Nazi Propaganda for the Arab World (44 page)

An important indicator of Arab and Muslim views of wartime collaboration lay in the nature of the reception received by the pro-Axis exiles on their return. At the end of May 1946, under circumstances that remain murky but probably had to do with Saudi Arabian pressure and French acquiescence, Husseini "escaped" from France and was flown to Cairo. There Prime Minister Sidky Pasha said that Egypt was honor bound to grant him exile. United States intelligence officials reported that the Egyptian government provided two detachments of police and regular army guards at his residence, each with twentyfive men and three officers, with orders to shoot any intruders.28 American Ambassor Pinkney Tuck observed that the warm welcome was "widespread and genuine." The embassy monitored the response to his return in the Egyptian press. Enthusiasm came not only from the Muslim Brotherhood but also from "the usually staid and conservative" newspaper Al Ahram.29 "God preserved the Mufti for the Arab world.... God wanted to honor Egypt when he made the Mufti come to Egypt." The Arabs had "never thought America would be guided by Zionists. America lost her reputation and prestige in the short period of one year by her foolish policy."30 On June 12, 1946, Al Kutla, an organ of the more secular, nationalist Wafd Party, welcomed the Mufti "in the field of Jihad.... The hearts of the Arabs palpitated with joy at hearing that the Mufti has succeed in reaching an Arab country. The news sounded like thunder to the ears of some American, British and Jewish tyrants. The lion is at last free and he will roam the Arabian jungle to clear it of all wolves."31 On June 20, 1946, Al Misri wrote : "Every Arab will be pleased to know that the Mufti is safe in Cairo. Every Egyptian will feel proud that the Mufti has chosen Egypt as a sanctuary where he will be safe from the molestation of the enemies of freedom. Egypt, the believer, opens her arms and welcomes him to the dearest spot in Cairo. Today it must be clear how united the Arabs are in their defense of Palestine."32

On June 20, 1946, Al Ikhwan Al Muslimin, the newspaper of the Muslim Brotherhood, exceeded all others in its enthusiasm.

Thank you, our Lord, for your mercy and generous disposition. Thank you for putting our mind at ease. Our hearts were pounding but may now rest. We can now breathe freely. The Arab hero and symbol of Al Jihad and patience and struggle is here in Egypt. The Mufti is among his friends. He is protected by our great King Farouk. So who can now harm him? We shall protect him with our very lives. He shall be our leader in struggle and Jihad. They wanted to harm him but the Lord saved him. They were cunning but the Lord was more cunning than they. The Lord always protects those who struggle for they will inherit the earth. The Mufti is here, oh Palestine! Do not worry. The lion is safe among his brethren and he will draw the plans of Al Jihad and struggle for you. We, here, shall be his soldiers and we shall not stop fighting for you until you rid yourself of Zionism. Long live King Farouk and curse the tyrants!33

Four days later, Al Misri reported the following statement of Al Ikhwan Al Muslimin: "One hair of the Mufti's is worth more than the Jews of the whole world: Yesterday's telegrams stated that the Hagana [Haganah] society had passed the sentence of death on the Mufti. Our correspondents in Palestine, Iraq, Syria, and Egypt asked high Arab sources what would be [the] Arab reaction if this threat against the Mufti's life were carried out. They all agreed that should one hair of the Mufti's be touched, every Jew in the world would be killed without mercy."34 In reality, the Haganah had made no such threat. The pattern of invented threats leading to promises of genocidal retribution followed the format used by Nazi propagandists. By June 1946, the facts about the Nazi death camps and testimony about Nazi plans for mass murder had been in headlines around the world for almost a year. Celebrating Husseini in 1946 had a different meaning than it would have had when such advocates could claim they did not know what the Nazis had done to the Jews. Rather than denying that the Nazis had murdered the Jews of Europe, this praise, combined with the murderous threat to kill all the Jews, suggested approval of what the Muftiand the Nazis-had done to the Jews of Europe. At the very least, such comments contained not a word of criticism of those deeds.

The most remarkable statement to accompany Husseini's arrival to Cairo came from Hassan al-Banna on June 11. An OSS report of July 23,1946, documented his extensive praise.

It is said that Al-Sayed Amin Al-Hussein has left France and arrived in an Arab country.

Al-Ikhwan Al-Muslimin and all Arabs request the Arab League on which Arab hopes are pinned, to declare that the Mufti is welcome to stay in any Arab country he may choose and that great welcome should be extended to him wherever he goes, as a sign of appreciation for his great services for the glory of Islam and the Arabs.

The hearts of the Arabs palpitated with j oy at hearing that the Mufti has succeeded in reaching an Arab country. The news sounded like thunder to the ears of some American, British and Jewish tyrants.

The lion is at last free and he will roam the Arabian jungle to clear it of the wolves.

The great leader is back after many years of suffering in exile. Some Zionist papers in Egypt printed by La Societe de Publicite shout and crybecause the Mufti is back. We cannot blame them for they realize the importance of the role played by the Mufti in the Arab struggle against the crime about to be committed by the Americans and the English.

The Americans tried to counteract the calamity by declaring that they were prepared to enforce the recommendations of the Anglo-American Commission of Inquiry. Such a threat is beneath the contempt of all Arabs who are determined to defend their rights at any cost.

The Mufti is worth the people of a whole nation put together. The Mufti is Palestine and Palestine is the Mufti. Oh Amin! What a great, stubborn, terrific, wonderful man you are! All these years of exile did not affect your fighting spirit.

Hitler's and Mussolini's defeat did not frighten you. Your hair did not turn grey of fright and you are still full of life and fight.

What a hero, what a miracle of a man. We wish to know what the Arab youth, Cabinet Ministers, rich men, and princes of Palestine, Syria, Iraq, Tunis, Morocco, and Tripoli are going to do to be worthy of this hero. Yes, this hero who challenged an empire and fought Zionism, with the help of Hitler and Germany. Germany and Hitler are gone, but Amin Al-Husseini will continue the struggle.

He is but one man, but Mohammed was also one man, and so was Christ, and they achieved great results. Amin has a divine spark in his heart which makes him above human beings. God entrusted him with a mission and he must succeed. The armies of colonization occupied Germany and hoped to catch Amin, but he was too clever for them. He managed to escape to France and now he returns to his people to resume the struggle against the criminal British and against Zionism. The battle has begun and it is easy to foresee the result. The Lord Almighty did not preserve Amin for nothing. There must be a divine purpose behind the preservation of the life of this man, namely the defeat of Zionism.

Amin! March on! God is with you! We are behind you! We are willing to sacrifice our necks for the cause. To death! Forward March....

... America traded on the San Francisco and Atlantic Charter but she has now been unveiled and we know her for what she really is. She used to talk about freedom when she herself was fighting a wild beast. Now she attempts to throttle the Arabs, and adopts the Nazi methods!15

Although al-Banna understood that "Nazi" had become a pejorative term, he did not reject what National Socialism had stood for. On the contrary, to write that Germany and Hitler were gone but that Husseini would "continue the struggle" against "the criminal British and against Zionism" gave the impression that this was the same "struggle" as before. He called the victors in Europe "armies of colonization." A plausible reading of al-Banna's statement would be that Husseini was continuing the same struggle that Hitler and Germany-and Husseini himself-had been waging during the war. Indeed, for al-Banna, that war was to be continued and if so, who better to play a leading role than a political and religious leader with experience in fighting the enemy? Far from criticizing him for having sided with "Germany and Hitler;" al-Banna expressed admiration for Husseini's wartime activities. Living in wartime Egypt, al-Banna and the members of the Muslim Brotherhood would have been able to hear what the Mufti and others on Axis radio had to say about the Jews and the Allies. It was these words and actions that he found so admirable. Moreover, he viewed Husseini's survival, "escape;" and arrival in Cairo as proof that God approved as well.

In the United States, revelations of the scope of the mass murder of European Jews increased political support for a Jewish state in Palestine. Supporters included President Harry Truman, but as was the case during the war, the American military leadership remained unenthusiastic.36 In Washington these considerations, as well as the prospect of increased Jewish immigration to Palestine and of conflict between Jews and Arabs, led the joint Chiefs of Staff to request an "Intelligence Estimate of the Moslem Situation," called "JC355/1." Specifically, the chiefs wanted to know what the consequences would be "throughout the Moslem world of introducing 1oo,ooo additional Jews into Palestine and carrying out other actions recommended in the Report by the Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry on Palestine." The analysts were to assess "the possibility of a Holy War' against all Occidentals" and the effect of implementation of the committee recommendations on British and American oil interests, French and Spanish colonies, and Soviet efforts to align the Muslims toward the Soviets. On October 1,1946, twenty-two copies of the ensuing report were circulated to high-ranking officials in the Pentagon. Although the OSS formally had ceased to exist the previous October, a copy was also sent to the Washington office of its former director, William Donovan.37 The report's central conclusion was: "The introduction of 1oo,ooo additional Jews into Palestine would cause serious unrest throughout the Moslem world. The entire Arab population of the Middle East, both Christian and Arab, is backing the Arab League in its fight against the implementation of the Anglo-American report." The anticipated repercussions would stem "principally from nationalism and anti-imperialism. Religious fanaticism would also be employed by the Moslems as an instrument of opposition." Although the Anglo-American Committee had consulted Arabs and Jews and called for further discussions between them, JC355/1 referred to "an enforced solution of the Palestine problem," which in turn "would in all probability eventually make impossible or seriously impair the functioning of British and American oil installations in the Middle East." It would stir nationalism in North Africa, produce volunteers from those countries to wage guerilla war in Palestine, and "cause an inevitable trend towards Arab political and economic reliance on the U.S.S.R." The report referred to the Haganah as "the illegal Jewish Army," noting that it was "prepared for a short, defensive war with the British and a prolonged stand against the Arabs until overwhelmed by numbers." "World Jewry" would support the Zionists in Palestine with money, smuggling of arms, attempts at illegal immigration, and "wide-spread propaganda to sway public and government opinion towards Zionist aspirations" in Britain and the United States.38

The authors added that in spite of disagreements between Sunni and Shi'ite Muslims or jealousy between Egypt and Saudi Arabia, "the one thing the Arab states agree on is opposition to Jewish immigration into Palestine." The report listed a "summary of resentments" of Arabs and Muslims that echoed the Arab case against any Jewish state in Palestine, including the assertion that an effort to establish a Jewish state had been a component of British imperialism. An "effort to do so now without consent of locals" would constitute a "breach of the principles which underlie the Atlantic Charter and the United Nations." Speaking of Arab sentiment, the authors wrote that any U.S. effort "to impose a Jewish settlement in the Near East is genuinely viewed as a complete negation of all moral principles upon which American reputation in the Near East has been established" 39

The authors of JC355/1 also foresaw a possible "holy war against all occidentals." In fall 1946, there was "no leader for a holy war unless the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin el Husseini, or King Ibn Saud of Saudi Arabia assumes the leadership." But a jihad "might be started by the Arabs in Palestine with the thought that, under Moslem law, it would become a Moslem duty to volunteer support." That would lead to guerilla war and terrorism aimed at Jewish and Christian communities in Africa, the Middle East, and the Near East. In such a war, "every resulting Arab death would be utilized to create martyrs and thus to create throughout the Near East centers for the influencing of passions." Moreover, "none of the native Governments in the Near East could long survive if they attempted to support British or American interests while the British or American governments were employing force to suppress the expression of Arab nationalist aspirations in Palestine. On the contrary, these Arab governments, in order to survive, would be forced to demonstrate their hostility to the Western powers in every possible manner." This would eventually "make impossible or seriously impact" the functioning of British and American oil in- stallations.4o

While its references to the Arabs dwelt on their "legitimate nationalist aspirations," JC355/1 had cold and harsh words for the Jews. In a discussion of "Jew ish capabilities in Palestine" it referred to "the good organization of Jewish extremists" and the disciplined nationalists of "Palestinian Jewish colonists" who would be able to confront the British with "a greatly augmented campaign of terrorism. 1141 In short, the "Intelligence Estimate of the Moslem Situation" concluded that fulfillment of Zionist aspirations would be a disaster for American interests in the Middle East. It contained not a word about the relation between the issues of the war the United States military had just fought and the emerging conflict in the Middle East. It said nothing about the explicit anti-Semitic and antidemocratic sentiments expressed by Muslim extremists, sentiments that American military intelligence and OSS operatives were reporting back to Washington. Written when the Nuremberg war crimes trials were taking place, it neither expressed empathy for the Jews nor placed Zionism in the context of the Holocaust.