Sunday Book Review!

The nex time you should hear the tired refrain that "If only Isreal would withdraw from all of the "occupied lands", then there would be no need for terrorism....", I recommend that you point them towards this book - Lost Stories from the Holocaust's Long Reach Into Arab Lands - reviewed in today's New York Post.

Author Robert Satloff, executive director of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, was hoping to find proof of Arab heroism during the Holocaust...in his words:

"If I could make Arabs see the Holocaust as a source of pride, worthy of remembering, not just something to avoid or deny," writes Satloff, perhaps it could bring Arabs and Jews closer together.

But alas, he finds something different:

The Holocaust is an Arab story as well as a European one...
There were no death camps, but there were brutal slave labor and concentration camps in such Arab North African countries as Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco, over 100 in all, most solely for Jewish prisoners. In these same countries, and others, such as Libya, there was torture, execution - perpetrated by Arab guards and overseers - and a full complement of laws that stripped Jews of their homes, property and livelihood.

He writes, "At every stage of the Nazi, Vichy [French] and [Italian] Fascist persecutions of Jews in Arab lands, and in every place that it occurred, Arabs played a supporting role. At times, Arabs were essential to the process. At other times, the Arab role was passive, yet still critical."
And "without this measure of Arab support - and, certainly, without this level of Arab acquiescence - the extent of Jewish suffering in Arabs lands would have been much less."

Because so little was known of their role as Holocaust collaborators, Satloff argued in a recent Washington Post op-ed, Arabs "appear to have won a free pass when it comes to denying or minimizing the Holocaust." That, he argues, must change.

Yeah, sure it will change. Like when Israel reverts back to its tiny 1948 borders; then all the Arab peoples will love them again...like they used to in the past...