Europe with the intent of annihilating the German people.)41 In addition to Britain and the Jews, "a new oppressor in the shape of the U.S.A." was soon to arrive. It was known "that when the Americans seize the British Empire they intend handing over Palestine to their masters-the Jews."42

The themes of these broadcasts persisted throughout the war. They included the following: Arab and Muslim victimization at the hands of the Jews, British, Soviets, and then the Americans; the expectation of Axis victory and Allied defeat; denunciations of Arab leaders who sided with the Allies; predictions of murderous and expansionist policies by the Jews against the Arabs in Palestine and elsewhere; and support for Arab independence against British rule combined with religious appeals to Muslims. On the same day that he sent his summary of Axis Arabic broadcasts, Kirk sent the first of more than 150 weekly wartime dispatches about Axis radio to the Office of Secretary of State in Washington. These "Axis Broadcasts in Arabic" were verbatim English translations of Axis broadcasts of the previous week. The dispatches amounted to 15 to 30 pages of text each week or about 3,000 pages in all. Copies regularly went to American embassies and consulates in Jerusalem, Beirut, and Jidda. In Washington, the texts were circulated to the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), military intelligence agencies, and the Office of War Information. In this book I will be drawing on representative selections from "Axis Broadcasts in Arabic," an enterprise noteworthy for its faith in the power of repetition.

The Cairo embassy dispatches included the date and time of broadcasts. For example, in his April i8 dispatch covering April io-16,1942, Kirk reported that on April io at 7:30 p.m. Cairo time the Germany in Arabic station broadcast "The British, the Jews and the Communists Are the Common Enemies of the Arabs." The broadcast asserted that the present war had "let the Arabs know who is friend and who is foe." Axis powers "show the greatest possible sympathy towards the Arabs and towards their struggle for liberty and independence," while "enemies of the Arabs are haggling amongst themselves as to who can seize the right apple." But the Allies took a different stance.

Britain has shown her enmity to the Arabs.... The British committed one of the worst crimes against the Arabs by bringing the Jews to their country and giving them every support, holding them superior to the Arabs and manifesting their sympathy towards the establishment of a Jewish Kingdom in the Arab countries. This was done by the British and the Jews because of their lack of insight, but they will shortly learn how sadly they were mistaken. The Zionist world movement depends on Britain in order that this movement may realize its oppressive hopes, and the Jews have plotted with Britain to strangle Islam. Not only that, but the Jewish movement also enjoys great support from the U.S.A. and the Jews in America have supreme influence. President Roosevelt is a toy in Jewish hands and he has dragged his country to war bowing to Jewish orders. He has sent his son as a personal envoy to Palestine in order to assure the Jews that President Roosevelt is whole-heartedly supporting them and that he is a follower of their religion.