The Arab-Israeli conflict goes far beyond the wars waged in the Middle East. There is a war of narratives revolving around the two defining traumas of the conflict: the Holocaust and the Nakba. Middle East expert Gilbert Achcar critically assesses Arab attitudes to the Holocaust, which he argues are closely related to the dynamics of the Arab-Israeli conflict since 1948. From Hitler's rise to power up to the present day, he identifies a wide range of reactions among the Arab world's four main idealogical movements: pro-Western liberalism, pan-Arab nationalism, Islamic fundamentalism and Marxism. Based on a thorough examination of sources in several languages, including Arabic, English, French and German, "The Arabs and the Holocaust" is a major contribution to the discourse of the Arab-Israeli conflict. It is also groundbreaking in its effort to bridge the gap between the conflicting narratives and to promote mutual understanding.

Table of Contents:
CONTENTS Preface Introduction: Words Laden with Pain Shoah, Holocaust, Jewish Genocide Zionism, Colonialism, Uprootedness Nakba I. THE TIME OF THE SHOAH: ARAB REACTIONS TO NAZISM AND ANTI-SEMITISM, 1933-1947 Prelude Chapter 1: The Liberal Westernizers Chapter 2: The Marxists Chapter 3: The Nationalists The Baath Party The Syrian Social Nationalist Party The Lebanese Phalange Young Egypt and Egyptian Nationalism The High-School Student Movement Futuwwa in Iraq Iraqi Arab Nationalists and Nazism Syrian Arab Nationalists and Nazism Arab Nationalism and Anti-Semitism The June 1941 Pogrom in Baghdad: the Farhud Chapter 4: Reactionary and/or Fundamentalist Pan-Islamists Pan-Islamism and Fundamentalist Counter-Reformation The Religion of Islam and the Jews Rashid Rida Shakib Arslan 'My Enemy's Enemy': Alliances of Convenience, Affinity and Complicity Amin al-Husseini: The Grand Mufti 'Izz-ul-Din al-Qassam Amin al-Husseini and the 1936-1939 Arab Revolt in Palestine Amin al-Husseini's Exile and Collaboration with Rome and Berlin Amin al-Husseini and the Jewish Genocide Amin al-Husseini, Architect of the Nakba Amin al-Husseini's Divergent Legacies II. THE TIME OF THE NAKBA: ARAB ATTITUDES TO THE JEWS AND THE HOLOCAUST FROM 1948 TO THE PRESENT Prelude The Nakba as seen by Benny Morris: a Symptomatic Trajectory Chapter 5: The Nasser Years (1948-1967) 'Throwing the Jews into the Sea'? Nasserism and Anti-Semitism The Eichmann Trial, Reparations, Comparisons and Holocaust Denial Chapter 6: The PLO Years (1967-1988) The Programmatic Redefinition of the Palestinian Position toward the Jews Transposing the Image of the Holocaust: The Battle of Comparisons with the Nazi Past Chapter 7: The Years of the Islamic Resistances (1988 to the Present) Hezbollah, Hamas and Islamized Anti-Semitism From Garaudy to Ahmadinejad: Reactive Exploitation of the Memory of the Holocaust Conclusion: Stigmas and Stigmatization Of Anti-Semitism, Anti-Zionism, Philosemitism, Islamophobia, and Exploitation of the Holocaust Of Zionisms, the State of Israel, Racism, the End of Denial and Peace Acknowledgments Notes References INDEX