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No Holocaust, no problem
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Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad’s visit to Columbia University continues to provoke intense debate. The controversy tends to revolve around his comments regarding the Holocaust and calls for Israel’s destruction. While the debate surrounding his visit focuses on the Iranian president’s views, the more important issue to consider is why anti-semitic language carries such currency in the Arab world. By understanding this rhetoric in the context of Iran’s ambitions for regional power, the rationale for his demonization of Israel becomes more clear.
Ahmedinejad’s public observations on the Holocaust are another strategic move in framing the future of the Middle East along Iran’s hegemonic hopes. The recent war in Lebanon, Iran’s nuclear ambitions and his incessant critique of Jewish history all served to demonize Iran in the eyes of America, but in doing so also galvanized its reputation on the Arab “street.” The more Iran thumbs its nose at Israel, and by default America, the more popular it will become with the one constituency it must win over to achieve regional hegemony – that being Sunni Muslims.
As a predominantly Shia nation, Iran’s success in achieving regional power in the Middle East, and potentially across the Muslim world, will be based on framing conflict as a matter of Muslims vs. Israel and America, as opposed to one nation or sect versus another. This is also one way of neutralizing the other nation with regional ambitions in the Middle East, Saudi Arabia. The Saudis benefit from sectarian division that pits Sunni vs. Shia, thereby setting Iran at odds with the rest of the majority Sunni Muslim nations. However, with regards to the Arab public, the Saudis suffer from their close political and military ties to the US. As the impression remains in the Middle East, a friend of America’s is de-facto in league with Israel. Iran, recognizing this fact, is manipulating anti-Israel and anti-American sentiment to bolster its standing with Arabs across the region. The irony is this sentiment was fostered mostly by Sunni regimes over the past 30 years as a means of managing public anger. It is a political maneuver that, in the case of Ahemdinejad’s Holocaust commentary, is morally and ethically reprehensible.
The fact that this type of rhetoric actually works is informative of the intellectual poverty and defeated mentality of the larger Arab world. Ahmedinejad is a pragmatic realist, in the Machiavellian sense of the term. He would not initiate this type of anti-semitic discourse if he did not think it would help him garner support. And the true tragedy is that there are probably some who think higher of him for doing it. However, Arab peoples are not inherently anti-Jewish. They are simply responding to what their leadership gives them.
One of the few consistent freedoms Arabs across the region have had since colonial independence is the freedom to belittle, caricature and dehumanize Jews. If a street light blacks out in Damascus, rest assured it will be blamed on the Israeli occupation of Palestine. Peruse a book bazaar on the streets of Cairo and you will either find a copy of the “Protocols of the Elders of Zion” or a children’s book equivalent. The anti-semitism that Ahemdinejad is feeding on with his Holocaust commentary is the product of decades of political oppression and economic stagnation. The ruling regimes of the Middle East have used and manipulated the Palestinian tragedy to pacify their populations in hopes that they forget their own leadership leaves so much to be desired.
Ahmedinejad’s discourse on Jewish history is by all means reprehensible, there is nothing to be gained by revisiting the magnitude of the Holocaust. The real tragedy, however, is the political repression of the Arab peoples by their leadership. Anti-semitism will remain a potent political tool in the Middle East as long as Israel is the only thing Arabs are allowed to publicly complain about.
Firas Ahmad is deputy editor of Islamica Magazine.
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