Prime Minister Netanyahu made three statements about the mufti and the holocaust
1) The Mufti played a central role in the planning of the final solution.
2) At the time of his meeting with Hitler, Hitler had no intention to kill the Jews but rather to expel them.
3) Netanyahu described a conversation between the mufti and Hitler which concludes in the Mufti saying "burn them."
As a historian (but not an expert in this specific field) as far as I can tell the professional response is as follows:
1) Is accepted by a school of serious historians (such as Wolffand Schwanitz) while others (such as Christopher Browning - [
foreignpolicy.com]) disagree.
2) Is a theory which is not widely accepted. For example see this quote from the book of Schwanitz and Barry Rubin:
<<
It is logical to believe that the Holocaust was a decision based on fanatical ideology rather than on German self-interest. Of course, Hitler’s virulent hatred of Jews and talk of wiping them out had begun in the 1920s. If al-Husaini or some counterpart had not existed, the Nazis would probably have acted in a similar fashion. But the influence of al-Husaini, al-Kailani, and their movements also reinforced, made more necessary, and accelerated a policy of genocide in Europe that the Axis’s [Arab] partners intended to spread to the Middle East.- See [
jcpa.org]
>>
3) Is utterly fanciful. A serious person does not "reenact" a conversation of which there is no clear record. The Prime Minister of Israel is not the playwright of a high school play or the author of a historical novel. If he quotes direct speech, it should be a verified quote.
I am sure that Mr. Netanyahu is sorry that instead of teaching the world about the anti-Semitism of the mufti, he found himself accused of historical revisionism.
Kalman Neuman
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/28/2015 05:21PM by mlb.
