Palestinian leader Abbas' comments on Holocaust condemned as anti-Semitic

[sabbat hunter]

http://www.latimes.com/world/middleeast/la-fg-palestinian-abbas-tirade-20180502-story.html

In a rambling tirade, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas this week dismissed Israel as a European "colonial project" and said the Jews had brought the Holocaust upon themselves.

"These Jews who migrated to Eastern and Western Europe were subjected to massacres by some state every 10 to 15 years from the 11th century until the Holocaust that took place in Germany. OK, but why did this happen? They say: 'Because we are Jews.'..."

Not so, Abbas insisted. "The Jewish problem that was common in all of the states of Europe against the Jews was not due to their religion, but rather due to their social role that was connected to usury, and banks, and so forth."

Moreover, he said, there is no such thing as a "Jewish people," and the notion that Jews are linked to the land of Israel is "baseless."

[aranthus]

1. Two important take aways.

First, this is yet more evidence that, just as the true cause of European oppression of Jews was European chauvinism and antisemitism, so the true cause of the Arab-Israeli conflict is Arab/Muslim chauvinism and antisemitism. That much is fairly obvious. What is subtly noticeable is that all of the criticism of Abbass' clear antisemitism and historical fantasy has come from liberals, moderates and conservatives. But Leftists (and obviously the radical Right) have remained silent. Yes, the story has appeared in the LA Times, and (along with an editorial) in the New York Times. But you won't see anything about it in The Nation or on CounterPunch. You won't read the likes of Falk, Finkelstein, Beinin, Schlomo Sand and their ilk saying anything about it.