Nazi Propaganda for the Arab World (32 page)

Following Axis setbacks, the declarations Husseini had made in July 1942 that "the hour of liberation is near" gave way to grim predictions of what would happen if the Allies won the war. They could then "determine the fate of the world" and were "controlled by the Jews." Thereafter "the Jews and their allies would be able to give vent to all the traditional hatred, the hatred on which they have been brooding for generations." Then "the world would be a veritable hell." But as God was "too merciful and too just to give victory to those tyrants and criminals," Husseini was certain "beyond all doubt that victory will be for us and our friends;" and that as a result "the Arabs and Moslems will then be free and independent in their own countries. God helps those who conform to his commandments. God is great and He is all powerful."44 Husseini's contribution to Nazi propaganda was to incorporate into it a war of religion between Islam and the Jews. From his perspective, World War II was a twentieth-century chapter of a much longer history of what he depicted as an ineradicable MuslimJewish conflict.4s

The anger of the radical Arabs in Berlin often turned on fellow Arabs who entertained the possibility of coexistence with Jews in Palestine. On April 30, the Arab Nation expressed rage at Arab political leaders in the Jaffa municipality who organized athletic contests with Jewish athletes. This was "a very dangerous tendency." The Arabs could not "maintain their integrity without the decision to avoid the Jews and never go near them." The tendency toward friendship had to be resisted, for the Jewish danger remained. Force was the only solution. Arabs must refuse to share Palestine "with any other people.... Noble Arabs! You should maintain your policy of boycotting the Jews. You should punish those who ignore the boycott. All Arabs who collaborate with the Jews should be destroyed before they help the Jews destroy US . 1146

Kilani's speeches on Nazi radio were generally long-winded denunciations of Britain's military intervention, which had brought his coup to an end. Yet his remarks on the evening of May 2 on Berlin in Arabic also reflected the flood of anti-Jewish messages of spring and summer 1943. He denounced Britain and the Bolsheviks, the Gaullists and the Americans, bound together as they were by "Jewish imperialistic intentions." He informed his listeners that "the Jews are the lowest of mankind" and offered a standard Nazi tale about the Jews in modern European history. Although they lived in Europe for centuries, "they did not improve in any way. Europe was disgusted with them. Nevertheless, the Jews were able to attract the sympathy of many British, Russian and American leaders and to incite them to wage war against Germany, merely in order that the Jews might take their revenge." Iraq knew the Jews "very well" as "its history is full of Jewish treachery." Yet he was confident that the Axis forces would win the war and as a result the Arabs would see all their hopes fulfilled. The station read congratulatory messages to Kilani from Mussolini and Ribbentrop, both of whom praised his fight against the British.47 Several days later Bari in Arabic read a message from Mussolini extolling Kilani's struggle against British im- perialism.48

On May 21, a certain anxiety was apparent on VFA. An evening broadcast alleged that Africa was now "under British control." It followed with anti-British and anti-Semitic formulas. "The British and the Jews waged the present war" in order to spread imperialism. British control meant "enslavement and the exploitation of the people." Churchill was alleged to have said that "Africa had been cleared of Nazism and Fascism." Again, striking a very new and now defensive tone, the VFA announcer stated:

We never asked for Nazism or Fascism but when we saw them coming to us we thought it an opportunity to throw off British control which signifies humiliation and brutality. Nazism and Fascism came to us as enemies of our enemies and this is why we welcomed them.... We welcomed Fascism and Nazism because Italy and Germany officially declared on numerous occasions that their only purpose in coming to our countries was to expel the British and the Jews and to enable us to be independent and free.... It is true that the war is not yet over and that surprises may be expected at any time. The British have not won the war yet; but we must confess that we have to prepare ourselves for the obscure future awaiting us, should the British, the Jews and their Allies emerge from the war as victors. It is our duty to prepare for the future and to be ready to fight those imperialists who would make of man, animals, and of life, a hell.49

This broadcast prefigured postwar justifications. The true believers, who had spewed forth hate every evening on the radio and in print, now presented themselves merely as allies of convenience who favored the Axis only because they had common enemies. They suggested that their alliance was born of political convenience, not ideological compatibility, as if choosing the Jews as an enemy and rejecting any compromise with them was not itself a consequence of political and religious beliefs. The apologia lay in retrospectively defining themselves as clever Machiavellians, not the ideological soul mates that they in fact also were. Now that the future looked "obscure" and the "hour of deliverance" was not imminent, German Arabic radio repeatedly warned Arab and Muslim audiences of the terrible consequences of an Allied victory. Along these lines, Berlin in Arabic of May 25, in a broadcast entitled "The Kingdom of Judas," asserted that "international Jewry" was intending to establish a "Kingdom in Palestine that will include Iraq and Egypt."5° That same evening, VFA's piece "Tunisia and the Jews" reported, "Jews have become the masters [over Arabs] thanks to support from the British and American forces.."sl

On May 7, Robert Murphy, Roosevelt's minister to French North Africa, along with a British counterpart, penned a memo on "Propaganda to the Arabs in North Africa." Its purpose was to assist American military officers now occupying Morocco as they sought support for the Allies. In preparing such propaganda materials, he wrote, "political and ideological themes should be avoided. The themes to be used should be primarily Allied power and the certainty of victory, with its corollary of enemy weakness, and secondarily, the material benefits likely to follow from the victory of the United Nations and the necessity for making an individual contribution in order to share in them.."52 Given that World War II was the product of intense political and ideological passions, Murphy's was a peculiar admonition. Yet it was one in tune with overall Allied propaganda policy in the region. In order to win the propaganda battle in the region, Murphy thought it best to avoid a battle of ideas but instead to adapt to existing popular mentalities.

In Berlin, the response to setbacks was to reassert first principles. On May 22, Berlin in Arabic discussed "Islam and National Socialism." "Islam," not fundamentalist, conservative, political or orthodox Islam but simply "Islam;" was "a strong and generous religion" that had connections to Persian literature, Greek mythology, Roman law, and contemporary Europe. The broadcast mentioned some similarities between it and National Socialism. "The miracle of National Socialism is indeed order;" which was "evident in all German life and industry." Many verses in the Koran also referred to order. National Socialism admired strength. So did Islam, evident in Mohammed's statement, "'A strong believer is better and more esteemed than a weak one."' Islam's belief in strength enabled it to spread to many countries. Through the same conviction, National Socialism became a great power in Europe. Such beliefs were not "barbarous" for "the Moslem believes that strength is derived from God. 1153

Following the Allied victory in Tunisia, VFA on May 29 observed only that villages and towns in North Africa were "now full of American troops." The Americans were intent on building an empire with the Arab countries as its center. The cause of that policy was obvious.

America today is a Jewish country and it is the Jews who direct this policy. It is therefore impossible for the Arabs to cooperate with a country whose policy is handled by the Jews. We know that the Jews hate nobody more than they hate the Arabs and that the Arabs hate nobody more than the Jews. As we have said in the past, there is no room on earth for both Arabs and the Jews. Their hate for one another dates back to ancient times and references to it are found in the Koran. Does America believe that the Arabs will ever be the slaves of the Jews? We struggle against the British because they have occupied our country and robbed us of the right to live. We struggle against the Jews because they are our enemies. In the same way we will struggle against the Americans if they try to violate the integrity of our land.

The Arabs were too intelligent to believe "American Jewish propaganda," that is, the idea that the United States entered the war to defend nations attacked by Nazism and fascism. "The truth is that the Jews pushed Britain into the war and that, realizing that she was on the point of collapse, they then turned their efforts to America, not to save Britain but to save themselves. Therefore, America is fighting to defend the Jews and their interest. In return the Jews have promised the Americans that they will be heirs of the disintegrating British Empire. Whether this happens or not, the outcome will be the same for us, for both in America and in Britain the Jews are the masters and the cause of all trouble.... The truth is that Britain like America, and vice versa, is dominated by the Jews."54

As with Nazi propaganda in Germany, radical anti-Semitism in the Arabic radio broadcasts was both an explosion of hatred as well as an interpretative framework. In this instance, it offered an explanation as to why the United States entered World War II. At a time of obvious Jewish powerlessness in Europe, Nazi propaganda in German and Arabic stressed the Jews' enormous power. The above assertion that "there is no room on earth for both Arabs and Jews" was a not so subtly coded message to VFA's regular listeners that the Nazi regime was determined that there would be no room on earth for the Jews, and that it was in the process of trying to murder them all. Confident that Jewish power behind the scenes was the driving factor of contemporary history, Nazi propaganda at home and abroad sought to convince its listeners to dismiss any alternative explanations as to why American and British troops were now in towns and villages in North Africa. In Germany, Goebbels tried to solidify the home front with predictions of the catastrophe to come should Germany be defeated. In the same months, Germany's Arabic-language propaganda stressed a Middle Eastern version of the coming catastrophe in the form of Jewish mastery and enslavement of the Arabs. In spring 1943, predictions of doom replaced the euphoria of summer 1942.

On May 31, Berlin in Arabic asked its listeners, "Haven't you heard that in America, the Jews rule the roost?" This broadcast offered an added insight. The Jews' horrible actions could be traced back to the Talmud, which, the broadcast falsely asserted, instructed them "not to take part in any war" and stated that "should a Jew be forced to take part in a war he should be in the rear in order to return first from the battlefield." The Jews were "the deadliest enemy of humanity." They were "responsible for the present war which they waged in order to assert their mastery over the other peoples." Characteristically they "then stood in the rear to witness the destruction they cause." All of this took place "accord ing to the dictates of the Talmud. 1155 The following month, Ribbentrop sent a memo to all offices in the Foreign Ministry engaged in propaganda activities stating that the German message should be adapted to "the mentality and national characteristics" of the country in question so that it attains the required resonance"56 Berlin in Arabic's lessons on the supposed implications of the Talmud for the Jewish role in World War II offered an example of the kind of adaptation Ribbentrop had in mind.

In June and July 1943, the flood of anti-Semitic abuse continued unabated. On June 8, Berlin in Arabic reported that "the Jews aim at monopolizing all the economics of the Arab countries surrounding them;" that is, that the Jewish threat was to the entire Middle East, not only to Palestine.57 On June ii it warned Arabs and Egyptians not to fall for American promises of assistance in the event of Allied victory. "How can Egyptians believe in American promises when they see that America supports the Jews, the enemies of Islam throughout the world?"58 The same evening, the Arab Nation claimed that Chaim Weizmann had territorial ambitions outside Palestine and that "a few thousand Jews ... control the finances and fate of Iraq. The same thing is happening in Egypt, and also in Syria and North Africa." It denounced cooperation between Jews and Arabs. "The Jews are the enemies of Islam. If Mohammed and the Caliphs could not live with the Jews in one country, how can we do so today? No, we shall never live in peace with the Jews. They will never be our masters, they will never be our partners. Either Palestine will be liberated or all Arabs will perish to the last man in our fight for freedom. We shall live an honorable, free life, or die an honorable death-for then we can meet our God as martyrs."59 On June 26, an Arab Nation broadcast asserted that "the Jews want the whole of Palestine exclusively for the sons of Israel without a single Arab remaining in the country." Yet even if the "Jews had all of Palestine, Transjordan, Syria and Lebanon," they would not be satisfied because Palestine was densely populated. The "sixteen million ... Jewish pests scattered all over the world" would spare no effort "to infiltrate into all the Arab countries." For good measure, the announcer proclaimed: "God curse you contemptible Jews. 1160

On June 17, VFA again wove together Koranic and modern secular arguments and repeated the theme of Jewish expansionism into the Arab world. The Jews intended to "spread their influence to all the Arab countries, from the Atlantic Ocean to the Tigris and Euphrates." In Algeria and Morocco, "thanks to the efforts of Roosevelt's troops;' the Jews had gained "concessions;" including being tried in Jewish courts so that the Jews there had "become a state within a state." In Palestine, the Jews could not "claim any rights." The broadcast cited support in the Koran for the notions that "the Jews would be humiliated for ever" and that "the Arab nation" of "almost ioo million men, the Moslems of the world amounting to 400 million men, and the Europeans amounting to 250 million men" were "all the enemies of the Jews" and were "resolved to fight against them until the Jews are suppressed." In the broadcast VFA reminded its listeners of "the historic enmity between the Jews and Islam." The Jews know "that all their hopes will crumble should the Anglo-Saxons be defeated;' which was why they were "spending their money to aid the Allies." Only Arabs who were "blind to the plain facts" claimed that a victory for the democracies would be a victory for the Arabs. '161