Spanish Imam Prays for ‘Destruction of Jews’ Near Madrid

[Spider Jerusalem]

75. There's a difference between an explanation and an excuse

and the connection between Israel's actions and Muslim anti-Semitism has been widely noted by many commentators (including Jewish and Israeli commentators). For instance: http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4156355,00.html

See also Gen. Yehoshafat Harkabi (former chief of Israeli military intelligence; later professor of international relations at the Hebrew University), "Arab Attitudes to Israel" (1974):

It should be stated with the utmost emphasis that Arab anti-Semitism is not the cause of the conflict but one of its results; it is not the reason for the hostile Arab attitude toward Israel and the Jews, but a means of deepening, justifying and institutionalizing that hostility. Its rise is connected with the tension created as a result of Zionist activity, and especially of the traumatic experience of defeat, the establishment of independent Israel and the struggle against her. Anti-Semitism is a weapon in this struggle. It is functional and political, not social: it presents the Jews mainly as a political, not a social threat.... Hence it describes the Jews, not as passive, shrinking parasites, but as aggressors. Unlike Western Christian anti-Semitism, it is not the result of generations of incitement which have created an archetype in the popular consciousness, although there are elements in Islam on which anti-Semitism could build.