Sunday, September 27, 2009

The History Behind Netanyahu's History.


by Rick Richman

Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech to the United Nations was steeped in history–history denied by some members of the UN, and lessons of history ignored by others. He ended by stating that peace would ultimately depend on whether the international community confronted, or accommodated, the forces led by Iran. His concluding paragraphs offered a quotation from Churchill:

Over seventy years ago, Winston Churchill lamented what he called the “confirmed unteachability of mankind,” the unfortunate habit of civilized societies to sleep until danger nearly overtakes them.

Churchill bemoaned what he called the “want of foresight, the unwillingness to act when action will be simple and effective, the lack of clear thinking, the confusion of counsel until emergency comes, until self-preservation strikes its jarring gong.”

I speak here today in the hope that Churchill’s assessment of the “unteachability of mankind” is for once proven wrong.

There is a history behind the Churchill quotation, unspoken by Netanyahu, that is necessary to recount in order to appreciate its full import.

The quotation came from Churchill’s speech to the House of Commons on May 2, 1935, on German rearmament, which had proceeded much more rapidly than the government’s intelligence had indicated and had already reached a stage that was beyond the power of “engagement” to reverse. It caused Churchill to ask why steps had not been taken two or three years before, when “alarm bells [had been] set ringing, and even jangling:”

It is possible that the dangers into which we are steadily advancing would never have arisen. . . . [But] when the situation was manageable it was neglected, and now that it is thoroughly out of hand we apply too late the remedies which then might have effected a cure.

Then Churchill provided his own answer to why England had allowed the situation to reach the point where the Germans, through rearmament, would shortly be able “if they chose — and why should they not choose? — to reverse the results of the Great War:”

There is nothing new to the story. It is as old as [Rome]. It falls into that long, dismal catalogue of the fruitlessness of experience and the confirmed unteachability of mankind. Want of foresight, unwillingness to act when action would be simple and effective, lack of clear thinking, confusion of counsel until the emergency comes, until self-preservation strikes its jarring gong — these are the features which constitute the endless repetition of history.

Netanyahu left out Churchill’s references to “the fruitlessness of experience” and the “endless repetition of history.” The omission was undoubtedly intentional, reflecting Netanyahu’s concluding hope that the history he had recounted would be a teachable moment, not another instance of the “unteachability of mankind,” and that the world would not be condemned to repeat that history.

His history lesson was reinforced by the speech from the same podium by the president of Iran–who has repeatedly expressed intentions at least as clear as those Churchill discerned in 1935 and who presides over an armament program even clearer and more dangerous than Germany’s at that time.

But Netanyahu was also preceded by the president of the United States, who delivered an extraordinarily self-referential speech, with no sense of either history or the storm gathering before him. Obama’s speech may someday stun historians–except, perhaps, for those aware he began his term by packing up the bust of Churchill and writing on it “Return to Sender.”

 

Rick Richman
Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.

 

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Background on
Arab Palestine Nazism:

* March 1933, the mufti is already rushing to the German consul to offer the Nazis support.

* 'Falastin', April 4, 1933, expressed appreciation for Nazi leader Adolf Hitler vs Arab Palestinian leaders. 

* 'Falastin', May 1933, calls Hitler "noble", justifies his persecution of the Jews.

 * El Karmel, [Karmil] May 14, 1933 : "Will an Arab Hitler appear among us to awaken, unite and lead us to lead us to fight and defend our rights?" 

 * [Ad Difa'a] Al-Difa had glorified Nazis, published translated excerpts from Hitler's Mein Kampf's book. al-Shanti, called on Arab youth (in an article from June 1, 1934) to "learn from Hitler's actions and imitate them."

* March 15, 1935, The Templars' 'Die Warte des Tempels' wrote: many Arabs see Hitler as the most important man of the 20th century and almost every Arab knows his name. Fascism and National Socialism with its anti-Jewish attitude are accepted positively by many Arabs. 

 * May-June 1935, Arabs in Haifa found Nazi club 'Red Moon.' In May: As Arab delegates returned from Haifa Arab youth conference - Swastika drawn on train beneath it, inscription: 'Germany above all,' In Arabic.

* June 25, 1935, Al Difa'a reported that "uniformed and Nazified" Arab youth troops are being formed in Palestine.' 

 * 'Falastin'', January 5, 1936: "It is very easy to explain our youth's sympathy for the fascist idea."

* 1936-8: "Nazi flags and pictures of Hitler were prominently displayed in store windows. Booklets explaining Nazi methods of forcing Jews from the Reich were distributed freely... The shout of 'Heil Hitler' became a catchword which rang insolently over all Palestine." (Ziff, 'The Rape of Palestine', 1938). 

* 1936-9, Hilda Wilson, a teacher at Birzeit throughout the revolt, noted that most of her students were pro-Nazi and approved of Hitler.

 * NYT May 1937, 'All' of Palestine celebrated Muhamnad's birthday with flying Nazi swastika and pictures of Hitler. 

 * 1937, Walter Doehle, German consul in Jerusalem: "Palestinian Arabs in all social strata have great sympathies for the new Germany and its Führer…" 

 * Awni Abd al-Hadi (Istiqlal & AHC) in Jan 1937 to Nazi magazine : 'Arabs Like Nazis.' 

* 'Falastin', Sep 1938, reacting to Hitler's speech, describes dictatorship as against [sic] Jewish so-called control.

* In 1938, some 100 Arabs, including from Palestine, represented in Nuremberg.

 * Journalist John Gunther in 1939: "The greatest contemporary Arab hero is — Adolf Hitler." 

 * Ahmad Shukeiri's testimony in his (1969) book that they (all) sympathized with the Nazis referrin to (1940-1). 

 * Sakakini's Feb. 1941 poll - 88% of Arab-Palestine favoring the Axis. 

 * Dr. Zaid Hamzeh ?was 9 yrs old in 1941): "We Arabs supported Hitler during WWII because he hated the Jews," recalled in a 2019 interview.

* Per Edward Said, pro-Nazi Mufti represented the consensus of Palestine Arabs. 

 * CIA August 1942 report: "majority of the Arabs in Palestine Palestinian Arabs are fiercely 'anti-Jewish'… the radicals, who form a majority, see in the approach of Rommel an ideal opportunity to murder all Jews their seize their property." 

* In 1942, reaction of most Arabs in Palestine upon hearing the fate of the Jews in Europe, was: 'open joy.'

 * Dec 21, 1942 letter, representatives of the Reich and the NSDAP in Palestine described the Arabs' hope for a great Arab state: "Arabs in Palestine were waiting for Hitler to come to Palestine and expel all the Jews." 

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