Abbas’s vile anti-Semitic lies

Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas’s latest anti-Semitic rant should be a wake-up call to anyone who is sufficiently deluded to believe it would be a good idea for Australia to formally recognise a non-existent Palestinian state. His profoundly insulting assertion, at a meeting of his Fatah party’s Revolutionary Council, that Hitler ordered the mass slaughter of Jews not because of any murderous enmity towards them and Judaism but because of their “social role” as “moneylenders and usurers”, was a reprehensible distortion, calculated to cause maximum offence. The claim has been discredited by a century of scholarship. It’s a theory “one expects to find only in online fever swamps”, The Wall Street Journal said.

Mr Abbas did not let reality stand in the way of anti-Semitism. “They say Hitler killed the Jews (just) because they were Jews and that Europe hated the Jews because they were Jews. Not true. It was clearly explained that (the Europeans) fought (the Jews) because of their social role, and not their religion,” he claimed. “Even Hitler said he fought the Jews because they were dealing with usury and money … (The Holocaust) was not about Semitism and anti-Semitism.” This from a man who claims to epitomise all that is worthy about Palestinian aspirations for statehood and is lionised by governments and leaders across the world as he seeks – and all too often gets – the formal diplomatic recognition that has been sought from countries like Australia.

Germany’s ambassador to Israel, Steffen Seibert, got it right when he denounced Mr Abbas’s absurd address as “an insult to the memory of millions of murdered men, women and children”. Israel’s ambassador to the UN, Gilad Erdan, correctly said Mr Abbas’s speech “showed the true face of Palestinian leadership”, pointing out that “as Abbas blames the Jews for the Holocaust …(and) spreads his pure anti-Semitism, he also pays Palestinian terrorists for murdering Israelis and publicly commends Palestinian terrorism (against Jews)”. The EU, a major Palestinian benefactor, was outraged: “Such historical distortions are inflammatory, deeply offensive, can only serve to exacerbate tensions in the region and serve no one’s interests … they trivialise (the) Holocaust and thereby fuel anti-Semitism.”

Mr Abbas, 87, is, no neophyte in denying history. Last year he claimed Israel was guilty of “50 massacres; 50 Holocausts”. In May he likened Israel to the Nazis, claiming Israel was “lying just like Goebbels”. The world community must be clear about what Mr Abbas’s foray into the gutter of anti-Semitism means for what few prospects remain for Middle East peace. Palestinians and supporters of their claims to statehood should be aware of the damage delusional extremism is doing to their cause.