Antisemitism describes the turbulent and nearly universal malady afflicting Jews for millennia—dhimmitude, ghettoization, expulsions, autos-da-fé, and genocide; anti-Zionism the opposition of the region’s Arabic-speaking inhabitants and their heirs to the Jewish quest to settle a small swath of land deemed theirs, according to God’s promise in the Bible, and inhabited by them centuries earlier.
According to author David Stone, persistent anti-Zionism amounts to antisemitism: “Antisemitism in the Arab and Muslim world,” he argues, “should be understood for what it is—a dynamic, continuous and widely shared cognitive pathology that evolved over time, starting with the contempt of the dhimmi minority, to a suspicion-laden hostility to Zionist intentions, and ultimately to an uncompromising, eliminationist hatred of Israel.”
He claims that “hostility to Jews and Israelis in Arab and Muslim lands did not arise in a vacuum but developed as a result of a process of psychosocial conditioning that occurred over many centuries.” Israel’s Declaration of Independence in 1948, he writes “provided the spark that ignited a pre-existing time bomb,” unleashing a now seventy-six-year venomous onslaught. The rest is commentary, with some of it corroborated by the writings of historians Martin Gilbert, Bernard Lewis, and Walter Laqueur.
Stone confronts what he calls the “the elephant in the room,” explaining how antisemitic Arabs could not accept the existence of a Jewish state. He meticulously annotates his dates, facts, and reports at the end of each chapter.
Antisemitism in the Arab-Israeli Conflict offers a valuable guide for those seeking truth about the Arab-Israeli conflict. It makes a perfect assignment for a student exploring the subject.
Judith Friedman Rosen
