March 14, 2014:   Billions of dollars of Arab money has been used over the last few decades to persuade Americans that Israel is the villain and Arabs (especially the Palestinians) are the good guys in the Middle East. Israel has spent far less but a recent poll showed that 73 percent of Americans support Israel while only 16 percent support the Palestinians. Egypt scored with 45 percent support while Saudi Arabia got 35 percent and that Axis of Evil stalwart Iran got 12 percent.

The problem the Arabs, especially Moslem Arabs and non-Arab Iran have is that Israel is less alien to most Americans and that, especially since the Internet made it possible to view web sites from these countries and see what people in these other countries think, the popular hatred present in the Arab world is easily seen by Westerners. This has not worked out well for the Arabs.

The basic problem is that, for the last two generations, it has been Arab, especially Palestinian, policy to teach their children, and anyone that will listen that Israel has no right to exist. The kids get indoctrinated with anti-Semitic propaganda from a young age and in many countries are encouraged to become suicide bombers or less self-destructive terrorists. As adults they continue to be bombarded by anti-Semitic propaganda.

Thus most Arabs (unless they were educated outside of the Middle East) take it for granted that any peace deal with Israel is just a tactical move in the effort to eventually destroy Israel and drive all Jews from the Middle East. People outside the Middle East have a hard time comprehending this attitude. But it is very real, and can be seen on Arab web sites (not so much on the non-Arabic language ones, although even there the anti-Semitic line is leaking through more and more). Israel, at the urging of the United States and Europe, goes through the motions of negotiating a peace deal but few Jews in Israel see any chance of real peace with the Palestinians, given the current attitudes within the Arab community.

 That’s because Arab attitudes towards the non-existence of Israel goes beyond teaching their kids that Israel doesn’t even exist. The children are taught that what the rest of the world calls Israel is really just a bunch of Zionists illegally occupying Arab land. While Arabs love to call Israelis "Nazis", it is the Arab world that is the true heir to the Adolph Hitler's vision of how the world should be. A major weapon in the Palestinian arsenal is anti-Semitism. For a long time, even before World War II, the racial hatred tactic was particularly popular in the Arab world. This was partly the result of Islamic radicalism, which pushed hatred of all non-Moslems, not just Jews. But as more Jews began moving into Jerusalem and surrounding areas in the late 19th century, more of the Moslem racial animosity was directed at Jews.

This was not the usual ethnic animosity found in Europe, but something more in line with the extreme violence of the Nazis. In fact, during World War II, the Nazis were very popular in the Arab world (and still are). The Grand Mufti of Jerusalem (the highest Islamic official in the area) spent the war in Berlin mainly to avoid arrest by the British. Iraq, which had become independent during the 1930s, declared itself a German ally in 1941 (and was promptly invaded and re-conquered by three British divisions before the Germans could get many troops into the territory of their new ally). After World War II, the Arab language media continued Nazi-grade anti-Semitism. The Arabs had enough sense to tone down this race hatred, and pro-Nazi, line in their English language media.

Over the last few decades, and especially since the end of the Cold War many Westerners have adopted the anti-Semitic angle in denouncing Israeli attempts to defend itself against Palestinian terrorism. Such self-defense measures are now seriously discussed as "war crimes" in the West. To the Arabs, the very existence of Israel is a "war crime," but the Arabs have been unable to do much beyond fanaticizing about destroying Israel. Now they have many political activists and progressive thinkers in the West fanaticizing along with them. Tangible gains from this ethnic hatred strategy have been scant so far. Many in the West are appalled by it, and the leadership in most Western nations does not buy into it. But much of the popular media does, and incidents of anti-Semitism, including assault and murder, are on the increase in Europe. Arabs see their anti-Semitism strategy as a success, as Arabs tend to take solace in symbolism, given their lack of substantial progress in destroying Israel. So every anti-Semitic attack in Europe is a victory, as is every European politician who denounces Israel for non-existent war crimes, or ignores the very real atrocities that the Arabs commit against each other. To many Arabs, living the fantasy is easier than dealing with reality.

Arabs believe that time, and God, are on their side. Meanwhile, they use negotiations to gain whatever small advantages they can. The ultimate goal, as is plainly displayed on official Palestinian web sites and official documents, is the expulsion of all Jews from what the United Nations erroneously calls “Israel.” All this hateful propaganda is abhorrent to most Americans, as is the anti-American attitudes so common among Arabs. This is in sharp contrast to the pro-American attitudes of most Israelis.