Dear Anne Karpf,
Your myopic commentary on Islamofascism and the Holocaust overlooks some important points. You write:
Since the Jewish genocide is used so shamelessly in legitimation of Israeli policy towards the Palestinians, it's hardly surprising if many Arabs and Muslims respond either with Holocaust denial or by trying to appropriate the Holocaust themselves.
The radical Islamic movements Israel fights openly declare that their goal is to destroy the Jewish state from the Jordan to the Mediterranean.
Hezbollah's charter (pdf format) clearly states:
Our primary assumption in our fight against Israel states that the Zionist entity is aggressive from its inception, and built on lands wrested from their owners, at the expense of the rights of the Muslim people. Therefore our struggle will end only when this entity is obliterated. We recognize no treaty with it, no cease fire, and no peace agreements, whether separate or consolidated.
No ambiguity in the Hamas charter either:
There is no solution to the Palestinian problem except by Jihad.
Paul Bogdanor documented an extensive list of similar comments from influential Arab leaders both secular and religious.
Whitewashing Arab venom and explaining away Holocaust denial merely provides an excuse to close your eyes to terror that is properly labelled Islamofascism.
respectfully,
Pesach Benson
