Amin al-Hussenini

President Obama gave a speech on relations between the Muslim world and the west. While I didn’t watch the speech I did read the transcript and saw some clips on the news. As I expected, it was a good speech. The President is a very good orator, and no one can say he is not. It is one of his strengths. History on the other hand is not.

While I agree with part of what the President said, some of what he said is historically inaccurate. The problems between the Jews and the Muslims started long before the State of Israel. Before Israel even existed the Palestinians were working towards the demise of the Jews. This is an uncomfortable fact that all too often ignored. Be honest, did you learn this in school?

Yasser Arafat’s uncle, Amin al-Husseini, instigated the death and destruction of the Jewish people as early as 1920 and his name came up during the Nuremberg trials. Allegedly he visited the gas chambers in Auschwitz, and there are pictures of him with Hitler. To this day, he is celebrated as a hero. The anti-Semitism has existed long before 1948. If we do not make this part of the conversation, how are ever going to past it?

I think the President should take a history course of the Middle East and inspect the roots of the hatred towards Israel before he makes another such speech. Too many people around the world do not understand the core roots of the problems with that region and say the European guilt of the holocaust is the only reason for the State of Israel. The historical records just don’t back up these claims.